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Supplements containing vitamins C and D, along with other micronutrients, can be a "safe, effective and low-cost" means to fight off COVID-19 and other acute respiratory tract diseases, according to an Oregon State University researcher.

Adrian Gombart of OSU’s Linus Pauling Institute, along with his collaborators at universities across the world, said public health officials should issue a clear set of nutritional guidelines to complement the existing advice about washing hands to prevent the spread of infections.

Findings were published Thursday in the peer-reviewed journal Nutrients.

“Around the world, acute respiratory tract infections kill more than 2.5 million people every year,” Gombart said. “Meanwhile, there’s a wealth of data that shows the role that good nutrition plays in supporting the immune system.

Adrian Gombart, an associate professor at the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University, is an expert on vitamin D and the immune system. 

As a society, we need to be doing a better job of getting that message across along with the other important, more common messages.”

Because people are simply not getting enough of these vital nutrients through their diets, researchers are urging people to not only a take a daily multivitamin but doses of 200 milligrams or more of vitamin C — higher than the suggested federal guidelines of 75 milligrams for men and 50 for women — and 2,000 international units of vitamin D.

Gombart is a professor of biochemistry and biophysics in the OSU College of Science and a principal investigator at the Linus Pauling Institute, a leader in the study of micronutrients and their role in promoting optimum health or preventing and treating disease.

He collaborated with nutritional experts and scientists at the University of Southampton in England, the University of Otago in New Zealand, and University Medical Center in The Netherlands.

The role nutrition plays in supporting the immune system is well-established. 

The panel of experts looked at clinical trials, human studies, and research papers before reaching their findings.

Gombart most people are fairly healthy even when they don't get enough micronutrients. They don't always see the deficiency until their immune system is tested.

This makes getting enough vitamin C or D so that an immune system is functioning at its fullest when it does encounter an infection a key part of disease prevention.

But despite their promise at preventing infections, these micronutrients are no "miracle cure."

"You're not going to take a bunch of vitamin D and all of a sudden you're cured of something when you have an infection," Gombart said.