Source: The National

By Kathleen Nutt

CORONAVIRUS patients severely deficient in vitamin D are up to twice as likely to die as those with healthy levels, an international study has found.

The research team conducted a statistical analysis of data from hospitals across China, France, Germany, Italy, Iran, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.

They noted patients from countries with high mortality rates, such as the UK, Italy and Spain, had lower levels of vitamin D compared to those in countries that were not as severely affected.

The research was led by Vadim Backman, professor of biomedical engineering at North Western University in the United States.

He and his team examined vitamin D levels after noticing unexplained differences in Covid-19 mortality rates from country to country. Some experts believed differences in healthcare quality, age distributions in population, testing rates or different strains of the coronavirus might be responsible, but Backman was not convinced.

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