Research2021-06-04T11:51:51-05:00

Vitamin D Facts

Learn why vitamin D is important to your body and immune health

Study Summaries

Low plasma 25(OH) vitamin D level is associated with increased risk of COVID-19 infection: an Israeli population-based study

Low plasma 25(OH) vitamin D level is associated with increased risk of COVID-19 infection: an Israeli population-based study Take Home Message Plasma 25(OH)D levels < 75

Vitamin D deficiency as a predictor of poor prognosis in patients with acute respiratory failure due to COVID-19

Vitamin D deficiency as a predictor of poor prognosis in patients with acute respiratory failure due to COVID-19 Take Home Message Vitamin D deficiency and obesity

Evidence for possible association of vitamin D status with cytokine storm and unregulated inflammation in COVID-19 patients.

Evidence for possible association of vitamin D status with cytokine storm and unregulated inflammation in COVID-19 patients. Take Home Message CRP is produced primarily in the

Evaluation of the relationship of serum vitamin D levels in COVID-19 patients with clinical course and prognosis

Evaluation of the relationship of serum vitamin D levels in COVID-19 patients with clinical course and prognosis. Take Home Message This study reports a relationship between

Ongoing Studies

Explore current trials being conducted around the world focused on vitamin D and COVID-19.

Title Status Conditions Interventions Location
Vitamin D Supplementation in Pregnant Women at Risk and COVID-19 Not yet recruiting • Pregnancy Complications
• Covid19		 • Vitamin D supplementation in pregnant women • Maria Jose Aguilar Cordero, Granada, Spain
Clinical Outcomes of High Dose Vitamin D Versus Standard Dose in COVID-19 Egyptian Patients Recruiting • Covid19
• Corona Virus Infection
• Cytokine Storm
• Vitamin D Deficiency		 • Teachers Hospital, Cairo, Egypt
Effect of Vitamin D on Hospitalized Adults With COVID-19 Infection Recruiting • Covid19 • Cholecalciferol
• Placebo		 • CHU Liège, Liège, Belgium
Baseline Vitamin D Deficiency and COVID-19 Disease Severity Recruiting • Vitamin D Deficiency
• Covid19		 • Vitamin D • Parkview Medical Center, Pueblo, Colorado, United States
Efficacy of Vitamin D Treatment in Mortality Reduction Due to COVID-19. Recruiting • SAR
• SARS Pneumonia		 • Vitamin D
• PLACEBO		 • Joaquín Durán Cantolla, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Alava, Spain
Vitamin D3 Supplementation to Prevent Respiratory Tract Infections Recruiting • Respiratory Tract Infections
• Covid19
• Flu Like Illness		 • Vitamin D supplementation • Cooper University Hospital, Camden, New Jersey, United States
Trial of Vitamin D to Reduce Risk and Severity of COVID-19 and Other Acute Respiratory Infections Active, not recruiting • Covid19
• Acute Respiratory Tract Infection		 • Vitamin D • Queen Mary University of London, London, County (optional), United Kingdom
Effect of Vitamin D on Morbidity and Mortality of the COVID-19 Recruiting • COVID-19 • Cholecalciferol • Hospital Universitario Central de Asturias, Oviedo, Asturias, Spain
Vitamin D and COVID-19 Trial Recruiting • COVID-19 • vitamin D
• Placebo		 • Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
High Dose Vitamin-D Substitution in Patients With COVID-19: a Randomized Controlled, Multi Center Study Recruiting • Covid19
• Vitamin D Deficiency
• Corona Virus Infection
• ARDS
• Coronavirus
• SARS-CoV Infection		 • Single high dose vitamin D
• Placebo
• Treatment as usual vitamin D		 • Cantonal Hospital Aarau, Aarau, AG, Switzerland
• Cantonal Hospital Baselland Liestal, Liestal, BL, Switzerland
• Cantonal Hospital St. Gallen, Saint Gallen, SG, Switzerland
Vitamin D Status and Immune-inflammatory Status in Different UK Populations With COVID-19 Infection Not yet recruiting • Covid19 • no intervention • GSTT NHS Trust, London, United Kingdom
Efficacy of Vitamin D Treatment in Pediatric Patients Hospitalized by COVID-19 Recruiting • Covid19
