Boston researchers are reportedly studying the effects of vitamin D as a possible weapon against COVID-19.
Bringham and Women's Hospital plans to research whether vitamin D can lessen the severity of coronavirus symptoms and whether its usage can reduce the chance of an individual being infected if exposed to someone else that tested positive for COVID-19, WCVB reports.
Healthy levels of vitamin D are already believed to help keep the immune system healthy and may protect from other respiratory illnesses, Healthline.com reports. Bringham and Women's study will focus on patients age 30 or older who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 within a five-day span.
"The potential role of vitamin D to protect against infection by the novel coronavirus that leads to COVID-19 is promising but unknown," researchers said via WCVB.
The participants will be given vitamin D or a placebo during each of the next 28 days and asked to provide at-home blood samples and answers to questionnaires for research data.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a total of 20,558,489 cases of COVID-19 in the United States of America on January 4, 2021, which includes 350,664 total deaths and 64.7 average daily cases per 100,000 individuals in the last seven days, as well as 212,117 new cases in a 24-hour span.
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