Vitamin D and Rett Syndrome

Today a rapid guideline on Vitamin D and Covid has been produced by NICE-the organisation which decides which drugs and treatments are available on the NHS in England.

When reduced to newspaper headlines, many people may consider throwing their vitamin D supplements out with the rubbish.

Covid aside, for people with Rett Syndrome, we know that:

• They typically have lower levels of Vitamin D than the general population
• They suffer with more chest infections than the general population
• They are outside less than the general population due to lack of mobility/support needs.
• Vitamin D can help to protect against chest infections in general

Therefore if your person with Rett is on Vitamin D supplements, they should continue to take them unless you are advised otherwise by your own doctor.

For everyone else, the guidance does stipulate that the government recommends that ALL children and adults should take a daily Vitamin D supplement from Oct to March when there is less sunlight and all year round if they meet a variety of other criteria including if they are overweight, obese, or have dark skin.

This guideline is about Covid prevention specifically. In a nutshell, it says there is not enough evidence to enable the panel to recommend that the NHS pay for vitamin D supplements to help prevent Covid in the general population but that further studies need to be done particularly in minority groups.

Full recommendations from NICE here: Find the full recommendations here: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng187/chapter/Recommendations

For further information about Vitamin D in Rett, please see our fact sheet here: https://www.reverserett.org.uk/core/media/Vitamin-D-PDF.pdf