# Vitamin D supplements 'advised for everyone'



## Northerner (Jul 21, 2016)

Everyone should consider taking vitamin D supplements in autumn and winter, public health advice in England and Wales says.

It comes as a government commissioned report sets the recommended levels at 10 micrograms of the vitamin a day.

But officials are concerned this may not be achievable through diet alone, particularly when sunlight, which helps in vitamin D production, is scarce.

Low vitamin D levels can lead to brittle bones and rickets in children.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-36846894

Everyone?  Actually, a friend of mine developed a fracture in her femur which was determined to be due to Vit D deficiency - she was in her late 40s when it happened. I doubt very much that it had anything to do with my femur breaking though, although I never got any explanation for it happening.


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## Copepod (Jul 21, 2016)

I'm concentrating on exposing as much skin to as much sun as possible, while avoiding getting burned, this summer, as always to build up my vitamin D stores to see me through the winter. Perhaps if I had dark skin, I would consider taking oral vitamin D supplements through the winter.


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## Vicsetter (Jul 21, 2016)

If you decide to take Vitamin D capsules/pills, make sure you choose Vitamin D3 and not Vitamin D2 (which is bad for you).  It is interesting that vitamin D treatment is cheap as chips because it cannot be patented so the drug companies make very little money from it.


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## Amigo (Jul 21, 2016)

Due to my other serious condition, it's necessary to keep my Vit D at optimum as opposed to average levels. Presently I'm deficient and studies show earlier mortality in people with leukaemia who are deficient. There is also a connection between low Vit D levels and retinopathy. 

I'm having to take VitD supplements twice a week of 20,000 iu's from my GP in the hope of getting me to a maintenance level but it's important to have that monitored with blood tests.


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## Diabeticliberty (Jul 21, 2016)

I used to gorge on vitamin supplements as part of an extremely heavy training ground routine lifting weights 6 days per week. We took these blindly oblivious of the overdosing possibilities.  Some of us took the time to read up on what we were taking and backed right off them. It seems you can overdose on vitamin D but it takes quite high doses to do so. The downside is that as it is fat soluble it can take an extended period of time for your body to get rid of if you do in fact take too much. I suppose as with everything else moderate doses are the key


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## Amigo (Jul 21, 2016)

Diabeticliberty said:


> I used to gorge on vitamin supplements as part of an extremely heavy training ground routine lifting weights 6 days per week. We took these blindly oblivious of the overdosing possibilities.  Some of us took the time to read up on what we were taking and backed right off them. It seems you can overdose on vitamin D but it takes quite high doses to do so. The downside is that as it is fat soluble it can take an extended period of time for your body to get rid of if you do in fact take too much. I suppose as with everything else moderate doses are the key



I think you're right DL but mine has been done for medical reasons and calculated based on blood tests to calculate amounts needed to raise and sustain it. The problem with vitamin deficiencies is they are badly misunderstood and I had a struggle to get this addressed.


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## Diabeticliberty (Jul 21, 2016)

Amigo said:


> I think you're right DL but mine has been done for medical reasons and calculated based on blood tests to calculate amounts needed to raise and sustain it. The problem with vitamin deficiencies is they are badly misunderstood and I had a struggle to get this addressed.




Sorry, I really was not referring to your own situation. I think that taking vitamin supplements for medical conditions is very much different taking general supplements without medical direction or advice


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## Amigo (Jul 21, 2016)

Diabeticliberty said:


> Sorry, I really was not referring to your own situation. I think that taking vitamin supplements for medical conditions is very much different taking general supplements without medical direction or advice



Yes I absolutely agree DL and at one time there was almost a fashionable trend towards popping vitamins with little idea of toxicity or interactions.


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## Ljc (Jul 21, 2016)

I used to take a multi vit and mineral suppliment. I can now only take them if they are prescribed.  I am on Alfacalcidol as I have Osteopenia.


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## HOBIE (Jul 21, 2016)

Weather is so nice at mo !


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## trophywench (Jul 21, 2016)

Yeah - but no actual sunshine here today - and a few days a year especially when it isn't always possible to expose as much of your upper body including shoulders to the sun for more than a few days - cos you are trapped inside working etc - just isn't enough.


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## Copepod (Jul 22, 2016)

Actually, for pale skinned people living in UK latitudes, exposing face and hands to sun for 30 minutes a day goes a long way to maintaining vitamin D stores. So, if your walk / cycle to / from work is at least 15 minutes, you're doing OK. If you can manage a bit longer, while not getting burned, so much the better. So, I reckon my 60 minutes on bike when I can commute that way in summer (depends on emplyer and location) means I'm getting more than my minumum dose, even wearing fingerless gloves. Fortunately, this weekend I'm doing my outdoor job, so can wear shorts and polo shirt.


