Basseterre, St. Kitts, May 14, 2020 (SKNIS): Health professionals in St. Kitts and Nevis are touting the benefits of the sun in the fight against COVID-19.
Get Some Sun! At least twice per day recommends Chief Medical Officer, Dr Hazel Laws.
The reason is simple. Vitamin Dɜ is made in the skin when exposed to the sun’s energy. It is then carried to the liver and then the kidneys to transform it into active Vitamin D. This helps the absorption of calcium from the stomach, which helps bones to become stronger. It also is a key component to a strong immune system with experts say is necessary to help fight COVID-19.
“In studying the severity of persons with COVID-19, it was found that persons, like in Italy and Spain, who were doing quite poorly and requiring respiratory support and ending up dead, these persons had low Vitamin D levels whereas persons who had normal Vitamin D levels they tended to do better,” Dr Cameron Wilkinson, Medical Chief of Staff of the Joseph N. France General Hospital stated on Wednesday (May 13, 2020).
He added that persons more at risk from having low deficiency levels of Vitamin D are the elderly, males, individuals with diabetes and hypertension, persons with sedentary lifestyles (low physical activity), and others.
For residents of the twin-island federation, Dr Wilkinson noted that persons walking around town with exposure to direct sunlight would help the body to produce Vitamin D. Persons who are unable to get safe amounts of sunlight were advised to take Vitamin D supplements to improve the chances of surviving the dreaded coronavirus.