Builds strong bones and immune system.

When the sun’s UVB rays hit your skin, they trigger the production of vitamin D. Vitamin D is needed to absorb calcium to support healthy bones, may reduce inflammation, and is important for a healthy immune system.

Sun exposure times will vary depending on season and location – depending on the time of year and your location, you will need more or less time in the sun to produce adequate vitamin D.

Promotes better mood.

Exposure to sunlight is believed to increase your brain’s release of a hormone called serotonin, associated with better mood and feeling calm. Without enough sunlight your serotonin levels can dip, and researchers have found lower levels in people during winter, when there are less hours of daylight. This may explain the prevalence of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) in some parts of the world.

Caution:

The UV rays from the sun increase the risk of skin cancer, including the most deadly type, melanoma. That is why we must get the balance right between too much and not enough sunlight. Check the UV level before you head outside. If it is three or above, go out when it is not so intense, or use sun protection measures. There are plenty of apps that will let you know what the UV level is at your location, or you can try your local weather bureau.

It is not always bad news. Low blood pressure can be a sign of good health in people who are very fit and have a slow pulse. As a bonus, people with low blood pressure tend to lead longer lives.

You can also experience low blood pressure from overheating; having too little blood circulating (from blood donation or bleeding heavily); being dehydrated; being pregnant; taking one of many different types of medicine; or having a lot of drugs or alcohol in your system.

Certain medical conditions may also cause your blood pressure to drop. These include allergic reactions, infections, certain heart conditions, nutritional deficiencies or severe pain.

There is also a type of low blood pressure called ‘postural hypotension’ where blood pressure drops suddenly when a person stands, making them feel dizzy.

Low blood pressure can cause some unpleasant symptoms. These include:

• Light headedness or dizziness
• Weakness
• Blurry vision
• Pale, clammy skin
• Fatigue
• Fainting

See your doctor if you think you have symptoms of low blood pressure as an underlying cause may need treatment. But if it isn’t causing you problems, treatment won’t be needed.

Your doctor may advise that you take precautions to prevent episodes of low blood pressure, such as avoiding dehydration, hot showers, or standing up too quickly.

Since the pandemic we have learnt not to show up to work if we have tested positive to COVID-19, not least for the sake of our workmates’ health and that of their families. So what should you do instead to get better quickly?

• OTC remedies. It is tempting to pop a pain reliever or flu remedy and head off to work. After all, they make you feel much better. But while these may help cover the symptoms, they do nothing to address the cause of the illness, and you will still be infectious. Stay home until your symptoms stop.
• Take time to recover. If you do not take time off, it is going to take you longer to recover, whether you are working from your workplace or working from home.

While working from home does mean you will not spread a contagious illness to your workmates, there are downsides. Studies show that wherever you work, working while sick will affect the quality of your work, can increase the risks of poor health in the future, and increases the risk that you will have to take more time off due to sickness 18 months later.

How social prescribing can work for you

You might not necessarily need help with linking to community services, but you might benefit from permission to socialise more.

For many of us, a doctor’s ‘prescription’ gives us both permission AND accountability. With a prescription for social connection, you won’t need to justify it, but embrace it as part of your health care plan.

Too often, we put socialising way down the list of things to do. We get caught up in the necessities of work, housework and caring for children or ageing parents. We try to find time for exercise and preparing good food, but catching up with friends, or joining a hobby group, can sometimes seem like a luxury.

What if you prioritised social connection, in the same way you prioritise drinking water, or getting exercise, or taking daily medication?

What if you scheduled it into your day as a non-negotiable?

Action item:

1. Next time you plan your weekly schedule, add in non-negotiable time for connecting and socialising with others. Make it fun!

2. If you think you need more permission or accountability to make this happen, consider raising it with your doctor during your next visit, and ask them to prescribe it for you on a formal prescription pad. It will do wonders for your health!

What are dietary supplements?

Natural health products such as vitamins, minerals, amino acids, enzymes and plant extracts all fall under the umbrella term of dietary supplements. They are also known as complementary medicines. Global supplement use is growing at a fast rate and expected to reach a value of almost US$300 billion by 2027.

