Logo Facebook Leclerc Assurances

1 800 567-0927

Contact us

3 effective tips to help you face winter

3 effective tips to help you face winter

3 effective tips to help you face winter

As soon as winter arrives, many of us experience physical and physiological changes. First, we tend to eat a lot more and are also more attracted to foods that are not necessarily the same foods that attract us during the summer.

There is naturally a very sound biological reason: With the arrival of cold weather, our body needs to spend more calories to stay warm so it gives us an unconscious command that it is time to make provisions.

Luminotherapy to help with moral

Among the other effects noticeable when the days get shorter is seasonal depression (or seasonal affective disorder) which is also called winter blues. It is a disorder caused by lack of natural light. In fact, we are a bit like a plant that is suddenly deprived of sunlight.

If the following symptoms come back year after year in your life, then you are probably part of the 18% of the Canadian population who are affected by this disorder:

• Depressed mood
• Loss of interest in activities that usually interest you
• Inability to concentrate
• Fatigue and lack of energy
• Irritability
• Trouble sleeping
• Etc.

A proven solution to combat the side effects of seasonal depression is to get a light therapy lamp that reaches 10,000 lux. Why 10,000 lux? To get the maximum benefit from the shortest daily exposure time.

It is recommended to use the lamp in the morning, in the first hour of waking, at a distance of about one arm (30-40 centimeters).

The idea is to let your face bathe in the light, while you go about your normal routine, like reading your newspaper or having breakfast, for example.

Usually, the recommended exposure time is 15 to 30 minutes daily, but it is best to check the manufacturer’s directions for proper distance and time of exposure.

Improvements can be seen after only a few days.

Note that treatment is recommended from fall to spring – ideally before the onset of symptoms.

The price of lamps varies between $50 and $250 depending on the type chosen, but it is quite easy to find a good 10,000 lux lamp at a good price on resale sites. Unfortunately, like a stationary bicycle, the lamp is also often relegated to oblivion because its owner lacks assiduity and ends up believing that it doesn’t work.

Magnesium chloride to escape from winter viruses

Feeling tired, loss of motivation, increased nervousness or insomnia? Some doctors recommend the use of magnesium chloride in the fall or winter to boost the immune system and make us less susceptible to catch viruses.

This product is available in pharmacies (packets to be diluted in a liter of water, for example), but the Naturist formula 454 (also available from Brunet) as a liquid is probably the easiest and most effective to use. Just add half a teaspoon of magnesium chloride in two fingers of juice in the morning and at night.

Ask your pharmacist for more details and to check with your doctor before taking this nutritional supplement.

Echinacea to stop the flu

One last thing to help you better fight winter is to always have on hand capsules or ampoules of echinacea. Why? Because at the first symptoms of cold or flu, taking this medicine may literally stop the proliferation of the virus.

At the first sign of sore throat, for example, take the recommended dose of echinacea and it’s a safe bet that, a few hours later, you will find that, finally, there was more fear than harm.


Jackie Beaudoin, Leclerc Insurance and Financial Services
Sources:  Canal Vie, Consoglobe, Passeport Santé