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Covid-19 | Vitamin K increases survival chances
If you belong to the group that is targeted by the coronavirus - you are for example heavier than you should be - then a diet with a generous amount of vitamin K may offer some protection. According to a Danish study, a good vitamin K status reduces the chance that Covid patients will die.
Study
The researchers, who are affiliated with the University of Copenhagen University Hospital, determined the concentration of the enzyme dephosphorylated-uncarboxylated Matrix Gla Protein [dp-ucMGP] in the blood plasma of 138 patients with Covid-19. The lower this concentration, the higher the concentration of vitamin K in the blood.
The Danes did the same with 138 study participants in a control group without Covid-19.
Results
36 Covid patients died within 30 days, and after 90 days a total of 43 patients were no longer alive. The more vitamin K in the patients' blood, the greater their chance of survival.
In the figure above, the researchers divided their subjects into 4 equally sized groups based on the concentration of dp-ucMGP, and then determined how long they could survive.
When the researchers brushed out the effect of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, BMI and kidney function, it turned out that halving the concentration of vitamin K [actually: doubling the concentration of dp-ucMGP] made the above effects no longer statistical significant.
Mechanism
The above was to be expected in some way, as overweight and obesity and to a lesser extent malfunctioning kidneys are associated with a low vitamin K level. However, the researchers suspect that especially in those groups [people with a high BMI and kidney patients] supplementation with vitamin K may reduce the risk of complications in a serious Covid-19 infection.
Vitamin K keeps the blood vessels flexible, and if that also happens in the lungs, the damage that Covid-19 can cause there will be reduced, the Danes think.
Conclusions
"Supplementation with vitamin K represents an inexpensive and simple-to-use add-on to other treatments, and it would therefore be interesting to explore whether vitamin K supplementation in addition to other treatment can improve the outcome of covid-19", write the researchers.
"Whether vitamin K supplementation in covid-19 patients can change the course of disease and prevent death or long-term consequences of covid-19 remains to be tested in randomized clinical trials."
Source:
Nutrients 2021, 13(6), 1985; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13061985.
More:
Vitamin D and corona | Less chance of infection, illness and death 28.04.2021
Meta study | Vitamin D protects against the coronavirus 15.04.2021
Vitamin D deficiency reduces survival after coronavirus infection 21.08.2020
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