COVID-19

Research team at Northwestern University finds correlation between vitamin D and covid mortality rat

Research team at Northwestern University finds correlation between vitamin D and covid mortality rates

As a public service, Shaw Media will provide open access to information related to the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) emergency. Sign up for the newsletter here

A research team led by Northwestern University in Evanston found a strong correlation between severe vitamin D deficiency and mortality rates in patients with COVID-19.

Their paper, “The Possible Role of Vitamin D in Suppressing Cytokine Storm and Associated Mortality in COVID-19 Patients” is available at www.medrxiv.org.

The paper has not been peer reviewed. The paper’s goal was to “open up dialogue and discussion,” which could lead to studies, said Vadim Backman, who led the research.

But another researcher at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Northwestern Memorial Hospital is waiting for approval to begin a double-blind clinical study on vitamin D and whether it can reduce cytokine storm in patients with COVID-19, according to Benjamin D Keane, Backman’s research assistant.

A separate study by another group of researchers not at Northwestern had similar findings.

The study “The role of Vitamin D in the prevention of Coronavirus disease 2019 infection and mortality,” was published at the beginning of the month in the peer-reviewed journal “Aging Clinical and Experimental Research.”