Vitamin D and Melatonin for COVID-19

Published on August 27, 2021

Video Friday: In this interview, Dr. Paul Marik discusses vitamin D and melatonin as two useful supplements included in his COVID-19 prevention and treatment protocol

In the video featured today, Dr. Mobeen Syed interviews Dr. Paul Marik, MD, about vitamin D and melatonin, and how they may help with COVID-19.

Dr. Marik is currently Professor of Medicine and Chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Virginia, and is board certified in Internal Medicine, Critical Care Medicine, Neurocritical Care and Nutrition Science. Dr. Marik is the 2nd most published critical care physician in the world, having written over 500 peer-reviewed journal articles, 80 book chapters, and four critical care books; he has already co-authored 10 papers on therapeutic aspects of COVID-19. He has been cited over 43,000 times in peer-reviewed publications and has delivered over 350 lectures at international conferences and visiting professorships. Dr. Marik has received numerous teaching awards, including the National Teacher of the Year award by the American College of Physicians in 2017. Dr. Marik is also a founding physician of the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance, which began in March 2020 to develop treatment protocols to help prevent the transmission of COVID-19 and improve outcomes for patients ill with the disease. Among the therapeutics included in these protocols is vitamin D!

As Dr. Marik states in the video below, “it remains mysterious to me why we do not promote the widespread use of vitamin D – it is safe and it appears to be very effective for both preventing and treating SARS-CoV-2.”

Watch the Video

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

Watch Now

Dr. Mobeen Syed Interviews Dr. Paul Marik

Here is a quick summary of what this video discusses, along with additional information and details from GrassrootsHealth:

Among the therapeutics recommended by Dr. Marik for COVID-19 are vitamin D, vitamin C, quercetin, zinc and melatonin

Vitamin D has shown much promise for decreasing the risk of COVID-19 infection and severe COVID-19 disease, including death

Click to Enlarge & Print

As can be seen in the chart above, as vitamin D levels rise, the risk of testing positive for COVID-19 decreases. Specifically, from 20 ng/ml to 55 ng/ml vitamin D, there was a 47% lower positivity rate. As Dr. Merik states, based on this data and more, “why the heck are we not supplementing deficient people with vitamin D?!”

A meta analysis of vitamin D deficiency and COVID severity, hospitalization and death found that, compared to those with vitamin D levels above 20 ng/ml (50 nmol/L), those with vitamin D levels below 20 ng/ml had a 50% higher risk of COVID-19 infection, a 160% higher risk of severe COVID-19 (defined as the need for intensive care and/or mechanical ventilation), and a 22% higher risk of death.

Vitamin D helps with immune function. It is important for the activity of many immune cells including macrophages and monocytes, B-cells, and T-cells, as well as for regulating the cytokine storm.

Melatonin May Also be Helpful for COVID-19

Vitamin D and melatonin are both affected by exposure to sunlight; the same day-time sun exposure that produces vitamin D also increases melatonin levels at night, which helps to promote sleep

Melatonin is a powerful anti-oxidant and has been shown to have anticancer effects and play a role in regulating blood pressure and glucose levels

Melatonin is also highly anti-inflammatory, with an extensive list of physiological actions

Studies have shown a lower risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and lower mortality among patients taking melatonin

Make Sure You Are Getting Enough Vitamin D and Other Important Nutrients

Having and maintaining healthy vitamin D levels and other nutrient levels can help improve your health now and for your future. Choose which to measure, such as your vitamin D, omega-3s, and essential minerals including magnesium and zinc, by creating your custom home test kit today. Take steps to improve the status of each of these measurements to benefit your overall health. You can also track your own intakes, symptoms and results to see what works best for YOU.

Enroll and test your levels today, learn what steps to take to improve your status of vitamin D (see below) and other nutrients and blood markers, and take action! By enrolling in the GrassrootsHealth projects, you are not only contributing valuable information to everyone, you are also gaining knowledge about how you could improve your own health through measuring and tracking your nutrient status, and educating yourself on how to improve it.

Help everyone Move Research into Practice with vitamin D and other nutrients! As a special birthday gift to everyone, in honor of the science, we have created a special scholarship fund for anyone to donate to that will go towards helping others participate. Your donation will allow anyone to get help with funding their participation when they need it.

Text-to-give: Text Daction to 44321 to add to our Scholarship Fund.

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!