UK: Add Vitamin D To Bread & Milk To Help Fight Covid, Scientists Urge

[appalachiablue]

Last edited Sun Nov 1, 2020, 03:11 PM - Edit history (1)

- 'Add vitamin D to bread and milk to help fight Covid, urge scientists.'- Widespread deficiency shows that current government guidance on supplements is failing. The Guardian, Oct. 31, 2020.

Scientists are calling for ministers to add vitamin D to common foods such as bread and milk to help the fight against Covid-19. Up to half the UK population has a vitamin D deficiency, and government guidance that people should take supplements is not working, according to a group convened by Dr Gareth Davies, a medical physics researcher.

Low levels of vitamin D, which our bodies produce in response to strong sunlight, may lead to a greater risk of catching the coronavirus or suffering more severe effects of infection, according to some studies. Last week, researchers in Spain found that 82% of coronavirus patients out of 216 admitted to hospital had low vitamin D levels. The picture is mixed, however – some research shows that vitamin D levels have little or no effect on Covid-19, flu and other respiratory diseases.

Vitamin D deficiency can cause rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults – soft bones that lead to deformities – and children with severe vitamin D deficiency are prone to hypocalcaemia – low levels of calcium in the blood – which leads to seizures and heart failure.

However, Public Health England (PHE) and the Department of Health and Social Care have rejected calls over the past 10 years to fortify foods such as milk, bread and orange juice, which is the practice in Finland, Sweden, Australia, the US and Canada. “In my opinion, it is clear that vitamin D could not only protect against disease severity but could also protect against infection,” Davies said. “...Read More,

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/31/add-vitamin-d-bread-milk-help-fight-covid-urge-scientists-deficiency-supplements

[hlthe2b]

1. Milk is fortified with 100 IU/8 oz in this country. But as more people get little conversion from

sunlight or no exposure at all. more foods should probably be fortified. At least 600 IU is needed (current RDA) and likely more given population-based deficiencies.

I preach the Vit D message. Not only for COVID-19 but for healthy immune system in general.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. Vitamin D has been being added to milk for something like

a hundred years now in this country.

[Warpy]

3. A majority of POC can't drink milk, so adding it to flour will work much better for them

POC in high latitudes need to have their levels checked and they need to supplement if those levels are low.

In the UK, given the combination of latitude and weather, putting D into flour is a good idea.

Note: if your levels are normal, more D won't help you. It only works for people with low levels.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

4. I'm lactose intolerant too, so I agree.

No recent African ancestry for me, but I avoid milk too.

It strikes me as odd to add it to dairy products, but I think the main concern was children with rickets in the past.

[Warpy]

5. High five from me, milk is horrible stuff

I stopped being able to tolerate it at five but my mother believed all the propaganda about how kids would die without 3 glasses of that shit per day. Good days were when she left the kitchen long enough for me to get it down the sink.

My Irish grandmother was lactose intolerant, too, so I know where I got it.

[Warpy]

7. They realized it has more actions than on calcium uptake in the bones

My lactose intolerance came from my Irish granny. I think hers likely came through on a stray gene from her Spanish granny.

I grew to hate the stuff, my mother believed all that Dairy Association propaganda in the 1950s.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

8. My recent ancestry (abt. last 10 generations) is mostly...

... from the British Isles, and I'm lactose intolerant too. It happens.

My 23andMe health report detected the lactose intolerance, which confirmed what I already knew. I didn't realize it until the latter part of high school, though.

I was definitely more gassy than normal around that time, and it was always about when school was letting out. So I was eager to get home to privately release the pressure, and I had no desire to participate in after-school activities anymore. I was probably the best tennis player at my school (regularly playing against a much older brother for years), but I was embarrassed to tell the tennis coach why I wasn't going to play on the team.

Anyway, after many weekends and a Summer break, I realized it was only an afternoon problem for me after I had been at school. Then I finally narrowed it down to me always drinking those damn cartons of milk during my lunch break there!

I'd heard about lactose intolerance back then, but I assumed it was something deadly like a peanut allergy! I had no idea (pre-internet) that it could just turn someone into a flatulence machine!

My DNA ethnicity estimates:

[I_UndergroundPanther]

6. Lactose intolerant

My endocrinologist gives me vitamin D3 suppliments by prescription.
150,000 units 3 times a week . My body can't make it from sunlight very well.