When Your Health Turns On You: #Hypothyroidism –– 7: Covid-19 and Vitamin D

Image courtesy of Gert Altmann via Pixabay

Yesterday morning I caught an interesting interview on Sky News. Dr Gero Baiarda from GPDQ, a private GP service in the UK, was discussing the high proportion of Covid-19 infections and deaths among people of the Black, Asian and other minority ethnic backgrounds.

The numbers had become noticeable, he said, among those working in the National Heath Service, front-line or not, which was why he’d focused on it. The immediate assumption had been a socio-economic cause – such as crowded housing and multi-generational occupancy – but this didn’t explain why so many doctors were succumbing. What these people shared was the high amount of melanin in their skin, the body’s in-built safeguard for living in much sunnier climes than the UK. The more melanin the less Vitamin D is able to be produced in the skin by sunlight. It is understood, he said, that Vitamin D plays a pivotal role in the immune system, and that those of darker-skinned ethnic minorities were known to have low Vitamin D levels.

By this point I was shouting at the television. Low levels of Vitamin D in the UK population is hardly news – and it pertains to every ethnic background, including European Caucasians. It is particularly prevalent in the elderly. I believe it to be the smoking gun behind my Hashimoto’s Hypothyroidism, and I suspect a lot of other auto-immune disorders. But try getting a Vitamin D test on the NHS: it’s a postcode lottery dependant on whether the area’s Clinical Commissioning Group thinks such a test is important. Many don’t. For years the overriding belief of the medical profession has been that man-made medicines are the answer to every ill. Now the world has a novel Coronavirus – Covid-19 – a Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome far more transmittable, and deadly, than the outbreaks of SARS-1 in 2002-2004, and there are no man-made medicines capable of touching it, which is why the UK population, along with many others, is in semi-lockdown.

As I mentioned in my Hypothyroidism-6 post, I am currently following Dr John Campbell’s YouTube videos. He highlighted the importance of Vitamin D to the immune system weeks ago, and even in a recent video was questioning why no one seemed to be picking up on it. He is quite open about his self-supplementing with a supermarket own-brand as a norm during the winter months. I am taking a much higher amount, with co-factors, due to my Hypothyroidism, but I've put other members of my family on 25mcg per day.

It is part of NICE’s recommendation that “...10 micrograms of vitamin D per day, throughout the year, for everyone in the general population aged 4 years and older...” 

Within the same recommendation, under ‘Specific Population Groups’ it is stated: 

“Although the entire population of the UK are at risk of having a low vitamin D status, evidence was only considered in regard to increasing the supplement use for these specific population groups:
    • All pregnant and breastfeeding women, particularly teenagers and young women.
    • Infants and children under 4 years (breast fed, non-breast fed and mixed fed).
    • People over 65.
   • People who have low or no exposure to the sun. For example, those who cover their skin for cultural reasons, who are housebound or confined indoors for long periods.
   • People who have darker skin, for example, people of African, African–Caribbean and South Asian origin...."
[Emboldened emphasis is mine.]

So why is this such a surprise? In his short Sky News interview, Dr Gero Baiarda mentioned that articles in the British Medical Journal (2017) and on Pubmed.gov add credence to his observations that Vitamin D reduces the risk of respiratory inflammation turning into pneumonia. (VitaminDwiki also has an impressive list.)

Looking at the Pubmed page, there’s an article written by a number of doctors in Italy (April 2020) stating that they were giving non-critical Covid-19 patients intravenous “multivitamin & multimineral trace element solutions” plus Vitamin D on admission in an attempt to avert them from becoming critical. They freely admit that this “straight approach may be debatable” but they were dealing with an emergency situation – which, considering the number of infections and deaths recorded in Italy (currently 162,000/21,000), I find something of an understatement.

In the UK a Vitamin D level of 50 nmol/L is regarded as “within range”, when it is known that a level of 75 nmol/L and above is needed for it to be active within the cells. Insufficiency is regarded as 25-50 nmol/L and deficiency less than 25 nmol/L. If many of the ethnic-background population are low in Vitamin D, as Dr Gero Baiarda maintains, due to their higher melanin level, no wonder there is a disproportionate number succumbing to Covid-19. It may also be an indicator as to why the elderly are being hit so hard, and so few among the very young.

I would like to think that when this pandemic is over the medical profession will rethink its emphasis, or lack of it, concerning vitamins and minerals across the entire population. Alas, I’m not holding my breath.


