DR MICHAEL MOSLEY: I don’t believe in supplements – except for this one, which I’ve now started taking year round…

I’m generally not a fan of taking a lot of supplements as I think you can get most of what you need from a healthy diet.

But I make an exception for vitamin D. And with recent studies showing that high doses may reduce the risk of colon cancer, but also dementia, I now take a higher dose. common – and I also take it. year round.

In the winter months, when the sun is less, I have been following NHS advice and taking a daily tablet, because I know that vitamin D is very important for many reasons.

But usually around this time of year, when the sun is strong and summer is on its way, I stop taking it. In fact, I eat a lot of fish and fatty eggs, both of which are high in vitamin D, and I also go outside for a lot of walking, so my vitamin D levels should be well replenished.

However, this year I will continue to take those supplements.

This is due to the fact that, every year I get older and studies have shown that as we get older our bodies become less efficient at absorbing vitamin D from food and our skin becomes become less efficient at converting sunlight into these nutrients.

That, and the fact that older people tend to spend more time indoors or in the shade, means that vitamin D deficiency is more common in the over-60s, even in the summer months, especially if you have dark skin.

But what dose should you take? This is where things get controversial. While the NHS suggests you stick to 10 micrograms (mcg) – or 400 international units (IU) of vitamin D per day, the National Institutes of Health in the US recommends 15 mcg – and 20 mcg if you’re over the age of 70.

I take 25 mcg (1,000 IU), which is within the limits of what is considered safe (anything less than 100 mcg a day for adults or 50 mcg for children, according to the NHS) but close to the kind of studies that show you need to take it to prevent infection, cancer, and possibly dementia.

Since its discovery in the 1920s, vitamin D’s best-known role has been to keep your bones healthy by increasing the body’s calcium intake.

In recent years, scientists have discovered that there are vitamin D receptors in almost all of our cells, which shows that its benefits extend far beyond the bones.

But there is growing evidence that enjoying the benefits in these areas, such as preventing colon cancer and maintaining brain health, requires larger doses than recommended.

For example, when it comes to cancer, a recent study, published in the journal Science, showed that one of the ways that taking large doses of vitamin D can work is by boosting the type of bacteria of the intestines which are very effective in inhibiting growth. of colon cancer. When researchers at the Francis Crick Institute in London fed mice a diet rich in vitamin D, it boosted levels of Bacteroides fragilis – and higher levels of this bacterium better protected them against colon cancer.

Although there is currently no clear evidence that high-dose vitamin D intake has the same effect on the human gut, there are ongoing trials looking at using it to treat colon cancer.

For example, in 2017, a trial of 139 patients with advanced colon cancer undergoing chemotherapy found that those with high levels of vitamin D (100 mcg) had 36% of the chances of them dying, or seeing the progress of their death. during the two-year study than those with a lower dose (10 mcg). Encouraged, the team is conducting a large, long-term study to see if high-dose vitamin D can help slow or prevent the spread of the disease.

Meanwhile, evidence is mounting for the effect of vitamin D in delaying dementia.

Last year there was an amazing study by the University of Exeter where they looked at the brains of more than 12,000 people participating in the US Alzheimer’s National Collaborative Center (a project that collects data on this disease).

At the start of the study, patients were aged 71 and had no dementia – and more than a third (37 per cent) said they were taking vitamin D supplements regularly. Vitamin D fans will be happy to hear that over the next ten years those who took the supplements were 40 percent less likely to develop dementia.

This may be because vitamin D has been shown to help prevent the accumulation of two proteins in the brain, amyloid and tau, which are associated with dementia. It also helps reduce inflammation, which is another cause of dementia.

Although compelling, this was not a proper randomized controlled trial – where people taking the supplement could be compared to a placebo group – and the patients had very different rates. , which makes it difficult to interpret these results.

So, researchers at the University of Exeter are conducting a trial with patients at risk of dementia, which will include randomly assigning them to a high vitamin D supplement (100 mcg) or a placebo. I will let you know when the results are announced.

In the meantime, take a supplement if you need it (obviously ask your doctor about the right dosage, especially if you have health problems) and take full advantage of vitamin D which you get in the summer months, by completing at least ten. minutes a day outside – folded hands.

Walking down the stairs can help your heart

When I’m at the airport or the mall I’m always surprised (and saddened) by how many people are standing on the stairs, even going down.

All I can say is that you are missing out on an opportunity to give your heart a good job and, possibly, prolong your life. That was the conclusion of a recent review presented at a meeting of the European Society of Cardiology.

Based on data from 480,000 people, it found that those who climbed the stairs regularly were 39 percent less likely to die of a heart attack or stroke, and 24 percent less likely to die of any cause. This is because it is a very vigorous exercise that gets your heart racing.

It’s even better to take the stairs – in a 2017 study conducted by Edith Cowan University in Australia, obese women took the elevator to the sixth floor and then went down, or went up and down, twice a week. After two weeks those who went down saw the biggest benefits in balance, bone strength and blood pressure – possibly because going down stairs means your muscles have to work hard to keep you from falling.

What to do with that long cough

As you may have noticed, there is a nagging cough that lingers around. I got it a few weeks ago from my husband’s husband, who had it for at least three weeks, and he also got it from his wife.

This one keeps me up at night and shows no signs of getting better. The problem is that I don’t really believe in the effectiveness of over the counter remedies (there is no real evidence that cold remedies work) – but in desperation I resorted to cold syrup and zinc. Even now nothing good so far. I was very disappointed with zinc, as studies have shown that supplements can shorten a cough and reduce coughing by 46 percent. (Although that only seems to work if you take them within 24 hours of having symptoms, so maybe I missed that boat.)

If you have the same cold, I would suggest drinking lots of water with hot lemon and honey (honey helps the throat, while lemon has anti-inflammatory properties). The NHS says to see your doctor if the cough lasts for more than three weeks.

Put a thief to catch a thief is a popular saying that, luckily for us, seems to apply to bacteria. A new study by the University of Bonn, Germany, has found that a common type of skin bacteria, Staphylococcus, kills other bacteria by injecting chemicals that dissolve their cells.

The idea is that this could be used to create a new antibiotic, which is exciting as many bacteria are now resistant to antibiotics – including the first effective antibiotic, penicillin. which saved my life when I was a baby when I got pneumonia.