Glenville Nutrition Clinic

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Why Is Vitamin D Crucial For Brain Health?

We have known for many years that Vitamin D is important for bone health and in the prevention of osteoporosis. However, it is only in recent years that we have realised how important this nutrient is for general health and, particularly, for brain health. Here are just some of the main benefits of vitamin D:


• It plays a major role in breast and bowel cancer prevention
• It is important for your immune function, particularly when you need to fight off colds and flus
• It helps protect your body against conditions as diverse as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, joint pain, dementia, infertility, autism, and allergies
• It reduces the risk of SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder)

Vitamin D also balances your immune function (if you have an autoimmune problem, it’s especially important to have your vitamin D levels tested), helps control inflammation, has antioxidant properties, and helps to control beta-amyloid plaque build-up. All these benefits are important for your brain health, so getting your levels exactly right is crucial if you are to benefit from them.

Vitamin D Deficiency

Vitamin D deficiencies have also been implicated in autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and inflammatory bowel disease. We get most of our vitamin D quota from sunlight because natural food sources are few. Those most at risk of vitamin D deficiency are those who:

• Don’t go out much in the daytime
• Don’t expose their skin to sunlight
• Constantly wear make-up or cosmetics with built-in sun protection factors

The tone of your skin affects vitamin D production, so the darker your skin, the less your body produces vitamin D. Covering up large area of skin for religious reasons also reduces vitamin D production. It is estimated that we need about 30 minutes exposure to the sun every day to produce enough vitamin D to keep us healthy.

If you are moderately deficient in vitamin D, you have a 53% increased risk of dementia, and your risk of increases by 125% if you are severely deficient. With Alzheimer’s, one study found that those who were moderately deficient had a 69% increased risk, and the risk increased to 122% in those who were severely deficient.

This research showed evidence that these seem to be a threshold level in the blood below which the risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s increases. Levels above 50 nmol/L are the most strongly associated with good brain health. However, I think a level between 80 – 100 nmol/L gives the best overall effect on general health, and this is the level I get my patients to aim for in my clinic.

How To Know If You’re Vitamin D Deficient

A question lots of people ask me when I give talks, is how much vitamin D should I take? The answer, of course, is that it depends on the level of your deficiency. For this reason, I now recommend that everyone gets their vitamin D levels checked, given this nutrient’s far-reaching health benefits, and then supplement to get the level back to normal. We have had instances in the clinics where the lab has even phoned to say there was no vitamin D detected at all.

There is, though, such a thing as too much vitamin D. A vitamin D level that is too low (less then 10nmol/L) increases the risk of all-cause mortality (dying of any cause) – but the same is true if your vitamin D levels are too high (more than 140 nmol/L). That’s why it’s important to get tested regularly, at the clinic we use this test that can be done via the post.

What Vitamin D To Choose?

Choose vitamin D in the form of D3, also called cholecalciferol. There is a cheaper form, called D2 (ergocalciferol), but research suggests that vitamin D3 is 87% more effective at raising and maintaining your vitamin D levels than vitamin D2. Researchers have said that ‘the assumption that vitamins D2 and D3 have equal nutritional value is probably wrong and should be reconsidered.’ Most people (especially older people) do not convert vitamin D2 to the active form that their bodies can use efficiently so it is best to speak to one of our nutritionists for advice.

How To Avoid A Monday Morning Hangover

The fastest way to help the body recover from the effects of a hangover caused by alcohol, rich food and late nights, is to support your body’s detoxification process, restore your blood sugar balance and combat dehydration.

A whole variety of foods can assist these processes, but Dr Marilyn Glenville discusses some of the key players here:

Top tips to avoid a hangover

Drink Water! Even mild dehydration can lead to ‘hangover’ symptoms including fatigue, headache and bad moods. Nutrients cannot move into cells, and wastes cannot move out of the body, without water as a vital means of transportation. Alcohol and caffeine can cause the body to excrete too much water, along with nutrients such as Magnesium, Potassium and Vitamins B and C. These nutrients are particularly needed to help to restore your energy levels and support detoxification by your liver.

