Consortium presses for policy change on vitamin D
A TILDA study had shown that 60 per cent of middle-aged and older adults in Ireland have insufficient vitamin D, the Oireachtas Health Committee heard last week, writes
Terence Cosgrave
Despite dozens of studies demonstrating the effectiveness of vitamin D in reducing intensive care (ICU) admission rates, ventilation and death from Covid-19, there has been no policy change to advance this extremely low-risk, cheap and potentially highly effective intervention to mitigate the pandemic crisis, the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health was told by members of the Covit-D consortium last Tuesday (February 23).
Dr Daniel McCartney, Director of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, TU Dublin, said in his opening statement there was now an extensive body of international research showing the protective role of vitamin D against Covid-19, for example, large background studies pooling data from dozens of individual trials have described an approximately 10 per cent in reductions in risk of respiratory infections among people taking vitamin D supplements, and a more than 50 per cent reduction in risk among those with low levels of vitamin D to begin with, especially if taking supplements daily.