It's the dark days of winter in the Northern Hemisphere in which the sun shines less and is lower in the sky. That means your body has less of a chance of making vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin. Vitamin D is an essential nutrient, meaning your body can't produce it on its own. In this episode, we discuss what vitamin D is and what it does in your body, how you can get vitamin D and how using sunscreen affects how much you have, and what vitamin D defficiency means to your health.

Select references cited in this podcast:

Effect of Vitamin D3 Supplements on Development of Advanced Cancer: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2773074

The Role of Water-Soluble Viatmins and Vitamin D in Prevention and Treatment of Depression and Seasonal Affective Disorder in Adults: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/16/12/1902

Supplemental Vitamin D and Incident Fractures in Midlife and Older Adults: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2202106

The holiday season is upon us and with it the parties, food and time with family and friends. This can be season of joy, but it also brings with it challenges to your healthy lifestyle and for many, extra stress. Up to 45% of people go on an exercise break during the holidays and 90% report some holiday related stress. It's also a time of year we see more people having heart attacks. In this episode, we discuss ways to enjoy the holidays while keeping up with healthy eating and activity, as well as how to handle any extra stress that may come your way. We finish with discussing why heart attacks rise during the holidays and how you can help yourself or a loved one prevent this from occurring.

Old Wives' Tales are claims or sayings meant to promote a specific behaviour, such as eating carrots to improve eyesight. Many of these Tales started without any facts or science to support them and while following some may be harmless, others are not. In this episode, we've fact-checked four common Old Wives' Tales related to health, and the results may surprise you.