Is the Scottish Government doing enough to alert the population to the dangers of vitamin D deficiency?
Yesterday Chief Medical Officer Sir Harry Burns and his opposite numbers from elsewhere in the UK reiterated warnings to health professionals about the importance of ensuring patients at risk of a deficiency are getting enough vitamin D. If necessary, they should be taking daily supplements. The fact that the same message went out last year suggests that it is not getting through.
Scots have good reason to sit up and take notice because of the lack of sunshine and tendency to cover up in a country that is often cloudy and chilly. Vitamin D is produced when the skin is exposed to UV radiation from sunlight. It is essential for strong bones because it helps the body absorb calcium. Hence the link between vitamin D deficiency and rickets. It is less well known that just a few minutes in the sun each day generates sufficient vitamin D to help protect against numerous other diseases, including cancers, heart disease and diabetes. Widespread deficiency may also be one reason why Scotland has the highest level of multiple sclerosis in the world.
Some favour mass medication through food but this raises the same sort of ethical issue as fluoridation of the water supply. Should everyone be obliged to ingest these so-called fortified foods when only a small proportion of the population is deemed at risk? There is particular concern about pregnant and breastfeeding women and children under five who are not getting their vitamin D through formula milk, as well as the over 65s.
Is it enough for the Chief Medical Officer merely to warn doctors and nurses on this issue? There is a balance to be struck between the freedom of the individual and the responsibility of the state. If the Government is aware of the dangers of vitamin D deficiency but fails to take action, could those who go on to develop multiple sclerosis one day sue the health authorities?
At the very least, the Scottish Government should fund a publicity campaign to spread awareness of the dangers accompanying a lack of vitamin D, especially when concern about skin cancer in recent years has resulted in some parents smothering their children in sunblock whenever they go outside. There is a happy medium between sunburn and shunning the sun completely.
The Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition is due to issue new guidance on vitamin D in 2014. Can we afford to wait so long?
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