By John Silveira
While we are waiting for the Coronavirus pandemic to subside enough so society can get back to normal, there are powerful and simple remedies we can employ to safeguard our health against this deadly disease and other serious maladies such as flu, heart disease, and various cancers. Research on the Coronavirus, in fact, has shown that getting plenty of vitamin D, which is provided readily by exposing your skin to ordinary sunshine, is one of the most important things we can do. If we can’t get enough sunshine, we can take an inexpensive over-the-counter supplement of vitamins D and K. Doing so will cut down our chances of getting Coronavirus by at least 50 percent and reduce the severity if we do get it, according to new research, and also radically reduce our chances of contracting other serious maladies.
This is one of the significant discoveries to have come out of the pandemic. In the wake of the half million dead Americans left behind by Coronavirus, the knowledge that vitamins D and K play such major roles in our health may save countless lives going forward. In the short-term, it may still save our life, or lessen the severity of illness, if we are unlucky enough to get exposed to Coronavirus.
The majority of Americans are deficient in vitamins D and K, especially in the winter and especially if you have darker skin. While 42 percent of white Americans are deficient, 75 percent of Hispanics and more than 80 percent of blacks are deficient.
Observational studies
The evidence for the beneficial effects of vitamins D and K come mainly from “observational health studies,” which are not as tightly controlled or as highly supervised as “cause and effect” studies conducted on thousands of participants over a period of months or years. These observational studies consist of data being compiled by doctors and hospitals treating COVID-19 patients during the current pandemic, and also include relatable studies that preceded the pandemic. Doctors are discovering through trial and error that many of the patients who are either avoiding getting infected or having better outcomes if they do get infected are the ones with adequate levels of vitamins D and K.
The more tightly controlled “cause and effect” studies are underway — dozens of them prompted by these observational studies — and they will come up with more exact data and conclusions that will be helpful fighting the next pandemic. Meanwhile, we have only these observational studies, and we think these front line doctors’ observations are worth acting on right now.
Vitamin D
Vitamin D is not really a vitamin; it’s a steroidal hormone. But we’re going to go with convention and call it a vitamin. It comes in two forms: D2 (ergocalciferol) and D3 (cholecalciferol). D2 comes mainly from plant sources, while D3 comes from animal sources such as fatty fish, fish oil, animal livers, and egg yolks. D3 is also produced in our bodies by certain wavelengths of ultraviolet light…