Coronavirus (COVID-19) - Should you take Vitamin D and Vitamin C?
Doctor Mike Hansen
Coronavirus (COVID-19) - Should you take Vitamin D and Vitamin C? Does colder temperature make you more prone to getting a cold? Or COVID-19? Most health experts agree that when it’s cold, people spend more time indoors and in close contact with other people, and this likely increases the spread of germs. Also, experts believe that our immune system may be more active when our body is warmer, as in during the summer months.
Back in 2007, there was this study…
https://journals.plos.org/plospathoge... In this one particular study looking at the spread of the influenza virus, they put guinea pigs together in a chamber and carried out different environmental experiments on them. They found that low relative humidities of 20%–35% were most favorable for infection, while the transmission was completely blocked at high humidity of 80%. They also found that when guinea pigs were kept at 5 °C, transmission occurred with greater frequency than at 20 °C, while at 30 °C, no transmission was detected. The authors concluded that low relative humidities produced by indoor heating and cold temperatures favored the spread of the influenza virus.
I also want to add, that cold weather, by itself, can cause a runny nose without necessarily having a cold, and this allows for the virus so be carried in those secretions, which probably facilitates transmission. 40% of common colds are caused by rhinoviruses. The second most common cause of cold is the coronavirus, the normal one, not this novel coronavirus, aka SARS-CoV-2. Its been shown that the rhinovirus reproduces more quickly at cooler temperatures means you might catch a cold more quickly if you’re chilly.
And this probably applies to the coronavirus as well.
It's likely that with the combination of all of these 5 factors, meaning, cooler temp, lower humidity, people staying indoors more often in winter months, cold weather causing runny noses and our immune system is more active when it's warmer, these combinations of factors likely explain why colds, flu,, and COVID-19 are more likely to cause infections in the winter months. But there is likely a 6th factor as well. And that is vitamin D. Our bodies don’t normally make vitamin D unless we get sunlight. In the winter months, for most of us in this world, we don’t get enough sunlight to make enough vitamin D. Unless you live in a warm climate, then maybe you are the exception. So if you aren’t getting enough sunlight in the winter months, that means you have to get enough vitamin D in your diet. And if you don’t do that, you will have low vitamin D levels. Vitamin D helps regulate or Calcium levels and is important for bone and muscle health. It also plays a role in regulating our immune system, but its exact role is not known.
Why is this important when it comes to the common cold, flu, and perhaps with this novel the coronavirus that’s causing COVID-19? Well, vitamin D doesn’t affect these viruses themselves. Instead, it affects our immune systems.
So what is my recommendation for taking Vitamin D? The best thing to do is check with your doctor to see if you might have low vitamin D, and if it is low, you’ll def need to get more vitamin D, especially during the winter months.
Vitamin C. Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin that is vital to the function of white blood cells that help to fight infections, and overall immune system health. Vitamin C is also important for iron absorption, and being deficient in iron can make you more vulnerable to infections in general. The normal, recommended daily intake of vitamin C for adults from the diet and/or supplements is 75 to 120 mg. You can get about 80 to 90 mg from a cup of orange juice or sliced orange, or even more from kiwi fruit, or a cup of sweet peppers.
Zinc. Zinc has become one of the most popular suggestions for reducing symptoms of coronavirus. There have been conflicting results about the effect of zinc on the severity and duration of cold symptoms. Some studies showed that zinc reduces the duration of a cold by half, while others showed no effect. Another study found that the type of zinc taken determined the result—zinc gluconate lozenges that provided 13.3 milligrams (mg) of zinc lessened the duration of colds, but zinc acetate lozenges that provided 5 mg or 11.5 mg of zinc did not.
Note: Please watch the whole video to get the proper details, for the character limitation of the youtube description, I couldn't provide the whole details, so I suggest you to watch the whole video.
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