Emerging evidence is revealing how Vitamin D can help patients with COVID-19, commonly known as the Coronavirus.  Vitamin D is known as the "sunshine vitamin" as it is produced in the skin with sun exposure. Most Americans are deficient in Vitamin D, possibly due to the lack of optimal sun exposure and/or their poor diets. In order to get peak Vitamin D levels from sun exposure, a person must remain in direct sun with most the body exposed for 20 minutes under peak sun (usually 11am to 1pm). Vitamin D can be found as a fortification in many foods such as cereals, dairy milk, plant-based milks, while it is found naturally in some mushrooms. The specific Vitamin D in focus would be D3, also known as cholecalciferol.

So what's the data on Vitamin D and COVID-19? Well, randomized trials and cross sectional studies have shown that ~60% of patients with COVID-19 were vitamin D deficient upon hospitalization, with men in the advanced stages of COVID-19 pneumonia showing the greatest...