Coronavirus: vitamin D is the one health supplement you should be taking

Amid a sea of supplements, nothing will cure coronavirus. But there’s one vitamin you may be lacking in lockdown.

There’s no good evidence vitamin D helps ward off coronavirus, but it might help you through the sunshine shortage. Picture: Supplied

The internet is littered with articles, posts and blogs recommending vitamin and mineral supplement regimens to ward off coronavirus, but you should take such claims with a pinch of salt.

Yes, a healthy diet and good nutritional status is essential for a fully functioning immune system, but that is not the same as saying that nutritional supplements make it work any better.

The “sunshine vitamin”, vitamin D, is a case in point. We know that low levels can affect the immune system and are associated with an increased risk of catching respiratory viruses (and possibly worse symptoms when you do). However, there is no good evidence that taking the vitamin offers any useful protection against COVID-19.

That said, because of UK weather, most people have lower than ideal levels of D at this time of year, and present advice is that most of us should be on supplements from autumn to spring anyway.

So please do follow government guidance — I take 10-20mcg of vitamin D3 daily from September to mid-April — just don’t expect it to render you immune to coronavirus.

As for other supplements, including zinc, and antioxidants such as vitamin C, if you are getting these from your diet then you are unlikely to gain anything from supplements. Indeed, trials of high-dose antioxidants against conditions such as heart attack, stroke and cancer have suggested that such supplements may even be harmful.

Put it this way. Other than vitamin D as per guidelines, I am not taking any supplements, and nor are any of the virologists I know.

For more on who should be taking vitamin D and when, visit nhs.uk/conditions/vitamins-and-minerals/vitamin-d/

The Times