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## trophywench (Jul 22, 2016)

Copepod - I'm a naturist - we used to regularly spend as much time as possible outdoors and completely nekkid - Friday evening to Sunday evening for 8 months of the year and longer than that on Bank Holidays and annual holidays.

Despite this - I am Vit D deficient and have osteopenia - I am what my beloved mother used to call 'sallow skinned' and never lose all my skin colour even in the Bleak Midwinter - I have never been and can never be, what 'us lot' call 'milk bottles'.  Now being retired and not regular Club members we only spend 2-3 months solid of the year in Mediterranean sun - plus the walking, gardening, pegging out washing etc we've always done anyway - it's worse!

LOL


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## HOBIE (Jul 22, 2016)

Copepod said:


> Actually, for pale skinned people living in UK latitudes, exposing face and hands to sun for 30 minutes a day goes a long way to maintaining vitamin D stores. So, if your walk / cycle to / from work is at least 15 minutes, you're doing OK. If you can manage a bit longer, while not getting burned, so much the better. So, I reckon my 60 minutes on bike when I can commute that way in summer (depends on emplyer and location) means I'm getting more than my minumum dose, even wearing fingerless gloves. Fortunately, this weekend I'm doing my outdoor job, so can wear shorts and polo shirt.


Makes sense to me Copepod, Keeping fit & burning some energy


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## Copepod (Jul 22, 2016)

I know Trophywench has vitamin D problems, despite being a naturist. The majority of people who have normal vitamin D absorption pathways can absorb enough during summer months, provided they spend time outdoors, avoiding getting burned. This weekend I'm camping, which means getting sunshine on way even between tent and toilet, which doesn't happen between bed and toilet at home. I'm teaching orienteering for 5.5 hours on each Sat and Sun, so, better exposure than today's office work day.


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## HOBIE (Jul 23, 2016)

Good for you Copepod. I used to spend 3 times a week in the North Sea. The reflection off the water was always a tan


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## Diabeticliberty (Jul 23, 2016)

HOBIE said:


> Good for you Copepod. I used to spend 3 times a week in the North Sea. The reflection off the water was always a tan




I used to spend an hour every day in the sun. After 10 years though they let me out. That prison exercise yard was a bit boring after the first 3 years but I am really good at making car number plates


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## HOBIE (Jul 23, 2016)

Diabeticliberty said:


> I used to spend an hour every day in the sun. After 10 years though they let me out. That prison exercise yard was a bit boring after the first 3 years but I am really good at making car number plates


What a "Nutter" you are   Brilliant


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## Pine Marten (Jul 23, 2016)

trophywench said:


> Yeah - but no actual sunshine here today - and a few days a year especially when it isn't always possible to expose as much of your upper body including shoulders to the sun for more than a few days - cos you are trapped inside working etc - just isn't enough.


I've been vitamin D deficient a couple of times (it stopped me giving blood a year or so back - I was a regular blood donor) and needed supplements from the GP. I was advised to carry on taking an over-the-counter supplement to keep it topped up. Both the surgery and the blood donors people commented that, living in a northern hemisphere, lots of British people get deficient. The supplement I take is a fish oil one, with added D and A vitamins, as I'm not that keen on oily fish, and usually eat it only once a week.

Also, I'm not that keen on warm weather, so in this hot weather I tend to stay indoors quite a bit, or go out for short periods - I would get very bored and/or very depressed after an hour in the sun  !


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## Amigo (Jul 23, 2016)

Pine Marten said:


> I've been vitamin D deficient a couple of times (it stopped me giving blood a year or so back - I was a regular blood donor) and needed supplements from the GP. I was advised to carry on taking an over-the-counter supplement to keep it topped up. Both the surgery and the blood donors people commented that, living in a northern hemisphere, lots of British people get deficient. The supplement I take is a fish oil one, with added D and A vitamins, as I'm not that keen on oily fish, and usually eat it only once a week.
> 
> Also, I'm not that keen on warm weather, so in this hot weather I tend to stay indoors quite a bit, or go out for short periods - I would get very bored and/or very depressed after an hour in the sun  !



You and me both Pine Marten. I know people love the rays but give me a cool, refreshing breeze anytime. Besides which, although I need the Vit D, I don't need another malignant melanoma skin cancer!  which was very unfair for a non sunbather who has never used sunbeds!


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## trophywench (Jul 23, 2016)

Melanoma of certain types has a distinct link to certain types of cancer.  You could be a nun (in an old-fashioned habit, wimple etc) and get breast cancer and very often - melanoma either precedes or follows it.

