Usually I write newsletters to promote our products. Well this time, I’m damn angry!

Vitamin D: I am going to start this article with the genuine misinformation, ever influenced by vested interests, then we’ll get to the truth of the matter.

The UK Government agency tasked with undertaking a rapid evidence summary of vitamin D’s potential role in reducing the risks from Coronavirus has concluded that there is “no evidence to support taking vitamin D supplements to specifically prevent or treat COVID‑19″. The review was ordered by Public Health England in response to work by researchers suggesting that vitamin D may prime the body’s defences against Covid-19.  Researchers at the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) reviewed five relevant observational studies (D’Avolio et al. 2020 , Hastie et al. 2020 , Ilie et al. 2020 , Laird et al. 2020  and Fasano et al. 2020), noting that none were intervention trials of vitamin D supplementation for the prevention or treatment of COVID‑19. The agency concluded that all five studies had a “high risk of bias because of “the very low quality of evidence”, and that no causal relationship could be established after adjustment for confounders such as comorbidity, socio-demographics, ethnicity, BMI and other baseline factors. A separate rapid review, conducted by the Scientific Advisory Commission on Nutrition (SACN), assessed evidence on vitamin D and acute respiratory tract infections (ARTIs), although it did not look specifically at the effect of vitamin D supplementation on COVID-19 risk. This review also concluded that evidence currently does not support vitamin D supplementation to prevent ARTIs in the general UK population.

When I read this article reported on https://www.naturalproductsglobal.com/, more than one less than complimentary word was heard coming from my lips describing the thugs who compiled these “studies”.

They call themselves “Public Health England?”. They call themselves “The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence”? What a cheek! Perhaps they are reasonably knowledgeable on the subject of illness, but as far as I’m concerned they know next to nothing about wellness, and the advice they do provide on wellness is so awful as to be worse than keeping their mouths shut and not giving any advice at all.  

Having given their organisations these fancy names which seem to border on fraud, they make pronouncements which in my opinion border somewhere between mass murder and a cavalier attitude towards avoidable death and suffering. Worse still for black people, the obese, and the elderly as all three groups absorb vitamin D very poorly compared with white, slimmer and younger people, and all three groups are considered “high risk”. It’s interesting though that if you go beyond the headline announcement, these so-called scientists “did not look specifically at the effect of vitamin D supplementation on COVID-19 risk”. So these people who can’t even be bothered to do their research properly (or if they do, choose not present the results with integrity) are the same people who claim that people like me and in fact countless integrated doctors who risk their careers to express their opinion and so on are the ones spreading “misinformation”. Well call me Mr “He’s Got A Good Analogy” but never has a house made of straw looked so strawey! (Yes, I invented a new word to get my point across).

Anyway, my advice / ‘ignorant misinformation’ will be to continue taking Vitamin D3 (with K2) both short and long term along with a number of additional immune system promoting nutrients, though admittedly there’s less acute need to take Vitamin D  supplements in the summer providing that you’re managing to get in the sun regularly. Now, let’s get to the truth, at least as I see it. In answer to what in my view is the borderline fraudulent “research” alluded to above, below is a re-publication of the newsletter I wrote on this subject just a few weeks ago. I have improved / re-written some of it for the sake of increased clarity.

Antioxidants for Viral protection

OK, so I am not saying Vitamin D, which I am coming onto in a moment is the be all and end all. So first a quick reminder, as discussed in previous newsletters that Vitamin C, zinc, and selenium are all vital for robust immunity and preventing viral replication. It’s great for all three of them to be taken in an all in one solution such as Antioxidant Supreme (finally back in stock, after we were completely wiped out at the beginning of the current crisis). Many other nutrients and herbs are being shown to be useful but that’s a subject for another day, and something I have covered quite a lot in previous newsletters. If of the nutrients mentioned so far, you were to insist that you were only willing to take one, then take Vitamin C, described by cardiologist and world expert on the subject, Dr Thomas Levy as “an absolute anti-viral”. Everyone should take it! I’d also like to mention that the products I am discussing in this article are not just to be taken when you’re feeling nervous that you might get a virus. As beneficial as this may be, this nonetheless is an almost trivial usage of nutritional products. These are lifestyle products, which will make you live a longer and healthier life when taken as part of your regular health programme. They should be taken daily, just as you might drink a cup of tea or coffee on a daily basis. I do, and will continue to do so for the rest of my life. 

Vitamin D and Covid-19 – Even the orthodox “authorities” and mainstream media are waking up (a bit).

