Yesterday I wrote a diary emphasising the need to both have a flu vaccination and to take Vitamin D in order to try to protect yourself from the worst effects if you are infected by SARS-CoV-2. It now looks like part of that diary was very inaccurate.
In any comment I make I like to emphasise that caution should be attached to any claims not supported by research, thus I wrote:
It is important to note that Vitamin D is not recommended as a treatment for COVID-19 but that deficiency will compromise the body’s immune system.
However Dr John Campbell today posted a video reporting on a small trial study conducted in the Reina Sofia University Hospital, Córdoba Spain. This identified 76 patients at random who were positive for SARS-CoV-2 and who were shown to have viral pneumonia based on radiographic results (ie X-rays or scans).
All were treated according to the protocol used in the hospital at the time which included administering “a combination of hydroxychloroquine (400 mg every 12 hours on the first day, and 200 mg every 12 hours for the following 5 days), azithromycin (500 mg orally for 5 days.” While the use of Trump’s “hydroxy” has been discontinued in most circumstances, it is important to note that the only difference in treatment between the groups was that one received a drug called calcifediol.
This is a commonly used drug taken to treat severe Vitamin D deficiency. While the body takes around 7 days to “process” vitamin D from food or tablets into the active form, this is an intermediate produced by the liver then further processed by the kidneys.
Calcifediol, also known as calcidiol, 25-hydroxycholecalciferol, or 25-hydroxyvitamin D (abbreviated 25(OH)D) is a prehormone that is produced in the liver by hydroxylation of vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) by the enzyme cholecalciferol 25-hydroxylase. Physicians worldwide measure this metabolite to determine a patient's vitamin D status.[2][3] At a typical daily intake of vitamin D3, its full conversion to calcifediol takes approximately 7 days.[4]
Calcifediol is then converted in the kidneys (by the enzyme 25(OH)D-1α-hydroxylase) into calcitriol (1,25-(OH)2D3), a secosteroid hormone that is the active form of vitamin D
Dr Campbell notes that going out in the sun is not a cultural norm in that area of Spain so a degree of vitamin D deficiency is likely. The results from this small but well conducted trial are remarkable.
Of 50 patients treated with calcifediol, one required admission to the ICU (2%), while of 26 untreated patients, 13 required admission (50%) p value X2 Fischer test p < 0.001. Univariate Risk Estimate Odds Ratio for ICU in patients with Calcifediol treatment versus without Calcifediol treatment: 0.02 (95%CI 0.002-0.17). Multivariate Risk Estimate Odds Ratio for ICU in patients with Calcifediol treatment vs Without Calcifediol treatment ICU (adjusting by Hypertension and T2DM): 0.03 (95%CI: 0.003-0.25). Of the patients treated with calcifediol, none died, and all were discharged, without complications. The 13 patients not treated with calcifediol, who were not admitted to the ICU, were discharged. Of the 13 patients admitted to the ICU, two died and the remaining 11 were discharged.
Conclusion
Our pilot study demonstrated that administration of a high dose of Calcifediol or 25-hydroxyvitamin D, a main metabolite of vitamin D endocrine system, significantly reduced the need for ICU treatment of patients requiring hospitalization due to proven COVID-19. Calcifediol seems to be able to reduce severity of the disease, but larger trials with groups properly matched will be required to show a definitive answer.
Again, I emphasise the note of caution that the clinicians have included. What is almost as remarkable as these results is that this is the first study to investigate the role of Calcifediol in the treatment of patients with COVID-19. Neither the WHO, the US or UK goverments nor the major research authorities have proposed a trial, hence the call for more trials I emphasised.
Dr. Campbell’s video is below. In it he goes into the effects that this treatment appears to have on the body. If further clinical trials show the same effect this will be a game changer; a huge drop in the need for intensive care and mortality (note the small numbers but significant different between the groups.)
I must admit I find it increasingly frustrating that readily available and relatively cheap medications like Calcifeiol and the steriod Dexamethasone are being sidelined by politicians in preference to promoting expensive new drugs like the anti-viral Remdesivir. Nor, at least in the US, is the use of ordinary vitamin D tablets to ensure adequate levels in the body being emphasised as likely helping reduce the effects of a SARS-CoV-2 infection. WHY?