People older than age 65 and people of color are more likely to have lower levels of vitamin D. Both groups face a higher risk of poor outcomes from COVID-19, although the reasons for their vulnerability are multifaceted. In addition, studies have shown that countries farther away from the equator-where levels of the vitamin tend to be lower because of less sunlight-have higher COVID death rates than those closer to the equator. Taken together, such data points are far from conclusive, but they served as a spur to investigate further. Fortunately, several large, potentially relevant studies of vitamin D were already underway when the pandemic struck, and others were swiftly begun.
#VITAMIN R MALK TRIAL#
In Brisbane, Australia, cancer researcher Rachel Neale of the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute has been leading the massive D-Health Trial, a randomized controlled trial of five years of vitamin D supplementation in 21,315 older adults.
It has compared monthly high doses of the vitamin (60,000 international units) with a placebo and has looked at a wide range of outcomes, including heart disease, cancer, bone fractures and overall mortality. Acute respiratory tract infection has also been among the outcomes measured in the study, and with the COVID pandemic raging, Neale and her colleagues decided to examine those data early. Their analysis, published in the Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology in January, showed that vitamin D did not reduce the risk of acute respiratory tract infection but may have slightly reduced the duration of symptoms.
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