We’re constantly advised that giving up smoking is better for our health. Which indeed it is, but what are the alternatives? The latest self help tool on the market is the e-cigarette. They might seem like a safe option compared to the real thing, but they are unregulated products that contain at least 19 harmful chemicals, including several that are cancer causing according a doctor from Loyola University. It is worth considering other ways of giving up instead.

Hopefully summer will be with us soon, along with the usual good health advice to stay out of the sun and use plenty of sun protection. But we need vitamin d. Absorbing the sun’s rays is a natural way for us to process vitamin d. There is a complex chain reaction that begins when the sun hits your skin, ending with its production in the kidneys.

Vitamin d is actually a steroid growth hormone that regulates growth in more than 30 different tissues throughout the body. It controls calcium absorption for healthy bones and it can also help to  restrict cancer growth by stopping the formation of new blood vessels that feed the tumours.

Stay in the sun long enough to feel the benefit but not the burn.

Mae sure you are getting enough sleep too!! This news has been in the press on and off for some time now. But yet again another staggering fact emerges that we are all actually getting approximately two hours less sleep a night than we were 60 years ago.  This is due to laptops, tablets, games and social networks. Instead of reading a book and gently nodding off, we are stimulating our brains and emotions with internet media. The light given off by these gadgets stimulates the brain into thinking that it’s still daytime.

Bearing that in mind, I’d best switch off the computer and chill out before bed. Have a good night’s sleep!!