While not many people are getting the time outside in the Sun that they need right now, perhaps they should be making more of an effort to at least visit their yards. According to some seemingly new Irish research, vitamin D might play a big role when it comes to resisting this terrible virus.
When it comes to the pandemic we’re currently facing a report published by the Irish Longitudinal Study on Aging (TILDA) seems to suggest that there is a very big role for vitamin D to play in preventing the spread of this virus. This report is called ‘Vitamin D Deficiency in Ireland – Implications for COVID 19’ and it basically notes that a lot of men and women in Ireland are deficient in vitamin D and that this in itself could be making them more at risk.
This because their evidence shows that vitamin D itself helps prevent things like chest infections. While they do not know exactly how this vitamin works against COVID-19 they seem to think it helps improve the immune responses of those who actually get enough of it. While this might not sound like a big deal, if their findings are true and vitamin D does help mitigate these negative health consequences in regard to COVID-19 it could change a lot for many people.
Because vitamin D is usually easy to find when it comes to supplements, there is no reason why we should not be getting enough of it. We can go outside and get it from the sun, eat foods rich in vitamin D or take supplements. According to TILDA adults over the age of 50 should be taking supplements all year round if they do not get much sun. Right now with everyone staying at home and seemingly stuck inside, vitamin D deficiency might be more-so on the rise than we think.
According to Independent Dr. Eamon Liard who happened to work on this report said as follows:
‘‘These findings show our older adults have high levels of vitamin D deficiency which could have a significant negative impact on their immune response to infection.”
“There is an even larger risk now of deficiency with those cocooning or confined indoors. However, vitamin D deficiency is not inevitable – eating foods such as oily fish, eggs, vitamin D fortified cereals or dairy products and a daily 400 IU (10ug) vitamin D supplement can help avoid deficiency.”
“However, Ireland needs a formal vitamin D food policy/recommendation, which we are still lacking – for instance Finland has such a policy and has virtually eliminated deficiency in their population.”
What do you think about this? Could this vitamin help to make the effects of this virus less prominent or even help people to be resistant in some way? To see the full report for yourself click here.