Many dietary supplements are beneficial if used safely, says Geraldine Moses, Adjunct Associate Professor of the School of Pharmacy at the University of Queensland. Women who are pregnant or planning to be are prescribed folic acid and iodine, and deficiencies in certain minerals, such as iron, are corrected with supplements.

What is the evidence?

Some of us take a multivitamin as a kind of health insurance, in case our diet is lacking. Yet the highest-quality evidence, randomised controlled trials, has found no evidence that multivitamins improve your health.

The trials that have been done of vitamins have not shown benefit in people who are not deficient. We are just seeing it time and time again, Professor Rachel Neale of the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute.

One reason dietary supplements are so popular is the perception that they are harmless, says Professor Moses. But like any other drug, there are potential dangers from taking vitamins and minerals. Unlike other drugs, however, we rarely hear of their potential harms.

Text Neck danger

Bending your neck forward and down for long periods looking at your mobile phone is causing a wave of neck, shoulder and back problems known as Text Neck. Minimise injury by raising the height of your phone or tablet and take a break or change position every 15 minutes.

Here are five common anxiety symptoms which you might not realise are anxiety:

1. Pain

A sudden pain in your hip. A stomach ache. Chest pain with accompanying sweating so severe you think it must surely be a heart attack. Anxiety can create sensations of pain that have no physical cause.

Chest pain is one of the most common types of pain created by anxiety. Research in 2018 published in BMC Medicine found that Emergency Department providers believe approximately 30 per cent of patients seeking emergency care for chest pain are actually experiencing anxiety.

This kind of chest pain is caused by a stress response. Your heart starts to beat faster to prepare for fight or flight, which causes rapid breathing. This can lead to hypoventilation, which can cause shortness of breath as well as a contraction of blood vessels, which may result in chest pain.

Other times, you might notice random pain anywhere in your body that can stay for weeks, and then disappear. Similarly, you might experience muscle aches, spasms, and twitching.

These pains could be caused by rapid breathing, or by holding your muscles tensely for long period of time, or by hypervigilance.

Abraham explains: “Someone without anxiety may have a knee pain so mild that they don’t even notice it, but a person with anxiety feels that knee pain severely because their mind has been altered, making it hypersensitive to the way the body feels.”

2. Numbness and tingling

You notice pins and needles in your feet or hands. You Google it, and become convinced you have a neurological disease. Or it’s a sign of a heart attack. But could it be… anxiety?

Anxiety Centre says numbness and tingling are common signs of anxiety. It can also feel like part of your skin or body has lost all feeling, or you might even feel a crawly sensation. You might notice it in your arms, hands, fingers, toes, legs, feet, head, face, or it might shift around all over your body.

It can even strike when you are not noticing any other mental anxiety symptoms, for example when you are relaxing watching TV.

The numbness and tingling are caused by your fight or flight response: your body moves blood away from your extremities such as hands, feet and skin, and redirects it to your heart and muscles.

3. Yawning

Frequent and excessive yawning doesn’t necessarily mean you need more sleep. It could mean you are experiencing anxiety.

The need to yawn often – even in important meetings – can sometimes be accompanied by a feeling that you can’t breathe deeply enough, or becoming very aware of your breathing.

It’s caused by shortness of breath, which in turn is caused by a change in heart rate.

4. Digestive issues

Indigestion, the need to burp all the time, or just a plain old stomach-ache are common physical symptoms of anxiety. In fact, around one third of anxious people experience anxiety-related diarrhoea.

It’s caused by the fight or flight response, which changes your hormones and digestive enzymes. It can be exacerbated by lack of sleep – another common anxiety symptom.

Plus, emerging research is revealing the powerful link between the brain and the gut, where gastrointestinal issues are triggered or exacerbated by anxiety and stress, and on the flip side, your gut health can impact your mental health.

5. Hair loss

You brush your hair and a lot comes out. Are you ageing rapidly, or could it be anxiety?

