Public Health England have recently advised that during the lockdown, everyone should consider taking vitamin D supplements, as being indoors for longer periods means less access to sunlight and therefore potentially causes a deficiency. You can find the advice about vitamin D supplements on the NHS website here.

According to the National Institute for Health & Care Excellence (NICE) “People with darker skin are at increased risk of deficiency as their skin is less efficient at synthesising vitamin D. In other words, they need to expose their skin to sunlight for longer to make the same amount of vitamin D as people with paler skin. People of African, African-Caribbean and South Asian family origin, and those who remain covered when outside, are at particular risk. Almost 75% of Asian adults may have low vitamin D status in the winter”. Therefore the advice about taking Vitamin D supplements is particularly important to people from these communities during the lockdown. You can find the article on the NICE website here.