Nutritional therapy for corona patients

It is said by a famous philosopher Hippocrates that the “Let food be thy medicine, and let medicine be thy food” i.e. day will come when the patients will be treated by the food, not by the medicine. But this does not mean that people should only rely on food and nutrition even during emergent conditions. Actually, healthy nutrition along with proper medication support patients to recover soon. Because food is the ultimate thing that boosts the innate immunity of the human body by providing a number of Phytochemicals such as bioactive components (polyphenols, carotenoids, antioxidants, etc.).

In the context of a present scenario where millions of death occurred in the first wave of corona-19 worldwide and the worst situation is there in the second wave of corona particularly in India. Till today, there is no specific medicine that could be claimed to be the guaranteed solution of covid-19. But a number of medicines like Remdesivir, Dexamethasone, Ivermectin, Fabiflu, etc. are available in the market employing to treat the covid patients.

It has been seen in various experimental studies that along with the proper allopathic corona therapy, a nutritional diet, or taking specific nutraceuticals helped to recover corona patients.

The most important nutritional ingredients that actually help to boost the innate immunity of the human body are vitamin D, vitamin C, and Zinc. The food items that have a significant amount of fat such as oils, milk, cream, butter are a good source of vitamin D. Calcium is also a very important element for body growth and strengthing of body structure. There is a very strong correlation between vitamin D and calcium. If a significant amount of vitamin D is not there in the body, the body would not utilize the calcium. So, a significant amount of vitamin D should be there in the body to assimilate the available calcium.

 On the other hand, Amla, citrus fruits, green chili are good sources of vitamin C. Zinc is a very essential element that strengthens the body and defense system. The richest sources of zinc are meat (red meat particularly), fish, egg, legumes, and pumpkin seeds.  

S.No.	Nutritional components	Rich Source/s	Recommended dietary allowance (RDA)
1	Vitamin D	Milk, Cream, Oil, Fat, Butter, Margarine	800 IU for adult
2	Vitamin C	Amla, Green chili, citrus fruits	65 to 90 milligrams for adults
3	Zinc	Meat, fish, Egg, legumes, Pumpkin seeds, etc	8-11 mg for adult
4	Calcium	Dairy products, green leafy vegetables, fish etc.	1,000 milligrams for adult

From the above discussion it is concluded that the intake of vitamin D, calcium, vitamin C and Zinc may improve the body defense system against coronavirus and other infections. A diet rich in all the above ingredients may increase the recovery rate of the moderate and serious corona patients.