RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Vitamin D and SARS-CoV-2 virus/COVID-19 disease
JF BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health
JO BMJ Nutrition
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd
SP bmjnph-2020-000089
DO 10.1136/bmjnph-2020-000089
A1 Susan A Lanham-New
A1 Ann R Webb
A1 Kevin D Cashman
A1 Judy L Buttriss
A1 Joanne L Fallowfield
A1 Tash Masud
A1 Martin Hewison
A1 John C Mathers
A1 Mairead Kiely
A1 Ailsa A Welch
A1 Kate A Ward
A1 Pamela Magee
A1 Andrea L Darling
A1 Tom R Hill
A1 Carolyn Greig
A1 Colin P Smith
A1 Richard Murphy
A1 Sarah Leyland
A1 Roger Bouillon
A1 Sumantra Ray
A1 Martin Kohlmeier
YR 2020
UL http://nutrition.bmj.com/content/early/2020/06/09/bmjnph-2020-000089.abstract
AB Editor’s note The article by Lanham-New et al. constitutes a consensus of experts from the UK and other countries. They all agree that avoiding low vitamin D status is important for many health reasons, and possibly also because of the potentially, but not proven lower risk of infection and death from Covid-19, as more studies are needed. They agree that avoiding deficiency can usually be achieved within current national guidelines, highlighting vitamin D-rich foods and moderately dosed vitamin D supplements.Because the infection is still new, there is much that needs to be learned and many investigators are making great strides in understanding the role of specific nutrition factors for resisting infection and for the most effective treatment of ongoing disease.This Journal strives to apply rigorous scientific standards to all its content. Categorical general statements about the lack of benefit from vitamin D are not supported by any evidence at this time, not least because a growing number of observations and study results that point to an important role. They can even be contradictive as many as many people, especially in northern latitudes have poor vitamin D status, which is one of the overarching messages of the article.In the end, it is good to emphasize that the authors all agree, that preventing vitamin D deficiency is important for many health reasons, but for the prevention of deficiency the use of supplements with more than 4000 IU vitamin D is rarely necessary or justified and is strongly cautioned against.