Calls to add vitamin D to anti-coronavirus arsenal

Experts believe vitamin D could be a simple help for some people to lower the risk of a dire COVID-19 outcome.

Ian Brighthope is backing a massive roll out of Vitamin D to help improve the survival chances of the most vulnerable coronavirus sufferers. Picture: Aaron Francis

The use of vitamin D to help bolster deficient people’s ability to fight COVID-19 is gaining global support as part of measures including social distancing and improved hygiene.

Professor Ian Brighthope wants the federal government to consider mounting medical evidence to suggest the so-called “sunshine’’ nutrient could be a valuable help, particularly for Indigenous groups and some ethnic communities. The vitamin is gaining significant support in Britain as a means to help deficient people fight the virus.

The UK’s Academy of Medical Sciences has backed improved public health messaging, with people encouraged to take supplements in winter in a report commissioned by the chief scientific adviser.

Dr Brighthope, who has spent decades advocating for vitamin supplements and pioneered the first postgraduate medical course in nutrition in Australia, is lobbying for change in Australia to mirror the reforms from overseas.

He said vitamin D could be one of several key planks to limit the death toll and infections in susceptible cohorts such as the elderly. “We know so much about vitamin D already, and the immunity benefits it provides in fighting a range of viruses including in the common cold, flu and pox families,” Dr Brighthope said.

“We also know a safe and effective vaccine could be a long way off, if indeed we ever get one. It seems madness that in the meantime we are not using all defences available to us, especially one as cost effective as this.”

Researchers from Trinity College in Dublin have also called on the Irish government to change its position on vitamin D after investigating the association between vitamin D levels and COVID-19 mortality. The study showed that countries where people had lower vitamin D levels experienced the highest infection and death rates in Europe.

Vitamin D is produced from sunlight and moves through the body from the liver and kidney and aids the production of calcium. It also can bolster the immune system, where the benefit can be found potentially with the coronavirus, scientists believe.

Dr Brighthope said the average dose for individuals to help ward off the coronavirus could cost as little as $10 to $40 a year.

“I recognise there is resistance among the medical profession to look beyond pharmaceutical treatments to nutritional ones,” he said. “Given recent developments overseas and the low costs and risks, it seems an own-goal not to review this urgently.”