Is Vitamin D Deficiency Key to Understanding Severe, Deadly Cases of Covid-19?

By AFP Staff

One of the most perplexing things about Covid-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new SARS-CoV2 virus, is why it kills some otherwise healthy people but barely affects others. Scientists and doctors certainly understand why the disease is killing so many sick and old people who have been infected by it, but they still don’t know why certain healthy people are hit hard and either come down with severe cases or even die. Dr. Rhonda Patrick, an expert in health and nutrition, believes the key can be found in pervasive deficiencies in the vital nutrient vitamin D.

In a recent interview with popular comedian and podcaster Joe Rogan, Dr. Patrick elaborated on her theory, saying, “There have been some really interesting data . . . in the Philippines, Indonesia, and New Orleans—they’ve looked at patients that have died and their vitamin D levels. In the Philippines, for every standard deviation increase in serum vitamin D levels, people were eight times less likely to have a severe form of Covid-19 and they were 20 times less likely to have critical form of Covid-19.”

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When it came to the Indonesia study, she said, “almost 100% of patients who died of Covid-19 were vitamin D deficient, [and] and only 4% were vitamin D sufficient.”

She clarified that this certainly does not mean if you are sick or old that vitamin D supplementation will protect you from getting the virus or could be considered a silver bullet treatment for Covid-19, but these early studies could shed light on why certain healthy people can be hit hard by the disease while others shake it off in days.

“Some 70% of the U.S. population has insufficient vitamin D levels,” she said, “and 28% of the population is actually deficient.”

Of course, the best way to get vitamin D is to go outside for 15-20 minutes a day in the sunlight. She added, however, “The problem is, we don’t go outside anymore—especially now more than ever—but even before the lockdowns.”

Patrick recommends taking vitamin D supplements somewhere in the neighborhood of 4,000 IUs to 5,000 IUs. It is better to get these from a reputable company, though, because cheaper brands found in grocery stores or pharmacies are not consistent and the levels in the vitamins can be significantly lower than what is claimed on the label.

You can watch the entire interview here (Patrick begins to discuss vitamin D around 28 minutes in):

Click here to to visit the website for Patrick’s organization, Found My Fitness.