We’ve grieved many losses due to COVID-19, especially among our family and friends who are most vulnerable to serious illness.  This group consists of persons with conditions that compromise their immune systems (including normal aging; chronic conditions such as diabetes and asthma; disabilities; and cancer treatment).   Although the state of our immune systems is critical to our susceptibility to serious complications of COVID-19, we rarely hear about how we can best optimize our immune systems.  

Research points to a great place to start strengthening our immune systems – optimizing our levels of Vitamin D3. 

People with low D3 levels at the onset of COVID-19 symptoms requiring hospitalization have worse outcomes.  Conversely those with higher D3 levels do much better.  To see more detail, search among frequent videos (including on vitamin D3 and COVID-19) by the United Kingdom’s John Campbell, MD https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbGug3rczx4 or check out the GrassrootsHealth Nutrient Research Institute (whose mission is “moving public health messages regarding vitamin D from research into practice”) https://www.grassrootshealth.net/blog/presence-absence-vitamin-d-can-affect-covid-19-disease-progression/ .  

Building our immune systems is one more layer of protection that we have the power to influence in addition to the familiar CDC recommendations of “vaccination, wearing a mask, social distancing, and practicing hand hygiene.”  

Bob Kohl, MPH, lives in Liberty