As Vitamins B and C are water-soluble, they can be absorbed and used by the body within hours, so they can help ease a hangover fairly quickly.

Take Magnesium, Vitamin C and B complex supplements, and eat fibre-rich wholefoods for a boost of these nutrients and to help balance the level of sugar in your blood.

Try oat porridge with cinnamon powder and fresh fruit for Monday morning’s breakfast. If you are feeling queasy as your body is still trying to digest last night’s takeaway curry, just try some oatcakes with some banana or apple. This also makes a tasty mid-morning snack when your blood sugar dips. It is important not to rely on sugary foods and drinks to ‘prop up’ your energy levels throughout the day, because although you may feel better quickly, you will rebound and feel even worse later on. Using sugar as a crutch to provide a temporary boost of energy to get you through the day, can lead to a bad night’s sleep. This starts off your next day badly and you can fall into the vicious cycle of using sugar and other stimulants daily.

So follow the 4 simple rules to balance your blood sugar and energy levels:

1)       Eat little and often (3 moderate meals plus 2 snacks. Avoids gaps longer than 2 – 3 hours between food).

2)       Avoid highly sugary & processed carbohydrates (‘white’ bread, pasta and rice; biscuits, pastries, etc). Instead choose wholegrain cereals full of fibre and nutrients, which will release sugar steadily.

3)       When eating carbohydrates, also eat foods containing protein and the good omega fats, as they ensure a nice steady release of sugar into your blood.

4)       Avoid  stimulants (tea, coffee, smoking, recreational drugs, alcohol, etc) which upset your blood sugar balance, leading to fatigue and poor concentration.

If you find you still need some extra energy to get you through Monday, then try some herbal supplements, such as Siberian Ginseng. This gently supports your adrenal glands to help them cope with the stressful effects of the hangover, and ensure they can assist steady energy production through the day. Drinking Green tea can also be helpful as it contains L-Theanine – a nutrient that enables calm but alert thinking, and can offset the small amount of caffeine in the tea. Freshly-squeezed lemon juice in some warm water can help to alleviate nausea and pep up your liver.

Your liver is also very important to help you prevent and overcome ‘hangover’ effects. Not only does it help to regulate your blood sugar, but it works as the ‘filtering factory’ of the body – cleaning out wastes and toxins from your blood. Your liver has to work extra hard for you after a weekend of alcohol and fatty food, so make its job easier by taking Vitamin C and herbal teas or supplements such as Milk Thistle, Artichoke and Dandelion. Include liver-supportive foods such as beetroot, broccoli, garlic, asparagus and also Omega fat-rich foods such as flaxseeds, walnuts and avocado. In the long-term, as Omega fats form the membrane around all your body cells, they are essential for your whole body’s health but especially for your brain function, mood and energy levels.

If the ‘Monday Morning’ feeling is a permanent fixture in your diary, then you should consider consulting one of our qualified Nutritionists to give you an individualised action plan, to help your body minimize and cope with the stress and damaging effects of overindulgence.

A Beginner’s Brain Breakdown

woman looking down to the title of beggings brain breakdown in purple box with a colourful brain painting behind her head

The terms dementia and Alzheimer’s are often used interchangeably but dementia is actually an umbrella term for up to 100 different types of disease, of which Alzheimer’ is just one of them. What’s more, a person can suffer from more than one form of dementia at any one time and that’s because our brain – though all connected – has different parts which all serve different functions.

The type of dementia a person suffers from depends upon which brain function has become impaired – that is, which part of the brain has become diseased. You can start to spot early signs of dementia or disease by identifying the impairments. The main parts of the brain and their functions are:

The Brain Stem

At the base of the brain, this area controls your automatic body functions such as heartbeat and breathing.

The Cerebellum

Is responsible for your balance and posture

The Limbic System

Lies deep inside the brain, includes the hippocampus (the key to your memory) and the amygdala (which plays a role in your emotional health)

The Cerebrum

Compromises the cerebral hemispheres that make up three quarters of the whole brain. The cerebrum is responsible for consciousness, memory, reasoning, language, and social skills. The left cerebral hemisphere is responsible for language; while the right governs our understanding of where we are in relation to the things around us.

