Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
See article keywords and concepts |  There is one study, however, that looked at patients with seasonal affective disorder and looked at exposing them to a tanning bed, and looking at their vitamin D levels, and they could show a direct benefit from increasing blood levels of 25-hydroxy vitamin D and relief of symptoms of seasonal affective disorder. We also know that people during the winter time have aches and pains in their bones and muscles, and it also makes them depressed. | | Let's talk about mental health and seasonal affective disorder.
Dr. Holick: Principally, seasonal affective disorder is due to the fact that people who live in northern climates can't easily regulate the production of melatonin by the pineal gland. And melatonin is a hormone that causes you to fall asleep basically, or to hibernate. And so for many people that live in northern latitudes, the sun's rays are not intense enough and long enough in exposure time to regulate melatonin levels. | | There is one study, however, that looked at patients with seasonal affective disorder and looked at exposing them to a tanning bed, and looking at their vitamin D levels, and they could show a direct benefit from increasing blood levels of 25-hydroxy vitamin D and relief of symptoms of seasonal affective disorder. We also know that people during the winter time have aches and pains in their bones and muscles, and it also makes them depressed. | | Holick: Principally, seasonal affective disorder is due to the fact that people who live in northern climates can't easily regulate the production of melatonin by the pineal gland. And melatonin is a hormone that causes you to fall asleep basically, or to hibernate. And so for many people that live in northern latitudes, the sun's rays are not intense enough and long enough in exposure time to regulate melatonin levels. |
Gary Null and Amy McDonald
See book keywords and concepts |  Hypericum in the Treatment of seasonal affective disorder. Martinez B; et al. Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neurology, 1994 October, 7(Suppl .1):S29-S33.
Results of this study showed that treatment with 900 mg per day of hypericum coupled with two hours of daily light therapy significantly reduced symptoms of depression in patients suffering from seasonal affective disorder.
Multicenter Double-Blind Study Examining the Antidepressant Effectiveness of the Hypericum Extract LI 160. Hansgen KD; et al. Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neurology, 1994 October, 7(Suppl. 1):S15-18. |
David Winston, RH(AHG), and Steven Maimes
See book keywords and concepts |  For seasonal affective disorder, I use equal parts St. John's wort and lemon balm as a tea or a tincture. This pairing of herbs is a simple but elegant example of the concept of "synergy" in herbal prescribing (see chapter 11). Each has a mild effect on people with seasonal affective disorder, but the two together are vastly more effective than either one alone.
Gather lemon balm before it flowers, when it has a delightful odor and mild, fragrant lemony taste. If gathered later, it will have a bitter taste. | | It also can be taken for stress headaches, to promote better sleep quality (used with chamomile and linden flower), for nervous stomach, for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and most importantly, for seasonal affective disorder (SAD). For seasonal affective disorder, I use equal parts St. John's wort and lemon balm as a tea or a tincture. This pairing of herbs is a simple but elegant example of the concept of "synergy" in herbal prescribing (see chapter 11). |
Bottom Line Health
See book keywords and concepts | | People use the boxes to combat sleepiness and seasonal affective disorder (SAD), which can cause depression in the darker days of winter.
However, just like ultraviolet wavelengths, blue light could be dangerous to the eyes in heavy doses, Lockley warns, so it should be used with caution.
.f- Learn more about SAD at the National — Mental Health Association Web site at www.nmba.org. Click on "Fact Sheets," and then scroll down to "Seasonal Affective Disorder" under the heading "Depression and Mood Disorders. |
Phyllis A. Balch, CNC
See book keywords and concepts |  This type of disorder is known as seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Women are more likely to suffer from SAD than are men. People who suffer this type of depression in the winter months lose their energy, suffer anxiety attacks, gain weight as a result of craving the wrong foods, sleep too much, and have a reduced sex drive. Many people get depressed around the December holidays. While most of them probably just have the "holiday blues," some of them may be suffering from seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Suicides also seem to be highest during this time of year. |
Herbert Ross, DC with Keri Brenner, L.Ac.
See book keywords and concepts |  Called internal desynchronization, this situation ultimately disrupts the timing and duration of melatonin secretion, leading to sleep-wake rhythm disturbances such as insomnia, advanced or delayed sleep phase syndromes, and REM behavior disorders, as well as seasonal affective disorder.
Factors That Disrupt Sleep-Wake Rhythms
As discussed above, traveling across time zones and shift work can disrupt circadian sleep-wake rhythms, but so can other factors that alter levels of melatonin. | | Both factors can cause sleep onset insomnia as well as seasonal affective disorder.
Americans spend the vast majority of their time indoors, usually in win-dowless cubicles and energy-efficient homes under low-intensity artificial lights. A 1994 study found that middle-class, middle-aged adults in San Diego, California, spent 4% of their time outdoors—most of that time in their cars.10 It's likely that people who live in less sunny climates spend more time indoors. Night-shift workers are worse off, spending only 2.6% of their time outdoors. | | One of the most prevalent consequences of a disrupted circadian rhythm is an illness called seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Individuals who receive little natural light during the day often experience an imbalance in their serotonin and melatonin levels—specifically, a rise in melatonin and a corresponding decline in serotonin. When low exposure to natural light is chronic, it can lead to SAD. Often called "winter depression," SAD frequently occurs during the fall and winter months, when days grow shorter and natural light is limited. |
Bottom Line Health
See book keywords and concepts | | Click on "Fact Sheets," and then scroll down to "Seasonal Affective Disorder" under the heading "Depression and Mood Disorders."