• Vitamin D
• Children, Only		 • Cholecalciferol • Hospital Centro Medico Nacional Siglo XXI, Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico
Tele-health Enabled Clinical Trial for COVID-19 Not yet recruiting • SARS-CoV Infection • Vitamin D3 or Placebo
• Doctella telehealth monitoring		 • Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, United States
N-terminal Pro B-type Natriuretic Peptide and Vitamin D Levels as Prognostic Markers in COVID-19 Pneumonia Recruiting • COVID19 Pneumonia • Pro BNP , Vitamin D • Kasr Alainy Cairo University, Cairo, Giza, Egypt
Prevention of COVID-19 With Oral Vitamin D Supplemental Therapy in Essential Healthcare Teams Recruiting • COVID-19 • Placebo
• Vitamin D		 • CHUM, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
• CHU Sainte-Justine (CHUSJ), Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Vitamin D Supplementation in the Prevention and Mitigation of COVID-19 Infection Recruiting • COVID-19
• Vitamin D Deficiency
• Respiratory Viral Infection		 • Daily Vitamin D3
• Daily placebo
• Bolus vitamin D3
• Bolus placebo		 • Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina, United States
The Effect of D3 on Selected Cytokines Involved in Cytokine Storm in the Covid-19 Uninfected Jordanian People Enrolling by invitation • Cytokine Storm • Vitamin D3 • Mahmoud S Abu-Samak, Amman, Jordan
Influence of Military Preventive Policy for reCruit Training on COVID-19 Seroconversion Recruiting • SARS-CoV Infection
• Vitamin D Deficiency
• Covid19
• Acute Respiratory Tract Infection		 • Vitamin D • Headingley and City campuses, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, Yorkshire, United Kingdom
• Infantry Training Centre Catterick, Catterick Garrison, United Kingdom
Short Term, High Dose Vitamin D Supplementation for COVID-19 Active, not recruiting • COVID • Vit D • Deptt of Endocrinology, Chandigarh, India
Cholecalciferol to Improve the Outcomes of COVID-19 Patients Recruiting • COVID • Vitamin D
• Placebo		 • Hospital de Alta Complejidad en Red El Cruce, Florencio Varela, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Do Vitamin D Levels Really Correlated With Disease Severity in COVID-19 Patients? Enrolling by invitation • COVID • vitamin d • Bursa City Hospital, Bursa, Dogankoy, Turkey
Oral 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 and COVID-19 Recruiting • COVID 19 • Oral 25-Hydroxyvitamin D3 • Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, Islamic Republic of
Investigating the Role of Vitamin D in the Morbidity of COVID-19 Patients Not yet recruiting • COVID-19
• Vitamin D Deficiency		 • Tameside Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom
Vitamin D and COVID-19 Management Not yet recruiting • COVID-19 • Ddrops® products, 50,000 IU, Oral
• Vitamin D3
VITACOV: Vitamin D Polymorphisms and Severity of COVID-19 Infection Not yet recruiting • COVID-19 • Exposure • Cardiovascular Center at Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Lisboa, Portugal
• Centro Hospitalar Universitário Lisboa Norte, Lisbon, Lisboa, Portugal
• Centro Hospitalar de São João, Oporto, Portugal
C0vid-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) Recruiting • Coronavirus • cholecalciferol 200,000 IU
• cholecalciferol 50,000 IU		 • CHU Angers, Angers, France
• CHU Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France
• CH Le Mans, Le Mans, France
• CHU Lille, Lille, France
• CHU Limoges, Limoges, France
• CHU Nantes, Nantes, France
• CHU Nice, Nice, France
• CHU Saint Etienne, Saint Etienne, France
• CH Saumur, Saumur, France
• CHU Tours, Tours, France
Vitamin D on Prevention and Treatment of COVID-19 Not yet recruiting • Patients Infected With COVID-19 • Vitamin D • Universidad de Granada, Granada, Andalucia, Spain
• Medicine Faculty, Granada, Spain

The Importance of Vitamin D

What percentage of Americans are vitamin D deficient or insufficient?

