Should the Government be handing out free doses of Vitamin D NOW?

[LWJ70]

I have recently discovered (from reading very new scientific abstracts) that low Vit D levels leave us more prone to respiratory tract viruses. Most people only associate it with a healthy skeleton. After a long, cold winter, millions of us could be slightly deficient. Our most vulnerable section of society is unable to make use of the sunlight, which is beneficial.Could this explain the greatly differing pathways of coronavirus throughout the globe? Read these abstracts:

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30675873
clinmedjournals.org/article...ases-and-epidemiology-jide-3-030.php?jid=jide

Difficult to decipher the abstract's stats without looking at the full paper. It is a summary from 25 previous studies with a grand total of 11,321 participants. It is published by US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health with a big participation from the Centre for Primary Care and Public Health, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London.

One thing is clear though:

''Vitamin D supplementation was safe, and it protected against ARIs overall. Very deficient individuals ................... experienced the benefit.

(ARI = acute respiratory infections)

I am amazed why this info is not being published in the wider public domain. Instead we have celebrity workouts, toilet rolls and memes.

Elderly people in sunny climates are probably not aware that they have afforded themselves a greater fighting chance to survive coronavirus.

There are 5.4 million people in the UK above the age of 75 years. The majority of them are locked in their houses (or they would prefer to be). If they leave their houses to buy vitamin supplements from a pharmacist, they could be exposed to the coronavirus. This is not far-fetched- a coronavirus can survive nine days or more on plastic/metal surfaces. Many parts of the UK are at a perfect temperature now for viral stability. If two thirds of infected people are asymptomatic, the infection is already everywhere.

My point is, why doesn't the NHS select the most vulnerable and make a mass delivery of Vit D or a broad spectrum of supplements?

[LWJ70]

All of the six blood serum studies carried out in six different countries showed that almost all severe covid 19 patients had Vit D3 deficiency.
The last one had a very small patient sample size. I assume we'll have a lot more studies to peruse in the next few weeks.

[Calledyoulastnightfromglasgow]

What’s interesting is that it’s STILL not really being discussed! If was a medic from a BAME background, or any background, I would be taking vit D and getting my family on it too and shouting it from the roof tops. If I was t he chief medical officer I would do the same. It’s bloody bizarre!!!!

[Daffodil101]

We are a medical household, not BAME. We started taking it a month ago. Agree odd it’s not discussed.

[BeforeIPutOnMyMakeup]

I'm surprised people have started taking it so late. PHE plus their Scottish and Welsh counterparts started to advise people to take it in 2014 very heavily.

[80sMum]

I too recall that it was recommended by the NHS about 5 years ago that people in the UK should take vitamin D supplements, especially in the winter and especially if they are over 50 but I think that was in relation to bone health.

I didn't know about the link between vitamin D deficiency and the severity of Covid symptoms until a few weeks ago, when the lockdown began.

[Calledyoulastnightfromglasgow]

But the RDA is woefully small

I’m assuming medics are clever people. Probably some of the cleverest in the U.K. and I’m always baffled by the lack of common sense often displayed into issues like this

[eeyore228]

I've seen a fair few articles relating to vitmains. It's important to take but why is it down to the government to provide it for free??

[BeforeIPutOnMyMakeup]

@Calledyoulastnightfromglasgow myself, my partner and a few friends all take different amounts of vitamin D3 because we have been tested over the years due to deficiency/insufficiency so know our iwn individual daily dose.

If you haven't been tested the RDA provides an amount that isn't toxic and provides an amount that prevents osteomalacia in the majority of people.

[Daffodil101]

My kids have been taking it in winter since they were about five. DH has always scoffed at this.

[Keepdistance]

Kind of points to uk science advise from gov isnt very good.
At least for people in care homes??

We need a campaign to get vitamin manufacturers to put the actual child rda in them. 10micrograms or more.

[Nettleskeins]

Bump

[LWJ70]

The sixth blood serum vitamin D study has been published today - from covid patients in Switzerland. Similar conclusions to the previous five:

All covid 19 patients were deficient in vitamin D.

The study checked the averages from the year before and checked the average of 1377 random individuals.

The covid positive patients had an average of 9.3 ng/mL whilst the negative patients had an average of 24.6 ng/mL. The average of the random individuals was also 24.6.

