Hyderabad doctors’ study says Vitamin D can fight Covid better

Vitamin D administered in the right quantities among patients ‘has significantly reduced the inflammatory markers associated with Covid-19 without any side-effects, said a study by nine senior doctors from NIMS and Gandhi Hospital

Hyderabad: City doctors from Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) and Gandhi Hospital in cutting-edge research have established that Vitamin D can modulate the body’s immunity and help Covid-19 positive patients recover quickly.

The research carried out by nine senior doctors from NIMS and Gandhi Hospital which is available in preprint at Research Square, an online preprint platform, said Vitamin D administered in the right quantities among patients ‘has significantly reduced the inflammatory markers associated with Covid-19 without any side-effects. Hence, Vitamin D therapy can be added safely to the existing treatment protocols of Covid-19 for improved outcomes,” the researchers said.

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NIMS Associate Professor, Orthopaedics, Dr Mahesh Lakkireddy, who was part of the research teams, said 130 Covid patients between the age of 20 and 60 at Gandhi Hospital were part of the study. Of them, 87 patients, including 65 men and 22 women, completed the study.

Doctors said inflammatory markers like Procalcitonin (PCT), serum ferritin, C-reactive protein (CRP), IL-6 are traditionally associated with a high risk of development of severe Covid-19 infections. The research group demonstrated that with the proper intake of Vitamin D, there was a highly significant reduction in inflammatory markers among Covid patients, which enabled them to recover at a quicker pace.

Researchers pointed out that worldwide, mortality and morbidity is high among Covid positive patients who suffer from Vitamin D deficiency. A low level of Vitamin D was also proposed to be an independent risk factor for Covid-19 infection, hospitalisation and Covid-related mortality. There is a lot of evidence in the past that the vitamin decreases the incidence of flu and other respiratory infections, which prompted the city researchers to explore the link between Vitamin D and Covid-19 recovery.

“Vitamin D is a potential immunomodulator, and its adjunctive role in the Covid treatment has been firmly established by this study. Improvement of serum vitamin D level to 80-100 ng/ml (nanograms per millilitre) has significantly reduced the inflammatory markers of Covid-19 without any side-effects. Hence, adjunctive Vitamin D therapy can be added safely to the existing treatment protocols,” the researchers concluded.

The study is available at: https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-152494/v1

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