An excerpt from
“Bright Ideas for Treating the Winter Blues”
By, Melinda Beck
The Wall Street Journal, Health Journal
December 1, 2009
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Vitamin D: This is created by the sun’s rays on the skin, and therefore declines during the winter. Deficiencies have been linked to a wide variety of illnesses, including depression. So it stands to reason that vitamin D might play a role in SAD. Yet the few studies involving vitamin D and SAD patients have had conflicting results.
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A 1993 study of 125 Boston women with seasonal mood swings found that those who received 400 international units of vitamin D-2—double the current recommended daily allowance for adults aged 19 to 50—fared no better than those who got a placebo.
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But vitamin D proponents say the doses used in that and other similar studies were too small to be effective, and they note that vitamin D-2 is weaker than vitamin D-3, the widely preferred form of the vitamin. A 1999 study at John Hopkins University Medical Center administered a big one-time dose of 100,000 IUs of vitamin D-3 to eight SAD patients. Another seven patients received light therapy with full-spectrum light, thought at the time to be the most effective light source. The light-therapy group showed no significant improvement on three separate depression scales. But “to my surprise, every single person who got vitamin D improved,” says lead investigator Michael Gloth, a geriatrician at John Hopkins, who continues the high-dosage treatment for his elderly SAD patients today.
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Researchers agree that more study is needed on the effects of vitamin D, and at what doses. Vitamin D can’t be gotten from a light-therapy box, which should screen out ultraviolet-B rays. Midday sunbathers can get plenty of vitamin D in about 20 minutes in the summertime in New York City. But UVB rays are much weaker in the winter. North of a line running roughly from Boston to northern California, between October and March, the sun’s rays aren’t strong enough to provide vitamin D.
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While some foods contain vitamin D—particularly fish, eggs, cod liver oil and fortified milk—the most efficient way to get it is with supplements. Some experts recommend getting at least 4,000 IUs of D-3 daily. “There’s compelling evidence that if you are deficient, taking more vitamin D can be very very helpful,” says Dr. Gloth.
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Suntanning: Both sunlight and tanning beds do provide UVB rays, which produce vitamin D in the body. There’s also some speculation that UVB rays may stimulate endorphins, a natural hormone that acts like a pain-reducing, pleasure-enhancing opiate in the brain.
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From: The Wall Street Journal