Blood Pressure, B12 and the Sun

 

I had my B12 shot on Friday and as she always does, the nurse took my blood pressure. It was absolutely normal for a sixty year old man. I was pleased. But a couple of years ago, it was all over the place in the winter. So much so, that I was measuring it every day with a machine from the surgery. I got the impression that this winter, I wasn’t that brilliant either, especially after the death of Celia. But everything in my body seems to have come better in the last few weeks as the sun has come out. I find that in the winter, I cough and splutter for perhaps half-an-hour or so when I start playing real tennis, but now I have no breathing problems and am ready to go. My handicap is improving too.

As a scientist and engineer, I wonder if others notice that the sun appears to calm their systems and make them more energetic? Could it be that the vitamin D is important to us? And if so, why?

Another curious thing, is that people, like the nurse, say I’m getting thin. She worries about me, so she also weighed me on Friday. I had lost a kilo since the last time she weighed me properly about two years ago. I wouldn’t have thought that was serious, but I have lost centimetres from my waist. That I suspect, is because I’m eating a bit less, as I’ve cut out things like cereals, as I find that if I have more than a small amount of milk, I react to it. So breakfast is more often fruit and perhaps a couple of Trufree crackers with honey.

Incidentally, I have taken to weighing myself regularly over the last month or so, as I want to keep my weight steady at around 61 to 62 kilos. One thing I notice is that if I weigh myself before I go to bed and then when I get up in the morning, the difference is almost half a kilo. Do we really sweat that much away?