Everyone should take easy-to-get pill every day to avoid dementia, say experts

Health experts are pressing folks to start popping a simple supplement from the tender age of eight to boost their bones and potentially cut down the risk of dementia .

Medics are hailing vitamin D as essential for maintaining sturdy bones and playing a key role in staving off cognitive decline, such as dementia .

It's said that our bodies can whip up vitamin D from cholesterol when we bask in sunlight - but given the often dreary weather , we're likely to be left wanting, even when summer makes an appearance.

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Chatting with the Guardian, Dr Jenny Goodman, a medical doctor and member of the British Society of Ecological Medicine, revealed: "I go outdoors with my legs and upper arms exposed in summer, which, I've found, gives me enough vitamin D to last until December (it is fat soluble so can be stored)."

Dr Goodman admits to taking a nightly dose of 2,000 international units (IU, equivalent to 50 micrograms) from October to April, not just for the sake of her bones but also for "brain health, reducing the risk of dementia [as shown by an Exeter University study] and supporting the immune system".

While health chiefs suggest that everyone should consider a daily 400 IU (10mcg) vitamin D supplement during the less sunny months, some might require a higher dose.

Dr Amina Hersi, a GP who tops up with 1,000 IU every day during winter, explained "Like 85% of people with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), I am deficient in vitamin D. I also have darker skin so I need more because melanin blocks out the sun's UV rays."

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Dr Lavan Baskaran, a GP with expertise in ADHD, recommends that everyone from the age of eight should take vitamin D supplements. "Unless I'm on a summer holiday, I take 1,000 IU daily. If I forget, I'll feel low, anxious and tired with achy joints."

Recent research has shown that mice on a vitamin D-rich diet had better immune resistance to cancers that were experimentally transplanted, and they also responded better to immunotherapy treatments. Caetano Reis e Sousa, who leads the Immunobiology Laboratory at the Francis Crick Institute and is the senior author of the study, remarked: "What we've shown here came as a surprise vitamin D can regulate the gut microbiome to favor a type of bacteria which gives mice better immunity to cancer."

He added: "This could one day be important for cancer treatment in humans, but we don't know how and why vitamin D has this effect via the microbiome. More work is needed before we can conclusively say that correcting a vitamin D deficiency has benefits for cancer prevention or treatment."

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