Helpline callers often ask whether any food or vitamin can help improve resistance to herpes simplex and prevent symptoms. Despite many claims, no ‘magic’ food or vitamin is guaranteed to do this.
Now people are asking what they should eat to make sure they don’t catch Covid-19. Or if they do catch it, how they can have a milder case. Medical experts (Covid Symptoms Study) are giving the same response as us: there is no single answer.
One coronavirus expert suggested a diet that includes a wide range of foods, with brightly coloured fruit and veg, or best of all aim for a ‘Mediterranean diet’. This is also our advice on how to reduce herpes simplex outbreaks.
As you will have seen in the news, people with serious underlying health conditions are most at risk of having a bad case of Covid-19. It is difficult, if not impossible to make a long-term health problem disappear, so what can be done?
As you may know, people with serious underlying health conditions are more at risk from Covid-19. What can be done?
Medical reports suggest that people with low vitamin D levels may be harder hit with Covid-19, although experts are not agreed on how much it matters and why.
We have previously written about “Vitamin D for herpes” in SPHERE 34-1. Vitamin D can be a useful supplement for immune function and to reduce outbreaks.
Dark skin? Over 65? Vitamin D is the supplement for you
You get it naturally by sitting in the sun, (but not overdoing it). For people with light skins this means around 20 minutes’ exposure between 10 am and 3 pm in the summer months. At other times of the year the sun isn’t strong enough to help much. Darker skinned people will need greater sun exposure to benefit.
The NHS has long been advising that, amongst others, people over 65 and those with darker skin should be taking supplements of vitamin D. Our director, Marian Nicholson, has! She takes the recommended dose of 10 mcg (400 i.u.) of vitamin D to lessen the chance of an outbreak. And it does not just help with herpes simplex, she rarely gets a cold. If she does, it is gone in a day or so.
In addition, the Department of Health and Social Care recommends a daily supplement containing 10 micrograms of vitamin D throughout the year if you:
• are not often outdoors – for example, if you’re frail or housebound
• are in an institution like a care home
• usually wear clothes that cover up most of your skin when outdoors
• you have dark skin – for example you have an African, African- Caribbean or south Asian background.
So perhaps it is time you tried vitamin D too?
