The Colors of COVID: Saving lives and the benefits of D-Z-C

Published on December 17, 2020

World-Class Celebrities and Physicians Join Forces to Help People of Color Fight Against Disproportionate COVID-19 Outcomes with a Groundbreaking Video

Today, we are sharing a video “The Colors of COVID: Saving lives and the benefits of D-Z-C” spearheaded by Tyler Perry and dermatologist Dr. Pearl E. Grimes, in collaboration with Angela Bassett, Jenifer Lewis, Nicole Ari Parker and notable medical experts.

The video highlights the important steps to take to stay healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic, including healthy eating, exercising and staying active, managing stress, getting proper sleep, and of course, making sure you are getting enough vitamins D, C and zinc. However, taking vitamin D is especially important for people with darker skin; in fact, blacks are at the highest risk of vitamin D deficiency than any other ethnicity.

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After watching the video, be sure to make note of our added details below!

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These Healthy Habits Could Help Save Your Life

Here is a quick summary of what this video discusses, along with additional information and details about vitamin D:

Maintaining healthy habits such as eating well, managing stress, getting enough sleep, staying active, and taking nutrients such as vitamins D, C and zinc can boost your immune system and decrease your risk of many illnesses, including COVID-19
At least half of the population does not have enough vitamin D, with blacks being the most vitamin D deficient of any ethnicity. More than 90% of blacks in the United States have vitamin D levels below the recommended 40-60 ng/ml (100-150 nmol/L).

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Vitamin D may be most well-known for its role in bone health, however it also helps to enhance immune and inflammatory responses – there are many ways vitamin D is involved in the immune response, from increasing white blood cells to fighting infection, modulating the expression of immune regulating genes, and decreasing inflammation
Vitamin D is essential for lung health and helps protect against respiratory infections, with one research review showing a 70% lower incidence of viral respiratory tract infections among those who had been vitamin D deficient but were randomly assigned to take vitamin D, compared to those who did not receive vitamin D – some infections in this study were likely due to a coronavirus infection
Vitamin D helps reduce the chance of the cytokine storm, which is related to the severe complications of COVID-19 infections
Sunlight can be a source of vitamin D – however, several factors influence if and how much vitamin D you can make from sun, including where you live, time of day, season, skin color, clothing and sunscreen. Always important to remember not to burn!
Supplementation with vitamin D is essential for the majority of the population to get enough vitamin D. The current RDA of 600-800 IU per day is way too low. 4,000 IU per day is considered safe, however, may not be enough for many to reach the scientists’ recommended 40-60 ng/ml (100-150 nmol/L) vitamin D level. These levels are difficult to achieve through diet and sun alone.

Everyone needs vitamin D! Below is a guide for how much you might need, and who may need more – people who are overweight or who have darker skin are among those at increased risk of deficiency. Your levels can be tested safely at home – order your home test kit today!

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What does the Research Say about Vitamin D & COVID-19?

It’s TIME to start saving lives! If you can help PREVENT the majority of the death, it’s time! What’s it costing you/us not to take action NOW?

There is much published research that supports a clear link between vitamin D and COVID-19 showing that higher vitamin D levels are related to:

a decreased risk of testing positive for COVID-19

increased viral SARS-CoV-2 RNA clearance

better clinical outcomes among patients with COVID-19

less severe COVID-19 disease

decreased risk of death due to COVID-19

Be sure to educate yourself on the benefits and importance of vitamin D for immune health, and take steps to ensure you and your loved ones are getting enough.

You can review all of the COVID-19 and immune health information we have shared on this page.

How Can You Use this Information for YOUR Health?

Having and maintaining healthy vitamin D and other nutrient levels can help improve your health now and for your future. Measuring is the only way to make sure you are getting enough!

STEP 1 Order your at-home blood spot test kit to measure vitamin D and other nutrients of concern to you, such as omega-3s, magnesium, essential and toxic elements (zinc, copper, selenium, lead, cadmium, mercury); include hsCRP as a marker of inflammation or HbA1c for blood sugar health

STEP 2 Answer the online questionnaire as part of the GrassrootsHealth study

STEP 3 Using our educational materials and tools (such as our dose calculators), assess your results to determine if you are in your desired target range or if actions should be taken to get there

STEP 4 After 3-6 months of implementing your changes, re-test to see if you have achieved your target level(s)

Enroll in D*action and Build Your Custom Test Kit!