TUESDAY, February 22, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Remember when everyone was down zinc supplements early in the pandemic, hoping to guard against a severe case of COVID-19?

New research suggests people may have wasted their time and effort: taking zinc, vitamin C or vitamin D supplements does not reduce the risk of dying from COVID-19.

“A lot of people have this misconception that if you top up on zinc, vitamin D, or vitamin C, it can help clinical outcomes of COVID-19,” but that “hasn’t turned out to be true,” he said. declared the main study. author Dr. Azizullah Beran, internal medicine resident at the University of Toledo’s College of Medicine and Life Sciences in Ohio.

Beran and his colleagues analyzed 26 peer-reviewed studies that were conducted around the world and included more than 5,600 hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

Those treated with Vitamin Dvitamin C or zinc did not have a lower risk of death than those who did not receive supplements.

And while vitamin D was associated with lower rates of ventilator use and shorter hospital stays, more rigorous research is needed to confirm this finding, according to the study authors.

They also analyzed a small subset of patients who had taken vitamin D before coronavirus infection and found no lower risk of death in this group.

“It’s important for people to understand that taking a lot of these supplements doesn’t translate to better outcomes,” said study lead author Dr. Ragheb Assaly, a professor of medicine at the University of Toledo.

“The other important message is that the answer to this disease is the vaccine,” Assaly said in a university press release. “Micronutrient supplements will not compensate for lack of vaccination or cause you to need the vaccine.”

It’s possible that some malnourished COVID-19 patients may benefit from taking supplements, but that’s because their bodies are already lacking essential nutrients, not because vitamin D or vitamin C are effective against the virus. , the researchers noted.

“What we’re saying is this: If you don’t medically need these supplements, don’t take them thinking they protect against COVID-19,” Beran said in the statement. “They won’t stop you from getting it and they won’t stop you from dying.”

The results were recently published in the journal ESPEN Clinical Nutrition.

To learn more about COVID-19 treatments, see the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

SOURCE: University of Toledo, press release, February 17, 2022