Vitamin D

Vitamin D helps keep your bones, teeth, and muscles healthy. It also supports your immune system, nerve function, and helps maintain muscle strength, reducing the risk of falls.

 

Low levels can cause tiredness or aches and pains (or sometimes no symptoms at all).

 

Adults: Soft or weak bones (osteomalacia, osteoporosis), increasing fracture risk.
Children: Rickets, causing bone deformity, weak muscles, and poor growth.
 

Our main source of Vitamin D is from the action of sunlight on our skin. Small amounts of sunlight all through the year, even on cloudy days, may help to boost your vitamin D levels. Even just exposing your face and forearms to the daylight can be enough. However, remember to take care to protect your skin with sunscreen so that it doesn’t start to turn red or burn. People with dark skin, such as those of African, African-Caribbean or South Asian origin, will need to spend longer in the sun to produce the same amount of vitamin D as someone with lighter skin.

 

• Take a daily supplement of 10 micrograms (μg) of Vitamin D: everyone should consider this in autumn and winter (October–March).
 All year round if you:
• Are aged 65+, rarely go outdoors, cover most of your skin outdoors, have dark skin or are pregnant or breastfeeding.
• Where to get supplements: You can purchase supplements, or vitamin drops (for under 5s) at most pharmacies and supermarkets. Midwives and health visitors may provide them for pregnant/breastfeeding women.
• Eat Vitamin D-rich foods: Oily fish (salmon, mackerel, sardines), liver, egg yolks, red meat, fortified foods (breakfast cereals, spreads, unsweetened soya milk).

 

• Sunlight is the best source, but food and supplements help.
• Vitamin D supports bones, teeth, muscles, and immunity.
• Children and some adults are at higher risk of deficiency.
• In the UK, everyone should take a supplement in winter, those at risk should take it all year round.