Don’t stop

VITAMIN D is known as the sunshine vitamin, and sunshine is the one thing that we can be sure of getting in Spain.

So do you still need a Vitamin D supplement?

“Yes, especially if you habitually use a sunscreen,” health experts ­ including those from Harvard ­ advised.

Most food contains only minimal amounts of Vitamin D, making it difficult to get the amount that you need from diet alone.

Vitamin D is absent from all natural foods except fish and egg yolks, and even when obtained from food, it must be transformed by the body before it can do any good, they said.

YOU can have too much of a good thing, including sleep.

University of Galway (Ireland) sleep experts analysed information from 5,000 people, half of whom had already experienced a stroke.

They found that the stroke risk doubled for participants sleeping more than nine hours a night, compared with those who were getting between seven and nine.

Results also revealed that people who slept less than five hours were three times more likely to suffer a stroke.

It was not clear why too much or too little sleep increased the risk, admitted Dr Christine McCarthy who led the research, although her team’s findings suggested this could indicate other underlying health issues.

Who to believe?

WEEK in, week out we receive conflicting reports regarding the dangers or benefits of alcohol.

Scientific studies have often concluded that moderate drinking was better for most people than not drinking at all. Some suggested it could even help them live longer. Having analysed 100 different surveys of approximately five million people, US investigators have now decided that many studies were flawed.

Far from bringing benefits, revised findings published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) warned that women risked premature death once they drank the daily equivalent of two 150millilitres of wine.

BODY NEUTRALITY is the ability to accept the way we look, even if it’s not entirely what we’d prefer.

The term became popular thanks to Anne Poirier, a body­ image coach who wrote The Body Joyful. She began using the phrase in 2015 to help

WHITE spots on the fingernails could mean a diet that is insufficient in zinc, calcium or iron.

Oysters – if you can manage them – are zinc ­ rich, but zinc is also plentiful in red meat and poultry. Other good sources are dairy products, beans, nuts, crab, lobster, and whole grains.

Turn to dairy again for calcium, along with seafood, canned fish, dark, leafy green vegetables, calcium ­ fortified food and fresh or dried figs.

For iron, choose eggs, poultry, shellfish, red meat and offal but vegetarians –and carnivores – will find plenty in nuts, pulses, peas, more of those dark leafy green vegetables and strawberries.

KING’S COLLEGE LONDON researchers have linked snoring and cognitive decline.

Previous studies had detected a connection but this latest investigation with otherwise healthy volunteers who snored heavily has con ­