The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency was found to be 28.9% and vitamin D insufficiency 41% in a subset of 26,010 US adults surveyed as part of the ongoing National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2001-2010.1 Vitamin D deficiency is a major health concern because it has been linked to depression, fatigue, muscle aches, increased risk of respiratory infections, autoimmune disorders, osteoporosis, osteomalacia, osteoarthritis, increased risk of infection and some cancers. Vitamin D insufficiency has been associated with reduced calcium absorption, decreased bone density, potential mild decrease of the blood calcium level, accelerated bone resorption, an increased risk of falls, and potentially fractures. Vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency can seriously affect a person’s quality of life.2,3,4

How is vitamin D different than other vitamins?

Unlike other vitamins, vitamin D is a prohormone. Dietary vitamin D first goes to the liver then the kidney converts it to its active form and distributes the active form throughout the body, which by definition makes vitamin D a “hormone-like” vitamin. Meaning it is synthesized and released from an endocrine organ, the kidneys. Vitamin D receptors are located throughout the body and explain why vitamin D is important for so many aspects of health.8

Who is more at risk of vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency?

In the U.S. seniors, South Asians, Hispanics and non-Hispanic Blacks are groups that have a higher prevalence of low vitamin D levels. Other situations that may lead to vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency include limited sun exposure, fat malabsorption conditions (such as celiac disease), and obesity. 5,6,7

What is the importance of vitamin D in the body?

