{"id":25895,"date":"2020-05-22T17:05:43","date_gmt":"2020-05-22T11:35:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kashmir.today\/?p=25895"},"modified":"2020-05-22T17:05:43","modified_gmt":"2020-05-22T11:35:43","slug":"vitamin-d-reduces-risk-of-dying-from-covid-19-dak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/?p=25895","title":{"rendered":"Vitamin D reduces risk of dying from Covid-19: DAK"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Srinagar:<\/strong> If you have healthy levels of vitamin D, you are less likely to get severe disease from the novel coronavirus, said Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) on Friday in a communiqu\u00e9.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHaving adequate levels of vitamin D reduces your risk of dying from Covid-19,\u201d said DAK President Dr Nisar ul Hassan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople with low levels of vitamin D are at increased risk of dying if they contract the novel virus,\u201d he said.<br \/>\nQuoting a study published in Irish Medical Journal, Dr Nisar said countries like Spain and Italy, though sunny have high rates of vitamin D deficiency and have experienced some of the highest Covid-19 infection and death rates in the world.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese countries do not fortify food or recommend supplementation with vitamin D and people avoid sun,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cConversely, countries like Norway, Finland and Sweden despite less sunlight exposure have higher vitamin D levels and have lower Covid-19 infection and deaths,\u201d Dr Nisar said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe high levels of vitamin D found in these Nordic countries are due to consumption of cod liver oil and vitamin D supplements and possibly less sun avoidance,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Dr Nisar said vitamin D deficiency is widely prevalent in Kashmir valley because of less exposure to sunlight.<br \/>\n\u201cDeficiency is more prevalent in elderly and in people with underlying medical conditions and they are the ones who are prone to complications and death from Covid-19,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Dr Nisar said majority of Covid-deaths occur as a result of cytokine storm, a hyperinflammatory condition caused by an overactive immune system which severely damages the lungs and leads to acute respiratory distress syndrome and death.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot only does vitamin D enhances our innate immune system, it also prevents our immune system from becoming dangerously overactive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Dr Nisar said the best way to ensure that people have adequate levels of vitamin D is to take the vitamin supplements at currently recommended levels.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe recommended daily vitamin D supplement intake is 400-800 International Units or 10-20 micrograms, but during this Covid crisis a supplement containing 1000-2000 IU daily would be reasonable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cVitamin D can also be obtained from eating foods such as fish, egg-yolk, mushrooms and cheese,\u201d said Dr Nisar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Srinagar: If you have healthy levels of vitamin D, you are less likely to get severe disease from the novel coronavirus, said Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) on Friday in a communiqu\u00e9. \u201cHaving adequate levels of vitamin D reduces your risk of dying from Covid-19,\u201d said DAK President Dr Nisar ul Hassan. \u201cPeople with low levels [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25312,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-union-territory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25895\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}