How Sunlight, the Immune System, and Covid-19 Interact?
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There seems to be a correlation between states that get a lot of sun and lower rates of death.
There are probably several pathways by which sunlight and sun exposure may exert beneficial effects.
As we were reading the literature on other viruses — particularly SARS, the earlier coronavirus
there were indications that UV light could at least inactivate the virus on surfaces and could also either decrease the risk of getting the virus or reduce symptoms,
The benefits of sunlight may extend beyond its ability to slay Covid-19 outside the body.
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When people are exposed to UV light, this may cause changes inside the human body that both strengthen the immune system and block Covid-19 from replicating and causing severe illness.
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How the human body reacts to UV light?
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The sun’s ultraviolet rays damage the cells of the skin in ways that promote wrinkles, blemishes, and other signs of aging.
UV damage also raises a person’s risk for skin cancer, which is the most common form of cancer in the United States.
These dangers are well established, and so virtually all public health messaging advises people to apply sunscreen, don protective clothing, and take other measures to shield skin from the sun’s rays.
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But some doctors who have studied the interaction between sunlight and human health say that “avoid the sun” recommendations are too strident,
and that the benefits of moderate sun exposure without sunscreen may counterbalance — or even outweigh — the risks.
Making people phobic about being outdoors in the sun is just so counter to our evolutionary basis — it just doesn’t make sense.
Human beings evolved to live outdoors — “We’re not moles,” and that our absence of hair or fur suggests that our skin is meant to encounter some direct sun exposure.
Sun-triggered elevations in nitric oxide could help protect people from Covid-19, and this belief is based in part on a 15-year-old Swedish study that examined another deadly coronavirus: SARS.
Covid-19 gets into the body by binding to the same receptor as the SARS virus,
Vitamin D and Covid-19 Relation.
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While some foods contain vitamin D, people have traditionally gotten most of their vitamin D from the sun: When exposed to ultraviolet light, a chemical reaction takes place in the skin that results in the production of vitamin D.
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They found a correlation between low vitamin D levels and higher rates of Covid-19 infections and — even more so — Covid-19 deaths.
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Previous studies have shown that vitamin D protected against acute respiratory tract infection overall, and older adults — the group most deficient in vitamin D — are also the ones most seriously affected by Covid-19.
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Their finding was that getting vitamin D levels into the normal range might help.
Previous studies identified associations between higher levels of ACE2 and better coronavirus disease health outcomes.
Vitamin D has “multiple roles” in the immune system that may strengthen its ability to repel Covid-19.
One example: Low levels of vitamin D seem to impair the development of macrophages — white blood cells that eat invading pathogens, including viruses.
Vitamin D also helps prevent inflammation from running amok.
The darker a person’s skin, the more sun they require to make vitamin D.
If relatively dark-skinned Europeans in countries such as Spain and Italy avoid the sun, slather on sunscreen, and wear clothing that covers much of their body, this could partly explain why their vitamin D levels may be lower than those of the Portuguese.
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That study also points out that the predominantly light-skinned residents of Nordic countries need relatively little sun to produce vitamin D.
Right now, we know that 17% of African Americans have levels of vitamin D below 10 ng/ml, which virtually everyone agrees is seriously deficient.
Chan School of Medicine.
It’s possible, though far from proven, that vitamin D shortfalls may help partially explain the Covid-19 imbalances that are showing up between white and black Americans.
It’s also possible that a vitamin D supplement may provide some protection against Covid-19 for those Americans who are deficient — which may be most of the population.
But it’s not clear that getting vitamin D from a pill is as effective as sunlight at raising
