The half page article in The Daily Telegraph headlined Get An Edge on Covid-19 With Vitamin D started thus:
“It sounds like just another bizarre coronavirus quack cure. Eat more mushrooms and you could reduce your risk of catching coronavirus. Yeah, right, file that in the junk folder with Donald Trump’s “ inject yourself with disinfectant” idea. And yet, the more mushrooms might mean less Covid-19 hypothesis, it is not as mad as it seems. Bear with me.
Mushrooms are a source of vitamin D. we have long known this nutrient is important for immune function. However, data from the pandemic is now revealing that it may be even more than we thought. It could also provide us all with a simple affordable way to strengthen ourselves against the virus - boost our vitamin D with food or supplements. Two recent studies have highlighted the role vitamin D deficiency may be playing in infections and death from Covid 19. The first study, a joint effort by scientists in Dublin and Liverpool, found a “statistically significant” correlation between a lack of the vitamin D and death from coronavirus.. They say that a deficiency of vitamin D is most prevalent with age, obesity, in men, in eithnic communities, in people with diabetes, hypertension, in nursing homes”; all the groups most at risk of infection and death from coronavirus. Coincidence? They think not.”
The piece by Lowri Turner goes on to examine the ins and outs of vitamin D in food and supplements. The top five foods recommended were - “Salmon, egg yolks, tinned tuna, soy milk and mushrooms.” For the mushrooms it said - “Mushrooms make their own vitamin D, but most shop bought mushrooms are grown in the dark, so have very little. Either buy wild ones , or put the shop variety on a windowsill for an hour.” Obviously the reporter hasn’t heard of the vitamin D enhanced variety now available in stores. The efficacy of simply placing the mushrooms on a windowsill for an hour may also be dubious.
Vitamin D People in the UK are already advised to consider taking a supplement of 10 micrograms a day during the winter months (from October to March), and all year round if we aren't spending much time outdoors.
Public Health England recommends vitamin D throughout the year if: Scottish and Welsh governments and Northern Ireland's Public Health Agency have issued similar advice for the lockdown period.