Vitamin D supplementation

Last Updated on 16th September 2022 by Caroline Haye

For vitiligo and for general health

Having lived with widespread vitiligo for almost 50 years, I am eternally grateful for my re-pigmentation. I will never take my recovery for granted. Since this life-changing event came about as a result of taking nutritional supplements, I have to suppress a snort of derision every time I hear a doctor or a newscaster announce the latest opinion from the medical community, claiming that supplements are not necessary as long as you eat a “well-balanced diet”.

For a start, no one nowadays eats a well-balanced diet. Not unless they live in a remote area of the world with exceptionally good soil and unpolluted waters. And produce their own organic vegetables, fish and meat.

More to the point, not everyone enjoys that mythical state of “normal health” to which such a well-balanced diet would be sufficient. Some of us have chronic conditions which involve serious nutritional imbalances that have developed over many years. And it takes more than a plate containing a portion of each food group every day – important though that is – to rectify these imbalances.
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It’s official: supplementation is recommended

So, recent research findings, confirming further benefits of vitamin D supplementation, should have come as no surprise.  But they did surprise me. It’s a rare thing for our mainstream health establishment to recognise the importance of nutritional supplementation. Especially as a serious alternative to drugs.

It is common knowledge that vitamin-D deficiency can lead to bone diseases like rickets and osteoporosis. But the new research, conducted at Queen Mary University of London and published this week in the British Medical Journal, goes further. It confirms that vitamin D supplementation is not only helpful for bone health – as we all knew. It is also a safe and effective way to boost the immune system, helping to prevent upper respiratory infections like colds flu and even pneumonia.

Very little vitamin D is naturally available in our food. (Relatively small amounts can be found in oily fish, egg yolks, cheese and some types of mushrooms.) So, the researchers conclude that supplementation is advisable. And that the benefits of this are even on a par with the flu vaccination.

This information is likely to be of obvious interest to everyone. But since vitamin D plays a role in the process of skin pigmentation, it is yet another reason for people with a history of vitiligo to ensure they get enough. Plus, the suitability of vitamin D as a real alternative to the flu jab may be all the more relevant to us. This is because some experts believe that vaccines can actually be counterproductive for people with autoimmune conditions.   

How is this relevant to vitiligo?

No one seems to know whether vitamin D deficiency is a cause of vitiligo. Or whether it is a consequence of it. It’s certainly true that vitiligo sufferers are typically less likely to boost their levels naturally (since most avoid the sun). And some may not absorb much through their diet either (if they have poor digestive absorption as I do).  Either way, supplementation seems to be the only way of ensuring an adequate uptake.

So, whilst I enjoy healthy doses of sun-bathing now whenever I go on holiday (or when the UK weather is fine), I still take additional vitamin D during the winter months. And I still make sure I get some with my regular top-up courses of Boost supplements.