The Cortex

Is a thin layer of grey matter covering the cerebrum and containing billions of brain cells. Beneath the grey matter of the cortex is white matter, which is made up of bundles of nerve fibres. These fibres transport nerve signals between parts of the cortex and from the cortex to other parts of the brain.

The Lobes

Which are located in the cerebrum. There are four lobes in each cerebral hemisphere (right and left) with each one having its own vital role to play, as well as working in conjunction with the other lobes:

The Occipital Lobe – at the back of the brain deals with visual information

The Parietal Lobe – in the upper rear part of the cerebrum, handles information from your other senses and enables you to know how to pick up a fork to eat with, or to put one leg in front of the other to walk. You use your left parietal lobe to read, write and process numbers while your right parietal lobe helps you recognise objects as being three-dimensional.

The Temporal Lobe – on either side of your brain (near your temples), these are themselves divided into sections that govern different brain functions including the hippocampus (crucial for forming new memories) which lies inside the temporal lobes, as well as the outer part of the temporal lobe which is where you store your general knowledge or semantic memory. Again, within the semantic memory, the different sides of the brain (left and right) have different functions. The left side stores facts, word meanings and names of objects while the right stores the visual memories that help you recognise familiar faces and objects.

The Frontal Lobe – forms the large and complex management centre of your brain, helping you to solve problems and make decisions. You use this management centre to follow the steps of a familiar task as well as it helping to keep you focused to complete the task, learn a new one or develop complex skills until they become automatic – like learning to drive.

The reason it’s important to recognise the different areas of the brain, especially when it comes to dementia, is you can notice when something is not quite right with a particular function; for example, if your memory is not what it used to be or if you are feeling more reluctant to engage with life or socialising.

Frontotemporal dementia is the second most common cause of dementia in the under 65’s, but less common in older people. This is caused when abnormal proteins prevent the brain cells from communicating with each other as they should. One-third of cases are thought to be genetic. Symptoms may include personality changes, repetitive behaviour, changes in appetite and difficulties with decision making, problem-solving and concentration. 
This form of dementia may be confused with depression, psychosis, or obsessive-compulsive behaviour.

As a nutrition clinic, the aspect of self-care in preventing dementia we are most interested in is, of course, diet – and we believe that what you eat can have a huge impact on the health of your brain.

Health Facts That You May Not Know…

  • With food intolerances (also known as a food sensitivities) once you have identified what you are reacting to and eliminated it, basically giving your digestive system a ‘break’ to improve your digestive health, then it is likely that you can then go back to eating those foods in moderation.
  • Three months is the magic number to change the quality of your eggs, because it takes approximately that long for the follicles on your ovaries to develop before one is mature enough to release an egg at ovulation.
  • Women are at risk of osteoporosis from the menopause onwards, when hormone levels reduce.
  • BMI is not the best measurement for knowing if you are overweight. Muscle is heavier than fat, so a well-muscled, extremely fit person might register a BMI as high as an unfit rather overweight person.
  • Sage is a botanical herb that has been used for centuries.  Women often use sage as they go through the menopause and it has also been used to improve mental energy and alertness and reduce stress.
  • Protein is a vital nutrient needed for your body to perform many functions, including the production of antibodies to resist infection and the formation of new tissue. Too much or too little protein may reduce the strength of your bones and increase the risk of fracture.
  • You could have sex on a Monday and get pregnant on the Friday when the egg has been released.  This is because the egg once released at ovulation only survives for about 24 hours but the sperm can live for up to seven days when the cervical mucus is alkaline.
  • It is estimated that 45% of the UK population has a food intolerance. These intolerances can affect many parts of your body including:
  • Skin – Eczema, urticaria, itching, rashes
  • Gastrointestinal – Severe bloating, diarrhoea, constipation, flatulence, IBS
  • Recurrent Infections – Chronic infections, frequent ear infections
  • Mental / Emotional – Anxiety, depression, hyperactivity, insomnia, irritability
  • Musculoskeletal – Joint and muscle pain, arthritis
  • Respiratory – Asthma, rhinitis
  • Others – Palpitations, water retention, headaches, fatigue, migraines, weight gain
  • Your bones are at their strongest around the age of 30 and then they start to become weaker around the menopause which can lead to osteoporosis.
  • Muscle takes up 5 times less space than fat so as you lose fat, you lose inches, your clothes feel looser and your body shape changes but your weight could stay the same.
  • It is reported that every three seconds a bone will break somewhere in the world, because of osteoporosis. The good news is that fractures can often be prevented through healthy lifestyle choices.
  • The word allergy is derived from Greek with ‘allos’ meaning different and ‘ergos’ meaning action, so when something foreign enters your body it has to take action by responding to that alien substance.

