Happy New Year! I hope you all had a peaceful break over the holidays. Welcome to 2025, the year to prioritise your health!
2024 prices will be held. Despite a 40% increase on certain supplies and mounting costs in general, I am keeping prices unchanged going into 2025. There is still some availability left in January and February for appointments, if you’re quick to book in. This won’t last for long. I’d like to remind everyone that the clinic will now run on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays only. A considerable amount of work goes on behind the scenes from booking, rebooking, admin, accounting, ordering and manufacturing and to maintain the clinic can takes 60 hours or more per week, I receive a very high volume of correspondence, so please be aware of this when awaiting a reply. Also, please check out the FAQ section of the website BEFORE sending an email as your question may already be answered.
At this time of year, it is particularly important to keep your immune system optimised. While nutrition is important in general, there are certain key nutrients to focus on. Daily RDA and therapeutic doses are listed below. Therapeutic dosage should only be used at the start of any infection, or clear sign of insufficiency or deficiency.
Vitamin D3
Birth to 12 months 10 mcg (400 IU)
Children 1–13 years 15 mcg (600 IU)
Teens 14–18 years 15 mcg (600 IU)
Adults 19–70 years 15 mcg (600 IU)
Adults 71 years and older 20 mcg (800 IU)
Pregnant and breastfeeding teens and women 15 mcg (600 IU)
Therapeutic dose: 10,000 IU once, followed by 800 IU for 8 weeks (Ref.)
Zinc picolinate
Birth to 6 months 2 mg
7–12 months 3 mg
1–3 years 3 mg
4–8 years 5 mg
9–13 years 8 mg
14–18 years 11 mg 9 mg
19+ years 11 mg
Therapeutic dose: 15-25mg (Ref.)
Vitamin C
Birth-6 months 40mg
7-12 months 50mg
1-3 years 15mg
4-8 years 25mg
9-13 years 5mg
14-18 75mg
19 years and over 90mg
Smokers should add at least 35mg daily as tobacco smoking depletes vitamin C
Therapeutic dose: 1-8g daily in divided does of 500mg (Ref.)
Other important nutrients include selenium, iron and magnesium. Mushrooms of all shapes, including the common white button mushroom, contain polysaccharides (as beta glucans) and triterpenes which can enhance your immunity. Patrons of Belfast Herbalist can avail of a 10% discount off all supplements and recommended tried and tested brands.
Another overlooked aspect of immunity is our level of awareness or consciousness. Becoming a critical thinker and asking the right questions is very important, and keeping upbeat despite fear mongering and hysterical newspaper headlines. The legacy media is becoming increasingly untrustworthy in its reporting of health-related subjects, so its important to look at the research which does or doesn’t support any medicinal claim, rather than accepting a post on social media at face value or blindly accepting information in general.
Access to the website library of my articles and papers will be available soon. Stay tuned.
Thank you to everyone once again for your continuing support for the clinic in the last 12 months, and I look forward to seeing you all and many new faces in 2025.
Wishing you all good health
Danny