‘Sunshine, not food, is where most of our Vitamin D comes from. So even a healthy, well-balanced diet, that provides all the other vitamins and goodness you need, is unlikely to provide enough Vitamin D. Vitamin D works with calcium and phosphorus for healthy bones, muscles and teeth’. (Taken from the Association of UK Dieticians – Food Fact Sheet).

For as long as I have known Glinys she has been urging me to have a Vitamin D test carried out “because I knew that your levels would be deficient – as most of the patients I check in my NHS practice are”, says Glinys.

I had asked previously at my local surgery to have my Vitamin D levels checked but they refused – saying that because my calcium levels were OK the test wasn’t warranted. So on Glinys’s insistence I asked our surgery again – and again they refused. So I said I’d pay for it.

I had the blood test carried out and the results showed that my Vitamin D levels were low. I have subsequently been put on a high dose of Vitamin D to try and boost my levels – and will then probably (after being re-tested) be put on a maintenance level.

Glinys says “The NHS works on adequate not optimum levels of Vitamin D, so, yes, below 50nmol/l is deficient, but a healthy range for optimum health should be 100-150nmol/l. So, with your level at 30nmol/l – and at the end of the summer when you should have synthesised a sustaining amount of Vitamin D, you definitely need supplementation and probably a maintenance dose after that. But what I have also found without fail, is that with Vitamin D levels restored, blood glucose levels improve as there are believed to be links between Vitamin D and Type 2 Diabetes”.

PS Glinys suggested that if my Vitamin D levels proved to be low I should ask my local doctor’s surgery for my money back – which I did. They were doubtful, but they did put it to the Practice and I did get my money back!