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Researchers from Northwestern Illinois University have found a direct link between high coronavirus mortality and vitamin D deficiency.
An analysis of statistics from different hospitals on various continents showed that patients from countries with high COVID-19 mortality, such as Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom, had low levels of vitamin in their bodies compared to patients from countries. least affected by the pandemic, AFP reported.
This study only supports previous publications by scientists from the Queen Elizabeth Foundation and the University of East Anglia.
Their observations are based on a comparison of the average levels of vitamin D in the blood of people in twenty European countries.
The authors of the new scientific study are sure that the difference in mortality is not explained by the quality of the health system, the age composition of the population, or the volume of tests for COVID-19. According to the leader of the research team, professor of bioengineering Vadim Beckman, northern Italy is among the leaders in the quality of medicine, but there are still more deaths from coronavirus than in other regions and countries.
The researchers suggest that the inflammatory process is accelerated by the “cytokine storm,” an overreaction of the immune system to an irritant.
The “cytokine storm” can destroy the lungs, as well as cause acute respiratory syndrome and death of patients. This is a sudden response by the immune system to an irritant like the virus, not damage to the lungs by the virus itself, which in most cases can cause death in patients with coronavirus, the researchers said.
Vitamin D not only strengthens the immune system, but also controls it, preventing it from becoming hyperactive, which is dangerous for the body. Controlling vitamin D levels in patients would cut coronavirus mortality in half, according to the study. This measure is not adequate to prevent infection, but can be useful when necessary to reduce the risk of complications and prevent death in already infected patients.
The study helps scientists find an answer to the question of why children get mild or no coronavirus infection. Young children have not yet fully developed acquired immunity, which in adults provides a “second line of defense” against pathogens, but adult immunity can be dangerous to the body.