5 Key Questions Before Following A Weight Loss Plan

Best Weight Loss Program

Choosing the right diet plan can be a daunting task. With numerous plans promising to be the best weight loss program ever and offering amazing results, it can be difficult to choose the right one. That being said, it’s important to be fully prepared when starting a diet plan. There’s a number of things that need to be considered to ensure that the plan will not only provide great results, but will also improve your health.

  1. Is The Diet Plan Safe?

Here at Glenville Nutrition here advise that while it may be important to lose weight, it’s never appropriate to do so at the expense of one’s health. There are some pretty drastic weight loss programs on the market today. From eating nothing but baby food, to very strict detox plans, these types of diets can lead to complications within your immune system and potentially put a strain on your organs. It is important therefore you ensure you will receive adequate nutrition throughout the plan to achieve natural weight loss and avoid complications.

Furthermore, when it comes to supplements, it is  important to do your research and avoid any harmful ingredients or side-effects.

  1. Can I Keep Up With It?

One of the biggest reasons women fail to complete a diet is that they find it difficult to keep up with. Diet plans with ridiculous rules and restrictions are notorious for being difficult to finish. When it comes to questioning whether you will be able to finish a plan, you  need to think rationally about the diet and your lifestyle before making a commitment.

Diets, by their very nature, require a lifestyle change, but some changes are easier to make than others. You need to find a plan you can work with. While compromises must be made, if a plan consists of something that’s difficult to do or give up, you are already setting yourself up for failure.

  1. Will It Affect My Daily Life?

Another huge deterrent to diets is that it changes a person’s way of life. Obviously, diets require some sort of change in lifestyle and you must be able to make the required changes to see the results. However, diets are not meant to completely control a person’s life. Instead, diets should be manageable within your normal life. For example, it should teach good habits that can be implemented into normal activities, such as dining out. It shouldn’t control your life, but rather help to modify (and improve) it.

  1. Will It Provide Long Term Results?

It’s not uncommon for women to gain back the weight after they lose it with a diet. This is because often the chosen diet plan was a quick fix rather than a change in lifestyle. Diets shouldn’t be short periods to get healthy. Instead, diets should teach you how to modify your habits to stay healthy and manage your weight long term. It should be something that lasts a lifetime, not just a few months out of the year.

  1. Is It Personalised?

There’s no “one size fits all” diet plan. Every woman’s body is different. We all react differently to exercise and food, making it difficult to see success in generic plans. Most of these plans are formulated for women who are of moderate height and activity level. If you don’t fit in that parameter, you will likely see lackluster results. It is better therefore to choose a diet plan that is personalised for your body and lifestyle. With a custom plan, you will see much better results and find it easier to follow.

Starting a diet plan is big first step in getting healthy. The choice of diet plan is something that should not be taken lightly. And you need to ask the right questions to get the knowledge you need to succeed. The right plan can make all the difference. Instead of failing and starting over with something new, do your research, choose the right plan and see results that will last a lifetime.

If you would like to know more about losing weight and learning to manage it, why not book an appointment with one of our qualified nutritionists? Fill out the form or give us a call on 01892 515905

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