The Health Benefits of Good Sleep
Studies now link lack of sleep with heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and difficulty controlling weight.
In addition, a lack of sleep boosts stress hormone levels, impairs the body's ability to process blood sugar, reduces levels of leptin (an appetite-depressing hormone) and increases inflammation—a factor in the development of heart disease. |
Herbert Ross, DC with Keri Brenner, L.Ac.
See book keywords and concepts | | While not a sleep problem per se, seasonal affective disorder (SAD), or the "winter blues," is also an outgrowth of a confused body clock.
Trappings of our modern lives generally cause sleep-wake rhythm disruptions. Both shift work and traveling across time zones set up the body for sleep problems. Other factors, including inadequate exposure to light, improper diet, pharmaceutical drugs, electromagnetic fields, and stress, can impair the pineal gland's ability to produce the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin, drastically altering sleep patterns. | | In 1985, both Sherrie, then 28, and her mother, who had the same symptoms, signed up as research subjects for a study on seasonal affective disorder at Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland. For three weeks, the two women lived in special quarters where the amount of light was strictly controlled. Technicians took regular blood samples day and night to monitor their levels of melatonin. The researchers were testing whether the lack of light in the morning allowed melatonin to be produced later in the day, causing the women's SAD symptoms. |
Jack Challem
See book keywords and concepts |  This pattern of depression is called seasonal affective disorder, and many researchers believe it is caused by an imbalance in levels of melatonin.This hormone, made by the pineal gland, regulates our circadian, or daily, rhythm and also makes us sleepy. Levels of melatonin tend to increase in the evening, decrease toward morning, and decrease further when we expose ourselves to sunlight. Sunlight suppresses the production of melatonin. |
Thomson Healthcare, Inc.
See book keywords and concepts |  Hypericum in seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Curr Med Res Opin 15(l):33-37. 1999.
Wheatley D. LI 160, an extract of St. John's Wort, versus amitriptyline in mildly to moderately depressed outpatients - a controlled 6-week clinical trial. Pharmacopsychiatry 30(suppl II):S77-S80. 1997.
Whitten DL. Myers SP, Hawrelak JA, et al. The effect of St. John's wort extract on CYP3A: a systematic review of prospective clinical trials. Br J Clin Pharmacol; 62: 5: 1365-2125. 2006.
Winterhoff H, Hambrugge M, Vahlensieck U. Pharmacological screening of Hypericum perforatum L. in animals. | | Patients with seasonal affective disorder (SAD), having had at least one previous episode of winter depression and who were not currently medicated and who scored less than 6 points on the Montgom-ery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS), were enrolled in the study. Patients were supplemented with 2 tablets a day of Gingko extract (N=15) (Bio-Biloba containing 24 mg flavone glycosides and 6 mg terpene lactones/tablet) or a placebo (n=12) for 10 weeks. No significant improvement in MADRS was noted following 10 weeks of supplementation (Lingjaerde et al, 1999). |
Hyla Cass, M.D.
See book keywords and concepts |  Symptoms of vitamin D deficiency include unexplained weakness, pain in the joints, and depression, especially seasonal affective disorder (SAD). If you avoid sun in the summer, take it all year round. Vitamin D is fat-soluble, meaning that it can be stored up in the body, and that it can accumulate to toxic levels if you take too much. You can have your doctor test your vitamin D levels in the form of 25-hydroxy-vitamin D.
Dose: 1,000 (international units) IU a day throughout the winter. |
Herbert Ross, DC with Keri Brenner, L.Ac.
See book keywords and concepts | | Some people normally sleep longer than others—10 or more hours a day—but this does not necessarily indicate a disorder.24 seasonal affective disorder (SAD), described in the previous chapter and discussed at length in chapter 5, is a type of hypersomnia in which people sleep in late, among other symptoms. Other variations of hypersomnia are as follows:
• Recurrent hypersomnia. This disorder, which includes Kleine-Levin syndrome, lasts several weeks and can recur periodically. Some cases are marked by binge eating and hypersexuality; it usually occurs in adolescent males. |
Hyla Cass
See book keywords and concepts | | Symptoms of vitamin D deficiency include unexplained weakness, pain in the joints, and depression, especially seasonal affective disorder (SAD). If you avoid sun in the summer, take it all year round. Vitamin D is fat-soluble, meaning that it can be stored up in the body, and that it can accumulate to toxic levels if you take too much. You can have your doctor test your vitamin D levels in the form of 25-hydroxy-vitamin D.
