What a year? In terms of the pandemic, you will no doubt have heard lots of advice about how you can reduce your risk of getting corona and increase your immunity.
As a parent, if there’s anything I can do to reduce the risk for my family, I’m open to it and there’s no disagreement about the importance of washing our hands thoroughly with warm soapy water and social distancing if you are unwell.
Out of the myriad of different nutrition tips out there, one seems to have some basis and that’s advice to top up on Vitamin D.
Many of us now spend up to 90 percent of our lives indoors and our eyes are bombarded with artificial light late into the evening.
Light levels help to regulate alertness and mood. We also rely on sunlight to convert cholesterol in the skin into Vitamin D, which helps build strong bones, and plays a beneficial role in our immune system. Some headlines even suggest that sunlight could and help protect us from the coronavirus.
Hospital patients have been shown to recover faster when they have more access to daylight, and researchers think it may increase the number of immune cells that rally to an injury.
There’s also some evidence of a link between levels of vitamin D and some viral infections, including the flu and covid-19. But this isn’t clear cut.
Controlled clinical trials that are currently underway, but for now the evidence that vitamin D supplements can prevent severe illness is weak. That said, if you lack sunlight in your country of residence, at this time of year, it may be worth supplementing with Vitamin D.
Additional Tips:
~The best time of day to take Vitamin D seems to be with your largest meal.
~Go outside as much as you can to get some exposure to natural light
~Avoid screen time before bed 1-2 hours before bed.
