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Vitamin D is a powerful protective shield against many dangers that can affect our health. If you don't get enough vitamin D, you will get sick in the long run. In summer, three sunbaths per week are actually enough to be optimally supplied with vitamin D. In winter, the sun's rays are no longer sufficient to ensure this natural supply. High-dose pharmaceutical-grade vitamin D3 in liquid form is ideal for replenishing the body's vitamin D stores particularly easily and maintaining a healthy vitamin D level all year round.
The COVID-19 pandemic has become the biggest global health challenge since the Spanish flu more than 100 years ago. While numbers are rising everywhere and countries are desperately trying to somehow contain the corona infection through contact restrictions, lockdowns and more. And just as desperately, the world is waiting for a vaccine so that normality as we know it can gradually return. Until then, we have to be patient and observe distance and hygiene rules. After all, there is no medicine against COVID-19.
However, it seems that severe courses of the infection can at least be contained. In fact, various studies have now already found a connection between the severity of a COVID-19 disease and the vitamin D level of those affected, reports the "Neue Zürcher Zeitung" (NZZ). Many studies indicate "that a too low level correlates with a more severe course of the disease. For example, a meta-study published online in the 'Journal of Medical Virology', which evaluated corresponding studies on almost 1400 patients, found that those with a poor prognosis had significantly lower vitamin D levels than those with a good prognosis. The scientists went so far as to propose vitamin D levels as a factor in prognosis for the course of the disease."
Connection of vitamin D level with COVID-19
A pilot study by researchers at the University of Córdoba in Spain also points to a more direct link between vitamin D levels and COVID-19, according to the article in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. The interesting result: "From a group of 76 hospitalised covid-19 patients, 50 randomly selected individuals received two doses of the vitamin D metabolite calcifediol, which is converted to the active vitamin in the body, in addition to the standard therapy during the first week and then weekly. Neither the patients nor the treating doctors knew who belonged to which group. The evaluation showed that of the people treated with calcifediol, one had to be admitted to the intensive care unit; she was later discharged. In the other group, there were thirteen patients, two of whom died. The researchers conclude from this (statistically significant) result that calcifediol may reduce the severity of covid 19 disease."
Importantly, however, this still needs to be investigated in larger studies in which the patients should also be sorted according to other characteristics, Marta Entrenas Castillo and her colleagues write in the Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. At least one large study is to start soon.
Great influence of the D vitamin on the immune system
These findings in the context of the Corona infection line up, as the Neue Zürcher Zeitung continues to report with reference to Heike Bischoff-Ferrari from the University of Zurich. There are already indications from various respiratory infections and especially from tuberculosis that a vitamin D deficiency could be a risk factor - on the one hand for the susceptibility to infection itself, on the other hand also for the course of the disease. This could be explained by the influence of the vitamin on the immune system: The vitamin D receptor is anchored on many cells of the immune system. Among other things, the vitamin promotes the production of antiviral substances in the body and inhibits the release of inflammation-promoting substances, so-called cytokines, by phagocytes of the immune system. An excessive release of these substances, a so-called cytokine storm, is associated with a more severe course of covid 19, the 25 October article titled "Vitamin D deficiency may be linked to a more severe course of covid 19" continues.
What this means is that vitamin D is a powerful shield against many dangers that can affect our health. If you don't get enough vitamin D, you will get sick in the long run. Today we know that vitamin D specifically also contributes to the maintenance of normal teeth, normal muscle function, normal absorption/utilisation of calcium and phosphorus, and normal calcium levels. Furthermore, vitamin D contributes to the normal function of our immune system and has an important function in cell division.
60 percent of Germans lack vitamin D in winter
The beauty of vitamin D, which is physiologically a hormone, is that it is produced when sunlight hits the skin - or more precisely, the UVB component of sunlight. In summer, less than ten minutes of sunshine on the face, hands and arms at midday is enough to cover the daily requirement for light-skinned people in our latitudes. Thus, three sunbaths per week are actually sufficient to be optimally supplied with vitamin D. The vitamin D stores replenished in summer even last about two months. For this reason, many people also call vitamin D the "sunshine" vitamin.
You can imagine the other side of the coin. In winter, the sun's rays are no longer sufficient to guarantee this natural supply. Studies have proven that the sun in our latitudes is simply too low to let through enough UVB rays that would be necessary for the formation of vitamin D. According to the Robert Koch Institute, 60 percent (!) of Germans lack vitamin D in winter. This is also confirmed by the study discussed in the "Neue Zürcher Zeitung": Researchers from the USA found the highest vitamin D values in their test persons in September and the lowest in March - i.e. the highest after summer and the lowest after winter. Another finding: about half of the Swiss population suffers from a vitamin D deficiency in winter.
It is therefore immensely important, especially in the winter months, to ensure vitamin D intake through food or a good dietary supplement. High-dose pharmaceutical-grade vitamin D3 in liquid form is ideal for replenishing the body's vitamin D stores particularly easily and maintaining a healthy vitamin D level all year round. By the way: Liquid vitamin D is much more bioavailable than in capsules, because it is already immediately supplied to the organism via the oral mucosa.
* This text may contain translation errors as the translation was performed by an online translation tool.
