Vitamin C may not lessen risk of testing Covid positive

Multivits, probiotics could help reduce COVID-19 infection

A recent study published online in the journal BMJ Nutrition Prevention & Health suggested that taking multivitamins, omega-3, probiotics, or vitamin D supplements may lessen the risk of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19 infection- at least among women. But taking any vitamin C, zinc, or garlic supplements wasn’t associated with a lower risk of testing positive for the virus, the findings show.

In the UK alone, market share rose by 19.5 per cent in the period leading up to the first national ’lockdown’ on March 23 last year, with sales of vitamin C rising by 110 per cent and those of multivitamins by 93 per cent. Similarly, zinc supplement sales rose by 415 per cent in the first week of March, at the height of COVID-19 fears in the USA.

In a bid to plug this knowledge gap, the researchers drew on adult users of the COVID-19 Symptom Study app to see if regular supplement users were less likely to test positive for SARS-CoV-2. The app was launched in the UK, the US, and Sweden in March 2020 to capture self-reported information on the evolution of the pandemic.

The researchers analysed information supplied by 372,720 UK subscribers to the app about their regular use of dietary supplements throughout May, June, and July 2020.

Between May and July,175,652 UK subscribers regularly took dietary supplements;197,068 didn’t. Around two-thirds (67 per cent) were women and over half were overweight (BMI of 27).

Taking probiotics, omega-3 fatty acids, multivits or vitamin D was associated with a lower risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection: by 14 per cent, 12 per cent, 13 per cent and 9 per cent, respectively, after accounting for potentially influential factors, including underlying conditions and usual diet.