SAD - Seasonal Affective Disorder...

[LakeMartinGal]

I had an epiphany yesterday! I was wondering if maybe the SAD that affects me each year around Christmas might be more of a vitamin D deficiency than depression from the upcoming holiday!

No answer as yet, but I started with a small dose of vitamin D today, and will continue for a month or so. Maybe I can reverse/escape the Christmas blues!:)

Do any of you suffer from SAD this time of year? Have you tried Vitamin D?

[wallycat]

The research papers I've been pouring through with the doc I work with shows 10,000 IU daily till your blood level hits 50-80 is fine and safe.

I have reverse SAD, so I don't think mine is vitamin D issues :(

[Laurielee]

I just got my test results back today on my vitamin D levels. I am at 24. THis came in the mail from my Dr and said to take vitamin D 1000 mg twice a day. Sounds like i have a ways to go to get to the 5-80 level.

I had SAD this summer when we had smoke from fires for almost 3 months!

Laurie

[wallycat]

I just got my test results back today on my vitamin D levels. I am at 24. THis came in the mail from my Dr and said to take vitamin D 1000 mg twice a day. Sounds like i have a ways to go to get to the 5-80 level.

I had SAD this summer when we had smoke from fires for almost 3 months!

Laurie

Did you get the 1,25-0H checked or the 25-OH checked?

[GingerPow]

Excellent topic, Kay!

During a conversation with my Dr. last year, we were discussing vitamins and supplements. He asked if I take calcium and magnesium, which I do ~ then he asked if I take Vitamin D. I told him that I have it, yet I often forget to take it.

He then told me what he had read about Vit. D, and how important it is, especially when you enter that after-40-something, fine-wine stage of life. He also mentioned that studies indicate we need a higher dose of D than was previously thought to be the minimum daily requirement, which tend to be skimpy anyway. I take a 1000 mg. capsule, as regularly as possible. (Still forget sometimes. :rolleyes:) The supplement SAM-e is very helpful as well.

The gray days here at the shore can absolutely get to me. It's a very GRAY sort of gray that just wears on me. I upped my Vitamin B-complex, as well as B6 so perhaps combined with regular Vit D, last winter's GRAY didn't bother me as much. Or maybe I was so gosh-darn busy getting the house ready to sell, I didn't notice! ;)

On a related note; our DS is in college in New England. When we returned him to school after the Thanksgiving break, I noticed how dismal his dorm was in the middle of the day. He and his dorm mates just have the energy efficient desk lamps which give off a bluish florescent light.

It occurred to me that it might help him to have a regular lamp with a full-spectrum bulb. The college prefers the energy efficient lighting, which I understand, but the gray winter days can get to anyone, even a teenager. I wonder now if the occasional down moods he has experienced is totally due to the freshman transition. He tends to take after me, and I never have been able to stand too many gray days in a row. I'll add Vitamin D and extra B-Complex to his vitamins when he's home, then send him back to school after Christmas break with a new lamp.

[LakeMartinGal]

I used to live in Buffalo, and was used to the grayness, I thought. Then, when we moved to Cincinnati, where it's much sunnier, I was amazed at what a better mood I was in during the winter. Moving to Alabama, where it's usually sunny was another big amazement. I never knew how much the sunshine could affect a person until now. No wonder those in gray climates are usually grumpy!;) It's way harder to maintain good humor when the world around you is gray!

I think you're onto something GingerPow, about the lighting in the dorm, and being in the NE, too!

I haven't had my levels done, but I think I'll up the D even more, just to get through Christmas, and the rainy season. (It's absolutely thundering down right now, and a tornado watch!) I feel better just having taken it for a few days!

Another BB member, who works in the medical research field, PM'd me to say that they have been working with Vitamin D research this year, and while they didn't investigate SAD specifically, they found the same thing GingerPow's Dr. was saying! I think (naively) that, if we were all sunnier in disposition, a lot of things like road rage would be lessened!:D

[Laurielee]

Did you get the 1,25-0H checked or the 25-OH checked?

I just called them and they said the 25 Hydroxy, whats the difference in the tests

Laurie

[clairea]

I am going to try adding Vit D. I have noticed a huge change with wintertime "blues" just since moving from Georgia to NE Tennessee. You wouldn't think that relatively small change in latitude would make a difference, but perhaps it did.

I have posted before (I think) about dawn/dusk simulators. These were recommended to us by a psychiatrist and have actually been used in a SAD study. They are expensive (around $150 I believe) but we have found it to make a huge difference and I have recently purchased another for DS. If anyone is interested I can provide info about the source. I am also going to try adding a full-spectrum bulb to my desk lamp since I am spending so much time there studying this year.