The sunshine vitamin and fertility – Vitamin D

Sunlight provides us with Vitamin DDid you know Vitamin D is essential for the development of baby bones? It also reduces the risk of low birthweight babies. Indeed it may even be involved in  the tricky business of getting pregnant itself.  Unfortunately many women in the UK are deficient in Vitamin D (sometimes known as the” sunshine” vitamin),because the best way to get our daily quota is via the sun. So if you are planning a baby soon then please make the most of the current good weather to give yourself a welcome dose of this.

Luckily you don’t need much sunshine to up your Vitamin D total. By being out in the sun for just a few minutes a day, a women’s body can create between 10,000 to 25,000 IU of Vitamin D.  15 to 20 minutes a day is sufficient to increase Vitamin D dramatically. Unfortunately the body struggles to store this vitamin so 2 hours at the weekend doesn’t compensate for none during the week. Also ditch the sunblock for these few minutes as sun cream blocks the ultra violet rays we need to produce Vitamin D

At work during the day?

  • Swop your desk for a leisurely stroll in the sun during your lunch break.
  • Go home via the park or sit outside with a refreshing cold drink when you get home from work.

If you do decide to supplement by taking Vitamin D (during those dull days when the sun forgets to come out from behind the clouds) make sure that it is Vitamin D3 you are getting. This is the important part of the vitamin from the body’s point of view It is this which is transformed into the active part of the vitamin by the kidneys and liver

Sunshine has also been shown to make men more fertile, courtesy of vitamin D. Sarah Dobyn in her book the Fertility Diet quotes research from Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center New Hampshire that studied links between fertility and vitamin D. It  found that fertile men had higher levels of this vitamin.

Sunlight also has a feel good factor. Studies have shown that skin also makes beta endorphins (which is known as the the feel-good endorphin) when exposed to ultraviolet radiation.

Acupuncture may not be able to increase your vitamin D intake, but it can certainly help you to make you feel more positive and may enhance the feel good factor. So why not phone me now on 07919930188 to find out how acupuncture may be able to help you in your fertility journey.

 

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