If I were to pick one further nutrient that is more essential than almost anything else, it has to be Vitamin D, and even mainstream medicine is catching up now with what I have been saying from day one of the current crisis. The evidence that’s emerging now for Vitamin D in relation to COVID-19 is getting stronger and stronger. Even the mainstream press is catching on to this, even on most aspects of the current pandemic they just follow the mainstream narrative 99% of the time, which I totally disagree with. Whilst mentioning the mainstream media, here in the UK, the ONLY newspaper that could be bothered to genuinely cover the reasons for the ending of the “research” on Hydroxychloroquine and its benefits with COVID-19 before it had really even begun was The Guardian. Every newspaper should have been suspicious as it was plain weird. They are the only ones who could be bothered to raise an eyebrow when what happened in effect was, I am bitterly disappointed to say, obvious medical fraud designed to protect vested interests. This story / international disgrace, has been covered properly here. The other newspapers were at best asleep at the wheel, or more likely avoiding the subject in order to protect their advertising revenues being threatened by the vested interests that could be upset by something that worked and was cheap. Sorry for going off-topic here, but I had to mention it.

Anyway, back to Vitamin D – The Life Saving Immune Supporter – Strengthening Our Bodies Against ALL Viral Illness.

Here I want to acknowledge the wonderful Vlogger Ivor Cummins and refer people to his YouTube video found here. This video discusses the study, which I am sure you won’t be seeing on BBC News showing that those who’s Vitamin D level was below 10ng/ml were 10.1 x more likely to die from the virus than those who’s blood level was about 30ng/ml. (note: ng/ml – nanograms per millimeter of blood. In the UK its measured in nmol/L instead, which can be a bit confusing as this gives a figure which at first glance looks 2.5 x higher than ng/ml).

What’s interesting is that even this study misses an important point. The optimal level is not 30ng/ml. I regard that as the minimum acceptable level. The optimal level is about 60ng/ml. How do we know this? It’s pretty easy really. Basically when we manage to get as much of our bodies as possible in the sun regularly (without burning), and when the sun is at an angle of above a minimum of 30 degrees to the earth (in the UK we have this for 8 months of the year, but only for a brief period of the day during the transition months of October and March),  or a minimum 40 degrees for dark skinned people, we get up to 60-80ng within a couple of weeks. It never goes much above or below that no matter how much time we spend in the sun. And that’s the optimal level  – 50ng/ml or more rather than the barely enough level of 30ng/ml. Had the study been based on the optimal amount, not the minimum amount, one can only assume it would not be a 10.1 x higher risk for death. The difference would be far more impressive! You can see the risk of death from Coronavirus in visual terms to the left (this is a screen shot from the highly recommended aforementioned YouTube video) plotting the risk of death against vitamin D status. You don’t need to be a Professor of statistics to understand it.

Regarding what I regard as the drivel around the R number I also highly recommend this short video found here.

Vitamin D Supplements

In my opinion if you can’t get in the sun, then you should supplement with Vitamin D, every day that you don’t get in the sun for some non-burning tanning time without splashing on toxic sunscreens that block UBV. Of the different Vitamin D products we provide, my favourite one, and indeed the one I take, is this one. High strength 5000iu, not the PATHETIC dosage recommended by the mainstream, which is almost useless. Suitable for sublingual absorption or chewing. And it comes with the added advantage of containing Vitamin K2, which ideally should always be combined with Vitamin D. That’s the subject of another newsletter as the K2 has a lot of benefits of its own. Recommended usage: One a day every day except on days when your body has had or is going to get enough sun.

Another excellent high strength and popular Vitamin D product is Suntrex, which is the one to go for if you prefer a liquid to the sublingual tablet. For those who want a lower strength Vitamin D, we provide several others choices.

    Who is at the highest risk of all for Vitamin D deficiency?

The truth is that most people have below optimal levels of vitamin D. But some people are even more likely than average to need a vitamin D supplement. The following list is not exhaustive, but covers the most common group of people who are especially likely to need a vitamin D supplement.

• Breastfed infants, because human milk is a poor source of vitamin D, largely because the mothers themselves have poor vitamin D levels
• The elderly, as their skin doesn’t make vitamin D when exposed to sunlight as efficiently as young people, and their kidneys are less able to convert vitamin D to its active form. (Is this one of the reasons why the elderly are at higher risk of dying from coronavirus?)
• Dark skinned people as it takes them much longer to produce vitamin D from action of of ultraviolet light on the skin. (Is this one of the reasons why black and Asian people are at higher risk of dying from coronavirus?). In my opinion dark skinned people living in the UK should take vitamin D throughout the year, including during periods of fine sunny weather. 
• People with disorders such as Crohn’s disease or celiac disease who don’t handle fat properly, because vitamin D needs fat to be absorbed.
• Obesity, because the body fat binds to some vitamin D and prevents it from getting into the blood.  (Is this one of the reasons why obese people at higher risk of dying from coronavirus?)
• People who have had gastric bypass surgery
• People with osteoporosis, hyperparathyroidism (too much of a hormone that controls the body’s calcium level), sarcoidosis, tuberculosis, histoplasmosis, or other granulomatous disease (disease with granulomas, collections of cells caused by chronic inflammation),
• People with cancer
• People who take medicines that affect vitamin D metabolism.

Our full range of Vitamin D products is found here. 

Be well!

Mark G. Lester

Director – The Finchley Clinic Ltd
www.thefinchleyclinic.com