COVID-19 fought by Vitamin D, how much more evidence is needed -May 2021

Supplementation of the population during the COVID-19 pandemic with vitamins and micronutrients - how much evidence is needed?
Swiss Med Wkly. .. 2021 May 19;151:w20522. doi: 10.4414/smw.2021.20522. eCollection
Philipp Schuetz 1 Philipp.Schuetz at unibas.ch, Claudia Gregoriano 2, Ulrich Keller 3
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Introduction

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS- CoV-2) has led to a global pandemic with severe respiratory disease and high morbidity and mortality [1]. In turn, there has been an unprecedented research effort to improve the understanding of pathophysiological mechanisms, risk factors, diagnostic tests, and measures for effective prevention and treatment of COVID-19. Age and age-related vulnerabilities - such as malnutrition and frailty - have emerged as the major risk factors for adverse clinical outcome and mortality in patients with COVID-19 [2]. Higher age is a general risk factor in most illnesses, but it is possible that the high fatality rate among the elderly frail population may be explained - at least in part - by deficiencies in specific vitamins and micronutrients, which are vital for a well-functioning immune system.
Over the last decades, many preclinical and observational studies have provided evidence that vitamins and micronutrients play an important role in the efficient functioning of the immune system. As a consequence, deficiencies in these vitamins and micronutrients may reduce the immune response of patients and increase their vulnerability to infections and to have more severe courses once infected. Vitamin C, for example, is an essential vitamin that cannot be synthesised by humans as a result of loss of a key enzyme in the biosynthetic pathway [3]. Severe vitamin C deficiency results in scurvy, which is characterised by weakening of collagenous structures, poor wound healing and impaired immunity with high susceptibility to fatal infections such as pneumonia [4]. Similarly, vitamin D has been shown to influence susceptibility to and severity of infection via multiple mechanisms with a direct impact on production of the antimicrobial peptide cathelicidin and different cytokines via the innate and adaptive immune system, as well as via the NFkB (nuclear factor kappa-light-chain- enhancer of activated B-cells) pathways [5].
One straight-forward “public health” approach would be to start vitamin and micronutrient supplementation of the entire population at risk to reduce the risk for deficiencies and thereby reduce vulnerabilities. Such an approach may be most suitable for interventions with high clinical efficacy, a high proportion of the population showing benefit, proof of safety and overall low treatment costs. Recently, several researchers from Switzerland have published a call for action to consider supplementation of high-risk groups with micronutrients and vitamins as a strategy to diminish adverse health consequences of COVID-19 in the Swiss population [6]. Clearly, supplements and vitamins are over-the-counter medications with excellent safety data and relatively low treatment costs. Still, to be a valuable public health strategy, evidence of clinical efficacy of broad vitamin and micronutrient supplementation of the population in question is needed. Whether this is the case for vitamins and micronutrients in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic needs further exploration and will be discussed in this brief review.

Deficiencies of specific micronutrients and risk of infections

There is evidence from preclinical and observational clinical studies that specific vitamins and micronutrients play a major role in immunity, and that deficiencies are related to higher risks for infection and adverse clinical outcomes [6]. Indeed, there is wide consensus about the importance of several vitamins (vitamins A, B6, B9, B12, C, D and E), trace elements (zinc, iron, selenium and copper) and omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PU- FA) for a well-functioning immune system [7]. As yet, these relationships are best documented for vitamin D and vitamin C [3-5]. Because deficiencies in vitamins and micronutrients are rarely isolated, but mostly in conjunction with general malnutrition and thus deficiencies in multiple nutrients, interpretation of studies regarding single compounds is challenging.

Vitamin D deficiencies in Switzerland

In Switzerland, there is a high number of patients with vitamin and micronutrient deficiencies, particularly among the elderly population. It has been estimated by the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health that large parts of the Swiss population have inadequate serum 25-hydroxy-vitamin D (25(OH)D) concentrations, particularly among the elderly, frail population. For example, a recent clinical multicentre study found that 60% of multimorbid medical inpatients had deficient vitamin D levels (<50 nmol/l) on admission and 25% were severely deficient (<25 nmol/l) [8]. In this study, vitamin D deficiency was associated with a 30% increase in mortality risk in a statistical regression model adjusted for demographics and comorbidities. Similar to other observational studies, however, the study could not allow causal inference and thus provide proof that supplementation with vitamin D would be effective in reducing excess mortality in patients with deficient levels. Several other studies have also confirmed that the vitamin D status of the Swiss population is inadequate for vulnerable populations groups (e.g., pregnant women, older adults, multi- morbid patients), particularly during the winter season. For other vitamins and micronutrients, intake and levels in the general population have not been studied extensively recently.

