SINCE THE EARLY 20th century when vitamin supplements first became available, people have generally focused on a single, specific benefit attributed to each vitamin. Vitamin A, for instance, could optimize your eyesight. B vitamins could give you extra energy. Vitamin E could make your skin glow. Thanks to Linus Pauling, vitamin C supplements were popular in the 1970s and 1980s for helping to ward off colds (a theory since debunked by numerous studies). Despite the fact that each vitamin actually delivers a range of benefits, it's often one characteristic that gets all the attention. And thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, the public's recent focus has been on vitamin D and its immune system benefits.
A 2020 study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM) found that more than 80 percent of people hospitalized for COVID-19 had low vitamin D levels. And according to the National Institutes of Health, one in four U.S. adults has low levels of the vitamin, which based on information from the JCEM study could make them more susceptible to the virus. Before vaccines against the novel coronavirus became available, people started downing vitamin D supplements, hoping to prevent COVID illness.
I TRIED IT... Visiting a Rage Room
This story is from the July - August 2022 edition of Reader's Digest US.
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This story is from the July - August 2022 edition of Reader's Digest US.
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