Our Crowdfunding Groups
Goal: We are requesting donations for a critically important study of Vitamin D testing and treatment for people with COVID 19.
Background: Vitamin D is important for regulating the immune system, and many people have low levels of vitamin D due to insufficient sun exposure. Many recent papers have hypothesized that low vitamin D contributes to severity of COVID 19 (Grant 2020, Jakovac 2020, McCartney 2020, Molloy 2020, Panarese 2020). Rates of mortality from COVID 19 are dramatically higher in countries like the US that are above 35 degrees latitude (Rhodes 2020), which is important because those people receive less sunlight to make vitamin D. Most importantly, two recent studies have reported that severity of COVID 19 symptoms strongly correlates with vitamin D levels (Alipio 2020, Daneshkhah 2020 ). So, vitamin D supplementation appears very likely to help people with low levels of vitamin D by supporting their immune system to better help it fight against COVID 19 infections.
Our Plan:
Phase 1: Measure vitamin D levels in people with proven COVID 19 infections, and follow them for up to 6 weeks to assess the severity of their symptoms.
Phase 2: For people with low levels of vitamin D, we will give them supplemental vitamin D to determine if vitamin D supplementation can reduce the severity of their symptoms. We will remeasure vitamin D levels after two weeks to determine if vitamin D dosage should be altered.
This study has been approved by the Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) of Arizona State University and the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine.
Impact: If this study finds that vitamin D supplementation is able to reduce the severity of COVID 19, then it will offer a safe, inexpensive treatment that can be implemented worldwide immediately, and hopefully save tens of thousands of lives.
Our Request: We have seed funding from Arizona State University to start this study for about 20 participants, but we need more funding to enroll more participants. A study of 50 participants will cost at least $50,000. Normal funding sources can take months to make a decision, so we are reaching out to the public to ask for immediate support so we can continue this critical research to immediately investigate a very promising and safe treatment for COVID 19.
Tax-Deductible Donations: Please support this critical treatment research on this worldwide pandemic!
Tax-deductible donations may be made to Arizona State University Foundation via Pitchfunder. Alternatively checks may be made payable to the ASU Foundation and sent directly to ASU Foundation, P.O. Box 879309 | Tempe, Arizona | 85287-9309 – please include the statement “for Prof. Adams Vitamin D/COVID 19 study, account number FD300 G09264 For information on wiring funds please contact Prof. Adams at jim.adams@asu.edu
Note: Donations are greatly appreciated, but will not affect a decision about admission into this study.
Who are we?
Prof. James B. Adams, PhD, is a President’s Professor at Arizona State University, where he conducts nutrition-related research on autism and pregnancy. He has created a vitamin/mineral supplement for autism (www.autismNRC.org) and a novel prenatal supplement tailored for each trimester of pregnancy (https://healthynesting.com), and has published over 160 peer-reviewed scientific papers. He is the co-founder of the Neurological Health Foundation, and is the chair of their Scientific Advisory Board. President George Bush awarded him with a National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award in 1991. He has conducted several previous studies involving measurement and/or supplementation with vitamin D and other nutrients.
Dr. Sarah Trahan, ND, is a resident physician at the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine, one of 6 accredited medical schools for naturopathic physicians in the US. Naturopathic physicians receive both traditional medical training and additional training in nutrition and nutritional supplements including vitamin D. Dr. Trahan focuses her practice on pain and chronic disease management using regenerative medicine, diet and lifestyle changes, and herbal and nutritional supplementation. She has evaluated and successfully treated many patients with low levels of vitamin D.
References:
Alipio, Mark, Vitamin D Supplementation Could Possibly Improve Clinical Outcomes of Patients Infected with Coronavirus-2019 (COVID-2019) (April 9, 2020). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3571484 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3571484
Daneshkhah A, Agrawal V, Eshein A, Subramanian H, Roy HK, Backman V. The Possible Role of Vitamin D in Suppressing Cytokine Storm and Associated Mortality in COVID-19 Patients. Preprint. file:///C:/Users/jbadams/Dropbox%20(ASU)/Documents/kim/lit%20review/COVID-19/Daneshkhah%202020%20vitamin%20D%20and%20COVID%2019%20.pdf
Grant WB, Lahore H, McDonnell SL, et al. Evidence that Vitamin D Supplementation Could Reduce Risk of Influenza and COVID-19 Infections and Deaths. Nutrients. 2020;12(4):E988. Published 2020 Apr 2. doi:10.3390/nu12040988
Jakovac H. COVID-19 and vitamin D-Is there a link and an opportunity for intervention?. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2020;318(5):E589. doi:10.1152/ajpendo.00138.2020
McCartney DM, Byrne DG. Optimisation of Vitamin D Status for Enhanced Immuno-protection Against Covid-19. Ir Med J. 2020;113(4):58. Published 2020 Apr 3.
Molloy EJ, Murphy N. Vitamin D, Covid-19 and Children. Ir Med J. 2020;113(4):64. Published 2020 Apr 3.
Panarese A, Shahini E. Letter: Covid-19, and vitamin D. Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 2020;51(10):993‐995. doi:10.1111/apt.15752
Rhodes JM, Subramanian S, Laird E, Kenny RA. Editorial: low population mortality from COVID-19 in countries south of latitude 35 degrees North supports vitamin D as a factor determining severity [published online ahead of print, 2020 Apr 20]. Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 2020;10.1111/apt.15777. doi:10.1111/apt.15777