UPDATE 16 April 2020:
It seems I'm not the only one to pick up on this (thank goodness). There was a question asked at the government's No 10 Daily Briefing today, and catching up on my reading I find that Dr John Campbell has uploaded another YouTube video on it: Vitamin D and Immunity: Lots of Evidence.

UPDATE 09 May 2020:
Back to Dr John Campbell talking about dosages, complete with links to papers. Never mind Covid-19, anyone who doesn't have an optimal level of Vitamin D has a 50% higher risk of getting colorectal cancer and an increased risk of heart disease. Vitamin D Dose.

UPDATE 21 May 2020:
And yet again Dr John Campbell nails it, this time in conversation with Dr Shelton of New Zealand. They discuss how Covid-19 gets into cells and how having inflammation in the blood vessels (high blood pressure and others) is a metabolic syndrome in which a low Vitamin D level is always present. And who knew washing after sunbathing may not be a good idea? Dr Sheldon, Part 2, Vitamin D.

UPDATE 10 June 2020 (there are a lot of these, aren't there? I wonder why!)
Again, it is Dr John Campbell who is bringing this information into the open in layman's terms - this time from the French National Academy of Medicine: the correlation between lack of Vitamin D and high Covid-19 morbidity has a confidence rating of 95.4%. So why have northern latitude Scandinavian countries not been badly hit?  They have mandatory fortification with Vitamin D in up to 40 foods as well general population supplementation. Vitamin D Update.


When Your Health Turns On You #Hypothyroidism series:
1: Symptoms
2: Vitamins & Minerals
3: Blood Tests
4: Vitamin Co-Factors & the Microbiome
5: Functional Medicine & YouTube
6: Covid-19 Coronavirus

7: Covid-19 & Vitamin D

8: Vitamin D - The Results!

9: Covid-19 & Vitamin D - Jan 2021 Update

When Your Health Turns On You: #Hypothyroidism –– 6: Covid-19 Coronavirus

A touch of Kew Gardens courtesy of Hornsea Writers

For the backstory to this series, see the links at the bottom of the post. 

Note: I’m British and live in the UK. We have a National Health Service, free at the point of access, paid for via our taxes. Your mileage may differ, even if you live in the UK.


When I wrote in Post-5 (28 February) that I’d give an update in a “few months”, I never thought I’d be back within four weeks to the backdrop of a whole new sobering world. But this Covid-19 pandemic is now the evolving “norm” and we need to get on with it.

The good news: I was lucky to get my replacement hip operation before non-essential surgery is/was cancelled. I am currently sixteen days the other side and doing fine.

The warning for anyone with a thyroid disorder: I had a bad reaction to post-operative morphine (Oxycontin) = projectile vomiting and the necessity for a catheter. These reactions stopped when I was dropped to 30mg of Codeine, but I still felt foul. Codeine metabolises into morphine in the liver, either well or badly dependent on how well the thyroid delivers a necessary enzyme. Mmm. Bear in mind that I am considered sub-clinical; my level of hypothyroidism is considered too slight for medication (Levothyroxine). I thought this reaction was just me, but a friend ten years my senior and taking Levothyroxine, and having a hip replacement in another hospital, also suffered: finding it hard to breathe. I know which I’d rather have, but we can’t choose. So be warned. If you find yourself needing surgery in the future ensure you emphasise your disorder. There is a rather bald note on the NHS medicines website, including a list of other health issues where taking morphine is not advisable. While in hospital I had expected the U2 nodules on both lobes of my thyroid to swell due to the trauma of the operation and subsequent medication, but thankfully that didn't happen. I'm grateful for small mercies.

Vitamin-D and Covid-19: readers of this series will know that I suspect Vitamin D deficiency to be the smoking gun behind the onset of my Hashimoto’s Hypothyroidism. It is well known that people with a thyroid disorder need their Vitamin D, Vitamin B12, Folic and Ferritin levels to be more than halfway along each individual range. My Vitamin D level is nowhere near, but I am working on it.

In the last few days I have been pointed to the YouTube channel of Dr John Campbell, a retired A&E nurse with a phd who taught student nurses in the NHS. He’s a straight-talking no-nonsense individual who is excellent at turning medical jargon into easy to understand layman’s language, complete with diagrams as necessary, and he’s been watching the upsurge of this Coronavirus since January. His video Vitamin D and Immunity is well worth a watch by anyone, as are his Reducing Fever, Good or Bad and Reducing Fever Part 2.

