High doses of vitamin D may help suppress inflammation in COVID-19

Targeted, high-dose daily supplementation with vitamin D seems to improve outcomes of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and can be safely incorporated into care protocols, a recent study has found.

Eighty-seven consenting COVID-19 patients with hypovitaminosis D were enrolled and randomized into the vitamin D (VD; n=44) and control (NVD; n=43) groups. The former received Pulse D therapy, involving supplementation with 60,000 IU of vitamin D per day for 8–10 days, while the latter underwent standard therapy. The impact of Pulse D on inflammatory markers was assessed.

In the VD group, mean serum levels of vitamin D jumped from 16±6 ng/mL before the intervention to 89±32 after (p<0.0001). At the same time, levels of inflammatory markers dropped significantly: C-reactive protein (CRP; 81±66 to 16±42 mg/L; p<0.0001), lactate dehydrogenase (369±159 to 274±115 U/L; p<0.0001), and interleukin-6 (15 to 3 pg/mL; p<0.0001).

Similarly, concentrations of ferritin decreased significantly from pre- to post-intervention (431 to 335 ng/mL; p=0.0004), as did the ratio between neutrophils and lymphocytes (5 to 3; p=0.0003).

In contrast, participants in the NVD group saw no significant change in any of the serum parameters assessed, except for CRP, which dropped from 11 mg/L at baseline to 5 mg/L after the intervention period (p=0.008).

Across all markers tested, the change values in the VD group were significantly greater in magnitude than that in the NVD group.

In terms of safety, the researchers found no adverse reaction attributable to vitamin D supplementation, and serum calcium levels in the VD group remained within normal limits.