Is the risk of death increasing for Covid 19 patients with vitamin D deficiency? A study by Indonesian scientists suggests this. The researchers examined the impact of a lack of vitamin D on the risk of death in patients suffering from Covid-19. A total of 780 people were involved.
All of them were treated in four hospitals due to their severe course of the disease. “The aim was to determine mortality patterns and related factors,” explain the scientists. The focus was on the vitamin D deficiency as a risk factor.
Coronavirus: Low vitamin D levels, higher risk of dying
The case study from Indonesia brought the following results:
- Around half of the cases, 49.7 percent, showed a “normal” vitamin D level. Only four percent of these patients died during the study period.
- Just over a quarter of the patients, 27 percent, had an “insufficient” level of vitamin D. 88 percent of the cases died – a very high level.
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- In contrast, 23 percent of the patients examined had a “medical vitamin D deficiency”: almost all of them died, 99 percent.
- The researchers used 30 ng / ml (nanograms per milliliter) as the “normal” value of the vitamin D level.
“With increasing age, previous illnesses and male gender, the risk of death is strongly associated with a low vitamin D level,” said the study authors. However, further studies are necessary to analyze the phenomenon more precisely. Specifically, the question is whether vitamin D supplements can reduce the risk of death in Covid 19 patients.
Research into vitamin D has not only started since the corona virus began to circulate. Another study shows the effects of a deficiency on the body.
For many people, vitamin D deficiency becomes a problem in the corona crisis: what you need to know.
Vitamin D deficiency can be fatal: study shows terrifying effects
Vitamin D has a special position among vitamins. It is not only absorbed through nutrition, but also produced by the body itself – especially through the absorption of sun rays.
The pure intake through food is not sufficient to meet the body’s vitamin D requirements. Austrian scientists have investigated the consequences of a vitamin D deficiency – the result of the study is worrying.
Increased mortality due to vitamin D deficiency: connection, especially in the case of death of diabetics
The researchers analyzed the relationship between a vitamin D deficiency in the body and increased mortality. New results were shared at the annual meeting of the “European Association for the Study of Diabetes”.
Increased mortality and the lack of vitamin D are all in one close relationship. Parallels were found especially in people of younger and middle age. It is also frightening that a vitamin D deficiency has been linked in particular to deaths caused by diabetes.
Many studies have already shown the connection between increased mortality and the lack of vitamin D. However, a large part of the research can be traced back to the examination of older test subjects. Here an impact on the results by an increased rate of vitamin D supplementation cannot be excluded.
Vitamin D deficiency study: examined 78,581 patients
Between 1991 and 2011, a total of 78,581 patients (31.5 percent male, mean age at 51 years) were measured in the laboratory medicine department of the “General Hospital” in Vienna for the body’s vitamin D content. The researchers in the new study used data from the records and compared them with the Austrian death register. If possible, the patients were followed up for up to 20 years (average time was 10.5 years).
The mean value for the blood level of vitamin D was 50 nmol / l (nanomoles per liter). This value could then be compared with a low blood level (10 nmol / l) and a high blood level (90 nmol / l) of vitamin D.
It emerged from these observations that a low levels of vitamin D in the blood are associated with a two to three-fold increase in the risk of death has been. The greatest effect (2.9-fold increased risk) was observed here in patients aged 45 to 60 years.
Diabetes sufferers respond particularly to vitamin D deficiency
The researchers made extreme observations: The overall mortality rate decreased by up to 40 percent when the vitamin D blood level was 90 nmol / l. Here, too, the greatest effect was seen in test subjects aged 45 to 60 years. Only in patients over the age of 75 did the higher vitamin D blood level show no statistically significant connection.