BEATING THE WINTER BLUES - Proactive strategies to help

Beating the Winter Blues,

Why it can be happening and

10 Simple tips you can implement to help.

Autumn is one of the most beautiful seasons in the United Kingdom, the tree's and parks are a majestic display of yellow, orange, and red colours that create magic walks, which for those of use who live in a busy city can make our days even more energising.

But with Autumn comes shorter days a drop in temperature and the knock on, of making outdoor exercise a bit more challenging and spending that time indoors watching T.V, on our tablets or , staring at a laptop a bit more appealing.

'30-40% of the UK have low Vitamin D Levels'

One of the key aspects as a result of this is we tend to spend less time outside exposing our bodies to the light of the sun and the benefits we get from being outside. This can lead to deficiencies in important Vitamins and Hormones such as Vitamin D and Serotonin.

Adequate Vitamin D levels are important for overall health and deficiencies have been linked to Cancer, Hypertension, Depression, Type 2 Diabetes and Heart disease to name a few. (2)

In the UK it has been reported that up to 30-40% of the population are vitamin D deficient (1).

During the summer months we are exposing ourselves to the sunlight more often and generally will have more skin exposed to add in its absorption for most of us this will fulfil our Vitamin D requirements

Not enough sunlight can lead to a serotonin and Vitamin D decrease. Serotonin is a hormone that affects your mood and this is one of the reasons darker days are tougher on our mental health and its links to Seasonal affective disorder SAD . (3)

While this change in temperature and darkness is inevitable (unless we follow the ideas of the "Endless Summer" ) we can do some things that can help us.

We are the first to tell and do not recommend the use of vitamins and or supplements without specific medical testing by qualified experts, if you feel you may be low in these area's asking your doctor or seeking the advice of professional who can test correctly for these vitamins and hormones is essential to ensure toxicity issues and/or if other viable methods may be better for you.

10 Simple tips to beat the Winter Blues

1. Eating the following foods can help as they are higher in Vitamin D;

2. Meat/meat products;

3. Milk/milk products;

4. Fat spreads and

5. Fortified high fibre cereals.

6. Taking a walk outside on sunny days without sunglasses;

7. Setting up your home office near a window;

8. Getting in to nature and breathing fresh air, there maybe links to increased oxygen levels and serotonin production;

9. Taking some time out for yourself to relax and have fun, these have positive effects on your mood and serotonin levels;

10. Regular exercise has been shown to improve mood levels.

Taking care of yourself during the colder darker days is all about being proactive and taking charge of yourself or following the endless summer, in which case let us know if you need someone to carry the surfboards for you!

You may also be interested in these blog posts

Getting back to nature

Start your day on a positive note

1. Vitamin D Serum Levels in the UK Population, including a Mathematical Approach to Evaluate the Impact of Vitamin D Fortified Ready-to-Eat Breakfast Cereals: Application of the NDNS Database

2. Vitamin D: The “sunshine” vitamin

3. Overview - Seasonal affective disorder (SAD)

4. How to increase serotonin in the human brain without drugs