RECENT research discovered a correlation between vitamin D deficiency and a higher risk of COVID-19. Now, another new study has found the same — noting that more than 80 percent of people with COVID-19 didn’t have adequate levels of the “sunshine vitamin” in their blood. As part of the new study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, researchers looked at 216 COVID-19 patients in a hospital in Spain. The scientists matched the patients to controls from another dataset. Of all the patients, 82.2 percent were deficient in vitamin D. People who had COVID-19 and lower vitamin D levels also had higher inflammatory markers such as ferritin and D-dimer. Those have been linked to poor COVID-19 outcomes. People with vitamin D deficiency had a higher prevalence of hypertension and cardiovascular disease. They also had longer hospital stays for COVID-19, the study showed. Comorbidities such as hypertension, diabetes and obesity are associated with low vitamin D status, said Hans Konrad Biesalski, a professor at the University of Hohenheim who has evaluated vitamin D and COVID-19. “It looks like patients with a poor vitamin D status may have more severe COVID-19,” he told Healthline. But the new study didn’t find that relationship. In addition to the correlation between vitamin D levels and COVID-19 risk, many people are looking at how it may protect people or help them recover from the disease. “One approach is to identify and treat vitamin D deficiency, especially in high-risk individuals such as the elderly, patients with comorbidities, and nursing home residents, who are the main target population for the COVID-19,” said study co-author Jose L. Hernandez of the University of Cantabria in Santander, Spain. He said people at high risk for COVID-19 — older adults, those with underlying conditions, and people in nursing homes — can be treated with vitamin D. “Vitamin D treatment should be recommended in COVID-19 patients with low levels of vitamin D in the blood since this approach might have beneficial effects in both the musculoskeletal and the immune system,” Hernandez said in a statement. (SD-Agencies) | 