Vitamin D pills - they're a no-brainer

When I was a kid my mum insisted on giving me a daily desert spoon-full of cod liver oil.  "It will do you good," I was assured.  It tasted revolting. 

As soon as I was old enough to assert my will, I resolved never to take any unnecessary dietary supplements and rely on a healthy diet of proper food. Consequently, I have resisted all well-meaning advice to swallow multi-vitamin pills, glucosamine, manuka honey, green tea extract, multi-vitality fruits, or any of the other pills, potions and concoctions that line the shelves of health food shops.

Like everyone else, I do (of course) resort to medication when I'm unwell, but I'm generally blessed with good health and feel it unnecessary to supplement my diet 'just in case'.  Or rather, I felt it unnecessary.

The guy in the picture above is Dr John Campbell. I regularly view his YouTube channel and he has convinced me that I should be taking vitamin D supplements. Vitamin D is known as the Sunshine Vitamin, since our bodies naturally produce it when we are exposed to sunlight. Unfortunately for us, sunlight is in short supply in the winter, leading to vitamin D deficiency. This, in turn, heightens our susceptibility to colorectal cancer, osteoporosis and (most importantly in the current pandemic) to viral infection. Moreover, there is an increasing amount of scientific data to suggest that a high level of vitamin D in the blood dramatically reduces the probability of serious complications arising from COVID-19 infection. Of course, I don't wish to fall victim to COVID-19 in the first place, but if I am infected then I really don't wish to be seriously ill. So supplementing my diet with vitamin D tablets has been a 'no brainer'. 

The NHS recommends that white-skinned adults take 10µg (10 micrograms) of vitamin D during the winter months. Darker-skinned people should take more, as their bodies are less efficient at producing vitamin D from sunlight. I therefore ordered a bottle of 10µg tablets from Holland & Barrett and have been swallowing one every day at breakfast time. 

Dr Campbell, however, argues strongly that this is insufficient. One scientific study that he highlights has found that taking 50µg per day would help nearly everyone reach a good level of vitamin D in the blood.  Since "nearly everyone" presumably includes dark-skinned adults, I've concluded that 20µg is probably sufficient for me in the winter months, and perhaps 10µg in the summer, so I'm upping my dose.  I may be wrong, but if feels like a sensible compromise.

Incidentally, there is no point in taking more than 50µg as the blood will not absorb any more; indeed taking excessive amounts might be dangerous.