Health Helping Hands

As a child, I was very rarely ill, but a couple of years ago I suffered from a particularly horrendous bladder infection that knocked me for six and seems to have downgraded my immune system from strong to weakling status, and so now I have to be a bit more considerate when it comes to my lifestyle and what I eat.

Indeed, if I have particularly 'bad' (naughty) eating days where all I eat is junk, I can definitely feel it, and so I am trying to make conscious efforts to eat as healthily as possible - with a few extra helping hands to give my immune system a boost!

Now, as a mini disclaimer, this post is just meant to give you an insight into what is best for me personally at the moment - i'm not a doctor, so please do your own research (and take the advice from a medical practitioner if necessary) before you start taking any supplements and so forth yourself. 

I try to get my vitamins from my food as much as possible, so eating lots of fruit, veg, dairy and meat (i'm also trying to do the 'Eat Clean' thing), but I like to err on the side of caution by topping them up with some Multivitamins - mine are a cheap £2 pot from Aldi. You can buy more expensive ones (often reflected in the formula aimed at different consumer sectors, such as prenatal, children, men's, women's and so on) but when you look at the labels they all tend to contain the same thing, so inexpensive does me!

Magnesium is one of the latest additions to my vitamin/supplement stash (not least because Tesco had a 3 for 2 on, and I was stuck what else to get as my '3'!), and a pretty powerful little tub of stuff it is: magnesium is crucial to the functioning of the body, and helps maintain healthy bones, heart rhythm and blood pressure. Natural sources of magnesium (which I am going to strive to eat more of) include green, leafy veg (such as spinach), nuts, beans, peas and wholegrain cereals.

We're told on a regular basis to take more Omega Fish Oils, and me, being the good girl/sheep (call me what you will) that I am, take this fishy supplement every day in a bid to boost my brain power, eye sight and joint flexibility...the list goes on. I am keen to try out the vegetarian version of these supplements next however.

There are many types of Vitamin B (eight, to be precise), and they all have different functions. As this tub of supplements contains all eight types, it is referred to as Vitamin B complex. Despite being chemically different, in general they play important roles in cell metabolism (and hence the release of energy) - something which I tend to find myself lacking in throughout the day.

Another fairly recent addition to my stash (and one that has my dad wrinkling his nose at me every time I take it) is some Organic Japanese Matcha Green Tea. Now if you remember from my fitness/health blog post I did some time ago, I was taking Semtex from JstJodie, and was recently going to purchase some more, but decided to do some research into alternatives - this article was quite interesting. What was apparent from my research is that green tea - and in particular Matcha tea - is packed full of essential vitamins and minerals and is an excellent fat burner, energiser and general all rounder. I take a shot of it (mixed with fruit juice) in the morning - no forcing myself to drink normal green tea throughout the day! I got mine from Doctor King on Amazon.

Ok, i'm not going to lie to you, I have put these two together because they are essentially my hangover preventers/solutions. Shameful I know. Dioralyte is actually meant to be a rehydration product if you are ever suffering from diarrhoea, but it acts as an excellent hangover aid as it helps replace the salts, sugars and minerals lost following, er, alcohol consumption. I tend to take one of these before I go to sleep (if i'm not too sozzled) and one the next morning, and so far, touch wood, it's been a life saver! Similarly the dissolvable/effervescent tablets (you might have seen the infamous Berocca advertised - these are just the supermarket own-brand ones!) I take as and when required for a quick pick me up injection of Vitamin C, calcium, magnesium and zinc!

Amazingly, despite all the supplements I take I don't yet rattle when I walk, and would love to hear if you have any suggestions - especially for hangover preventions/cures!