Social-Isolating or Self-Isolating: I am in an at-risk group and there’s no point whining about it: Hashimoto’s Hypothyroidism is an autoimmune disorder, I have high blood pressure, and my body is busy trying to make up for the inevitable blood loss incurred during my hip replacement. Being thirteen months below the arbitrary 70 years of age at risk group deemed by the UK Government will not help me at all. Therefore we have been self-isolating since I returned from hospital, and this will continue. We are also lucky enough to have Son able to shop for us. Not everyone will be in this position but we are, and we intend to do our utmost not to add to the rising strain on our National Health Service. It’s the least we can do, not just for ourselves but for everyone.

Finally, a smile: the image of the flowers which heads this post. The lilies were delivered to my house as tight buds by Hornsea Writers while I was in hospital. Over the intervening days they have slowly unfurled into these amazing multi-coloured blooms which now grace the dining table where my laptop currently sits. I only wish this were a scratch-n-sniff post as the scents are spectacular. It is like sitting among the exotic flowers of Kew Gardens. Many thanks Hornsea Writers; you are stars!

If you want to look at what Kew has to offer, visit remotely The Gardens.

Stay safe. And keep washing your hands!

When Your Health Turns On You #Hypothyroidism series:

1: Symptoms
2: Vitamins & Minerals
3: Blood Tests
4: Vitamin Co-Factors & the Microbiome
5: Functional Medicine & YouTube

6: Covid-19 Coronavirus

7: Covid-19 and Vitamin D

8: Vitamin D - The Results!  

9: Covid-19 & Vitamin D - Jan 2021 Update

When Your Health Turns On You: #Hypothyroidism –– 5: Functional Medicine and YouTube

The backstory for those just joining me: 

During 2017 I was suffering lots of weird health symptoms, the most concerning being that my brain refused to function properly – hardly a useful trait in a novelist. April 2018 a lump developed on my neck: a swelling on my thyroid. A GP’s blood tests indicated I might develop Hypothyroidism, whereas symptoms and antibodies emphasised that I was suffering Hashimoto’s Hypothyroidism, an autoimmune disorder. I’m writing this series of posts because if you don’t recognise the signs your health could turn on you. I don’t recommend it. Read Post-1, Post-2, Post-3 and Post-4.

Note: I’m British and live in the UK. We have a National Health Service, free at the point of access, paid for via our taxes. Your mileage may differ, even if you live in the UK.

February 2020. Having joined a Vitamin D Deficiency support group, and deciding to follow its protocol of co-factors in an effort to raise my levels, there is now a 3-4 month wait before paying for a blood test to check both the Vitamin D and the Hypothyroid markers. I’ve also learned that raising Vitamin D to an optimal reading (75-150 nmol/L) may well pull up B12 levels, which wouldn’t go amiss.

Time to return to the outstanding:
    • lowish level of Zinc, ie less than a quarter up the range. [Note: see update at the bottom]
    • as I am eating the recommended good balanced diet why am I missing any nutrients?

During my research I’d come across quite a few articles calling for more nutritional education to be included in the training of UK doctors. Depending on the medical school (why isn’t there a UK standard?) it can be anywhere between 10-24 hours over five or six years training. No wonder my GP shrugged when I asked if I might have a vitamin insufficiency or an absorption problem. Add in the fact that local Clinical Commissioning Groups may refuse to fund the necessary blood tests to check, and a GP can be on a hiding to nothing even if well-read on the subject.

From my own reading it’s not much better in the United States. Except the US seems to have something which are very thin on the ground over here, Functional Medicine practitioners. These can be fully trained medical doctors, or nutritionalists, or quite often both. Their priority is not to relieve symptoms or cure, but to do this and discover the root of the problem so it can be adjusted in an effort to stop a recurrence. Many of them support YouTube channels.

Now, I’m the first to cast a wary eye over information gleaned from the Internet. After all, it’s part and parcel of being a historical novelist, never mind protecting my health. I’m particularly wary of content produced by people trying to sell me something, but when brain fog makes reading, never mind comprehending, an academic medical paper impossible, it’s less strain to assimilate information conveyed in layman's language from a scattering of sources, YouTube being one.

