Our level of vitamin D is one of our key allies to protect us against Covid-19 infection—but its effectiveness could be dictated by the health of our gut.
This missing link in metabolizing the vitamin could explain why so many studies have delivered contradictory results, including the largest-ever, which tracked more than 25,000 participants, that concluded the vitamin had no positive impact on heart disease, cancer or even bone health.
But it could be because the participants’ gut microbiome—the bacteria living in our digestive tracts—wasn’t healthy, say researchers from the University of California at San Diego.
A healthy gut is needed to activate the vitamin, say researchers, who analysed stool and blood samples of 567 men with an average age of 84, and who were in good health.
Their analysis revealed a link between active vitamin D levels and microbiome diversity. The participants with the highest levels of active vitamin D also had more of 12 specific types of bacteria that produced butyrate, a fatty acid that helps create a healthy gut lining.
Not surprisingly, men living in sunnier parts of the US—such as San Diego in California—had higher levels of vitamin D, but it didn’t necessarily follow that their stores of the vitamin were active. “It seems like it doesn’t matter how much vitamin D you get through sunlight or supplementation, nor how much your body can store,” said Deborah Kado, one of the researchers. “It matters how well your body is able to metabolize that into active vitamin D.”
(Source: Nature Communications, 2020; 11; doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-19793-8)
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