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by rndgermandude 2222 days ago
Vitamin-D deficiency may cause severe covid-19, or severe covid-19 may cause vitamin-D deficiency (covid-19 affects the kidneys second worst after lungs it seems, and you need kidneys for vitamin-D processing), or a little bit of both.

Which one it is, is not yet known.
2 comments
ComputerGuru 2222 days ago
Vitamin D is fat soluble and “buffered” in the body; all of which is to say that no one goes from good vitamin D levels to being vitamin D deficient in the time it takes to get infected and develop serious Covid-19 symptoms.
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rndgermandude 2222 days ago
What is usually measured is the calcifediol - aka 25(OH)D - in the blood. It is the liver that produces calcifediol from cholecalciferol - aka vitamin-D3. The kidneys (mostly) then turn that in calcitriol, the actual hormon.

Vitamin-D2 aka ergocalciferol works similar in that is is eventually converted by liver and kidneys into calcitriol.

Ergocalciferol, calcifediol and it's various precursors can indeed be stored in fat tissue.

It is unclear however how severe covid-19 can affect the kidney and liver functions relating to this and release of substances from fat tissue.

Right now a lot of research seems to point in the direction that vitamin-D deficiency can indeed lead to more severe covid-19. At the same time there is different research suggesting that covid-19 itself messes with vitamin-D levels as well.

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TeMPOraL 2222 days ago
Unless the body starts burning vitamin D during the infection for some reason.
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jsjohnst 2221 days ago
As someone who is severely Vitamin D deficient (I take 50,000IU a week via prescription and still have very low blood test results), both my GI doctor and PCP have indicated it as a risk factor if I was to get infected.
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rndgermandude 2221 days ago
That seems very right. It doesn't matter if covid-19 causes/worsens deficiency or deficiency causes severe covid-19, or both. If you're already deficient the outcome will be that it gets even worse for a deficient person.

I was more making my initial comment thinking in the opposite direction: that people who are not deficient shouldn't feel overly secure (and take more risks) just because there is a correlation - with unclear causation.

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jsjohnst 2221 days ago
> If you're already deficient the outcome will be that it gets even worse for a deficient person.

Exactly! I definitely agree with all points you made in this follow up.

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