How to prepare your body for a healthy winter

As the evenings get darker and winter approaches, there is an understandable tendency to look for something that will make us healthier almost overnight, whether that is a new supplement, an immune booster, a detox or the latest wellness intervention.

In reality, the most effective approach is usually far less dramatic. Good health is built through the things we do consistently, and autumn is a useful time to take stock of those habits before the demands of winter set in.

As a doctor, I think this matters as winter tends to expose areas where we are less resilient. We spend more time indoors, daylight hours fall, routines can slip, exercise may decrease and social calendars often get busier. Rather than trying to overhaul everything at once, I would start with the fundamentals: exercise, sleep, nutrition, recovery and, where appropriate, carefully chosen supplementation.

Exercise is probably the single most powerful intervention we have for long term health. Its benefits extend across cardiovascular health, metabolic health, muscle, bone, cognition and mental wellbeing, and maintaining physical capacity is increasingly important as we age. People often feel they need a perfect training programme, but consistency matters far more.

A combination of resistance exercise and aerobic activity is ideal, but simply continuing to exercise regularly throughout the winter months can make a meaningful difference.

Sleep is equally fundamental and often one of the first things to suffer when life is busy. It is not simply a period of inactivity. During sleep, the brain and body are undertaking essential processes involved in recovery, immune regulation, memory and metabolic health. Most adults need 7-9 hours, yet many routinely sacrifice sleep while simultaneously investing time and money in other forms of health optimisation.

I wear a WHOOP continuously, and one of the most useful things it has taught me is how clearly sleep, alcohol, travel, stress and illness are reflected in physiological data. It is very easy to tell ourselves that we are functioning perfectly well on less sleep, but longitudinal data can show a different picture.

Nutrition is just as important, particularly as we move into winter. I am not an advocate of extreme diets or rigid fasting protocols. Instead, I would focus on nutritional adequacy and consistency: regular meals, sufficient protein, vegetables, fruit, whole grains, healthy fats and oily fish where possible. Protein is particularly important as we age as maintaining muscle is closely linked to strength, physical function and independence later in life.

Recovery is the other side of exercise. There is a growing tendency to think more training, technology and intervention must always be better, but the body also needs time to recover and adapt. Adequate sleep, sufficient nutrition and appropriate rest are part of becoming fitter and healthier.

Supplementation can sit on top of those foundations, but I think it needs to be approached intelligently. Supplements should not be used to compensate for poor sleep, inadequate nutrition or inactivity, nor should people simply accumulate products because they have seen individual ingredients promoted online. Age, diet, medications, pregnancy status, medical history, blood results and existing supplements all influence what an individual may need. At the same time, there are nutritional requirements and biological processes that are relevant to almost all of us. One of the things I see frequently in clinical practice is people taking multiple products that contain the same nutrients without realising it. More is not always better, and supplementation should ideally be comprehensive without becoming indiscriminate.

Vitamin D is a particularly relevant example in Ireland. Our ability to produce it from sunlight falls significantly in the winter, so supplementation is often recommended. Individual requirements can still vary according to age, skin type, pregnancy status, diet and whether someone is deficient, which is where personalised advice from a doctor, pharmacist or dietitian can be useful.

That balance between broad nutritional foundations and the biology of healthy ageing was central when Professor Nicola Ralph and I developed ID Formulas. We spent six years developing Advanced ID as we wanted to move away from the model of chasing one fashionable ingredient at a time. We included nutrients relevant to everyday health, but also looked closely at the scientific framework known as the 12 Hallmarks of Ageing.

These describe interconnected biological processes involved in cellular ageing, including mitochondrial dysfunction, genomic instability, cellular senescence, altered nutrient sensing and chronic inflammation.

The formulation was developed with these pathways in mind, bringing together clinically studied nutrients and bioactives at meaningful doses within one comprehensive daily protocol.

Just as importantly, we did not want people to take something and simply hope it was making a difference. That is why we partnered with WHOOP and built an API integration into the ID Formulas Data Lab, allowing users to follow changes in sleep, recovery, strain and heart rate variability over time.

I believe this concept of measurement will become increasingly important in preventative health. People are investing significant amounts of time, effort and money in exercise, nutrition, supplements and health technology, and increasingly they will want to know what is actually making a difference for them.

There is something reassuring about returning to the basics. We do not need to reinvent our health every autumn. We need to exercise consistently, maintain muscle, sleep enough, eat well, moderate alcohol, manage stress and remain socially connected, while using supplementation where it adds value.

For me, healthspan is not about pursuing perfection or trying to avoid ageing. It is about doing what we can now to preserve our physical and cognitive health, independence and enjoyment of life for as many years as possible. Winter is simply a very good time to reassess whether the habits we have in place are helping us get there.