When 14 year old Ryan Mclaughlin started his Shine on Scotland campaign he had set a goal to get vitamin D into our school milk, a simple idea to protect every child in scotland from Multiple Sclerosis, but he quickly became aware that far more diseases would benefit from vitamin D supplementation not just MS.
Now the countries largest private health care provider BUPA agree’s and says we should all be taking between 1,500 to 2,000 IUs per day to beat cancer. This is 5 times the current UK RDA and exactly what Ryan has campaigned tirelessly for almost 9 months.
Dr Virginia Warren, assistant medical director for Bupa, commented: “There has been a lot of research over the last few years about the health benefits of taking a vitamin D supplement. Based on this evidence, we would recommend taking between 37.5 and 50 micrograms of vitamin D on a daily basis to help reduce your risk of certain cancers. Spending time outside in summer will also increase your vitamin D levels, but is a risk for skin cancer.
“Ensuring you get enough vitamin D is a simple and effective way to reduce your risk of developing certain cancers. Alongside this, it’s important to ensure you eat a healthy balanced diet, exercise regularly, only drink in moderation and do not smoke.
It was again reinforced today when the Israeli Health Ministry announced that all 3% milk is to be fortified with vitamin D in the next 3 months and Ryan McLaughlin wants the Scottish Government to look to follow suit.
Last week on a STV news interview with Ryan McLaughlin in realtion to his win for vitamin d campaign he said ‘that fortification of school milk was still at the top of his priorities’ as he still thinks its the best way to protect future generations of Scots from many diseases not just MS, this announcement by the Israeli Government only goes to further back his case and show that it can be done on a national basis and with the worst health record in western world and the highest rates of MS in the world – Scotland must take the lead.
Dr Sareeram Ramagopalan of Oxford University and Ryan’ family all gave evidence at the Scottish Parliaments petitions committee back in June and told the committee that Israel was looking at fortification of both Milk and flour and we heard that France was also looking at it, now its been confirmed in Israel we need to really start considering moving towards fortification of the school milk program now in scotland.
There are many problems associated with just offering supplementation, simply try getting a child to take a supplement every day for their young life seems doomed for failure, Ryan says he has forgotten a few times to take his and he is running the vitamin D camapign !
How many adults get a course of antibiotics which state finish the course and don’t. Ryan say’s ‘I am sure almost every adult can say that take them till they feel better and the rest is left in a medical cabinet’.
Furthermore do we really want kids popping tablets everyday ?
Can we ask our teachers to dish out supplements he doesnt think so!
We would need to ask the questions from the Education Dept, teachers and of course get the teachers unions to agree to it, teachers have a big work load already, Ryan points out that many parents will be able to relate to the following point ! How many times as a parent have you been called home and had to take a day off work when a paracetamol would sorted a sore head or a slightly high temperature and the child could have stayed in school getting educated – It would all take too long, too many problems to overcome.
We could spend millions of pounds trying to educate parents and expectant mothers to take vitamin D supplements everyday, but I believe we should lead from the front from the start , we owe it to the kids and we must protect each and every child in Scotland.
If parents don’t want it for their kids – let them simply opt out !
Ryan believes we need to think much much bigger! He think we should educate parents to the idea of the benefits of vitamin D everyday and proposing putting vitamin D into the school milk program so kids get it every day, start debating it with the public and informing parents immediately !
Vitamin D boosts your immune system to help fights off cold and bugs and it would improve the school attendence records on wasted days of school due to simple sniffles, as well as save parents the loss of earnings by taking time off work with sick kids that could be in school learning.
Add his very valid points to the figures compiled for national supplementation of vitamin D in Scotland in relation to just MS alone and you have very good case – Scientists believe it could prevent 2000 cases over 10 years in Scotland alone and could save the UK economy some £4.5 billion surely children’s health must be the priority and a penny onto the cost of a pint of milk is well justified and we should start talking to the dairies immediately !