Vitamin D was first known for its role in bone health and plays a key role in the metabolism, or cellular processes, of calcium and phosphorus, which are needed for bone integrity. Vitamin D has many other important functions too. It plays a key role in the immune system, oral health, muscle health and strength. It plays an important role in regulating gene transcription and promoting protein synthesis. All of these critical roles make vitamin D important for multiple aspects of human health. 9
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  1. Liu X, Baylin A, Levy PD. Vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency among US adults: prevalence, predictors and clinical implications. British Journal of Nutrition. 2018;119(8):928-936.
  2. Holick MF. The vitamin D deficiency pandemic: a forgotten hormone important for health. Public health reviews. 2010;32(1):267-283.
  3. Amrein K, Scherkl M, Hoffmann M, et al. Vitamin D deficiency 2.0: an update on the current status worldwide. European journal of clinical nutrition. 2020;74(11):1498-1513.
  4. MacLaughlin J, Holick MF. Aging decreases the capacity of human skin to produce vitamin D3. J Clin Invest. 1985;76(4):1536-1538.)
  5. Kweder H, Eidi H. Vitamin D deficiency in elderly: Risk factors and drugs impact on vitamin D status. Avicenna J Med. 2018;8(4):139-146. doi:10.4103/ajm.AJM_20_18). 3. https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminD-HealthProfessional/#h5
  6. Emmanuel M. K. Awumey, Devashis A. Mitra, Bruce W. Hollis, Rajiv Kumar, Norman H. Bell, Vitamin D Metabolism Is Altered in Asian Indians in the Southern United States: A Clinical Research Center Study, The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. 1998; 83(1): 169–173, https://doi.org/10.1210/jcem.83.1.4514
  7. Castro JP, Penckofer S. The role of vitamin D in the health of Hispanic adults with diabetes. Hisp Health Care Int. 2014;12(2):90-8. doi: 10.1891/1540-4153.12.2.90. PMID: 24871915.
  8. Sassi F, Tamone C, D’Amelio P. Vitamin D: nutrient, hormone, and immunomodulator. Nutrients. 2018;10(11):1656.
  9. Hewlings SJ, Medeiros DM. Nutrition: Real People, Real Choices. Pearson Prentice Hall; 2009.
  10. Elliott ME, Binkley NC, Carnes M, Zimmerman DR, Petersen K, Knapp K, Behlke JM, Ahmann N, Kieser MA. Fracture risks for women in long-term care: high prevalence of calcaneal osteoporosis and hypovitaminosis D. Pharmacotherapy. 2003; Jun;23(6):702-10.
  11. Nair R, Maseeh A. Vitamin D: The “sunshine” vitamin. J Pharmacol Pharmacother. 2012; Apr;3(2):118-26.
  12. Bilezikian JP, Bikle D, Hewison M, et al.Mechanisms in Endocrinology: Vitamin D and COVID-19. European Journal of Endocrinology. 2020;183(5):R133-r147.
  13. van Etten E, Mathieu C. Immunoregulation by 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3: basic concepts. The Journal of steroid biochemistry and molecular biology. 2005;97(1-2):93-101.
  14. Ginde AA, Mansbach JM, Camargo CA, Jr. Association between serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D level and upper respiratory tract infection in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Archives of internal medicine. 2009;169(4):384-390.
  15. A Kempker, J., & S Martin, G. Vitamin D and sepsis: from associations to causal connections. Inflammation & Allergy-Drug Targets (Formerly Current Drug Targets-Inflammation & Allergy) (Discontinued). 2013; 12(4): 246-252.
  16. Zdrenghea, M. T., Makrinioti, H., Bagacean, C., Bush, A., Johnston, S. L., and Stanciu, L. A. Vitamin D modulation of innate immune responses to respiratory viral infections, Rev Med Virol. 2017; 27:e1909. doi: 10.1002/rmv.1909.
  17. Vetter V, Denizer G, Friedland LR, Krishnan J, Shapiro M. Understanding modern-day vaccines: what you need to know. Annals of medicine. 2018;50(2):110-120.
  18. Cannell JJ, Vieth R, Umhau JC, et al. Epidemic influenza and vitamin D. Epidemiology and infection. 2006;134(6):1129-1140.
  19. Martineau A R, Jolliffe D A, Hooper R L, Greenberg L, Aloia J F, Bergman P et al. Vitamin D supplementation to prevent acute respiratory tract infections: systematic review and meta-analysis of individual participant data BMJ. 2017; (356):i6583 doi:10.1136/bmj.i6583.
  20. Zabetakis I, Lordan R, Norton C, Tsoupras A. COVID-19: The Inflammation Link and the Role of Nutrition in Potential Mitigation. Nutrients. 2020 May 19;12(5):1466. doi: 10.3390/nu12051466. PMID: 32438620; PMCID: PMC7284818.
  21. Ross AC, Manson JE, Abrams SA, et al. The 2011 report on dietary reference intakes for calcium and vitamin D from the Institute of Medicine: what clinicians need to know. The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism. 2011;96(1):53-58.
  22. Heaney RP, Davies KM, Chen TC, Holick MF, Barger-Lux MJ. Human serum 25-hydroxycholecalciferol response to extended oral dosing with cholecalciferol. Am J Clin Nutr. 2003;77(1):204-210.
  23. Rosen CJ, Abrams SA, Aloia JF, Brannon PM, Clinton SK, Durazo-Arvizu RA, et al. IOM committee members respond to Endocrine Society vitamin D guidelines. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2012;97:1146-52.
  24. MF, Binkley NC, Bischoff-Ferrari HA, Gordon CM, Hanley DA, Heaney RP, et al. Evaluation, treatment, and prevention of vitamin D deficiency: an Endocrine Society Clinical Practice Guideline. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2011;96:1911-30.
  25. Amrein K, Scherkl M, Hoffmann M, et al. Vitamin D deficiency 2.0: an update on the current status worldwide. European journal of clinical nutrition. 2020;74(11):1498-1513.

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