Choice Blog

Don't be deficient with vitamin D

A blood test is the only way to discover whether you have don't have enough vitamin D, says Dominic Harrington

As we come to the end of darker days when the sunshine is too dim for our bodies to make all-important vitamin D, April is a good time to see whether we have enough in reserve to see us through to spring.

For most of us, spending 15 minutes a day with just our face and hands in direct sunlight from the end of March until the end of September will allow us to produce enough vitamin D to be stored for use the following winter.

As we get older, however, our thinning skin makes it increasingly difficult to make enough vitamin D, which means some of us will be running on empty at this time of the year. Vitamin D is needed for healthy bones, and a deficiency has been linked to osteoporosis and brittle bone disease.

Government advice is that everyone should consider taking a vitamin D supplement for their bone health in the winter months, between October and March, if they cannot get enough exposure to sunlight. However, there is a growing body of evidence which calls into question whether the pills actually help bone health.

Everybody needs vitamin D; the question is whether we should get it from supplements or rely on our body making it from exposure to sunlight and from the small number of foods containing it, such as cod liver oil, offal, egg yolk and oily fish including salmon and mackerel.

The only way to be sure you do not have a deficiency is by having a blood test. Viapath Nutris has developed a £35 postal blood test, or you can book on appointment at its London centre at St Thomas' Hospital.

Click here to find out more

Dominic Harrington is chief scientific officer at Viapath Nutris, part funded by the NHS and based at London's St Thomas' Hospital.

June 2019

Neil Patrick: Social media adds to teacher's burden
Neil Patrick: School Assemblies Reassessed
Swan's Nest Blog

May 2019

April 2019

Clive goes Motorhoming Day 5: The last day
Clive goes Motorhoming Day 4: Chatsworth Park
Clive goes Motorhoming Day 3: Getting Soaked
Clive goes Motorhoming Day 2: Bolton Abbey
Clive goes Motorhoming Day 2: Evening Walks
Clive goes Motorhoming Day 1: Borrowdale Club Site
Don't be deficient with vitamin D
Editors Letter: Are you offering me your seat?

March 2019

Clive's Countryside Blog: Mar 14th
The e-golf: an electric dream to drive
Clive's Countryside Blog: Mar 11th
Clive's Countryside Blog: Mar 3rd
Editors Letter: New and Old technology on the roads

CORPORATE

ABOUT CHOICE|ADVERTISING|RETIREMENT PLANNING

Subscriptions hotline: 01778 392029 (quote code CH13)
Subscriptions email: subscriptions@warnersgroup.co.uk

Choice Magazine, First Floor, 2 King Street, Peterborough, PE1 1LT
01733 555123 | editorial@choicemag.co.uk