Vitamin D

[bednobs]

I keep seeing things saying extra vit D is good to take this time of year. What dose?

[bednobs]

thanks all

[Atheist]

Good Lord! Hw did we get on when we only had food to keep us going?

[Mamyalynne]

People got rickets if they were severely deficient in Vit D and weakened bones leading to fractures.

[Atheist]

Mamy, perhaps in those days people didn't have enough good food. Nowadays I think we have plenty, if we choose to eat properly.

[Mamyalynne]

We mainly get Vitamin D from sunlight, with today's lifestyles for many being more cooped up indoors there seems to be a rise in folk with lower levels.

[bookbinder]

I was diagnosed - at the end of August - with vitamin D deficiency. The GP prescribed folic acid tablets 5mg (one a day) plus colecalciferol (vitamin D3) capsules (one per month). I knew something was wrong when I woke up one morning with severe aches and pains in just about every joint and muscle in my body. I think that I am getting better, but, my word! its a slow business. What puzzles me is, why should I have a vitamin D deficiency at all? I eat well and healthily, and I go out and get my dose of sunshine (as I have done for years). Why, all of a sudden, should I be stricken with almost unbearable pains and aches? Has being 81 got anything to do with it?

[Atheist]

Mamy, are you sure that we get vit d mainly from sunlight? I know it counts, but couldn't we get it from food? If not, then I'm sure you're right that modern living conditions are a problem.

[Mamyalynne]

Of course there are some food sources too but it's not known as the 'sunshine vitamin' for nothing.

https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-body/how-to-get-vitamin-d-from-sunlight/

[jno]

the imposition of the eindow tax by William III is said to have led to an upsurge of rickets and TB as people blocked up their windows to save money.

[Mamyalynne]

Yes and children working in mines and mills for long hours,hardly seeing much daylight.

[pastafreak]

It's virtually impossible to get what we need from food, and we usually can't get sufficient sun exposure in the Northern hemisphere. Also, as we get older, the body either can't manufacture enough, or absorb enough from our food.

[ummmm]

Like boobkbinder I woke up with severe pain in my joints. My fingers were so bad I couldn't even open the milk. I spoke to my doctor and she said instantly it was a vitD deficiency and to buy some over the counter until she could get a script sent to the pharmacy. Makes you feel quite ill.

[pastafreak]

I remember a number of years ago I used to wake every morning with my fingers bent in on themselves and I couldn't straighten them out. Not necessarily painful, but very stiff.

[LadyCG]

APG I have never purported to be a dispensing Pharmacologist and certainly haven't given that impression, but don't let that stop you twisting and stirring. I'm sure your life holds very few distinctions but you can earnestly boast that no one twists and stirs quite like you :-)

[Vagus]

You do talk a bit like a medical dictionary though, LadyCG ;) even Sqad talks in language that everyone understands and doesn’t feel it necessary to use big long words.