Hi! My name is Shaurya Sinha, an 18-year-old student living in Gurgaon, India. This is my official entry, in the Covid-19 category, for the Breakthrough Junior Challenge 2020.
The objective of this video is simple – present a 3 minute film on a topic from the life sciences / maths / Covid-19 in an engaging, illuminating, and creative way.
Why Vitamin D? Well, there are so many valuable resources of information online covering so many aspects of Covid-19: from testing and vaccine development to contact tracing and pandemic modelling.
This is my shot at approaching this vast world from a different perspective.
I asked myself one question.
What has the potential to be an accessible, affordable, but most importantly, unrecognised breakthrough against Covid-19?
My answer was Vitamin D, and this video, in just 180 seconds, attempts to explain why.
When taken in moderation, Vitamin D is a low-risk, high-impact immunity booster.
Sources of Vitamin D:
Sunlight!! However, beware, UVB radiations – the generator for Vitamin D in our skin – cannot pass through glass. Given social isolation conditions, our access to sunlight has been drastically reduced. Try to increase your exposure to sunlight.
Diet. Primary sources of Vitamin D are fatty fish like salmon, fortified dairy products like milk, and egg yolks.
Supplements. Taking supplements is a highly personalised procedure. I would suggest you consult with your doctors, measure your Vitamin D levels, and only then, consider taking Vitamin D supplements. Taken in moderation there is definitely a very low risk for side effects, but you should always be sure before engaging in such practices.
Since this is a rapidly developing topic, I would like to note some of the key resources I drew from while gaining a better understanding and developing a scientific foundation for this film.
Hopefully these help any of you that are curious about this field. They cover research papers, podcasts, and youtube videos. If you find additional interesting resources, comment them down below 🙂
1. British Medical Journal’s meta-analysis with 25 randomised controlled trials showing that Vitamin D supplements provide protective measures against acute respiratory infections (
2. Dr. Mark Alipio’s study in Philippines, using logistic regression to show how Vitamin D affects the severity of Covid-19 cases (
3. The biological susceptibility of Somalian immigrants in Sweden (
4. Obesity being the largest chronic factor in New York City (
5. Doctor John Campbell. Quite literally one of the first few doctors on this platform to flag the link between Vitamin D and Covid-19 in January.
(
6. Vitamin D’s potential role in suppressing Cytokine storms in Covid-19 patients (
7. Vitamin D’s link to the up and down regulation of Cytokines (
8. Doctor Rhonda Patrick. Dr. Patrick brought my attention to this topic after I listened to her speak on the Joe Rogan podcast. This is an extremely illuminating and informative Q&A session she ran about COVID-19, speaking about multiple risk factors, including Vitamin D (
9. Doctor Mike’s explanation of Vitamin D’s potential role in Covid-19 (
10. A special Thank you to Doctor Arpan Gandhi, a pathologist who helped me understand some of the key concepts concerning Vitamin D’s role in our immune system.
Additionally, I would like to thank Ashish sir and Somendra sir from Tutela Prep, for taking the time out to review my research.
This video was made for educational purposes. Consequently, this video will not be monetised.
Music used (The insanely talented artists behind the songs)
1. Ross Bugden (
2. Still Woozy’s cover of ‘The Less I Know, The Better” by Tame Impala (
…I have been making stop motion animations for 17 days straight now. Thank god I’m done with this film.
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