Have you ever felt that your activities decrease when winter comes?
Come with me to know why this happened and how mange it.....
When the day becomes shorter in the winter, this will decrease sunlight duration, and usually, weather states in winter decreases the intensity of light This will affect on our body's internal clock (circadian rhythm) our body uses sunlight to time various important functions, such as when you wake up, so lower light levels during the winter may disrupt your body clock and lead to decrease our activities and sometimes leads to cause something called seasonal depression SAD .
Sunlight also has effects on our hormones shorting the day time will lead to decrease serotonin .
Serotonin release when sunlight enters to our eyes it stimulates the parts of our retina that then cue our brain to produce serotonin.
Serotonin play important role in regulating our mood, emotions, appetite, and digestion.
Lower light levels in winter can affect the production of melatonin (sleep hormone) and cause increasing this hormone this is what makes us love the pillow more in the winter.
Thyroid-stimulating hormones increase during the winter in both healthy people and people with hypothyroidism. Symptom of raised TSH include low mood, fatigue, increasing our weight, an intolerance to cold and memory problems, commonly described as a‘brain fog’.
Winter has affected on vitamin D Known as the ‘sunshine’ vitamin, vitamin D it is produced in the skin in response to sun exposure. This will decrease our body's ability to produces vitamin D during winter.
Vitamin D has important role in our immunity and protect us from disease. It could be one of the reasons for decreasing our immunity in the winter .
How we can manage ourselves in winter ?
1st by lifestyle measures:
which includes :
A *daily exercise, which promotes our immunity and makes us more active and gives us warm.
B *Trying to exposure to sunlight to get vitamin D •
C *eating a healthy diet consists of vitamin D&C to promote our immunity like oranges, kiwi, lemon, grapefruit Bell peppers Strawberries Tomatoes And food that elevate serotonin level like Chicken , Eggs for Protein, Salmon and Fish are Excellent Foods , Soy Products, Tofu, and Soy Milk ,Dairy Products, Like Milk and Cheese, Nuts and Seeds and Pineapple .
Or you can use light therapy where a special lamp called a light box is used to simulate exposure to sunlight .