Does Vitamin D Protect Against COVID-19?

Q: Does vitamin D help protect against COVID-19?

A: Some scientists have hypothesized vitamin D might be helpful, but there is no direct evidence that vitamin D can prevent COVID-19 or lessen disease severity. Nevertheless, it should be part of a healthy lifestyle.

FULL QUESTION

Could vitamin D help decrease the chance of covid 19?

FULL ANSWER

As the coronavirus has spread around the globe, some scientists have proposed that vitamin D could help with COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. 

Former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Tom Frieden, for example, published a March 23 column on Fox News’ website suggesting that vitamin D could reduce a person’s COVID-19 risk.

“There are many crackpot claims about miracle cures floating around,” he wrote, “but the science supports the possibility – although not the proof – that Vitamin D may strengthen the immune system, particularly of people whose Vitamin D levels are low.”

The idea stems in part from experiments that have found that the vitamin, which is synthesized in the skin after sun exposure and is found in select foods, is used by the immune system. Some research also suggests vitamin D supplements might protect against respiratory infections, especially if someone is deficient in the vitamin. And many of the people most affected by the coronavirus, such as the elderly and minority populations, tend to have lower vitamin D levels.

But experts caution against overinterpreting preliminary correlations or hypothetical mechanisms. As Pennsylvania State University nutrition researcher A. Catharine Ross told us, associations are not the same as cause and effect, and the evidence either for or against vitamin D and COVID-19 is “extremely weak.”

A rapid review from Oxford University’s Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine found “no clinical evidence” that vitamin D could prevent or