With the evenings drawing in over the next few months, commuters will be faced with leaving home in the dark and returning in the dark! On average around 4pm the streets will go dark. This means that when working 9-5 commuters won’t travel to and from work in the daylight, until February!
Why do we need Vitamin D and why is it so crucial to get the right amounts at winter?
- Vitamin D is also known as the sunshine vitamin because exposure to UVB rays from the sun helps the body produce Vitamin D
- Only 10% of the body’s Vitamin D comes from the food we eat, so if we aren’t getting the right amounts from sunlight we can be in danger of deficiency
- Children under 5years old, adults over 65 years and pregnant women are at greater risk of Vitamin D deficiency
- Vitamin D is needed for healthy teeth and bones because it helps regulate the body’s calcium and phosphate.
Did you know? In the absence of sunlight, the brain produces more of the ‘sleep hormone’- melatonin and many people tend to slow down and experience more fatigue and in more serious cases Seasonal affective disorder (SAD)
To combat the negative effects of the lack of daylight hours try topping up your Vitamin D levels during the darker winter months with a good quality food supplement.
Here’s a couple you could try:
Quest Vitamins new Forte D 4000 Available from revital.co.uk at £12.69
Boots Vitamin D 25 ug tablets from £7.19
Vitabiotics Ultra D3 tablets – 96 tablets from at £5.39
Obviously seek and follow professional medical advice if you think you have a genuine health issue or deficiency, but supplements and a healthy balanced diet can help you manage your moods more effectively. It’s also a good reason to get away from your place of work at lunch time and spend sometime outside instead of eating lunch at your desk or in a break room.