Dose: 1,000 (international units) IU a day throughout the winter. |
Melody Petersen
See book keywords and concepts |  The proposed articles were planned to provide data on how Zoloft could be prescribed for panic, dysthymia, seasonal affective disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and pedophilia. The articles also covered a range of patients. Ten of the proposed articles were planned to describe the use of Zoloft in the elderly, six would detail its use in children, and four would describe prescribing it to women.
The document by the staff at Current Medical Directions made it clear that a ghostwriter was creating some of these manuscripts. |
James Dowd and Diane Stafford
See book keywords and concepts |  So vitamin D replacement is more effective than light therapy for the treatment of seasonal affective disorder.
We also see evidence that women and men with a history of depression have lower bone mass and more signs of bone turnover, both of which are associated with vitamin D deficiency, lack of omega-3 fatty acids, and dietary acid-base imbalance.
Vitamin D, Diet, and Chronic Pain
Chronic pain affects 15 percent of adults in the United States—about 45 million people. | | Vitamin D is also crucial for fertility, glucose control, reducing high blood pressure, and ameliorating seasonal affective disorder. Vitamin D helps you fight infections and improves the effectiveness of vaccines. Without enough vitamin D, your risk of autoimmune diseases may increase by as much as 300 percent.
The Sun and Vitamin D
Most people mistakenly think that they get enough vitamin D from casual sun exposure or diet. Unfortunately, this is not true. | | Depression, including seasonal affective disorder (SAD)
?Fibromyalgia
?Parkinson's disease
?Alzheimer's disease
?Arthritis (osteoarthritis, gout, pseudogout, tendinitis, bursitis)
?Osteoporosis
?Gum disease and tooth loss
?Obesity
?Diabetes
?Heart disease
?Metabolic syndrome
?Autoimmune diseases (multiple sclerosis, systemic lupus erythematosis)
? |
David Winston, RH(AHG), and Steven Maimes
See book keywords and concepts | | Each has a mild effect on people with seasonal affective disorder, but the two together are vastly more effective than either one alone.
Gather lemon balm before it flowers, when it has a delightful odor and mild, fragrant lemony taste. If gathered later, it will have a bitter taste. I frequently use lemon balm along with other pleasant-tasting herbs (chamomile, hibiscus, ginger, linden flower, and fennel seed) as "beverage medicines." They are safe, tasty, and have gentle, health-promoting effects for children, teenagers, pregnant or nursing women, and the elderly. |
Marshall Editions
See book keywords and concepts |  John's wort can be useful for treating seasonal affective disorder. It seems to be most effective for mild-to-moderate depression rather than more severe cases. St. John's wort can be taken in many forms. It is possible to purchase tinctures, standardized extracts, tablets, or the dried herb (the above-ground parts) in order to make a tea. Many products will be standardized to one of the compounds, hypericin, that was originally thought to account for much of its antidepressant activity. Most clinical trials have used an extract standardized to 0.3% hypericin dosed at 300 mg three times daily. |
Gary Null and Amy McDonald
See book keywords and concepts | | Results of this study showed that treatment with 900 mg per day of hypericum coupled with two hours of daily light therapy significantly reduced symptoms of depression in patients suffering from seasonal affective disorder.
Multicenter Double-Blind Study Examining the Antidepressant Effectiveness of the Hypericum Extract LI 160. Hansgen KD; et al. Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neurology, 1994 October, 7(Suppl. 1):S15-18. |
James Dowd and Diane Stafford
See book keywords and concepts | | A: If you experience fatigue, depressed mood, irritability, and/or loss of motivation beginning in the fall, but the problems resolve during the summer or if you travel south in midwinter, you're probably experiencing seasonal affective disorder. Year-round problems with depression point to clinical depression that requires evaluation and treatment. If you experience any of the symptoms listed here, have your vitamin D level checked, or follow the Vitamin D Cure program.
Q: I don't understand how the right diet and vitamin D levels can help me ward off cancer. | | Lowering Your Risk
The recommendations in the Vitamin D Cure are expected to almost eliminate seasonal affective disorder. A growing amount of information also suggests that fortification of vitamin D and diet combined with exercise will substantially lower your risk of depression and chronic pain, especially pain due to bone and joint disease. If implemented during fetal development and through early childhood, the Vitamin D Cure is likely to reduce the risk of schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease, and dementia. |
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ABOUT THE CREATOR OF NATURALPEDIA: Mike Adams, the creator of this NaturalNews Naturalpedia, is the editor of NaturalNews.com, the internet's top natural health news site, creator of the Honest Food Guide (www.HonestFoodGuide.org), a free downloadable consumer food guide based on natural health principles, author of Grocery Warning, The 7 Laws of Nutrition, Natural Health Solutions, and many other books available at www.TruthPublishing.com, creator of the earth-friendly EcoLEDs company (www.EcoLEDs.com) that manufactures energy-efficient LED lighting products, founder of Arial Software (www.ArialSoftware.com), a permission e-mail technology company, creator of the CounterThink Cartoon series (www.NaturalNews.com/index-cartoons.html) and author of over 1,500 articles, interviews, special reports and reference guides available at www.NaturalNews.com. Adams' personal philosophy and health statistics are available at www.HealthRanger.org.
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