Hair loss is a common symptom of anxiety in both men and women.

You might notice it just in one part of your head, or all over.

Anxiety Centre says its due to a body-wide hormonal response. For example, stress activates neuroendocrine-immune circuits, which pause hair growth.

So what can we do about it?

The answer is to develop healthy digital habits, says Doreen Dodgen-Magee, PsyD and author of Deviced!: Balancing Life and Technology in a Digital World.

1. First, measure.

Dodgem-Magee recommends first documenting how you are spending your time. Apps are designed to be addictive, and it can be extremely difficult to pull yourself away from a device and extremely easy to scroll absent-mindedly.

Track every 15 minutes for a few days. Note down what you are doing and what device you are doing it on. It seems like a lot of work, but it will save you hours in the long run.

2. Do what you need to do and get out.

It is tempting to reward yourself for completing a task by allowing yet more screen time. Make sure the breaks you take and rewards you give yourself are off-screen.

3. Take breaks.

A five-minute break every 25 minutes is a good guide, with at least two longer breaks every day. And as above, move away from that screen to take your break. Get up and move your body, even if it is just rolling your shoulders or walking around a bit.

4. Create screen free zones.

When working from home, Dodgen-Magee recommends having zones in your homes where tech is not allowed. This could be the bedroom or the bathroom, for example, or the kitchen. You can then carry this through to after work hours, to give yourself time away from screens in the evening.

Prevent and treat dry skin with the following tips:

1. Avoid very hot showers.

As tempting as it is to thaw out under hot running water if you are feeling cold. It is recommended to reduce the frequency and length of baths or showers and use lukewarm water. Overly hot water can strip away the protective surface oils that help your skin retain water.

2. Turn down the thermostat – or turn it off.

If you have heating or air conditioning in your home, don’t over-do it. Hot air tends to be drier than cooler air. However, air conditioners, cool or warm will dry the air out so try to limit your exposure.

3. Keep drinking water.

Your body loses water through your skin all year, not just in the hot summer months. Replenish it through the day.

4. Use soap substitutes.

Normal soap can irritate or damage your skin. Ask your pharmacist for advice on soap substitutes.

5. Quit.

If you smoke, consider quitting. Smoking will dry out your skin and vaping is likely to have the same effect.

6. Wear gloves.

Your hands are often the first place you notice dry skin. Put on gloves before you:

·       perform tasks that require you to get your hands wet

·       get chemicals, grease, and other substances on your hands

·       go outside on a cold day.

How to add moisture

Moisturisers work by providing a seal over your skin to keep water from escaping, and applying one regularly is an effective way of tackling dry skin.

Despite the hype around certain brands, you really can’t go very wrong with any moisturiser you choose, so pick one that feels good on your skin. For extremely dry skin you may need a thicker moisturiser – ask your pharmacist for a recommendation.

The best time to apply moisturiser is after showering when your skin is still damp. It is also advisable to apply lip balm multiple times throughout the day. If your hands are particularly dry, always apply hand cream after washing your hands.

What goes through your mind when you hear that it’s healthy to slow down? Do you think, “that’s fine for others, but I’m barely keeping up as it is”? Or “if I slow down I’ll realise how tired I am and won’t be able to keep going”? Or “slowing down is weak and lazy”?

If you are worried about losing productivity, consider this: slowing down makes you more productive.

“It sounds crazy, but slowing down can be the difference between success or failure, or between thriving and burning out,” writes The Mindful Entrepreneur, Andrew Thomas, in Inc. magazine.

Thomas suggests: “Schedule an hour every week to check in. Reflect on your intentions and observe the challenges or opportunities showing up in front of you.”

Slowing down also helps you make wiser decisions.

“If success requires making good decisions, and slowing down helps you make better decisions, then consider how you can invest more time in slowing down.” Says Thomas.

When you slow down, you free up your brain, listen to your gut and make better decisions.

So next time you find yourself feeling guilty for resting or taking things slowly, remind yourself of the many health benefits of slowing down. It’s good for you!