"Vitamin D reduces the probability of contracting viral & bacterial respiratory infections" - Dr John Campbell
"There is no vaccine, there is no treatment. And yet the president inexplicably announced today a malaria medicine had been approved by the FDA as a treatment for coronavirus. This is not true at all. It's not true, not true, not true! And it is insane that the president of the United States would say something that wrong and that irresponsible in the middle of a crisis this serious." Rachel Maddow, March 19
"There's some flat out statements made by Chinese scientists and doctors that this drug was 'helpful', but this was only in shortening the course of the disease by a little bit. But there's no evidence it made a huge difference in terms of mortality or survival". Dr. David Ho, virologist, March 19 on Rachel Maddow, referring to the anti-malarial drug Chloroquine,
Amidst all the hoopla spawned by Trump about using anti-malarial drugs to fight the coronavirus, too many tend to forget that this has caused a run on the critical drugs (e.g. chloroquine ) leaving fewer supplies for actual malaria patients in Africa. Instead of repurposing these critical drugs (which help many millions against one of the planet's worst parasitic diseases) would it not be better to find something else to deal with COVID-19? Well, yes, which is where the research comes in disclosing Vitamin D supplements may well be the best early tool - at least to increase chances for protecting one's respiratory tract. Such protection, as advocated by Dr. John Campbell, lessens the chance for needing any serious respiratory intervention, such as intubation and being on a (scarce) ventilator for weeks.
Some nauseating trolls on Reddit, in reply to those who've tried to circulate more info on Campbell and his Vitamin D advice, respond: "No scientific evidence vitamin D impacts this virus. Stop posting this propaganda."
But in his video dealing with the beneficial Vitamin D effect- based on randomized, double bind studies published in peer-reviewed British medical journals - Dr. Campbell skewers this claptrap. For example, he cites a paper in The British Medical Journal (15 February, 2017) with title: 'Vitamin D Supplementation To Prevent Acute Respiratory Tract Infections: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of individual Participant Data'.
With the key finding: "Observational studies report associations between low serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (the major circulating vitamin D metabolite) and susceptibility to acute respiratory tract infection."
In other words, those most at risk of ARDS (Acute respiratory distress syndrome) are those for whom the blood levels of the vitamin D metabolite are too low. Campbell's explanation of how and why this is so is also brilliant and understandable by any lay person - especially how the vitamin is essential to having healthy epithelial cells more resistant to the virus. Again, no claim of a cure is being made, only that those who do take the vitamin are going to most probably be better protected from a respiratory event (and having to be intubated, needing a ventilator) than those who don't take it. The sample population of 10,900 is also a convincing data set separated into a control group (non-vitamin takers) and the active subset taking vitamin D in three different forms.
And no, for the record, Campbell is not a medical doctor, he is a Ph.D. professor who lectures at a Nursing school in the UK. That doesn't mean his advice is spotty or "rubbish", or "propaganda". Readers can judge for themselves by accessing this video on Youtube in which Dr. Campbell makes a compelling case for its use, citing all key journal references, and the relevant statistics:
https://youtu.be/W5yVGmfivAk
He indicates taking 25 micrograms per day which appears to be the most effective dose. Given that the typical unit for Vitamin D in the U.S. is the i.u. it is good to know every 40 i.u. = 1 mcg.. Hence, 1000 i.u. = 25 mcg. Janice and I take this amount every day - unless we happen to be in Barbados (which won't happen again for awhile, I suspect)
People can, of course, believe what they will, but for our part we are encouraged that Dr. Campbell is no crank or crackpot and people dismiss his information and knowledge background at their own peril. In this morass of ideological polarization, where even Dr. Tony Fauci is hounded by Trump trolls and zombies, it is refreshing to find another voice of reason offering a potential way out of the plague wilderness in which we find ourselves!
See also:
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