Interesting that Professor Jonathan Van Tam, the Public Health England scientist answering questions during yesterday's briefing is of Vietnamese decent and I 'm 100% sure that he is well aware of these blood serum studies. Yet when he was asked to put forward some advice for BAME citizens, he declined to comment, citing a lack of evidence.

Link here:
//www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/12/5/1359/htm

[Calledyoulastnightfromglasgow]

before it might help osteomalacia but it sure as heck isn’t enough in terms of the immune function role. Which is why we have such a issue with deficiency

[Nettleskeins]

Well thank the lord for unlimited outdoors exercise. At least.some people will now have their immune systems strenghtened by summer sun, sunbathing picnicking eyc.

[LWJ70]

With all this shocking data about the true death toll in the UK's care homes (Sky report at 8pm I think). What would have happened if the UK Gov had decided to mass administer our elderly? I've just seen this new report from Slovenia to the British Medical Journal:

//www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1820/rr

In Slovenia we have low covid-19 mortality rate, 47 per million population, compared to UK with 433 per million population.More than half of all deaths in Slovenia were from fragile elderly in nursing homes. One month ago, in spite of the fact that there are still no clear clinical data on the relation between vitamin D and covid-19, Slovenian medical community managed to agree to advice all medical doctors to supplement vitamin D in fragile patients in nursing homes, covid-19 patients in hospitals and healthcare workers, especially in covid-19 units. We believe that common sense approach in Slovenia regarding vitamin D supplementation was an important measure for low covid-19 morbidity and mortality in addition to other measures, e.g. social distancing and mandatory use of face masks in the community.

The UK has now gone up to 482 deaths per million.

[Calledyoulastnightfromglasgow]

I have long thought the public health bodies in the U.K. are particularly moronic

[1forsorrow]

I take D3 as prescribed for osteopenia, not sure if I should take more.

[LWJ70]

New vitamin D study published yesterday form the University of Chicago.

Findings: if you have vitamin D deficiency, you are more likely to test positive for covid 19.

The data presented here argues strongly for a role of vitamin D deficiency in COVID-19 risk and for expanded population-level vitamin D treatment and testing and assessment of the effects of those intervention

www.news-medical.net/news/20200514/Does-vitamin-D-deficiency-increase-COVID-19-risk.aspx

www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.08.20095893v1

[LWJ70]

Interesting turn of events.

David Davis MP has written an open letter to Matt Hancock, asking him to consider mass administering (or at least free supplementation) of vitamin D3 based on the mounting evidence in favour.

[Nettleskeins]

So many people still dont consider themselves in the category insufficient or deficient.
But my blood boils when I hear the weathermen.reminding us to stay safe by using suncream.

Why.cant they.remind us.to.take a supplement And use suncream? Or to try and get some sunshine on bare skin before applying high spf.factors?

[CalmYoBadSelf]

After many years of working in the NHS I am fairly convinced that medication supplied free of charge is rarely appreciated and usually not taken by those who are most in need of it.
If it was supplied to all as supplements I can guarantee you it will be the middle classes who take it and the poor and elderly who are far less likely. We have trouble getting diabetics and COPD patients to take medication let alone vitamin supplements so I would think adding it to food would be more efficient (don't they do this in Scandinavian countries?) but then we'd have all the complaints about nanny state, etc

[LWJ70]

The first randomised clinical trial results on covid 19 admissions following high dose vitamin D have been released and they are stunning.

50% of the control group (13 people) required admission to the ICU. Only 2% of those in the vitamin D group (one person) required admission to the ICU.

Vitamin D reduced the risk of ICU admission 25-fold.

This was a sledge hammer first dose equivalent to 106,400 IU vitamin D on day 1.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960076020302764

''Conclusion
Our pilot study demonstrated that administration of a high dose of Calcifediol or 25-hydroxyvitamin D, a main metabolite of vitamin D endocrine system, significantly reduced the need for ICU treatment of patients requiring hospitalization due to proven COVID-19. Calcifediol seems to be able to reduce severity of the disease.''

If only PHE had 'followed the science' in March when many scientists (like myself) had already worked this out from the lack of disease severity in BAME countries, high UV tropical nations and the southern hemisphere nations in their summer months.

[Jrobhatch29]

That's so interesting, thank you!

[DoubleDolphin]

OP, your thread started in March when people were low in vit D, but we are at the end of Summer now so everyone should be topped up.

[Keepdistance]

2 died in the non vit d side. So sad.
What will gov do about this though.
Fortify flour and or milk??