I’ve already recommended York Cardiology, the channel of British heart specialist Dr Sanjay Gupta. One I found fairly early in my research was American Dr Peter Osbourne, not a medical doctor, but a functional nutritionalist whose dietary specialism is gluten-free. His ten minute video Nutrition And Your Thyroid was a bit of an eye-popper, underlining much of what I was reading from UK Dr Barry Durrant-Peatfield’s book (see Post-2). If you are interested, and if you are reading this you should be, Dr Osbourne also has easy to comprehend explanations on Magnesium and Vitamin B12 Deficiency.

The other YouTube channel I now subscribe to is Dr Ken Berry, an American medical doctor with a nutritional leaning, a dry wit, and a no-nonsense approach. He also practices what he espouses. If you are looking for a diet regime he has road-tested several over the years, from Low Carb to Carnivore; currently it’s Keto. For me there are two playlists I was particularly interested in: Vitamins & Minerals and Thyroid Issues, each covering various aspects over a number of videos.

Also worth mentioning is the Vitamin D Wiki, a website founded by Henry Lahore on which he indexes articles and papers relating to Vitamin D. It’s been going ten years, looks a bit clunky, but its content is mind-boggling.

So what did I discover about that normal balanced diet that’s constantly been emphasised? For me it equates to a mainly low fat, high fibre, whole-grain, mostly white meat, fresh fish, fruit & vegetables diet. I’ve been eating it for years, but where’s the Vitamin B12 coming from? The Vitamin D? And I’m now suspecting optimal amounts of Magnesium and a host of others? I used to have regular cravings for dark chocolate and sweet stuff, which cut drastically after three months on a multi-vitamin and mineral supplement. Mmm.

As to my lowish Zinc and white blood count readings, it looks as if they go hand in hand. Zinc is a co-factor in numerous biochemical reactions, including Vitamin D and Essential Fatty Acid Omega-3 metabolism. It will be interesting to see if its level, and my white blood count levels, rise alongside Vitamin D.

So there I go. Or am going.

Yet the proof of the pudding is... how do I feel? A hellova lot better than I did. I get the occasional sore throat, the lumps on my neck make themselves felt occasionally and I suspect both have an input from the adrenals (stress) as I can feel very tired at the time this happens. Again, it will be interesting to see if this abates with a rise in my Vitamin D. If not I shall look elsewhere. There's still a lot of research to go at.

Do I mentally feel able to pick up a pen and write again? Well, I’ve written this series of articles, though if you think they’ve been written in the five days you’ve read them, let’s all have a little chuckle over that. Writing non-fiction doesn’t use the same mental muscles as writing fiction, but yes, I feel ready to roll. Except…

...except I’ve just had a pre-operative assessment for a replacement hip, due early March. Oh dear, what a shame, but does this have a bearing on anything? Aren’t hips, and knees for that matter, replaced due to “wear & tear”? 

That’s what we are always told but I’ve become suspicious of such pat answers. My mother died aged 89; she never needed a hip replacing, neither did her sisters. I’m only in my late 60s and this will be my second. Unlucky my orthopaedic surgeon suggested. And no, he wasn’t interested in hearing about my sub-clinical Hashimoto’s Hypothyroidism, but did perk up when I told him about my insufficient Vitamin D, and therefore a probability of osteoporosis, or at least its precursor osteopenia. Don’t worry, he said expansively, if your femur cracks when we do the operation we’ll put you on non weight-bearing until it’s mended. Thanks. I think.

More to the point, like a lot of people I’ve had lower back problems since my mid thirties. Perhaps I’m just reaping the warnings I, and my succession of GPs, dismissed as “pulled muscles”. Perhaps I should have continued that foul-tasting Cod Liver Oil of my 1950s childhood: Vitamin A, Vitamin D and Omega-3 anyone?


I’ll add in the occasional update post, but don’t expect one for a few months. Following the blog by email (see top of the column) will have updates delivered to your Inbox. If you found these posts informative, drop me a line in the Comments, or hit the Share buttons below. Helping spread the word may just save someone undertaking my journey. Thanks. And let's all take an interest in our own health. It may save tears later.

 

 

UPDATE: October 2020 - Information about my low-in-range Zinc level

Who would have thought I'd be grateful to USA President Trump? Having contracted Covid-19 his medications and vitamin & mineral supplements have been made public and Dr John Campbell has scrutinized the list President Trump's medications in detail. The full 40 min explanation is very interesting; Zinc is discussed 25mins in: it is the second most abundant mineral in the body (after iron), is needed in hundreds of key enzymes, and the "reading of DNA in cell make-up", yet its deficiency is a known common problem gobally. And yes, Zinc deficiency compromises the immune system. Says it all, really.


