Don’t steal my sunshine. Are vitamin D supplements the missing link for whole body wellbeing?

For years, I slathered my face in sunscreen hoping to stave off the dreaded – and inevitable – aging process, and hit the high factors on holiday to avoid the big C. But, as I got older and my health slowly, but surely crumbled – with my hair falling out, my skin becoming increasingly prone to eczema and psoriasis, and my joints and muscles getting achier – my chronic lack of sunshine barely even registered. When, as a young child, Jonah was diagnosed Asperger’s, I blamed all sort of things, and as my mood progressively darkened, becoming hysterical (suicidal) each February, I tended to blame only myself.

But the more I looked into auto-immune conditions, for which I was by then, experiencing many and varied symptoms, diet, gut health and autism – even mental health conditions like depression, the more vitamin D seemed to crop up as a unifying factor. And when Jonah had a blood test for coeliac earlier this year, to discover if gluten intolerance was to blame for a persistent rash around his mouth, and his recent loss of eyelashes, he was found to be vitamin D deficient.

We all feel better when we sit in the sun – it makes one’s hair and nails grow, and a light tan looks good on everyone – and  lately, in the midst of all my gathering aches and pains, getting a bit of sun had started to feel almost life enhancing. But with sunspots accumulating on my cheekbones, I’ve been increasingly careful to wear a hat and high factor sunscreen; and naturally always ensured the kids covered up with hats and t-shirts in the sun.

What if my fastidiousness was actually causing the rest of my health – and that of my family – to deteriorate? According to the Vitamin D Council, low vitamin D is associated with a whole host of health problems, from asthma and low libido to increased risk of flu and even cancer. And it makes sense. Sunlight is what makes plants grow. Without it, children get rickets. It is what all lifeforms on Earth have evolved around. But these days, chained to our desks, afraid of the ozone layer, most of us simply don’t get enough.

I started both the kids on D drops, thinking a standard dose would be enough. After all, I’d been giving them cod liver and fish oil supplements for years, and had never been one of those mums to put them in a full body sun-suit at the slightest glimpse of sun. We go on sunshine holidays and sunbathe – it couldn’t be too bad? But the drops, which gave me the same immediate hit of wellbeing I’d started to feel when I sunbathed, were intended for babies – apparently breastfed babies are at greater risk of vitamin D deficiency, and drops are recommended for both nursing mothers and infants.

In years gone by, babies would take their nap in a pram in the garden, but these days, London smog, fear of sunburn and urbanfoxes has put paid to that idyll. It was possible both my kids have been vitamin D deficient from birth – after all, I breastfed Jonah for 7 and Ava for 15 months, although most infant formula contains the Recommended Daily Amount. And given my paranoia about getting “too much sun” since I was a teen, it’s likely I was deficient when I was pregnant – over 50% of the adult population is thought to be deficient. A bit more digging unearthed that maternal vitamin D deficiency was found to be a factor in autism diagnoses; then, that high doses of vitamin D could halt the progression of auto-immune conditions. It felt like I may have hit upon the missing link between all our symptoms.

The trouble is, according to the Vitamin D council (which, obviously has a vested interest) the Recommended Daily Allowance has been vastly underestimated by some ten to 15 times.  According to Examine.com – an independent organisation that investigates the science behind supplements and nutrition, the recommended daily allowance for Vitamin D is currently set at 400-800IU/day, but this is too low for adults. Research suggests that the true safe upper limit is 10,000IU/day. For moderate supplementation, a 1,000-2,000 IU dose of vitamin D3 is sufficient to meet the needs of most of the population. This is the lowest effective dose range. Higher doses, based on body weight, are in the range of 20-80IU/kg daily. The drops – about 350 IU, and less even than the RDA – were hardly touching the sides.

At my local chemist, I found some high dose capsules (20,000 International Units) which I was told to take once a week. Around the same time, I was also seeing a consultant about rheumatoid arthritis and potential ankylosing spondylitis, a genetic condition that leads to a hunched and painful spine, which my grandfather suffered from. She told me the dose was too high and could lead to toxicity, but reading around the subject, I would have to take that amount daily for months for it to lead to problems. On the contrary, since I’ve been taking it, roughly every two weeks, a lot of my symptoms have disappeared – from the back pain on waking, achy joints, stiffness – even my mood has been far more stable than it can be, particularly once autumn gets going.

Interestingly, my hair, which has regularly fallen out all my adult life, particularly at the change of seasons, or through stress, has started growing back apace, and my hairdresser noted lots of fluffy baby hairs, following months and years of it coming out in handfuls in the bath. Interestingly, Ava, aged seven, seemed to be losing her hair a little while back and now has lots of new growth, although I’ve kept her on a lower 800 IU tablet as well as the fish oil supplements, both of which I get from multivits online.

I’m still waiting for Jonah’s eyelashes to grow back, although I’m worried he’s pulling at them when no one’s looking – even though I’ve never caught him at it, he can be a bit ticky about things he’s not supposed to do. But perhaps most tellingly of all, Jonah’s behaviour has transformed in the time he’s been taking high dose vitamin D – by which I mean 20,000 IU around once a month, supplemented with daily doses of 400-800 (with 600 IU being the latest government RDA). He seems much calmer, more focused, and his twitchy loopiness had almost ceased. He still gets a little crazy after too much starchy sugary stuff, but in general, his concentration span has increased – so much so he has just got the lead part in the school play, something I never thought I’d be able to say. I’m proud of him, and proud of myself, because when all’s said and done, I do believe that how we feel is much more about what we are putting in and doing with our bodies than about who we are.

But yet again, it feels as though advice dished out by scientists and health experts for years about wearing sunscreen, going out in the sun and taking supplements seems spurious at best – and as always turns out to have unforeseen consequences, broad repercussions and be fuelled by vested interests. It’s little wonder I’ve taken my health – and that of my family- into my own hands, and self-treat with supplements, good food and exercise. But it’s scary how quick doctors are to prescribe drugs and invasive treatments to treat symptoms that, in all seriousness, might be better treated with a little fresh air, and a lot more sunshine.