Should a large proportion of the population be taking vitamin D, at least for six months from October to March?
I have never specifically taken any self prescribed vitamin supplements, believing in a varied diet will provide what my body needs.
SWMBO, who rarely ventures out now takes vitamin D on advice from a consultant.
From what I read vitamin D is most easily produced when our skin is exposed to UV rays from strong sunlight. There is not enough UV in sunlight from October to March.
I have always covered up most of my skin when in the sun, no shorts, long sleeved shirts and a hat so maybe I too should pop the pills?
I am not a "worried well" but just asking.
Bwww.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-shropshire-41863446/telford-mother-s-baby-son-died-after-developing-rickets
www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-scotland-36857005/vitamin-d-supplements-advised-for-all
www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/health-36859224/why-should-we-take-vitamin-d-during-the-darker-months
www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/health-28685149/vitamin-d-deficiency-linked-to-dementia
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Not something I've thought of. To me, not a medical person, Ricketts was linked to poor diet rather than Vit D from sunlight. But who knows (without googling)
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Bald people like myself are less likely to suffer vitamin D deficiency due to our specially evolved solar radiation collecting panels on the top of our heads.
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>> Not something I've thought of. To me, not a medical person, Ricketts was linked to
>> poor diet rather than Vit D from sunlight. But who knows (without googling)
Rickets has made something of a comeback in recent years. Particularly so in communities that avoid dairy due inability to metabolise cow's milk and/or in which clothing covers most exposed. Over use of sun block is also reported as cause in some cases.
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>> Limes are the answer !
YES! washed down with Gin and Tonic
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>> Limes are the answer !
>>
Only if the question is "how can I avoid scurvy"
To avoid Rickets some salmon and caviar would be a better strategy. Both high in vitamin D
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I read the articles but I do get in the sun a lot and I felt that I didn't need the extra. But seeing how cheap the pills are at Tesco, I'm thinking they can't do any harm...
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I've never believed in taking vitamin pills at all and always thought a proper varied diet was all we needed.
However last February I read about the lack of sunlight and vitamin D pills and decided, as they were on offer at Tesco at the time, to try them.
I was very surprised at how much better I felt and kept them up until the end of March and have just started taking them again this year.
Pat
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I'm absolutely convinced "SAD" exists but that it can be mitigated by vitamin D and or by ensuring more exposure to daylight.
Whenever possible, I choose cars with sunroofs, not just to open them when weather conditions permit, but also for the extra daylight the glass ones allow into the cabin, even when closed. I can honestly say I feel better after a day's work in a car with a sunroof than I do after one in a car that doesn't have one, especially, perhaps counter intuitively, in the winter months.
I have no qualifications to back up my theory, but common sense tells me that like all animals, we are primevally "designed" to function and live outdoors, and hiding ourselves away indoors on a semi-permanent basis can't be good for us. Primitive man would have sheltered in caves and so on to sleep of course, but most of the rest of the time would have been out and about doing a spot of hunting and gathering.
It's no coincidence that we all feel better for "a bit of fresh air" so to speak.
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>> I'm absolutely convinced "SAD" exists but that it can be mitigated by vitamin D and
>> or by ensuring more exposure to daylight.
It absolutely does. Mrs B suffers badly and has a light box as well as taking VitD.
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>> >> I'm absolutely convinced "SAD" exists but that it can be mitigated by vitamin D
>> and
>> >> or by ensuring more exposure to daylight.
>>
>> It absolutely does. Mrs B suffers badly and has a light box as well as
>> taking VitD.
>>
My daughter suffers badly from SAD. That, plus the pressure, led her to swap teaching for a position as a T.A (Teaching Assistant) as she became quite badly sad, in its traditional meaning, during the UK winters.
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"I was very surprised at how much better I felt "
Some 3 years ago, my wife (then 61) went to the GP 'well-woman' clinic and blood tests revealed that she had a significantly under-active thyroid coupled with a very low level of vitamin D. At that time, she was complaining about her constant tiredness and complete lack of energy.
She was prescribed (and still takes) a daily dose of thyroxin and vit D and felt better immediately after starting to take them.
I understand that thyroxin metabolism and vit D levels are somehow related, and I know that vitamin/hormone biochemistry is a very complex subject. If you have any concerns, Pat, go see a doc. There is a great deal of quack pharmacy and pseudoscience associated with food supplements.
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Thanks Haywain.
I had my thyroid removed over 40 years ago and have been on Thyroxine ever since which is monitored annually with a blood test so I know that's ok.
I spend so much time outdoors in the garden in the summer and hate the winters when I'm confined to the indoors so maybe the artificial sunshine works?
Pat
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The consultant specified for SWMBO a 1000iu tablet dose of vitamin D3 a day.
