11 Nov Feeling a little under the weather?

It’s definitely that time of year when we start to feel like hibernating, the nights are drawing in, the temperatures are dropping and sunshine is scarce.

Aside from the excitement of Christmas and the romantic notion of sipping hot chocolate in front of an open fire, we often end up getting ill, feeling tired, run down and sometimes just a little bit down in the dumps. Could it be a touch of Seasonal Adjustment Disorder (SAD?)

SAD is a common ailment and can affect people in varying degrees but it certainly doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with you, it can be as simple as having a minor Vitamin D deficiency? Vitamin D is called the sunshine vitamin as the body synthesises it from exposure to the sun. I wrote about it in the summer because even though there’s plenty of sun around, we still don’t always get enough of it, in the winter it’s a totally different story, there just isn’t enough of it to go around and when we’re all wrapped up from head to toe there’s just no way for those healthy rays to get in.

Whilst I don’t advocate popping supplements to make up for a bad diet, I do think that sometimes we need a little help when important nutrients are hard to come by. Even a really good diet will struggle to provide us with the required amount of *Vitamin D, and when we need it the most to help us fight infections amongst other things a supplement may just be the answer until the sun becomes stronger and can warm our skin again.

*Vitamin D can be found in mostly in oily fish, fish liver oils and butter.