Uk January Health Tips

So what are the Fix Up! health tip recommendations for January? January is generally a cold month so first of all, if you're suffering with mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, brain fog, you need to go and get a blood test and check your vitamin D levels as chances are that you've not been outside enough during the spring and summer to build up a suitable reserve, especially if you're a darker skinned individual. If it is low, we're going to do a few steps. First thing is to consume foods that are high in vitamin D, despite the fact we only get about 10 to 20% of our vitamin D through food, we can still at least slow that rate of usage down by consuming foods that have vitamin D in them - things such as Chestnut mushrooms, certain brands of milk, dairy in general normally have good levels of vitamin D and oily fish is a big winner, so get your mackerel, salmon, sardines in this month.

The other thing we can do to help improve mood is to buy a SAD lamp, particularly if you work in an office or you work at home. The lamp, have it on throughout the day as you're working. And that will essentially mimic daylight despite being indoors.

The last thing I would recommend is to supplement. I generally try and avoid supplementation as much as possible as I like to try and keep things as natural as possible. However, if you are chronically low, there's no doubt that a strong vitamin D tablet will help improve your levels.

Another health tip is to avoid blue light as much as possible particularly after the sun has gone down. I recommend using blue light blocking glasses between 4pm until about half 7 in the morning. You should also wear them if you are using a computer all day.

In terms of diet, I would say this is a good month to explore with a keto diet or perhaps reducing carb intake and increasing fat intake. A higher fat, lower carbohydrate approach will be more beneficial in January than it will be in the middle of the summer as it aligns more closely to nature and what types of foods we typically could find this time of the year in the UK.