During the summer months, people are used to enjoying the sun, doing outdoor activities, and taking vacation time. But as the seasons change, you will notice that your mood does too. When fall and winter rolls around, people are inclined to hibernate, have less energy to do activities, and struggle to adapt to more cloudy and colder weather. This causes people to become more tired, more anxious, and have an increased chance of experiencing depression. Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is not just the winter blues and should be taken seriously. It impacts millions of Americans and the symptoms are similar to major depression.
In addition to a lack of sunlight during the winter months, which contributes to providing vitamin D, there are other nutrients that people have a deficiency in that we may need to pay more attention to. They include vitamin C, folic acid, vitamin B complex, and iron, which are important to maintain during the winter months in order to stay healthy. Getting these nutrients can be as easy as having the right diet, purchasing oral supplements at your local grocery store, or, if you like, getting the nutrients administered directly into your system.
Intravenous vitamin therapy is something that has become more common in the wellness industry within the last several years, but it has been around for some time. What started as something that was only available to the wealthy or A-list celebrities is now available to people who are financially fit enough to invest in this wellness lifestyle. IV vitamin therapy is a practice where healthcare professionals administer minerals and/or vitamins directly into the vein. The IV can be a mixture of multiple nutrients that can give you the boost that you need. More and more spas and clinics have set up shop with this offering. One of those businesses is Liquivida. Founded by Sam Tejada, Liquivida is touted as the number one IV vitamin therapy provider in the country. The business also has wellness divisions that focus on weight loss, sexual health, regenerative services, and more.
“Liquivida started off as vitamin IV Therapy where we deliver vitamins, minerals, and amino acids into the bloodstream. But currently, we do a lot more than that,” Tejada explains. “In regards to the IV drips, there are a magnitude of different nutrients that help with different types of symptoms or issues people may be having. Typically, how we view it is that we just don’t want to give people any kind of random mixture of vitamins. What we do is that we like people to get a blood test done and then [the team] can actually see what you are deficient in and what the body needs, so it is more personalized.”
When it comes to vitamin levels and mental health, there is a link that explains why we might be feeling the way we do. Certain vitamin deficiencies negatively affect your bodily functions. “Vitamin D is the one vitamin that is a hormone precursor. It regulates all of your different hormones. So if your hormones are not regulated properly, then you have a hormone imbalance and then you can experience mood swings, depression, and anxiety. Vitamin D is also a very essential nutrient for your immune system,” he shares. “One of the other vitamins needed when you are supplementing vitamin D is vitamin K2. You can take vitamin D, but for the vitamin to get transported throughout your body to the appropriate organs and cells, you need the K2, which will help with that.”
He continued, “Vitamin B, or some people call it the B complex vitamin, B12 or B6, has a direct effect on your mental health. It affects mental clarity and mental focus. So if you do not have mental clarity or mental focus, you end up getting frustrated easily, anxiety increases, and then you can get depressed because you can’t remember things.”
Regular consumption of these particular vitamins is vital to improve your mental health as well as your overall health. IV vitamin therapy is a choice to consider to obtain those nutrients because of the direct absorption of the nutrients into the body.
“When you look at the back of the bottle of these oral supplements, there’s a reason you have to take them two or three times a day. Statistically, your body only absorbs 20-30% of what you put in orally,” says Tejada. “A lot of people, especially in the U.S., have gut issues like leaky gut or acid reflux, which doesn’t allow us to absorb vitamins even as much as 20-30 percen. So you want to make sure that when you are taking oral supplements that you find a supplement that has been tested, that is bioavailable in regards to absorption, and that your gut health is on point to get as much absorption as possible. But with intravenous therapy, you are getting 100% absorption directly into your bloodstream at the cellular level.”
While staying healthy is something that everyone should be working on year-round, the winter months are when people are more likely to not feel their best. If you are not sure of the signs, here are a few to look out for according to the Liquivida founder. “If you are getting sick often, it usually means that your immune system is potentially being suppressed for some reason and doesn’t have the nutrients that it needs. If you’re feeling fatigue or having a lack of energy, mental fog, emotional fluctuations, and your memory is not as in tact as it could be, these are some common signs that people should pay attention to.”