Evidence from observational trials

In light of their important role regarding immune function, deficient levels of specific vitamins and micronutrients may increase the risk of acquiring an infection and of adverse outcome among infected patients. Most research looking at associations of vitamin and micronutrient deficiencies and clinical outcome was done in the years before COVID-19; however, today there are also several studies investigating levels of vitamins, mainly vitamins D and C, in COVID-19 patients. Table 1 provides an overview of currently published observational studies (upper part of the table) on the association of vitamin and micronutrient deficiencies and clinical outcomes in the population of patients with COVID-19. These studies, from several countries, suggest that for COVID-19 such associations are also present, particularly for vitamins D and C, although there is some heterogeneity among studies and some studies have not reported significant findings. This heterogeneity may be due to various reasons including differences in patient populations, differences in analytical methods, low number of patients in some studies (resulting in low power) and differences in outcomes assessed. As an important limitation of all observational research, levels of vitamins and micronutrients are strongly correlated with age, malnutrition and burden of chronic illnesses, and confounding is a major issue in this type of observational research.

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Vitamin D Clinical Trials

A small subset of the data, sorted - tables in PDF include other nutrients

• NCT03188796  The VITDALIZE Study: Effect of High- dose Vitamin D3 on 28-day Mortality in Adult Critically III Patients  Austria, Belgium
• NCT04334005  Vitamin D on Prevention and Treatment of COVID-19  Spain
• NCT04344041  COvid-19 and Vitamin D Supplementation: a Multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial of High Dose Versus Standard Dose Vitamin D3 in High-risk COVID-19 Patients (CoVitTrial)  France
• NCT04363840  The LEAD COVID-19 Trial: Low-risk, Early Aspirin and Vitamin D to Reduce COVID-19 Hospitalizations  
• NCT04370808  VITACOV: Vitamin D Polymorphisms and Severity of COVID-19 Infection  Portugal
• NCT04385940  Vitamin D and COVID-19 Management  
• NCT04386044  Investigating the Role of Vitamin D in the Morbidity of COVID-19 Patients  UK
• NCT04386850  Oral 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 and COVID-19   Iran
• NCT04394390  Do Vitamin D Levels Really Correlated With Disease Severity in COVID-19 Patients?  Turkey
• NCT04403932  Increased Risk of Severe Coronavirus Disease 2019 in Patients With Vitamin D Deficiency  Spain
• NCT04407286  Vitamin D Testing and Treatment for COVID 19  USA
• NCT04411446  Cholecalciferol to Improve the Outcomes of COVID-19 Patients  Argentina
• NCT04435119  Covid-19 and Vitamin D in Nursing- home  France
• NCT04449718  Vitamin D Supplementation in Patients With COVID-19  Brazil
• NCT04459247  Short Term, High Dose Vitamin D Supplementation for COVID-19  India
• NCT04476680  Reducing Asymptomatic Infection With Vitamin D in Coronavirus Disease  UK
• NCT04476745  The Effect of D3 on Selected Cytokines Involved in Cytokine Storm in the Covid-19 Uninfected Jordanian People  Jordan
• NCT04482673  Vitamin D Supplementation in the Prevention and Mitigation of COVID-19 Infection  USA
• NCT04483635  PRevention of COVID-19 With Oral Vitamin D Supplemental Therapy in Essential healthCare Teams  Canada
• NCT04487951  N-terminal Pro B-type Natriuretic Peptide and Vitamin D Levels as Prognostic Markers in COVID-19 Pneumonia  Egypt
• NCT04519034  Vitamin D Status and Immune-inflammatory Status in Different UK Populations With COVID-19 Infection  UK
• NCT04525820  High Dose Vitamin-D Substitution in Patients With COVID-19: a Randomized Controlled, Multi Center Study  Switzerland
• NCT04535791  Efficacy of Vitamin D Supplementation to Prevent the Risk of Acquiring COVID-19 in Healthcare Workers  Mexico
• NCT04536298  Vitamin D and COVID-19 Trial  USA
• NCT04552951  Effect of Vitamin D on Morbidity and Mortality of the COVID-19  Spain
• NCT04579640  Trial of Vitamin D to Reduce Risk and Severity of COVID-19 and Other Acute Respiratory Infections  UK
• NCT04621058  Efficacy of Vitamin D Treatment in Mortality Reduction Due to COVID-19.  Spain
• NCT04628000  Baseline Vitamin D Deficiency and COVID-19 Disease Severity  USA
• NCT04636086  Effect of Vitamin D on Hospitalized Adults With COVID-19 Infection  Belgium
• NCT04709744  Impact of Vitamin D Level and Supplement on SLE Patients During COVID-19 Pandemic  Egypt
• NCT04733625  The Effect of Vitamin D Therapy on Morbidity and Mortality in Patients With SARS-CoV 2 Infection  Egypt
• NCT04738760  Clinical Outcomes of High Dose Vitamin D Versus Standard Dose in COVID-19 Egyptian Patients  Egypt
• NCT04793243  Vitamin D3 Levels in COVID-19 Outpatients From Western Mexico  Mexico