When Your Health Turns On You #Hypothyroidism series:

1: Symptoms
2: Vitamins & Minerals
3: Blood Tests
4: Vitamin Co-Factors & the Microbiome
5: Functional Medicine & YouTube
6: Covid-19 Coronavirus
7: Covid-19 and Vitamin D  

8: Vitamin D - The Results!

9: Covid-19 & Vitamin D - Jan 2021 Update

When Your Health Turns On You: #Hypothyroidism –– 4: Vitamin Co-Factors and the Microbiome

The backstory for those just joining me:

During 2017 I was suffering lots of weird health symptoms, the most concerning being that my brain refused to function properly – hardly a useful trait in a novelist. April 2018 a lump developed on my neck: a swelling on my thyroid. A GP’s blood tests indicated I might develop Hypothyroidism, whereas symptoms and antibodies emphasised that I was suffering Hashimoto’s Hypothyroidism, an autoimmune disorder. I’m writing this series of daily posts because if you don’t recognise the signs your health could turn on you. I don’t recommend it. Read Post-1, Post-2 and Post-3.

Note: I’m British and live in the UK. We have a National Health Service, free at the point of access, paid for via our taxes. Your mileage may differ, even if you live in the UK. 

October 2019. After accepting that the National Health Service was going to step up only if and when I hit crisis point, I knew I’d have to do my own legwork, not merely table a bit of proof – in this case a below range Vitamin D reading.

Unlike many health disorders, there doesn’t seem to be a UK charity dedicated to Vitamin D, except for children (diagnosis of Rickets is on the increase; Osteomalacia is the term used in adults). Canada isn’t so reticent. Its The VitaminD Society states: 97 percent of Canadians are vitamin D deficient at some point in the year… Its short intro page makes interesting reading. Bear in mind that London is further north than the main cities of Canada.

The UK might not have a dedicated Vitamin D charity, but Vitamin D insufficiency and deficiency scores highly among other health charities: lupus, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia… yes, all the ones I noted in Post-3 as autoimmune disorders. That smoking gun continued to smoke.

While I trawled through the many blood tests available on Medichecks, I kept in mind my original considerations:

• If my body was missing Selenium, and now Vitamin D, what other minerals and vitamins is it missing?
• As I eat the recommended “good balanced diet”, why was my body missing any?

Vitamins and minerals are mostly drawn from our food in the stomach via Intrinsic Factor – most notably Vitamin B12 – and during transit through the small intestines. Did I have an absorption problem? There might also be a question over Cortisol, the fight or flight hormonal system. It plays a significant part in a person’s metabolism and when it isn’t functioning properly it puts stress on the thyroid. I added an Essential Fatty Acids Omega 6:3 ratio test to my choices. These are called ‘Essential’ because they have active roles in a person’s metabolism yet can’t be produced in the body.

I wasn’t looking for a smoking gun this time, but eliminating other possibilities. Most of these tests are not available on the NHS via a GP, only via a Consultant Endocrinologist. I didn’t want to wait months for a referral, even if I was allowed one. If I paid for a private consultation the fee would likely be more than for the tests, and I’d still have to pay for those.

The basic Cortisol – four saliva tests in a day – returned well within ranges (good); there were no Intrinsic Factor antibodies (brilliant); Zinc, which had been included in a test bundle, was low in its range so I needed to bear this in mind; Essential Fatty Acid Omega 3:6 ratio was 1:12 despite my good balanced diet (oh dear); and the Thyroid tests were all pulling back (fantastic).

Yet again, the big one was Vitamin D. Despite my being on 40mcg (about 1600iu – international units) a day for the previous three months, its test number had risen only five points bringing the result just inside the edge of the lower range. Something was definitely wrong. Time to find a support group specialising in Vitamin D deficiency and learn from the experience of members.

January 2020. With Christmas-3 behind me I got down to it. Facebook again provided a choice. I looked at a few but it was 'Vitamin D and Co-Factors UK' which drew my attention, initially due to ‘co-factors’ being in its title.

I’d learned a bit about co-factors. The absorption potential (bioavailability) of Iron is enhanced by Vitamin C, even a glass of orange juice will do. Vitamin B12 has a symbiotic relationship with Folate. If they are out of balance neither work as they should. The body is a complex organism and these explanations highly generalised, but they illustrate the concept.

