All You Have to Know About Vitamin D
In recent months, Vitamin D has been a widely discussed topic concerning the pandemic of COVID-19, due to its beneficial effect on viral infection prevention. But why is prevention so important? One recent research of the Italian University of Bologna has shown how prevention can help to slow down the pandemic’s crowd. Thanks to prevention, COVID-19 symptoms avoid getting worse, and in this way the number of intensive care hospitalizations decreases, enshewing the problem of hospital’s overcrowding that represents one of the bigger stumbling blocks that our society has to face during the pandemic. Vitamin D has a crucial role in prevention due to its effect on our immune system, and it is important to know how this Vitamin works and how we can integrate it in case of deficiency.
This Vitamin stimulates and consequently strengthens the immune system. In this way, it can reduce the susceptibility of being infected. Moreover, some researches have shown its ability to slow down the disease's symptoms and thus prevent its worsening. Vitamin D is the only vitamin that our body can produce physiologically. Our epidermal cells can produce it under the stimulation of ultraviolet radiation. In other words, thanks to the exposure to the sun.
We have to underline the fact that our body has been adapted to the production of this vitamin because of its deficiency in food. However, there are some foods which contain vitamin D, especially animal-origin ones. Among these, we have to remember some types of fish (salmon, mullet, eel, swordfish, herring...), cod-liver oil, eggs, milk and its derivatives. Taking into account that the production of this vitamin decreases with time, older people should consider examining their production of vitamin D, especially in this historical period, and then integrate it in case of deficiency throughout the consumption of foods in which is naturally contained. Instead, in the case of a big deficiency, it would be appropriate to introduce it throughout integrators and fortified foods. We have to remember that an expert opinion is always advisable to consume it under control. An overdosage of vitamin D may give a phenomenon of toxicity.
Also, it is important to mark the fact that a correct and safe sun exposure is the better way to produce vitamin D: the vitamin that we produce during summer months when the exposure is more frequent, is accumulated in the organism and consumed during winter.
It is important to stress how this vitamin can be helpful in this historical period, underlying the fact that prevention is always better than cure. A correct prevention might avoid the possibility of being infected and consequently reduce the pandemic’s crowd.
Camilla is a 24-years-old girl from Bologna (Italy). She is very passionate about reading, writing, and communicating in general. She completed her Bachelors in Bologna in Languages and Literatures (English, Spanish and French), and is currently enrolled in a Master in Languages with a specialization in Post-Colonial studies. Camilla loves nature, music, travel and yoga.
