Hello everyone, we hope you all had a nice summer holiday and managed to get away for a break or at least a few day trips out.

The summer holidays have come and gone and the kids are going back to school. Now is a good time to look at your health and the health of your family for the coming autumn and winter months.

We have been very lucky, weather wise, during this pandemic with some lovely sunny days, but with the days now getting shorter and cooler we get exposed to much less sunlight. Sunlight is our biggest source of vitamin D!

When we lack vitamin D it can affect how our body functions, e.g. it can affect our pain levels, mood, energy levels and how well our immune systems function. Therefore it is important to
do everything we can to increase our vitamin D levels and boost our immune system and overall health over the autumn and winter months so as to help minimise the chances of this virus affecting us.

With the lack of sunlight it can be more challenging to get enough vitamin D over the winter, therefore other ways we can boost our vitamin D levels are:

– Supplementation, one way to guarantee Vitamin D intake (we often stock Vitamin D3 in the clinic).

– Other natural sources, oily fish such as salmon, sardines, herring and mackerel, red meat, Liver, mushrooms and eggs (obviously more difficult if you are a vegetarian!)

Even the NICE Guidelines (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) recommend taking 10mg (400iu) on a daily basis through autumn and winter. They also advise that people whose skin has little to no exposure to sunlight and ethnic groups with dark skin should consider taking a vitamin D supplement all year round.