Basic Mineral and Vitamin Supplements Could Limit Covid-19 Progression (Study)

At this point there is a lot of unknowns about the proper direction treatment should head in covid-19 patients. A couple months ago I wrote in "Chinese Medicine Lifestyle And Herbal Approaches To The Coronavirus" about general TCM approaches that have been shown in cases to be helpful when properly tailored to the individual. There are a host of western treatments being worked on and utilized but none are conclusively rising to the top due to the range of symptomatic progression in individuals. Even within the TCM range it is still being heavily explored.

There are a few vitamins, minerals and hormones that are showing varying degrees of positive effect. Most notably these include vitamins D, B12, zinc, magnesium and melatonin. These have all been explored to varying degrees in a host of studies and research is continuing.

Recently a team of researchers from Singapore General Hospital and Sengkang General Hospital released "A cohort study to evaluate the effect of combination Vitamin D, Magnesium and Vitamin B12 (DMB) on progression to severe outcome in older COVID-19 patients." Specifically they wanted to know if patients upon admission to the hospital were administered that combination if their outcomes were improved.

They recruited 43 covid-19 patients over the age of 50 that were admitted between January and April of 2020. 17 of the patients were offered oral vitamin D3 (1000 IU OD), magnesium (150mg OD) and vitamin B12 500mcg OD (DMB) upon admission and 26 patients were used as a control. The patients were initially filtered to get the two groups as close in general terms as possible.

The researchers found that only 17.6% of the treatment group required advanced care (i.e. progression to more severe stages) vs. 61.5% of the control group. They concluded that this vitamin and mineral combination led to "a significant reduction in proportion of patients with clinical deterioration requiring oxygen support and/or intensive care support." They strongly recommended larger randomized studies to further clarify these results.

If what they found turns out to be repeatable, this would be an amazing way to reduce the severity of the disease at an extremely minimal cost and with nearly no chance for side effects.

Other studies that have lead towards these approaches:

• Evidence That Vitamin D Supplementation Could Reduce Risk of Influenza and COVID-19 Infections and Deaths
• Optimal Nutritional Status for a Well-Functioning Immune System Is an Important Factor to Protect Against Viral Infections
• COVID-19: Melatonin as a Potential Adjuvant Treatment