I don't believe this is publicised anywhere near enough - but my sis actually lived in Australia - and it's absolutely common knowledge there.  She was warned to keep a religious eye out for melanoma when seeing the GP first of all, having found a lump in a boob.  This was followed up constantly all the while that was treated and at all her follow-ups - and she'd be inspected just in case, at the same time.

I'm interested to see what happens when I eventually get my Dermatology appointment in October - as the whether they bother having a good look at my brown lumps bumps and flat marks (literally all over including the hair covered part of my head and my private parts) to see if any of em are nasties.  I find it exceptionally weird that so far, every member of my own family has either had, or died of, cancer - and so far - I'm not personally affected at all .......


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## Amigo (Jul 23, 2016)

My leukaemia predisposes me to skin cancer due to immune dysregulation and I'm 8 to 10 times more likely to suffer it than someone without cancer. Thankfully those skin cancers are more likely to be non malignant squamous or basal cell but I struck unlucky and got the nasty type.

I hope your dermatology check up goes well Jenny and you're right in saying melanomas can develop where the sun don't shine. Interestingly not a single member of my blood line have died of cancer to my knowledge so it shows that you can buck the genetic trend. They all seemd to have diabetes however!


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## HOBIE (Jul 23, 2016)

Pine Marten said:


> I've been vitamin D deficient a couple of times (it stopped me giving blood a year or so back - I was a regular blood donor) and needed supplements from the GP. I was advised to carry on taking an over-the-counter supplement to keep it topped up. Both the surgery and the blood donors people commented that, living in a northern hemisphere, lots of British people get deficient. The supplement I take is a fish oil one, with added D and A vitamins, as I'm not that keen on oily fish, and usually eat it only once a week.
> 
> Also, I'm not that keen on warm weather, so in this hot weather I tend to stay indoors quite a bit, or go out for short periods - I would get very bored and/or very depressed after an hour in the sun  !


Another good thing about oily fish. I cant get enough of the stuff.  Good luck Pine Martin


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## HOBIE (Jul 24, 2016)

My favorite song "The Sun" Stranglers ! . When I am working outside in the summer great. In the winter up a ladder in the snow "no thanks".  I must be getting old


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## Diabeticliberty (Jul 24, 2016)

Hobieman, just for you


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## HOBIE (Jul 24, 2016)

Thank you very much DL. I have seen them live on a few occasions. I went with my mates, 1 a solicitor & other a headmaster. Lots of wild people in the 02 in Newcastle. I had my bright red punk wig on & the bouncer on the door nearly let me in free. Lots of others with green hair but very good old punks (mortgages etc round there necks).  Life is for living


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## Diabeticliberty (Jul 24, 2016)

Hobieman life is indeed for living the thing is though since dragging my rotting carcass out of bed this morning I look and feel like the living dead


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## Niki (Jul 25, 2016)

I'm glad this has got so much publicity.

As a northerner, vitamin d deficiency is now endemic.

When I was diagnosed with severe deficiency a few years ago I literally had a row with one of the practice gps who insisted that walking, even in the winter, would boost my natural vitamin d! Turned out all the GPs believed the same thing 

Sadly I think the cut off line for the right UV-B spectrum is Manchester - above that it simply isn't present between September and March.
Add cloud cover into the mix, and with the weather we are having it isn't even there in the summer! I think they really only got worried on the back of the Iceland volcano emissions, where nobody in the UK generated any vitamin d that entire year even in the south 

As I say, glad to see this with so much publicity, not least to educate our GPs!


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## HOBIE (Jul 25, 2016)

I live in the North too.  Just drive my van around with the stanglers music playing all day. Happy as a pig in   ! (it does not feel like the sun has been out till peasantry)


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## Vicsetter (Sep 7, 2016)

There is an article in Pulse (free subscription) about
*Can I insist patients get vitamin D over the counter?*
:http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/your-pr...t-vitamin-d-over-the-counter/20032692.article

The answer appears to be Yes unless they are vitamin D deficient.


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## mikeyB (Sep 7, 2016)

Where we live, Vic, it's the dark winters that sap your vitamin D, and some think that this lack of sunlight accounts for the frequency of MS in Scotland to be nearly twice that in England.


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## Vicsetter (Sep 8, 2016)

mikeyB said:


> Where we live, Vic, it's the dark winters that sap your vitamin D, and some think that this lack of sunlight accounts for the frequency of MS in Scotland to be nearly twice that in England.


Would that be the same Scotland where I live?
The article was about prescribing vit D, there was someone on another thread (couldn;t find it) complaining their GP wouldn;t prescribe it.  This article said that a GP didn't have to prescribe it unless the patient was tested to be deficient in Vit D.  Which is fair enough as they are cheaper than chips.


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