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Evidence from treatment trials

Clearly, observational studies are prone to bias, and interventional research is needed to understand clinical effects of vitamins and micronutrients - including the effect size and potential side effects. Among the different vitamins and micronutrients discussed, vitamin D and vitamin C had been studied most extensively regarding their role in the management of respiratory tract infections in the years before COVID-19 and generated the strongest evidence regarding efficacy and safety. A Cochrane meta-analysis focusing on the role of oral vitamin C for the prevention and treatment of common colds, which was updated in 2020 with a total of 30 randomised and nonrandomised trials, reported no consistent effect of daily supplementation with vitamin C in large doses to prevent colds, but modest benefits in reducing duration of cold symptoms [24]. The effect was more consistent in subjects on continuous supplementation and in those performing strenuous exercise. For vitamin D, a very recent updated systematic review and metaanalysis of individual participant data in 2021 investigated the effects of supplementation to prevent acute respiratory tract infections based on 43 eligible randomised controlled trials and a total of 48,488 participants [25]. According to the analysis, vitamin D supplementation reduced the relative risk of acute respiratory tract infection by about 8% (61.3% vs 62.3%) with the strongest effects in patients receiving daily or weekly boluses. There is also interventional research showing that a nutritional support strategy including micronutrients among other reduces adverse outcomes and mortality among malnourished patients [26], but it remains unclear whether micronutrients or support with protein and calories was the main driver of effects.

Most importantly, a number of randomised controlled trials have recently investigated effects of vitamin C and vitamin D supplementation and/or treatment on the risk for COVID-19 infection, as well as treatment courses of infected patients (table 1, lower part). These trials, however, ranging from 54 to 240 patients, did not report significant benefits except for one very small Spanish pilot study [22]. This parallel pilot randomised open-label, double-masked clinical trial found significant differences in the risk for intensive care unit (ICU) admission of patients receiving vitamin D vs not receiving vitamin D (50% vs 2%). None of these trials selected patients with deficient vitamin D levels before beginning the supplementation, the group of patients most likely to benefit from treatment.

Clearly, there are today insufficient data from randomised trials regarding the clinical benefits of vitamin and micronutrient supplementation overall, and more specifically regarding COVID-19. Importantly, however, when looking at the trial registration database (https://clinicaltrials.gov/), there is a high number of registered trials currently planned or ongoing (table 2), which will likely improve our understanding of the role of vitamins and micronutrients in the near future and provide more definite evidence regarding clinical benefits.

Conclusions and implications for patient care

Before answering the question regarding usefulness of supplementation of the population during a pandemic with vitamins and micronutrients as a public health strategy to reduce COVID-19 associated morbidity, it is important to define the level of evidence that is needed. Although there is evidence from preclinical and observational studies linking different vitamins and micronutrients to a well-functioning immune system, interventional research has been rather disappointing and/or lacking. A major problem is the fact that previous trials did not select patients according to the degree of deficiency, and a beneficial effect of supplementation in a person with normal or high levels cannot necessarily be expected. One could argue that it is reasonable to select an entire group of subjects at risk for acquiring severe COVID-19 for supplementation without knowing their level of deficiency, even if only those with deficiency would benefit - particularly if supplementation does not cause harm and is at low treatment cost. Many physicians would follow such a pragmatic view, whereas others prefer a more puristical attitude and would like to wait for more solid trial-based evidence. This dilemma cannot be resolved at the present time. It is not uncommon for public health measures that recommendations are based mainly on observational studies instead of randomised controlled trials, as such trials are challenging, expensive and time consuming. Examples are the recommended reduction of dietary salt or of added sugar.
Such a strategy makes sense if

• most of the experimental and observational evidence points toward a beneficial effect,
• show little or no risk,
• low cost, and
• randomised intervention trials are not feasible in free-living populations.

Such a strategy may also be appropriate during times of a pandemic where time is most precious.

The strongest evidence today is available for vitamin D, with large and high quality trials and meta-analyses from such trials proving effectiveness for prevention of respiratory infections, particularly in patients with deficient levels, receiving daily or weekly boluses. Whether these effects remain true for COVID-19 is currently uncertain. There is no evidence for harm when using vitamin D in doses up to 2000 units per day. For larger doses, however, an increase in falls and other adverse outcomes is possible. Importantly, a significant proportion of elderly patients in Switzerland and other countries do have deficient levels. And this group of subjects is also the one with the highest risk for a severe course of COVID-19.

