Quoted by some experts among the potential treatments during the pandemic, is vitamin D really effective against severe forms of Covid-19? Yes, estimates today the CHU of Angers, which has just communicate the results of the Covit-Trial study, which she piloted. “With a very high level of evidence”, the conclusions indeed show “the interest of a high dose of vitamin D, administered within 72 hours of the diagnosis of Covid-19to frail elderly people who have contracted the infection,” the hospital said in a statement.
Between April and December 2020, 260 patients over the age of 65 from nine university hospitals and their nursing homes took part in this study. Within three days of diagnosis, some received a standard dose vitamin D while for others the dose was much higher. In the end, “a significant reduction in the death rate” was observed.
Anti-inflammatory effects
“This result is important and consistent with what we knew about the anti-inflammatory effects of vitamin D, very significantly reducing the risk of death at 14 days, and clearly avoiding the inflammatory runaway and the cytokine storm observed in severe forms of Covid-19″, observes Cédric Annweiler, head of the geriatrics department at the CHU d’Angers.
The authors of the study therefore recommend achieving “as quickly as possible a satisfactory vitamin D status in the elderly with Covid-19, using high-dose supplementation as soon as the diagnosis is made”.