Is THIS Vitamin the Secret to Stopping COVID-19?!

There’s a lot we don’t know about COVID-19… but there’s a lot we DO know.

Studies have revealed that people with severe cases of COVID-19 experience storms in their body.

One is a cytokine storm, which is basically an overreaction of your immune system.

Another is a bradykinin storm, which is when your body produces too much inflammation.

Both storms can lead to organ damage and death.

But researchers have identified a key nutrient that helps calm these damaging storms in COVID-19 patients. This could potentially help protect against acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), decrease the risk of cardiac injuries, prevent kidney damage, and more.

To date, more than 15 studies have been published showing that a deficiency in vitamin D can increase the risk of developing COVID-19, increase the severity of the illness, and increase your risk of dying from it.

So what’s the connection between the sunshine vitamin and the coronavirus that’s causing a worldwide pandemic?

A closer look at past studies gives us important insight into WHY vitamin D could have such a strong, protective effect against this particular virus.

For starters, vitamin D helps calm the cytokine storm.

It does this by inhibiting the development of immune cells involved in inflammation, called helper T cells. Inhibiting these cells helps prevent inflammation by reducing the generation of certain inflammatory cytokines.

Vitamin D helps protect against lung damage.

During a viral infection, the cells of the air sacs in your lungs (called alveoli) convert inactive vitamin D to active vitamin D, which ultimately increases the expression of cathelicidins.

Cathelicidins have been shown to reduce lung injury caused by hypoxia, which occurs when a region of your body doesn’t get enough oxygen (as can happen in severe cases of COVID-19).

Vitamin D also helps prevents ARDS.

About one-fifth of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 develop ARDS, which occurs when fluid builds up in your lungs.

In one study, giving patients ONE treatment of a high dose of vitamin D prior to having surgery prevented them from developing ARDS by reducing pulmonary vascular permeability index.

This helps prevent fluid from entering the air sacs in your lungs.

On the flip side, vitamin D deficiency increases the risk of ARDS.

Make sure you’re getting plenty of vitamin D this winter by spending time in the sun, eating D-rich foods like fish, beef liver, and eggs.