When it comes to COVID-19 cases, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ open-door policy may have inadvertently reinforced another example of following the science in determining the right course of action.
Or, we could just attribute it to common sense.
While another sun-drenched state, California, has initiated multiple lockdowns and mask mandates since last June, Florida has taken the opposite course, to the derision of health experts who warned of a catastrophic rise in COVID-19 infections and deaths.
But despite these vastly different approaches, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, both states’ COVID-19 numbers are essentially the same.
California has recorded about 8,900 cases per 100,000 people, as opposed to Florida’s 8,700 per 100,000.
While many variables play into a particular state’s COVID-19 statistics, one, backed by a recent Boston University Medical School study, stands out.
The ability to avail oneself of fresh air and sunshine’s vitamin D benefits — far more difficult for closeted Californians — appears to have a COVID-mitigating effect for a certain segment of the population that abounds in Florida.
Specifically, the BU study suggests that sufficient vitamin D levels in seniors and adults with a normal body weight appear to reduce the risk of severe illness and even death from the coronavirus.
The recent review by Dr. Michael Holick, professor of medicine, physiology and biophysics at Boston University School of Medicine, looked at Boston University Medical Center coronavirus patients — people who had severe enough cases of COVID-19 to be hospitalized.
Patients 65 and older with sufficient levels of vitamin D had lower rates of coronavirus death — about 12% compared to 32% for those who were vitamin-D deficient.
Rates of intensive care unit admission, intubation, acute respiratory distress syndrome and septic shock were also lower, as were decreased odds of death.
Holick said most people don’t get enough of the sunshine vitamin, as only small amounts are found in food.
“We know that vitamin D plays a very critical role in our immune system and what it’s doing is it’s modulating our immune system,” Holick told the Boston Herald.
The average adult needs around 1,500 to 2,000 units of vitamin D a day, said Holick, who’s been taking 6,000 units a day for decades.
Other studies have been published on vitamin D and the coronavirus, including another authored by the doctor that showed people with deficient levels of the vitamin had 54% higher COVID-19 positivity compared to those with adequate levels, as previously reported in the Herald.
And a Brigham and Women’s Hospital study launched earlier this year seeks to learn whether taking vitamin D supplements can lessen the severity of coronavirus symptoms and reduce the chance of becoming infected with the illness.
However, these vitamin D benefit studies come with a caveat — normal body weight. That’s because obese individuals in particular face a far greater risk of COVID-19 complications.
Obese people who contract COVID-19 have up to triple the risk of hospitalization.
According to the CDC, a study of more than 900,000 adult COVID-19 hospitalizations in the U.S. that occurred from the onset of the pandemic last spring until Nov. 18, attributed 30.2% of those admissions to obesity.
Sunshine-sourced vitamin D: another weighted arrow for our COVID-fighting quiver, as we await a virtually inoculated adult U.S. population.
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Editorial: Shedding more light on vitamin D’s anti-virus boost - Boston Herald
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