Its fair to say that 2020 so far has been a strange year.
There has been a lot of panic and uncertainty, and with that usually comes a raft of misinformation that can make things worse. I have seen and heard people saying you can build just as much muscle at home with resistance bands, as you can at a gym with free weights. Our leaders tell us that it’s not necessary to wear a face mask at the start of this pandemic only to deem it essential at the tail end of it, and that its safe to all sit inside a pub or restaurant with no face mask on but we cant see sports fans socially distance outside with masks. Anyway, my views aside, there may be light at the end of the tunnel, and finally something we, and most importantly, scientists agree on.
Introducing vitamin D. I’m sure you’ve heard of it, and I guarantee you already know that we get most of our recommended daily intake from sunlight. Now, I know what you’re thinking. Its October mate, and we can’t even travel abroad because of this virus. Whilst I agree this isn’t ideal, its also not the end of the world either.
But why has vitamin D been flagged as a potential hero during this pandemic?
Well, its certainly a unique vitamin. Its actually a steroid hormone that’s produced from cholesterol when we are exposed to the sun. Its fat soluble, which means it can be dissolved in oils and fats and is stored in the body for a long time. Other than getting your tan on, Vitamin D can be found in food sources such as salmon, beef liver, egg yolk, sardines and cod liver oil.
Vitamin D benefits include helping the body maintain healthy bones and teeth, regulation of insulin levels, supporting cardiovascular health and improving and maintaining the immune system. All of these play an important role in our overall health, but lets focus on the latter.
Our immune system is designed to protect us from any toxins, bacteria, virus’ or fungi that decide they want to enter the body and disrupt our state of equilibrium. Covid, as I’m sure you are now aware of, is a virus.
The boffins down at Number 10 have found something pretty important when it comes to Vitamin D supplementation. I apologise in advance, because I’m going to have to sound a little scientific here when explaining this, but I will keep it as brief as possible.
T cells are one of the main soldiers of our immune system and their role is to kill any foreign object (covid) that gets into our body and starts attacking other cells. This is important, as they are one of the first lines of defence against infection. Scientist have found that Vitamin D plays an important role in ‘priming’ T cells to fight off infection and, that by increasing Vitamin D supplementation, increases the T cells response to infection. In fact, there are now around 30 studies that show supplementing with around 4000 IU daily decreases the chance of being infected by Covid-19.
I admit 30 studies could be seen as pretty low given the scale of things, however, there really is nothing to lose. Vitamin D isn’t expensive, and it has low toxicity levels too, so the chance of overdosing is pretty slim.
Fatigue, muscle weakness, bone pain and mood changes are all symptoms linked to vitamin D deficiency. These should be enough of a reason to supplement with a healthy daily dose anyway, but when you add an increased chance of catching Covid-19 to the list, it becomes a no brainer when taking it is so cheap and hassle free.
