PMQs: Boris Johnson urged to introduce vitamin D treatment

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Medichecks, a healthcare testing company, analysed data about the levels of Vitamin D in Brits over the last year. It comes after King’s College London researchers found taking multivitamins may reduce the chance of a woman getting a Covid-19 infection by 13 percent.

The testing company compared data from 19,842 tests between March 2019 and February 2020, and 20,645 tests between March 2020 and February this year.

In a surprise finding, Medichecks found levels of vitamin D increased by 28 percent year-on-year in June.

A bigger rise of the nutrient was found in Brits, with an increase of around 31 percent in September.

The rise in Vitamin D still is unexplained, but the firm believes it could be due to the Covid-19 pandemic leading to millions of workers being furloughed, or working from home.

Dr Sam Rodgers, chief medical officer at Medichecks, said the rise in Vitamin D is steady across men and women.

He told PA: “The data is robust and shows a clear increase to vitamin D in the summer of 2020, common across males and females.

“The conclusions we can draw from this are that the shift to work from home, meaning less commuting, and furlough offered more opportunity to spend time outdoors in the sunshine than was possible in 2019.

“We should also factor in the possibility that a greater number of people were heeding NHS guidance and choosing to supplement vitamin D.

“Both of these are positive developments because maintaining good vitamin D levels is important for keeping bones, teeth and muscles healthy.”

In April last year, the NHS and Public Health England suggested people should consider taking 10 mcg/day vitamin D as a supplement to keep healthy.

Studies were conflicted on whether the nutrient helps fight Covid, with Dr Rogers adding: “It’s interesting to recall that last summer there was a volume of conflicting medical advice on the benefits of vitamin D in warding off Covid-19, and this may have encouraged some to take a daily supplement.

“The role, if any, of vitamin D deficiency in more serious Covid infection is still under scrutiny.

“What we do know is that as an overall indicator of health, it’s a positive finding that the pandemic may have inadvertently increased vitamin D in the UK population.”

The data showing the rise in Vitamin D comes after researchers from King’s College London, who have been using an app to track people in Britain with symptoms of coronavirus since the start of the pandemic, found taking multivitamins may reduce the chance of getting a Covid-19 infection by 13 per cent, at least for women.

They also found taking a probiotic was found to lessen the risk of an infection by 14 percent.

Regular omega-3 lowered the chance of coronavirus by 12 percent, and Vitamin D also lowered the risk by nine percent.

Professor Sumantra Ray, Executive Director of the NNEdPro Global Centre for Nutrition and Health, said: “To date, there is little convincing evidence that taking nutritional supplements has any therapeutic value beyond maintaining the body’s normal immune response.”

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