COVID-19 - the nutrients to help boost your immunity

by Evelyn Montgomery May 18, 20200 comments

Vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin, is well known to help with bone density but did you know that it is also linked with immunity, mood and brain health? Many studies have found a link between depression and anxiety and low levels of Vitamin D3 but with the use of sunscreen and spending so much of lives inside the great majority of us are deficient. That’s why Vitamin D is added to some of our foods.

Right now it’s more important than ever as it also plays a key role of our immune systems.

Public Health England is recommending people consider taking daily Vitamin D supplements throughout this spring and summer as the coronavirus lockdown continues and research now suggests that Vitamin D deficiency is linked to higher risks with Covid-19.

In research (read full report here) carried out from the data from 10 countries in the last month, the team found a correlation between low Vitamin D levels and hyperactive immune systems. Not only does Vitamin D enhance our innate immune systems it also prevents our immune systems from becoming dangerously overactive. This means that having healthy levels of Vitamin D could protect patients against severe complications, including death, from COVID-19.

So there’s no better time to boost your D3 levels. Getting outside for an hour a day is a great way to top up levels if you already have sufficient in your body, but only if you’re not wearing sunscreen. But of course we must protect our skin. So if you are deficient - pretty much all of us in the northern hemisphere - it’s recommended that we boost our levels back up to normal with a supplement.

But which supplement? Are they all the same? The quick answer is “No they aren’t”.

The type of Vitamin D (yes there’s more than one), the dosage and the source of the vitamin all have an impact on how effective they are and how much they help our bodies and minds.

D3

It’s been found that Vitamin D3 is more effective than vitamin D2 at raising levels in our bodies - one study in 32 older women found that a single dose of vitamin D3 was nearly twice as effective as Vitamin D2 so it’s definitely worth checking which type is in your supplement.

Vegan

And did you know that Vitamins can be sourced from all sorts of different places? Most Vitamin D3 is from sheep’s wool (Lanolin) but ours is from Lichen (plant based) and definitely vegan!

The best sources of Vitamin D3 in foods are cod liver oil, beef liver, eggs and cheese so very tricky to get enough through your diet if you are vegan or vegetarian (or if you just don’t eat loads of these foods). There are some mushrooms that produce Vitamin D2 but, as I said earlier, that has been found to be only half as effective as D3.

Plant based D3 is carefully extracted from lichen which provides natural Vitamin D in its most bioactive form, called cholecalciferol (Vitamin D3). It is sourced from a unique species of non-GMO lichen which has the ability to produce Vitamin D in the natural D3 form.

Dosage

So how much to take? Current European Community Nutrient Reference Values (ECNRV) states that we (adults) should be taking 5mcg per day.

In the UK the Public Institute for Health recommends 15mcg per day for adults and 20mcg for over 70s.

So we put 20mcg of bioavailable, easily absorbed vegan D3 in our range.

 That is 400% RDA in the 360ME range especially to help you take care of yourself by boosting your levels up to normal - I believe it’s one of the most important ways we can support our mood and our immune systems. It’s a really good, no risk insurance policy.

Your which vitamin self-care checklist:

D3 ✅

Vegan source ✅

Cholecalciferol ✅

High Dosage ✅