The first piece of information, which inspired me to turn all the information about the micronutrients we needed to be healthy into a spreadsheet with sources, foods and supplement doses was seeing the following information on the NHS website:
Quote NHS website on Vitamin D
The body creates vitamin D from direct sunlight on the skin when outdoors.
But between October and early March we do not get enough vitamin D from sunlight. End quote.
At the time I first saw this message in February 2020, I was a health conscious 49 year old wondering how this message had never reached me. In March 2020, we went into lockdown where people in built up areas were policed leaving their home for more than an hour a day.
By 23 April 2020, this unclear message had been added:
Quote:
Consider taking 10 micrograms of vitamin D a day to keep your bones and muscles healthy.
This is because you may not be getting enough vitamin D from sunlight if you’re indoors most of the day.
There have been some news reports about vitamin D reducing the risk of coronavirus. However, there is no evidence that this is the case.
Do not buy more vitamin D than you need. End of quote
If people, particularly children under the age of 4, those with darker skins, people in care homes or unable to leave the house, or people who wear clothing covering all their skin, are deficient in vitamin D in March every year, why would this message be deflected during a pandemic. Like me, not many people had heard we didn’t get enough vitamin D between September and March each year.
Before 2020, there had been high profile articles about vitamin D protecting us against respiratory viruses.
On 15th February 2017, an article appeared in the Harvard Gazette
Quote: A recent study by a global team of researchers has found that Vitamin D supplements, already widely prescribed for a variety of ailments, are effective in preventing respiratory diseases.
That is very clear indeed.
Here is a quote from an article about a study, which was actually attacked and discredited during the pandemic. Is that in the BEST interests of the public?
Quote
Recent research Trusted Source discovered a correlation between vitamin D deficiency and a higher risk of COVID-19. Now, another new study has found the same — noting that more than 80 percent of people with COVID-19 didn’t have adequate levels of the “sunshine vitamin” in their blood.
As part of the new study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, researchers looked at 216 COVID-19 patients in a hospital in Spain. The scientists matched the patients to controls from another dataset.
Of all the patients, 82.2 percent were deficient in vitamin D.
In the research, men had lower vitamin D levels compared to women. End quote.
During the hot, sunny Easter of 2020, parks were shut and seats cordoned off.
If we cannot get sunlight indoors and weren’t allowed to spend time in the sunshine during a pandemic, the information on vitamin D deficiency was being willfully ignored. In March, after 6 months of winter without sufficient sunlight, our levels of vitamin D would be at their lowest. Then there was lockdown.
At the time, Facebook and Twitter were censoring information about sitting outside in the sun and branding them misinformation and conspiracy theories. Of all things, with articles clearly stating why Vitamin D had been confirmed during global studies to protect us against respiratory diseases (to quote a Harvard Gazette article from 2017) why was ensuring we were not deficient in vitamin D not made a priority during the spread of a new respiratory virus?
This is beyond weird. Totally incomprehensible.
Personally, I find if I am outdoors in the sunshine, I have more energy and my mood is better. Generally, the United Kingdom has been associated with Seasonal Affective Disorder, but has anyone looked at vitamin D deficiency as a cause?
Surely, sending a clear message about vitamin D deficiency over the winter in the UK would ease strain on the NHS? What happened to prevention rather than cure?
Without facts, which help people make informed choices, how are people supposed to take better responsibility for their health and take care of themselves?
The burden on the NHS from treating preventable diseases, through better self-care runs into billiions of pounds. Each
In my view, a mild cold in a healthy person can still be lethal for someone who is sick. Surely, this has always been known? How a virus presents itself would depend on the health of the individual surely? Isn’t this why we keep people with colds away from those who are sick?
Since the spread of COVID-19 in 2020, many crucial health messages delivering information for self-care have been obscured, censored or politicised, which must have cost people their health, earnings and even lives.
Why would the best efforts not be made to prevent sickness, hospitalisation and death in a population? We must look at all factors that cause increased suffering and find ways to tackle it.
Nutritious Meal Ideas 