From regularly washing your hands to avoiding touching your face, there are a number of measures that have been shown to reduce your risk of coronavirus.
Now, one expert claims that subjecting yourself to use 10 minutes of sunshine a day can also help to reduce your risk of catching the virus.
Dr Rachel Neale, a researcher at Brisbane’s QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, says that having low levels of vitamin D can leave you vulnerable to COVID-19.
Speaking to The Australian, she explained: “Now, more than ever, is not the time to be vitamin D deficient.
“It would make sense that being vitamin D deficient would increase the risk of having symptomatic Covid-19 and potentially having worse symptoms.
“And that’s because vitamin D seems to have important effects on the immune system.”
In a study last year, Dr Neale tested 78,000 participants, and found that those with low vitamin D levels were almost twice as likely to develop acute respiratory infections.
Those people were also more likely to be sicker for longer, according to the researchers.
Vitamin D is naturally produced by our bodies in response to sunlight, and can also be found in a number of foods, including egg yolks, red meat and oily fish.
According to Dr Neale, just 10 minutes of sunlight a day can be enough to get your daily dose of Vitamin D.
However, this can be tricky during the lockdown.
The NHS advises: “Consider taking 10 micrograms of vitamin D a day to keep your bones and muscles healthy.
“This is because you may not be getting enough vitamin D from sunlight if you’re indoors most of the day.”
Meanwhile, the NHS highlights that while several studies are looking into the benefits of Vitamin D amid the coronavirus pandemic, a link is yet to be proven.
It added: “There have been some news reports about vitamin D reducing the risk of coronavirus. However, there is no evidence that this is the case.”
