The importance of good health

Middles & Baggy; our oldest and youngest cats - 7th of August 2010

This last week as been completely dedicated to work, with almost no time for anything but a mad dash around the animals in the morning and a break from paper work at some point in the evening to do the same just before it gets dark. Yesterday was the day of The Forest Fun Festival quite possibly the biggest event in my work calendar and this year made extra important by the sad fact that it may very well be the last due to one funding programme ending and it not looking hopeful of there being much, if any, funding for such things next year.    

This morning I am tired, but not overly, literally too tired to move, tired. And this morning I realised I haven’t burst in to tears once this week* which has made me realise how much better I am from a few years ago. A few years ago I just wouldn’t have been able to cope and would have spent the week busting into tears if anything went slightly wrong, this week things have gone wrong, I have been pissed off and grumpy about them and fixed it.    

And the reason for me being able to cope? Vitamin b12. Such a little imbalance in my general health (last year I found I cannot absorb vitamin b12 as effectively as most people) has had such a massive impact on what I can achieve and be able to cope with. I can now spot the signs a mile off that lack of vitamin b12 have on people, the most commonly being people sitting in the sun, almost word for word quoting me from a few years ago “I don’t tan, I just burn and then go white again”. Vitamin b12 is needed to absorb iron which is needed for skin to tan.    

Since my mega course of vitamin b12 from the doctor last year I have carried on taking a vitamin b12 supplement, I have to get it as an individual supplement as even in vitamin b complex it is often missed out.    

One of the interesting parts of Our Farm was a chapter about how the vitamin and minerals levels in food have slowly lessened as time has gone on. The best example I can remember of this is the enormous size herbivorous dinosaurs could reach due the levels of vitamins and minerals that could be taken up from the soil by plants. Radio 4’s Food Programme has recently dedicated a whole programme to vitamin d and the ill effect too little of this can have on people, the programme makes very interesting listening and begins by giving an example of an ice hocky team who after being found to be deficient in vitamin d were put on a course of supplement and eighteen months later won the cup.    

One of the few things that I have found time for this week was naming the kitten that we are keeping, she is to be called Midnight, or Middles for short and is already by far the smartest kitten from the litter. 

*ok, there were tears last night but these were completely down to the whole chillies including seeds that I ate. Nothing to do with not being able to cope with life