Better Late Than Never...

So we didn't get to score a sunrise sun-sighting (try saying that ten times fast), but the clouds cleared out pretty early to give us plenty of opportunity to soak up some rays from mid-morning on. Which is good, because we really need that light to replenish our vitamin D stores. The latest proof, an association between low vitamin D and development of long COVID, as reported in this study. I'm not surprised. Check out my previous blog about Vitamin D. The question is, which comes first? Can we treat long COVID with vitamin D supplementation, or do we need to make sure our vitamin D level is optimized prior to catching COVID? Or maybe, optimizing our vitamin D level will prevent us from catching COVID in the first place. That would be the very best way to prevent long COVID, no?

As I noted in that previous blog, low vitamin D was associated with worse outcomes in sepsis, and supplementing with vitamin D after the fact did not seem to help. I suspect the same will be true with respect to long COVID, but hopefully we'll see some studies on the effect of supplementation in the near future. For now, in the case of someone dealing with long COVID I would tend to file vitamin D supplementation under the heading of "can't hurt, might help." It is theoretically possible to overdose on vitamin D, so definitely discuss with your doctor before starting any supplement. Even better, get outside and make your own! Dietary sources are good too: salmon, tuna, organ meats such as beef liver, and eggs are all good sources of vitamin D.