“A lot of people have this misconception that if you load up on zinc, vitamin D or vitamin C, it can help the clinical outcome of COVID-19. That hasn’t been shown to be true.”

According to a study conducted at the University of Toledo, consuming vitamins such as zinc, vitamin C, and vitamin D had no effect on the risk of dying from COVID-19.

The paper was published last month in the journal Clinical Nutrition ESPEN by Dr. Azizullah Beran of the Department of Internal Medicine and Dr. Ragheb Assaly of the Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Toledo, along with several other researchers.

The researchers reviewed different medical databases through December 5, 2021, and evaluated death rates, intubation rate, and length of hospital stay, noting that, while supplements had been used to manage viral illnesses, their effectiveness in treating COVID-19 had not yet been proved.

Additionally, the study examined 26 studies including 5633 COVID-19 patients and compared the use of zinc, vitamin C, and vitamin D to the overall standard of care received by the patients, and discovered that, while none of the vitamins had a significant effect on mortality, vitamin D did reduce the rate of intubation, or the number of patients requiring ventilators, as well as the length of patients’ hospital stay.

Beran, the study’s primary author and an internal medicine resident at the institution, addressed the widespread misconception that taking supplements improves the condition of COVID-19 patients:

“A lot of people have this misconception that if you load up on zinc, vitamin D or vitamin C, it can help the clinical outcome of COVID-19. That hasn’t been shown to be true.”

The researchers stressed that this does not imply that vitamins and minerals are harmful, but rather that they do not prevent COVID-19-related mortality.

Source: 10.1016/j.clnesp.2021.12.033

Image Credit: Getty

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