How to boost your Vitamin D levels?

Vitamin D is a steroid hormone as the body can manufacture it (via exposure to UVB radiation from sunlight) as well as absorb it from food. So in the dark winter months when safe sun exposure is impossible without going on holiday, your can become depleted in Vitamin D.  (see signs).  So I want to explain how can you boost your vitamin D levels?

Probably the simplest way it to take a vitamin D supplement, I would recommend D3 as this is the most natural form of vitamin D.  In addition vitamin D is found in the following foods.

  • Sardines
  • Wild caught Alaskan salmon
  • Egg yolks
  • Cheese
  • Beef livers
  • Butter
  • Breakfast cereals fortified with vitamin D
  • Yoghurt fortified with vitamin D

However it should be noted that it can be difficult to optimise your vitamin D level just from food sources.

Vitamin D is well known to prevent osteoporosis and promote strong bones and teeth but its role in disease prevention is probably less well known.  So in the next few blog posts I want to look at its role in disease prevention starting with the immune system.

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  • Bates Method – Part 1

    For most people their sight is their most important sense.  This is probably due to the fact that about 80% of the information we take in via our sense is through our eyes. If you have impaired vision as I do, we all know the standard options:

    1. Glasses
    2. Contact lens
    3. Laser Eye Surgery
    There is one more option, the Bates Method that most people aren’t aware of.  Developed by a New York ophthalmologist he published his method in 1919 (yes 1919!).   People with
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    • Hypermertropia or long-sightedness
    • Presbyopia or “old-age” sight i.e. loss of reading vision as you get older
    • Astigmatism
    have all responded to the Bates Method. In 1957, C A Hackett a Bates Method Teacher (the Bates Method is a instruction manual), analysed 10 years of her work in which she treated 2180 patients with problems with their eye sight.  She found 75%  achieved lasting improvement and 45% were able to do without their glasses completely. Right now you are probably thinking, “if this is so great, why haven’t I heard of it before?”.  That’s a good question, and the answer probably is because it’s a way of re-educating your eyesight.   Which means it takes time and definitely isn’t a quick fix.

  • Do self hypnosis CD’s really boost resilience?

    As things are now back to full swing after the summer holiday, and before things get too budy, I wanted to share with you a piece of research that while being 3 years old is still highly relevant.  Researchers were looking at the effectiveness of listening to self-administered hypnosis stress reduction CD's to boost resilience. Eleven subjects took part in the study, all healthy, normally coping and functioning individuals - were provided with a self-administered hypnosis stress reduction CD, to be used for a minimum of 5 days a week over a 12 week period.  The CD contained two different hypnosis tracks, one to be played before sleep (25 minutes in duration) and the other to be played in the morning (lasting 7 minutes). The aim of the CD was to recondition the stress response, by minimising the participants "excessive emotional and physical reaction to perceived work and life stressors, while facilitating their coping skills and resilience."   Chronic stress and anxiety have been associated with inflammatory changes in the body, and high level of inflammation have been lined to a number of acute and chronic conditions.  Blood tests were used to measure the level of inflammatory response and self-reported measures (using the StressScan assesment) were taken pre and post intervention. While the study size is small, it provides some suggestive evidence that a self-administered stress reduction program that is time efficient may be clinically effective for modifying the stress response and boosting resilience. Reference Schoen M and Nowack K (2013)  Reconditioning the stress response with hypnosis CD reduces the inflammatory cytokine IL-6 and influences resilience: a pilot study.  Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice 2013; 19 83-88 http://www.ctcpjournal.com/article/S1744-3881(12)00088-6/abstract