During the winter months in the UK, we don’t get very much sunlight. Even if we still spend time outdoors, we are usually wrapped up in a warm coat, with a hat, scarf and gloves. This means that any sunlight there is, isn’t landing directly on to our skin and so Vitamin D isn’t being produced.
Vitamin D is an important nutrient. Without vitamin D, the body can’t absorb the calcium it needs for bones to grow and stay strong. It also helps our immune system, so that we are better able to fight off colds and flu.
The signs and symptoms of vitamin D deficiency vary depending on whether you are a baby, a child or an adult. For example, in babies, it can cause muscle spasms.
In children, it may affect their growth, delay the development of milk teeth, cause persistent infections, which lead to breathing difficulties and in severe cases, children may develop rickets.
The main symptom of rickets is bowed legs, where your legs curve outwards and when you stand with your feet together, there is a large gap between the tops of your legs and your feet. Rickets is painful and makes walking and climbing stairs difficult. If diagnosed early, rickets can be cured.
Adults often feel pain in the bones of the lower back, thighs, feet and hips. Fatigue is another symptom, as well as difficulty climbing stairs or getting up from a chair.
When the skin is exposed to sunlight, it produces vitamin D after a process which converts cholesterol into vitamin D3. In the UK, most people get enough sunlight to make this vitamin from the end of March to the end of September. But during the autumn and winter months, our skin is normally covered up because of the cold.
Yes, you can get vitamin D from some foods. Egg yolks, red meat, liver, and oily fish, such as salmon, mackerel, and sardines.
Liver is also a good source of vitamin D, but you shouldn’t eat liver if you are pregnant because it also contains more than the daily recommended amount of vitamin A. Too much vitamin A can cause birth defects or even miscarriage.
Getting enough vitamin D from food alone is difficult. The best way to increase your intake is to take a supplement.
Yes. The advice from the NHS is that everyone should consider taking a vitamin D supplement of 10 micrograms a day.
If you spend a lot of time indoors or you wear clothes that cover up your skin, then a supplement will help to make up for your exposure to natural sunlight.
Older people, especially, should take a supplement because as we age, our skin becomes less efficient at producing the vitamin.
People with darker skin will also benefit from a supplement, as they often need more sunlight to produce vitamin D.
Yes, in supplement form. Too much vitamin D can damage your heart and kidneys and weaken your bones.
Babies under a year old shouldn’t have more than 25 micrograms a day, Children between 1 and 10 shouldn’t take more than 50 micrograms a day, children over the age of 10 and adults shouldn’t have more than 100 micrograms a day.
Here at the pharmacy, we can give you help and advice about the brands available and the correct dosage.
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