So there's been quite a few articles that I've seen posted on Facebook and other places about boosting your immunity for Covid-19 so I took some time to look into some of the things I've read.
Caveat: please do take this with a grain of salt as I'm not a medical doctor nor nutritionist so really can't tell you what you'd need.
Basically, these supplements are really not necessary if you already have a good diet. Natural way to get them from your normal diet is still the best way. The Mayo Clinic caution that taking supplements may cause harm:
https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/take-vitamin-supplements-with-caution-some-may-actually-cause-harm/
However, if you like me and my son, who is really bad at eating enough vegetables and fruits and have deficiencies, supplements may be helpful in a time like this.
Zinc: this was recommended by James Robb, a pathologist, and molecular virologist who, while at the University of California, San Diego in the 1970s did pioneer work on coronaviruses.
https://www.uchealth.org/today/zinc-could-help-diminish-extent-of-covid-19/
Vitamin D: despite the name, it actually is a hormone that you get from sunlight that in turn helps to absorb calcium. A
meta-analysis study has found that Vitamin D seems to be correlated with a slight reduction in respiratory infections, the study was led by Adrian Martineau, professor of respiratory infection and immunity at The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London. The BBC also covered the other studies on Vitamin D here
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20181010-do-vitamin-d-supplements-work Former CDC director Tom Frieden also published an article in Fox News that vitamin D could be helpful for boosting the immune system but this is only if you're deficient and can't get enough sunlight:
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/former-cdc-chief-tom-frieden-coronavirus-risk-may-be-reduced-with-vitamin-d
Vitamin C: despite what Linus Pauling, the Nobel prize winner, says about vitamin C curing cancer, it is not a cure for covid-19 at this time. There are two studies currently undergoing testing on the effects of Vitamin C on Covid 19 but the results are not in yet. Yes, they do give that to patients at the hospital but it is because of a deficiency in the blood test results. But it could decrease the duration of mechanical ventilation
https://jintensivecare.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40560-020-0432-y
There's also an ongoing study conducted by a university from Turkey on Plaquenil (hydroxychloroquine) with vitamin C and zinc for health care providers:
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04326725
The majority of what I've put into the table are either from Harvard's School of Public Health and Mayo Clinic.
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/2020/04/01/ask-the-expert-the-role-of-diet-and-nutritional-supplements-during-covid-19/
|
Pathology
|
Benefits
|
Harm
|
Daily
dose
|
Zinc
|
Zinc
is found in most of the cells in the body (the highest concentration in muscle
and bone) and is a catalyst for more than 100 enzymes.
|
Zinc
could increase the immune response. Oral zinc supplementation reduces the incidence rate of acute respiratory infections by 35%, shortens the duration
of flu-like symptoms by approximately 2 days.
|
Do
not use zinc spray in the nose as it could lead to a loss of smell and taste.
Also, the side effects of zinc intake can include indigestion, diarrhea, headache,
nausea, vomiting
Do
not take zinc if you are taking antibiotics.
|
The National Institutes of Health considers 40 mg of zinc a
day to be the upper limit dose for adults and 4 mg of zinc a day for infants under age 6 months. The dose of zinc in RCT studies ranged from 20
mg/week to 92 mg/day. Dose does not appear to be the main driver of the effectiveness of zinc supplementation.
|
Vitamin
C
|
A water-soluble vitamin that is an antioxidant (protect against free radicals). Also
important in protein metabolism and the immune system.
|
RCTs
evaluating the effectiveness of vitamin C have been conducted among soldiers,
young boys, and older people in the US, the Soviet Union, the UK, and Japan.
In these studies, vitamin C supplementation was shown to significantly reduce
the incidence of respiratory tract infections.
|
Too
much could cause nausea, diarrhea, and cramps. Upper limits for kids 1-3 years old is 400 mg, 4-8 years old is 650 mg and 2g for adults. Do not take vitamin
C is you are undergoing cancer treatments.
|
The dose of vitamin C varied from 1-3 g/day, and dose does not appear to be the main driver of effectiveness. Doses of vitamin C above 2 g/day should be avoided outside of medical care.
|
Vitamin
D
|
Vitamin
D helps the absorption of calcium and bone growth in the body.
|
Vitamin
D supplementation lowers the odds of developing acute respiratory tract
infections (most of which are assumed to be due to viruses) by 12% to 75%.
|
Taking
60,000 international units (IU) a day of vitamin D for several months has been shown to cause toxicity. The main consequence of vitamin D toxicity is a
buildup of calcium in your blood (hypercalcemia), which can cause nausea and vomiting, weakness, and frequent urination. Symptoms might progress to bone pain and kidney problems, such as the formation of calcium stones.
|
Among
those who were infected, flu symptoms were fewer and recovery was earlier if
they had received doses of vitamin D greater than 1000 IU. The benefits were
relatively greater in individuals with vitamin D deficiency than in those who
had adequate levels of vitamin D. Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for
most adults of 600 IU of vitamin D a day
|
There's a seltzer tablet that you put into water and drink from Germany with zinc and vitamin C that I give my kids in the morning.
Then at night, I give my kids the general multi-vitamin gummies. I also give them a combined vitamin c, d and zinc gummy imported from Germany.
There are also these tablet candies for vitamin D that I got for the kids that I give out for special occasions (or times we don't go out to the sun).
