Introduce team members

Define topic
Malaysian should take Vitamin D supplements to achieve optimal Vitamin D status

Malaysian = tropical country?

Vitamin D deficiency
Ricket & Osteomalacia

Good morning Dr Aini and the opposing team, today we are here to discuss a topic
of utmost importance: Whether Malaysians should take Vitamin D supplements to
achieve optimal Vitamin D status. Before starting the discussion, I would like to
define several keywords of this topic according to the Cambridge dictionary;
supplements = something that is added to something else in order to improve it,
achieve = reaching an aim, optimal = best; most likely to bring advantage; Vitamin
D = a fat-soluble Vitamin that has long been known to help the body to absorb and
retain Calcium and Phosphorus (Harvard school of public health). Talking about
optimal Vitamin D status, I would like to mention that the Institute of Medicine
defines optimal as < 50 nmol 25(OH)D level, while insufficiency is 30-50 and
deficiency is <30. To achieve the optimal level, RNI 2017 suggested one should
have 15 micrograms of intake for children and adults and 20 micrograms for
elderly regardless of gender.

I will talk about why Malaysians should take supplements, our following speaker
will continue our argument by focusing on the sunlight exposure and on the dietary
intake. As the first speaker of the affirmative team, I firmly believe that the answer
is a resounding “yes”. Malaysians SHOULD take Vit D supplements because they
are not getting enough from their daily sources. According to a meta-analysis
published in year 2022 by Mohd Saffian et al, Vitamin D insufficiency and
deficiency is common in Malaysia. Precisely, they found out over half of the
population have <50 nmol 25(OH)D, with a higher prevalence in urban areas
compared to rural areas. Other than the general population, they also found out a
longitudinal study following 179 pregnant women from early pregnancy to birth,
89% of them had levels <50 during early pregnancy and rose to 96.1% at birth,
which is a very very alarming issue.
So why supplement? Another meta-analysis by Mirhosseini et al. 2018, which
included 2341 studies, found out that Vitamin D supplement with an average of
3000 IU is able to significantly increase serum VD level for average 48 unit after
9.6 months of intervention, while there is no changes in the placebo group. So,
there is no doubt that VD supplement INDEED is effective in raising the serum
VD level. Besides, our team believes that VD supplement is a very practical and
cost effective solution to tackle deficiency problems in the Malaysian population. I
did some research on the internet, the cheapest VD supplement I found is RM 30+
for 120 capsules, which means we only NEED just around 25 sens for one capsule
per day. Not to also mention that since these supplements are not over-the-counter
medicine, hence it is very easily accessible through healthcare facilities like
hospitals and even community pharmacies, which basically we can find one or
even two outlet in every one taman. Even if you don’t want to go out, nowadays
you can shop anything online. For example there is an online application called
iHerbs which you can buy your supplements there and it will be delivered to your
doorsteps in just a few days. My point is, VD supplement is a very convenient way
to tackle deficiency issues, regardless of their socioeconomic status. Hence, we
truly believe that VD supplement is necessary to achieve optimal VD status which
is important for long-term benefits in bone health, growth and other health-related
outcomes.