These are also available at Tesco @ 99p for 60.
I bought some more a few days ago.
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I am aware that vitamin D is required for many processes in the body but today another reported benefit, helping recovery from burns.
www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/11/06/vitamin-d-pills-can-help-burns-heal-prevent-scarring-study-suggests/
A Google search for "vitamin D help" or " vitamin D helps" produces quite a list.
What to believe with all the food supplement makers adverts/claims is a challenge.
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>> What to believe with all the food supplement makers adverts/claims is a challenge.
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Ttick to a reputable source and ignore commercial interests. The NHS is my go to site for medical information.
www.nhs.uk/conditions/vitamins-and-minerals/vitamin-d/
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>>The NHS is my go to site for medical information.
I agree a good start.
Site says " 10mcg a day "and senior consultant said 1000iu a day.
Oh well more searches :-(
IMO the site could be more useful when joe public is part of the customer base
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For vitamin D 1000iu = 25 mcg.
There isn't a constant conversion between iu and mcg - for Vitamin D it is 0.025
Obviously if you have a consultant go with what he says as indeed the NHS website advises
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>> For vitamin D 1000iu = 25 mcg.
>> There isn't a constant conversion between iu and mcg - for Vitamin D it is 0.025
>> Obviously if you have a consultant go with what he says as indeed the NHS website advises
>>
It would be helpful to joe public and me if the NHS site included that info :-(
The " food supplement " I have only has 1000iu value on the label.
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" I'm thinking they can't do any harm..."
They can do if taken to excess
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I take 10,000iu every day but I'm still 'ere.
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>>They can do if taken to excess<<
So can most things, but we are all sensible adults here.
Pat
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Lass I knew suffered from SAD and had a ‘light box’ switched on most winter mornings.
I’m just home from two days on’t Pennine Way, based at Hawes Friday & Saturday evenings staying in a lovely B & B. 27 miles in total so not too strenuous, but glorious long distance views which made you be glad to be alive and copious amounts of D3 in two days sun.
And rescued a lost, distressed Parsons Jack Russell terrier today which was wandering aimlessly over Gt Shunner Fell. Running 200 yds in each direction then stoppping for a good howl. Spare bootlaces made an improvised lead, and she was reunited with owner 2 miles further along on the summit. He didn’t seem that bothered. Thanked me and said “ she’d have found me†in so many words. Dead from hypothermia more like given the biting wind and sub zero temps up there tonight.
Just when I’d got attached to it and was ready to give her a new home.....
Spain tomorrow (Moraira). No Vit D3 required, apart from limes in my G & Ts and margeritas.
Buenas noches
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>>rescued a lost, distressed Parsons Jack Russell terrier today which was wandering aimlessly over Gt Shunner Fell. Running 200 yds in each direction then stoppping for a good howl.
I had a springer that I walked round local woodland for fourteen years. I'd follow the paths, while she would rush around sniffing trees and 'parking' the odd squirrel. I'd barely see her until I left, when she'd promptly find me. Strangers 'rescued' her once.
A mongrel I had for a similar time behaved in the same way, although she did disappear for half-an-hour or so when I saw her chasing a muntjac over the adjacent golf course.
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, but we are all sensible adults here"
Well that's debatable. :-)
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Sorry, in reply to LL. I have caught and returned, often at some expense and time, several pooches to their ‘owners’. Response is more often than not Luke warm and it makes one think why bother.
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"Response is more often than not Luke warm and it makes one think why bother."
A couple of years ago, I left the local supermarket to see a pup tied outside the door, trying to get in and follow its owner; the automatic doors kept closing to on the terrified dog. I asked the security chap to hold the dog back while I asked for a call to be put out for the owner. She duly appeared and laid into me something rotten. I think the truth is that the owners are embarrassed to be seen as not doing a very good job.
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It’s still nagging me....dog running up & down the stones slabs in each direction on top of the fell, occasionally stopping to have a good howl. Clueless as to where the owner was.
No collar or ID tag, only a harness ( better than nothing)
I should have offered the bloke £50 and brought it home. Shared it between me and my old Mum. Drat.
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In a previous life, 6 of us used to walk in to Hastings from either the Fire Hills or Pett Level in East Sussex.
Upon arriving in said town, we would head straight for the Horses Nosebag restaurant, sit in the inglenook around a long table and order 6 x rosbifs.
Dogs weren't allowed in of course so I used to tie Marmalade, our Cocker Spaniel to the post outside the pub opposite so I could keep dogeye on him.
Geezer comes out the pub and unties Marmalud the hund (as the Scandi's used to call him) so I goes out and says "woss on then guvnor"!!
Geezer says he (Marmalud the hund) nearly got 'chauned' (taken?)
