Women Who Take These Supplements May Have Reduced Risk of Contracting Covid-19
We’ve heard that taking your vitamins may help reduce the risk of contracting Covid-19 or even help lessen outcomes should you get the virus. Overall, it’s about immunity. And now, a new study has found that taking certain supplements, specifically if you’re a woman, may help to prevent you from getting sick.
For the study, researchers from King’s College London analyzed data from 1.4 million users of the COVID Symptom Study app in the U.K., the United States, and Sweden — 68 percent were female. Participants answered questions about their intake of dietary supplements, took COVID-19 tests, and reported their symptoms and results.
According to the results, 175,652 participants in the UK reported using supplements regularly since the beginning of the pandemic. Out of all the people in the study, 10,508 tested positive for the coronavirus.
The researchers found that four supplements across all the countries were associated with reduced risk of getting the virus — probiotics, multivitamins, omega-3 fatty acids, and vitamin D. Furthermore, the researchers broke down the numbers by sex and found that this reduced risk was found in females only! While this came as a surprise, the researchers suggest that this may be because, as other studies suggest, females have more robust immune systems. This means their immune defenses get more of a boost from supplements.
The researchers did caution that because this was an observational study, we can’t necessarily conclude that taking supplements will prevent you from catching COVID-19. However, their findings do support other research that suggests that more of certain vitamins and minerals may boost your immune system.
As per CDC recommendations, the best ways to protect yourself from the virus are wearing a mask and practicing safe social distancing guidelines. If you think you’ve been exposed, be sure to quarantine and get a COVID test as soon as possible. With these efforts, we can all stay healthy for the season.
