Your Health First

Quality Chiropractic Care for you

As we finally seem to be emerging from this very long winter are you feeling less than energised or generally experiencing a few more aches and pains, or is it taking longer to fend off the winter blues even though evidence of spring is all around?

It could be that you need to top up your vitamin D!

If you have seen me in the last few years you'll know that Vitamin D is one of the key supplements I recommend along with Omega 3 fish oil as we can't get enough of either of these from our diet, even if our diet is excellent.

90% of our Vitamin D we need to make ourselves through exposure of our skin to sunlight. Here in Britain the summer sun is at its maximum in June and July but vitamin D, generated in the skin by sunlight, takes two or three months to get into our general circulation. So we reach our maximum level of vitamin D in about September. The minimum vitamin D levels in the blood should be between 30 and 60 ng/ml. Less than 20 is deemed deficient. Average levels in Britain in the summer just nudge 32 ng/ml and in the winter falls to 19.

Our ever increasing indoor lifestlyes are also having an effect as is our use of high factor suncreams. Now I'm not recommending ditching the sun creams but cautious exposure of unprotected skin to the sun for short periods during the week is a good idea.

Because of its involvement in bone, calcium and phosphorous metabolism lack of vitamin D can lead to bone and joint pain. Lack of vitamin D can also be a contributing factor to a general inflammatory state and several studies have also looked at its link with depression. Recent studies looked at the importance of vitamin D in cancer recovery rates too.

There are lots of different versions out there from drops to tablets to mouth sprays. Go to a reputable provider or contact me but either way an easy first step towards greater well-being is to add in vitamin D and see the difference it can make!

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e: info@healthfirstchiro.co.uk