Well, I'd never heard that word before, or since actually. We, well, me really, still use that word now and again to refer to something which has bin misappropriated or gorn missing.
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There were always dogs when I was a child. But one in particular was my constant companion. He was a Golden Retriever who arrived as a pup when I was about 12. All through my teenage years we were inseparable mostly. He followed me around wherever I went, never on a lead, just trotting along beside my bike etc. Of course he couldn't come to school with me, but used to take himself to the bottom of the road to wait for me at 4.00. It was a half mile walk back home from there but he used to sit patiently by a little corner shop, waiting for me to appear either on my bike or off the bus. Nobody seemed to mind back then, but of course now he'd be "arrested" or stolen no doubt.
Later, when I started driving, he used to love to sit in the front seat if I was going somewhere, and when I got an MG Midget, we used to have to drop the roof no matter what the weather because he was too tall. His head would poke up above the window frame and his ears would flap wildly once the car got any speed up.
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Re Duncan's Tesco link, the pills are quite a bit cheaper while on the penny sale @ Holland and Barrett (2 x 100 for £3.60) - tinyurl.com/yag2d3tu (Their larger pots of 250 are, bizarrely, quite a bit more expensive per tablet)
Tesco ones are £3 for 90, buy 2 get 1 free, albeit with higher strength (the H&B ones appear to be the NHS recommended dosage whereas the Tesco's are 25% more...)
"If you choose to take vitamin D supplements, 10mcg a day will be enough for most people." from tinyurl.com/y9bonufn
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I expect I'll have to google it, but where's the fun sharing this stuff and nonsense with you all in that?
So - why are they called vitamin A,B, etc, and not xylopronpone2 or whatever. And why do they go to E but not F or G. In fact, what ARE vitamins exactly? Molecular combinations?
Hmm.
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Vitamins are nutrients that are essential whereas other nutrients are beneficial though can be substituted for something else.
My doc prescribes Cholecalciferol (which is basically D3) for seasonal fatigue and reckons the over the counter vit D meds are not always properly absorbed.
Last edited by: Hard Cheese on Mon 6 Nov 17 at 11:24
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>>I have always covered up most of my skin when in the sun, no shorts, long sleeved shirts and a hat...
Very wise, speaking as one who ignored these precautions during 16 years' exposure to the tropical sun and, in spite of observing them for the last four decades back in the UK, has so far had three pre-cancerous skin growths excised in recent years, several others zapped with cryogenic nitrogen and yet others under observation.
>>...so maybe I too should pop the pills?
Not without consulting a doctor, who will probably want a blood test taken before deciding as they can put too much calcium into the blood or urine. I am prescribed two 1400mg/400IU tablets a day, following a broken ankle. The idea was to increase my bone density but be aware of my dentist's warning - increased density can make extractions difficult.
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On a purely anecdotal level I have given vitamin d3 supplements to many patients whose levels (and often calcium levels) are low but I can't say I've seen a leap in their wellbeing (many are elderly with multiple health issues of course, which muddies the water).
Thyroxine on the other hand is a miracle cure for those with knackered thyroids!
Hormones are chemical messengers produced in the body to act on systems elsewhere.
Vitamins are nutrients you cannot meaningfully manufacture yourself, thus they need to be consumed.
There has never been a quality study that showed taking a level of vitamin more than the amount your body actually requires has any beneficial effect.
In fact, one of my favourite things about supplement peddlers is that excessive vitamin E actually appears to increase lung cancer rates in smokers - presumably powerful antioxidants (of which vitamin E is one) neutralise the ones the body makes itself to deal with cancer cells, leading to a somewhat paradoxical effect.
Last edited by: Lygonos on Mon 6 Nov 17 at 16:02
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Thanks for your input, from a expert in dealing with many and varied patients.
I am reminded that I must arrange an annual vitamin D injection to the oldest member of the family who is over 80 , our three and a half legged tortoise who will be hibernating for a few weeks.:-)
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Never mind D3, anecdotally a lot of us might benefit from a top-up of B12. Some of us can't absorb it in our food apparently. B12 deficiency can exacerbate all kinds of worrisome conditions apparently.
SWMBO swears by regular B12 injections. Apparently there's no risk of overdosing...
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Interestingly, I have two people I know diagnosed with B12 deficiency in the past year.
'A' had been diagnosed Bi-polar some years ago, had fallen pregnant at a later than normal age, and during the pregnancy was found to need B12.
'B' is in her 30's and has been on antidepressants for several years. She was so tired, almost non functioning, plus couldn't seem to shift a bloated tummy. She, again, is now on B12 for pernicious anaemia ... a side effect of which is depression. Further testing proved she also had coeliac disease.
Both women totally transformed after years on drugs.
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All take vitamin D3 ? - R.P.
