Screen Shot 2016-10-12 at 10.54.16It’s getting to that time of the year again.  The mornings aren’t as bright, evenings are drawing in, the days are getting shorter and winter is on its way.  Some days you might only see the daylight through the office window, or for an hour at lunchtime.  Apart from being a little bit depressing,

it also means that the amount of Vitamin D in the body reduces and you could be at risk of suffering from a vitamin D deficiency during the winter months.  The latest advice on vitamin D from Public Health England recommends that adults and children over the age of one should take 10 micrograms (mcg) of vitamin D every day.

Why is Vitamin D so important?

Vitamin D ensures your muscles, heart, lungs, and brain function properly. There has also been research to show that vitamin D can help prevent asthma attacks and Alzheimer’s.

Another important reason to make sure that you get enough vitamin D is to ensure you have healthy bones.  Vitamin D is essential in the development of bone production for density and strength as we grow and keeps them strong and healthy as you get older.

A lack of vitamin D can cause bones to become soft and weak. In children, this can lead to rickets, and in adults it can lead to the development of Osteoporosis, where bones become fragile and at reduced risk of breaks or becoming misshapen bones.

How can you get Vitamin D?

Vitamin D is also known as the “sunshine vitamin” as our body produces it naturally when our skin is exposed to sunlight. This makes it easy to get enough during the summer time – the amount of sun exposure you need to get the required amount of Vitamin D depends on various factors such as your skin pigmentation, but around 10 minutes per day should be enough for someone with fair skin.

However, when the shadow you create is longer than your height i.e. between October and April, even on the sunniest of winter days in the UK, the sunlight doesn’t hit the skin at the correct angle or contain enough UVB radiation for our skin to make vitamin D.  So with the shortening of daylight hours from September onwards you’ll need to find some other ways to get enough of vitamin D into your body.

Vitamin D is found naturally in some food, including oily fish, red meat, liver and egg yolks. It can also be found in fortified foods such as breakfast cereal, milk and orange juice.

However, it’s hard to get the recommended amount of vitamin D just from food so you may wish to consider taking a supplement.  Having the correct volume of Vitamin D within the body is important but movement is required to stimulate its use into strong bones.  Whether you have  strong and healthy bones and want to keep it that way or have a been told that your body density has reduced. If you’d like to have a chat about the best Pilates exercises to help to protect the health of your bones you can drop us a line at info@ormskirkpilates.co.uk and find out we can you support your body.