Listen: getting us through a bleak January

Many people say that January is the bleakest month of the year, with dark mornings and evenings, the absence of sunshine and nothing to look forward to post Christmas, are just some of the reasons people dislike it so much. However, it provides the opportunity to reset, get your priorities straight, and work on building a productive and healthy lifestyle.

However, not only do we spend more time indoors in January compared to other times of the year (39%), over half of us (53%) say we are more conscious about our mental health and almost half (48%) feel our immune system takes a hit, with a third (32%) becoming ill more frequently in winter from colds in in comparison to summer. Yet 40% of us don’t proactively change our daily routine to help support our immune system.

Research by Actimel has found that we do often look to pick ourselves up throughout January, with looking ahead to summer holidays (20%), a fresh start (23%) and improving health and wellbeing (19%) being a key focus.

Aston spoke to immunologist Dr Jenna Macciochi.