Re: Association between vitamin D supplementation and mortality: systematic review and meta-analysis
Not only responsible for calcium homeostasis and skeletal health, Vitamin D has other effects on several systems of the body (1) (i.e. every cell in the body has a receptor for it) and specially on immune system (2), as a result, during SARS-Cov-2 pandemic a paper assessed if there is any association between mean levels of vitamin D in various countries and cases mortality caused by COVID-19 (3) they found that most vulnerable group of population are the one with severely low Vitamin D Lvl. (3)
A systematic review done by Al-Alyani H et al. (4) was published from my country Saudi Arabia determining the prevalence of Vitamin D deficiency, a total of 20,787 patients were analyzed from 16 studies of which met the inclusion criteria, the overall Vitamin D deficiency was 63.5% (95% CI: 53.3, 73.7) (i.e. an epidemic public health)
Systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials looking for the association between vitamin D supplementation and mortality was done by Yu Zhang and colleagues (5), showed Vitamin D supplementation alone wasn’t associated with all cause mortality in adults compared with placebo or no treatment, however, it reduced the risk of cancer death by around 16%.
In conclusion, the effort of the authors is admirable and the results are very interesting, I’m supporting their recommendations of conducting additional large clinical studies to address the link between vitamin D3 supplementation and all cause mortality.
References:
(1) Reichrath J, Lehmann B, Carlberg C, Varani J, Zouboulis CC. Vitamins as hormones. Horm Metab Res. 2007;39(2):71–84.
(2) Aranow C. Vitamin D and the immune system. J Investig Med. 2011;59(6):881‐886. doi:10.2310/JIM.0b013e31821b8755
(3) Petre Cristian Ilie, Simina Stefanescu, Lee Smith et al. The role of Vitamin D in the prevention of Coronavirus Disease 2019 infection and mortality, 08 April 2020, PREPRINT (Version 1) available at Research Square [+https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-21211/v1+]
(4) Al-Alyani H, Al-Turki HA, Al-Essa ON, Alani FM, Sadat-Ali M. Vitamin D deficiency in Saudi Arabians: A reality or simply hype: A meta-analysis (2008-2015). J Family Community Med. 2018;25(1):1‐4. doi:10.4103/jfcm.JFCM_73_17
(5) Zhang Yu, Fang Fang, Tang Jingjing, Jia Lu, Feng Yuning, Xu Ping et al. Association between vitamin D supplementation and mortality: systematic review and meta-analysis BMJ 2019; 366 :l4673
Competing interests:
No competing interests
07 May 2020
AHMED R. ALIBRAHIM
Internal Medicine Resident
Department of Medicine, King Abdulaziz Medical City, Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Rapid Response:
Re: Association between vitamin D supplementation and mortality: systematic review and meta-analysis
Not only responsible for calcium homeostasis and skeletal health, Vitamin D has other effects on several systems of the body (1) (i.e. every cell in the body has a receptor for it) and specially on immune system (2), as a result, during SARS-Cov-2 pandemic a paper assessed if there is any association between mean levels of vitamin D in various countries and cases mortality caused by COVID-19 (3) they found that most vulnerable group of population are the one with severely low Vitamin D Lvl. (3)
A systematic review done by Al-Alyani H et al. (4) was published from my country Saudi Arabia determining the prevalence of Vitamin D deficiency, a total of 20,787 patients were analyzed from 16 studies of which met the inclusion criteria, the overall Vitamin D deficiency was 63.5% (95% CI: 53.3, 73.7) (i.e. an epidemic public health)
Systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials looking for the association between vitamin D supplementation and mortality was done by Yu Zhang and colleagues (5), showed Vitamin D supplementation alone wasn’t associated with all cause mortality in adults compared with placebo or no treatment, however, it reduced the risk of cancer death by around 16%.
In conclusion, the effort of the authors is admirable and the results are very interesting, I’m supporting their recommendations of conducting additional large clinical studies to address the link between vitamin D3 supplementation and all cause mortality.
References:
(1) Reichrath J, Lehmann B, Carlberg C, Varani J, Zouboulis CC. Vitamins as hormones. Horm Metab Res. 2007;39(2):71–84.
(2) Aranow C. Vitamin D and the immune system. J Investig Med. 2011;59(6):881‐886. doi:10.2310/JIM.0b013e31821b8755
(3) Petre Cristian Ilie, Simina Stefanescu, Lee Smith et al. The role of Vitamin D in the prevention of Coronavirus Disease 2019 infection and mortality, 08 April 2020, PREPRINT (Version 1) available at Research Square [+https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-21211/v1+]
(4) Al-Alyani H, Al-Turki HA, Al-Essa ON, Alani FM, Sadat-Ali M. Vitamin D deficiency in Saudi Arabians: A reality or simply hype: A meta-analysis (2008-2015). J Family Community Med. 2018;25(1):1‐4. doi:10.4103/jfcm.JFCM_73_17
(5) Zhang Yu, Fang Fang, Tang Jingjing, Jia Lu, Feng Yuning, Xu Ping et al. Association between vitamin D supplementation and mortality: systematic review and meta-analysis BMJ 2019; 366 :l4673
Competing interests: No competing interests