One (theoretical) concern with improving immune function through supplementation of vitamins and micronutrients is a possible overstimulation of the inflammatory response, which has been shown to be a main driver for COVID-associated pneumonitis and associated mortality and morbidity. There is today, however, no data suggesting that micronutrients and vitamins would do any harm in COVID-19. Importantly, there are many trials currently planned and ongoing, which will increase our current understanding of the role of vitamins and micronutrients for prevention and treatment of COVID-19. Pending results of such trials, it would seem premature to strongly recommend multiple supplementations of high doses of different micronutrients and vitamins to the overall population. For vitamin D, however, the currently recommended supplementation of 800 units per day for the vulnerable population should be underscored, based on possible beneficial effect on COVID-19, besides its proven effects on bone and muscle. Such a recommendation has clearly more upsides than downsides and may alleviate the heavy burden of this devastating disease [27]. In addition, it is time to conduct high-quality trials to better understand whether and which supplementation for which group of subjects is indeed effective in improving immune defence and thereby lowering the burden of COVID-19. Specifically, this includes observational studies looking at the level of different vitamins and micronutrients in different populations to better understand at-risk groups, as well as interventional research to understand which vitamins and micronutrients (in what doses) provide most benefits. Only time will tell whether early implementation of such a public health strategy, as promoted by Berger and colleagues [6], will in the end save lives, and to what costs.

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VitaminDWiki

Vitamin D meta-analyses for COVID-19 (auto-updated)

COVID-19 data (auto-updated)

COVID-19 treated by Vitamin D - studies, reports, videos

• As of March 31, 2024, the VitaminDWiki COVID page had:  trial results,   meta-analyses and reviews,   Mortality studies   see related:   Governments,   HealthProblems,   Hospitals,  Dark Skins,   All 26 COVID risk factors are associated with low Vit D,   Fight COVID-19 with 50K Vit D weekly   Vaccines   Take lots of Vitamin D at first signs of COVID   166 COVID Clinical Trials using Vitamin D (Aug 2023)   Prevent a COVID death: 9 dollars of Vitamin D or 900,000 dollars of vaccine - Aug 2023

5 most-recently changed Virus entries

All 26 health factors which increase the risk of COVID-19 are associated with low vitamin D

__From CDC

CDC: Confirms	Low Vitamin D VitaminDWiki and other
Cancer	VitaminDWiki 7X
Chronic kidney disease	VitaminDWiki
COPD & other lung problems	Pneumonia - VDW Lung Death 4X
Down Syndrome	VitaminDWiki - deficiency
Heart conditions	VitaminDWiki
Immunocompromised state	Vitamin D helps organ transplant - many studies Cancer - After diagnosis
Obesity	Overview Obesity and Vitamin D
Pregnancy	Overview Pregnancy and vitamin D
Sickle cell disease	Overview Sickle Cell and Vitamin D
Smoking	Smoking reduces vitamin D - many studies
Diabetes T2	VitaminDWiki
CDC: Might be factors
Asthma	Overview Asthma and Vitamin D
Cerebrovascular disease	Cardiovascular   Stroke
Cystic fibrosis	Cystic Fibrosis
Hypertension	VitaminDWiki ACE inhibitors VitaminDWiki 4X
Neurologic conditions, such as dementia	Overview Alzheimer's-Cognition and Vitamin D
Liver disease	Overview Liver and vitamin D
Pulmonary fibrosis	Pulmonary Fibrosis
Thalassemia	VitaminDWiki - deficiency
Diabetes T1	T1 Diabetes
CDC: Still fails to mention
Age	Overview Seniors and Vitamin D
Nursing Homes	Nursing homes and Vitamin D - many studies
Prisons	Prisoners have low Vitamin D - many studies
Dark Skin	VitaminDWiki
Vertebral Fracture	VitaminDWiki
Shift work	VitaminDWiki 2X
Mood disorders Note: Low D ==> depression	1.5X increase in COVID-19 death
Concealing clothing	VitaminDWiki 3.5X
Schizophrenia 3X mortality	VitaminDWiki Low D since birth

• Mental disorders such as Schizophrenia was added by CDC Oct 2021

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Sometimes	A health problem will cause a Vitamin D deficiency
Sometimes	A Vitamin D deficiency will cause another health problem
Always	Stop a vitamin D deficiency to avoid getting additional health problems

Clinical trials for Vitamin D and COVID-19

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C19VitaminD summary (auto-updated)

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