Doctors cannot decide on vitamin D.
At the height of the global coronavirus outbreak, doctors began to see a correlation between vitamin D deficiency and the severity of COVID-19 disease, with one study finding that 80% of patients who eventually succumbed to the disease were often nutrient-poor. we derive primarily from sunlight.
However, these reports have been challenged by researchers who remain conservative about supplementation, calling for further research before consumers are encouraged to add vitamin D capsules to their diets.
Vitamin D deficiency has increased for a long time, as people spend less time working and being outdoors and more time working in offices and online – and this is more true now than ever during the pandemic.
But a new report by Spanish researchers at Barcelona’s Mar Hospital added evidence to the pro-D camp, especially D3 or calcifediol, as a treatment for coronavirus patients. Their study of 930 patients with COVID-19 found that those who received the supplement, rather than a placebo, saw a “reduced mortality of over 60%,” the study authors wrote. These patients were, in addition, 80% less likely to require intensive care at the hospital.
Only 36 of the 551 patients who took calcifediol died of coronavirus. Meanwhile, the control group of 379 patients lost 57 due to the disease. Moreover, only 5% of the cohort taking D3 was admitted to the ICU.
“This supports the conclusion of a previous pilot trial in Córdoba [Spain] in which calcifediol treatment leads to a reduction of more than 50% in the admission to intensive care in patients hospitalized with COVID-19 ”, according to the full report.
The results were shared by the Social Science Research Network as pre-published material, pending review by medical research colleagues. This has not stopped some political leaders from praising the uncontrolled results, such as British lawmaker David Davis, who called health officials in the UK to take into account the results of the study.
“His findings are incredibly clear.” Deputy Davis said on Sunday, in a tweet appreciated by 25,000 users on Twitter. “An 80% reduction in the need for intensive care and a 60% reduction in deaths, simply by offering a very cheap and very safe therapy.”
However, Yale researcher F. Perry Wilson called the new report “super up” in a series of tweets fired on Sunday.
“Folks, we need to talk about this vitamin D process. I have no stake in this game – take vitamin D if you want, but this pre-print is great,” he wrote.
“If true, this would be one of the (if not the MOST) effective treatments for COVID. But there are problems. . ., ”Wilson suggested, noting that the type of“ randomized ”study conducted by doctors at Mar Hospital was incompatible with the statistical model used to produce the results.
“This is very simple – don’t call your study a randomized study when it’s a randomized cluster study,” he added. “And peer-reviewers would have asked them 100% to come back and fix the statistics.”