High Vitamin D levels reduce COVID infection: NIMS study
The Hindu
Administration of vitamin in the infected found to have reduced mortality
Do high Vitamin D levels reduce the risk of coronavirus infection, and administration of the vitamin in the infected patients considerably reduce mortality? Yes, says a study done by the doctors of Nizams Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) on the COVID-affected patients of Gandhi Hospital, Secunderabad. The report published in ‘www.nature.com’ says that Vitamin D is a potential immuno-modulator and its adjunctive role in the treatment of COVID-19 is established through the study. Maheshwar Lakkireddy, a orthopaedician at NIMS and one of the authors of the study says that improvement of Serum Vitamin D level to 80 to 100 Nanograms per MilliLitre (ng/ml) has significantly reduced the inflammatory markers of COVID 19 (N/L ratio, CRP, LDH, IL6, Ferritin) without any side effects. The authors who defined this administration of Vitamin D study as ‘Pulse D Therapy’ reveal that the study was done on 130 patients. The patients were randomised into Vitamin D (VD) and Non-Vitamin D (NVD) groups. The VD group received Pulse D therapy (targeted daily supplementation of 60,000 IUs of vitamin D for 8 or 10 days depending upon their BMI) in addition to the standard treatment. The NVD group received standard treatment alone. When the differences in the variables between the two groups were analysed for statistical significance it was found that Vitamin D level had increased from 16 ng/ml to 89 ng/ml in VD group and a highly significant reduction of all the measured inflammatory markers was noted. However, reduction of markers in NVD group was insignificant. Sub-groups within the selected VD and NVD patients, who have not received the drugs like Remdesivir, Favipiravir, Ivermectin or Dexamethasone, were also formed to study the impact of Vitamin D on them. Similar results of the impact of Vitamin D was noticed in these sub-groups as well.More Related News