Some co-factors aren’t so specialised. Magnesium plays a part in 300+ biochemical interactions, including helping regulate calcium and insulin levels, blood pressure and the cardiovascular system, the nervous system, Vitamin D levels... basically, we need it. However, as with Vitamin D, there is considered to be widespread insufficiency, even deficiency, in the population.

During my reading I’d come across various articles suggesting one cause for the lack in the population being that intensive farming was depleting the nutrient, and others, from the land and therefore from food crops, but it was a video from York Cardiology Why Magnesium is So Good For Us which finally made me take notice.

York Cardiology is a YouTube channel run by UK heart specialist Dr Sanjay Gupta who takes time to explain conditions within his remit and the steps people can take to help themselves. If you suffer from any form of cardiovascular problem I suggest you take a look at his playlists. His short video on Hypothyroidism and the Heart is interesting, to say the least.

So did I need to take co-factors with an increased Vitamin D supplement? The answer seemed to be yes, which may come as a surprise to the endocrinologists who gaily prescribe large or even very large amounts of Vitamin D3 alone. (There are various types of Vitamin D; D3 is the easiest to absorb.)

One of the consequences of increasing Vitamin D to an “optimal” level (75-150 nmol/L) as opposed to being just “in range” at 50, is that it enhances absorption of Calcium – the reason it is prescribed to combat osteoporosis. The problem is Calcium and Magnesium work as buddies, so a substantial increase in Calcium needs extra Magnesium as a co-factor to help maintain their balance.

However, unless the rise in Calcium is guided it has a tendency to spread itself into places such as arteries, musculature, joints, and the kidneys. Think of it as limescale in a kettle. Kidney stones, anyone? Having enough to cope with, I’d rather not, thanks.

The co-factors suggested from group experience are Ionic Magnesium to balance the increase in Calcium, Vitamin K2-Mk7 to guide the increase in Calcium to the bones and teeth or the unused to be excreted, and Boron to enhance absorption of both the Vitamin D3 and Magnesium. For these to work optimally together they cannot be taken ad hoc but in a specific ratio. As with all supplementation, as long as no adverse side effects prompt a re-think, results can take three or four months to start to manifest. I’ll post how I get on.

Other Vitamin D support groups will advise slightly differently, dependent on their members’ needs and experiences. Many in my chosen support group also have thyroid disorders, so I feel the match is liable to be good.

Early February 2020. A major aspect coming from my ongoing research has been the importance of a healthy gut system, otherwise known as the Microbiome. Evidently we have between 300 and 1000 different species made up of viruses, fungi, yeasts and organisms. Not only do they help protect us from pathogens, but they aid food digestion, activate freed vitamins and minerals, and interact with the brain and the immune system (oh yes?). We need them all, but in the correct balance.

And herein lies the rub. Even a good balanced diet has a surfeit of sugars (think fresh fruit) and yeasts (think cereal-based carbohydrates). This is the starter kit to any fermenting system.  I find it interesting that sufferers of Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Crohn’s and Coeliac diseases, find respite in gluten-free or even full cereal-free diets. It is a suggestion often made to those with Hashimoto’s Hypothyroidism when options attempting to alleviate symptoms start to run low. All are autoimmune disorders and all show low Magnesium and Vitamin D levels. Add in daily ingested prescription drugs, and over-the-counter medications, to say nothing of the occasional nuclear-blast of antibiotics, and the surprise is that so many of us function well at all.

Can probiotics help? Yes, but three or four strains in a yoghurt-based culture can seem like a drop in the ocean. Multi-strain bacteria in freeze-dried capsule form, which I am currently trying, are available at a price. Kimchi, or unpasteurised Sauerkraut, may well prove a cost-effective alternative if it's available. After all, Hippocrates swore by the stuff. I may be inclined to argue with a modern endocrinologist, but not with the Ancient Greek 'Father of Medicine'.



When Your Health Turns On You #Hypothyroidism series:

1: Symptoms
2: Vitamins & Minerals
3: Blood Tests
4: Vitamin Co-Factors & the Microbiome
5: Functional Medicine & YouTube
6: Covid-19 Coronavirus 
7: Covid-19 and Vitamin D 

8: Vitamin D - The Results!

9: Covid-19 & Vitamin D - Jan 2021 Update