Nutrients for Better Immunity
COVID pandemic has significant impact on us physically, mentally and socially. We should all strictly follow the social distancing measures to protect ourselves and our families. Some people are more vulnerable and may have higher risk of more severe illness, such as pregnant women, young children and elderly, that we should take special care to.
Literatures showed that nutrition plays an important role in maintaining a healthy immune system. Some micronutrients are with strong evidence for the contribution on this, including vitamins C, D, and zinc. Some studies found that people suffering from COVID may have lower level or deficiency of vitamin D. However, the data is still limited, and it is not conclusive to generate a cause-and-effect relationship between vitamin D level in the body and COVID infection.
Maintaining a well-balanced and healthy diet can help us to meet the daily nutrition requirement. However, there is minimal good source of vitamin D in food. Our skin synthesizes vitamin D when we expose to sunshine. During COVID pandemic, we need to stay at home most of the time. This increased the risk of lower vitamin D level in the body. Taking supplement with vitamin D together with daily diet to increase the vitamin D intake may be an option.
References:
1. Coronavirus (COVID-19), Pregnancy, and Breastfeeding: A Message for Patients | ACOG. Accessed on 18 Feb 2022.
2. COVID-19 in babies and children - Mayo Clinic. Accessed on 18 Feb 2022.
3. COVID-19: Who's at higher risk of serious symptoms? - Mayo Clinic. Accessed on 18 Feb 2022.
4. Rodriguez-Leyva D & Pierce GN. The Impact of Nutrition on the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Nutrition. Nutrients. 2021. 13:1752.
5. Moscatelli F et al. COVID-19: Role of Nutrition and Supplementation. Nutrients. 2021. 13:976.
6. Alkhatib A. Antiviral Functional Foods and Exercise Lifestyle Prevention of Coronavirus. Nutrients. 2020. 12:2633.
WYE-EM-021-FEB-22
