Recent vitamin D guidance by Public Health England has once again highlighted the UK-wide issue of vitamin D deficiency, but how do you know if you are one of the estimated 10 million people with low vitamin D levels? A simple home test can put your mind at rest, say health pioneers BetterYou.
The partnership between BetterYou and SWB NHS Trust gives the public the opportunity to test their vitamin D levels in the comfort of their own home. An affordable and accurate option, the kit uses a simple and painless finger-prick test which you can pop in the post.
Testing is carried out by an NHS body using liquid chromatography mass spectrometry to measure the Vitamin D in the blood. A clear interpretation of the vitamin D level is then sent to the customer around five days later.
Following the testing, end users are provided with a complimentary sample of BetterYou’s DLux Vitamin D Oral Spray (at a dosage relevant to their results), to help start their journey to optimum vitamin D levels.
With just 10 per cent of vitamin D available through diet, and with increasingly sedentary, indoor lifestyles now the norm, people not sufficiently exposed to the sun may not synthesize sufficient vitamin D in order to meet physiological requirements.
About ninety per cent of our essential vitamin D must come from other sources such as the skin's unprotected exposure to the sun, yet those of us living in the UK have dramatically reduced levels of sunshine due to the weather, frequent use of sun cream, and an increasing internal existence.
“This is vitamin D testing made simple – but so effective. The beauty is that it allows people to take control of their own needs. It is easy to do from the comfort of our own home and results are back in a few days.
“By then taking our advice and using DLux, which our trials found is absorbed extremely well, customers can increase levels to optimal amounts very easily.”
Andrew Thomas, founder and managing director at BetterYou.
The DLux range is priced from £5.95 and is available from Holland & Barratt, all good health food stockists and www.betteryou.com. Vitamin D home test kits retail at £28 and are available from www.betteryou.com/vitamin-d-testing-service.
References
- https://www.nice.org.uk/news/press-and-media/millions-of-people-at-risk-of-low-vitamin-d-need-better-access-to-supplements-to-protect-health-says-nice
- Inside the Factory, BBC Two http://bbc.in/1JPp9T7
- The Sun, ‘Why you could be D-ficient’ article (Get tested), Page 3 Me Supplement
- Superfoods: The Real Story, Channel 4 https://www.channel4.com/
- BBC One, Countryfile Summer Diaries, A Taste of Summer http://bbc.in/2aMvN57