Just read this in the Guardian. A professor of respiratory infection and immunity has been quoted as saying
“Vitamin D could almost be thought of as a designer drug for helping the body to handle viral respiratory infections,” he said. “It boosts the ability of cells to kill and resist viruses and simultaneously dampens down harmful inflammation, which is one of the big problems with Covid.”
He would have been better to say that it’s a hormone that the kidneys produce.
Anyway, it took me right back to the endo who said it was “ just a fashion that people are all wanting their vitamin D checked, bring me the evidence that there’s anything in it and I’ll test yours”
As you will see from the above link warning signs were sent out to all many medical practitioners way back in 2012 - detailing people who would be vulnerable and SHOULD be tested ...
Gosh, and that was before the endo told me it was ‘fashionable’. So eight years on and we’re still finding it difficult to get checked for vitamin D deficiencies. Thanks Marz.
At risk of sounding a bit grumpy - it’s a pity the Government wouldn’t pay a bonus for every patient tested and prescribed for like they do with statins!
... AGREE ! I once read that a new generation of Statins also contained VitD - wish I could remember where I read that. It fitted well with something Dr Myhill wrote - that a Statin was no better than taking VitD ! I am presuming for its anti-inflammatory benefits. Cholesterol adheres to inflammation in the arteries as a sticking plaster - to assist healing ! No doubt VitD would do the same !
Hubby and I tested ' insufficient ' for VitD back in 2006 - whilst living in Crete - and have supplemented since. The sun does not always work for us oldies or have Hashimotos. There was some research posted by helvella concerning this issue - carried out in Crete - of all places !
I gave my Dad and his wife some vitamin D spray a month ago to use. They hardly sit in the sun and are both very pale. One of the reasons they avoid the sun is because she had skin cancer on her face and has been advised to wear sun block and stay out of the sun. They have told me they have been using it every day and I have told them to ask for a test after lockdown to see what their levels are. I just wish it worked as well for me because I have been using it for about a year and my level still isn't high enough at 64.
Supplementing should be according to your result - as explained in the graph on the website of grassrootshealth.net Have you looked at it ? Are you taking 4000 IU's daily ? Co-factors ?
For several years NICE has been advising that every adult over 18 should be supplementing with Vitamin D, the most recent advice being revised in 2018:
But have you or I ever routinely been provided with such information from the medical profession? No.
I find it incomprehensible that the general population has not been given such information, especially given that Vitamin D is vital to good health.
And now, of course, the issue of Vitamin D deficiency is headline news in the COVID-19 pandemic.
If the government had carried out a public health campaign years ago when NICE first advocated Vitamin D uptake then maybe, just maybe, some of the incidence of coronavirus cases and deaths might have been averted, especially for those in the BAME community.
These are such simple measures but when they are not implemented or - as evident - completely ignored, it can lead to devastating outcomes
To respond to your concerns about Vitamin D being described as a 'designer drug', I think you have misunderstood - the context in which the term is used makes it clear that the doctor meant it was a crucial vitamin (though he should have pointed out it is a hormone, not a vitamin). He was not meaning it was 'fashionable'.
It is sloppy use of language, however, and open to ambiguity.
No, I didn’t misunderstand the professor’s comment at all. I know exactly what he meant. He said it could almost be thought of a designer drug for helping the body.
I just don’t really care for vitamin D being described as a ‘designer drug’ for anything.
The mention I made of it ‘being fashionable’ stems from back in 2013 when I was being treated for Graves and asked my endo if I could have my vitamin D tested.
He looked at me and said “ I don’t know what it is that it’s become fashionable for everyone wanting to have their vitamin D tested - if you can prove to me there’s anything in it I’ll test it for you”
Unfortunately when I arrived back for my next appointment he had moved on and I ended up buying a vitamin D test from City Assays.
When will PHE and NHS learn that prevention is better than cure? We are lucky on this site that so many of us understand the importance of proper supplementation. Unfortunately, when you discuss it with friends or family members they think you are talking out of the back of your head!
I totally agree with AmandaK re a public health campaign but we also need for GP's to be properly trained in the importance of vitamins/hormones and also even more importantly how to interpret lab results!!
Well I think they refer to people who supplement as the ‘worried well’.
It’s such a shame that so much in medicine is ‘catch up’ and like locking the stable door once the horse has bolted.
Something makes me think that when I was a child (I’m 71) we used to all be given free cod-liver oil and orange juice. I liked vitamin D but can’t say I was any too keen on the cod-liver oil.
I was lucky to be diagnosed and treated by a private doctor for my hypothyroidism, which had been plaguing me for 30 years. He was also a proponent of vitamin D and advised me to take 5,000iu per day.
Dr Coimbra, with whom I have been in contact on behalf of a friend, advocates up to 250,000iu of vitamin D per day for those following his protocol for autoimmune diseases. (It seems that those with autoimmune conditions have cellular resistance to vitamin D uptake, just like those of us with THR.) He describes our advised levels of 600iu (?) per day as ‘pitiful’. There are often quotes from the medical profession about vitamin D ‘toxicity’ at levels above this but I have yet to find any ‘toxicity’; problems can come from hypercalcaemia not a toxic effect. He thinks that the coronavirus has spread so easily because of low levels of vitamin D.
I have often wondered, as someone with THR whether or not this would also apply to other hormones, such as vitamin D.
That’s pretty much what my osteoporosis fracture liaison nurse said. I know I supplement and eat a diet rich in vitamin D and in spite of having an enormous amount of sunshine last year and I don’t like using sun cream either - when I tested my vitamin D was very good but not alarmingly high.
I asked the GP to test for Vit D, he argued but put it down in the end. The blood test people refused to do it! I got it done eventually to find it was way below the range. GP ignored it, then told me to get outside more. I pointed out I farm but have vitiligo. He sighed and gave me a low dose. I bought my own from then on.
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