SAD - Any other Sufferers?

taliwillow

Hi all,

I was just wondering if anyone else on here suffers from SAD ad if so, How does it affect you and how do you try to beat it? Or if, like me, it seems to beat you all of the time?? I have had a really rough day with it today and feel like I am going mad so would really appreciate a chat with anyone (SAD sufferer or not).

Hope everyone has a great christmas and new year.

Taliwillow

conradmum

I don't suffer from SAD personally but I spoke to a woman who does and she uses something called a lightbox. She said it's a cube-shaped lamp that shines the kind of light SAD sufferers needs. She puts it on for 1/2 every morning when she has her breakfast and said it really helps a lot. Sorry I can't supply a source but she said she bought it off the internet.

Horasio

Oh yes I have suffered SAD. It is due to darker days and can trigger depression. It is worse the further north you go too. You get one day less light in central Scotland compared to the south coast of England and I certainly noticed it when I first lived up here!.

Symptoms include excessive tiredness.

http://www.sada.org.uk/whatis.htm

Lightboxes can help but I like to use a yellow light bulb, as it is like sunshine. Also, turquoise lights can help and it looks like blue sky. I have even worn some yellow tinted glasses which can be cheerful too.

I get my coloured lights from Homebase and Maplin (spotlights - you need an adaptor, as they are screw in)

seven-day-weekend

My husband suffered from SAD every winter.

Since he's retired and we've moved to Spain he is MUCH better. Even on cold winter days it is usually sunny. Even if it's not, the quality of light is much better for SAD sufferers than winter in the UK

Other than moving to sunnier climes, the light boxes can help, and apparently it's important to be outside for at least half an hour a day, even if it's dull. This is apparently a more therapeutic source of light than artificial light.

Hope you feel better soon.

Crazychik

My brother suffers with this, he invested in a light box a couple of yrs back, but since marrrying his american wife, he's now applied for visa's etc to live in Florida, he hopes to be there this time next yr.

He used to spend most evening's in the pub - not sure if that was an excuse to get away from his ex-wife though! He was a much better person when he was out the house. I think its also a way in which he changed his life style which helped. He does spend a lot of time during winter months travelling. And he does wear outrageous hawaiin shirts!

sarahlouise210

where I work they supply ligtboxes for SAD sufferers ...a bit annoying for the rest of us TBH ..but seem to work for them !!1

Horasio

Snowy or bright sunny days in winter can help lift SAD too.

BarmyCow

I know that quite a few companies now offer a "try before you buy" thingy where you can rent a light box first to see if it works for you before you commit to buying. Can't recommend any suppliers but this seems like a sensible way of starting.

Have you thought about acupuncture at all - ? Not a SAD sufferer myself but I think we all get a touch of the "winter blues" to an extent - good luck with finding something that works for you.:santa2:

Ted_Hutchinson

I used to suffer from SAD but this year I've not experienced any symptoms at all.

Quite a long time ago I used to sell SADLIGHTS as an agent for one of the best SADLIGHT companies but when I looked further into the question of what actually was the critical factor in the light produced by SADLIGHTs I felt I could no longer be part of the con.

It is simply the BRIGHTNESS of the light source that matters. When I took my sadlights apart and tried to find why they were so expensive I couldn't come up with a good answer to justify the price. What you need for light therapy is the brightest source of light your eyes are able to tolerate. You will not regularly sit in front of an uncomfortable, painful bright searchlight but will sit at a distance which is tolerable. So ANY light source will do. You do not have to buy a special lightbox.

You can see the rip off factor for pricing these Sadlights by comparing the price of this £55 facial Solaria clearly you would have to swap the tubes to non UVB but even so you would have a far better and cheaper light than these prices at Boots SADLIGHT offers
This Tchibo desklight would be equally effective.

So I've got a couple of old sadlights that are still in the loft that haven't been used so far this Winter. It really isn't going to cost me anything to get them down and start using them if I felt I needed to.

I haven't needed them because as many of you will know I've been taking HIGH STRENGTH Vitamin d 3 Cholecalciferol, I've not only been able to leave my Sadlights in the loft but I haven't had to buy any St John's Wort either. Both Sadlights and St J W treat the symptoms of Seasonal Depression and it's much better I find not to be depressed at all in the Winter.

However their may be some who want a belt and braces job and want to both by buying a Sadlight and following Reinhold Vieth's research using (4000 IU) per day cholecalciferol information. There is an interesting comparison of Cholecalciferol and Light Therapy here Vitamin D vs broad spectrum phototherapy in the treatment of seasonal affective disorder.

That last research used 100,000iu of vitamin d. You can get 50,000iu x100 capsules of vitamin d3 cholecalciferol here for $39 delivered. You would need to take 2 only of these (total cost 40p) initially and then maybe ONE capsule only every fortnight until the Winter was over and you could start getting regular sun exposure outdoors. The maximum cost for the Winter would average £2 (using these would also reduce your overall cancer risk by 29%, and reduce your chance of MS, diabetes, obesity, hypertension etc)
BIO-TECH Pharmacal Inc.The best source for Vitamin D3 Cholecalciferol.

They also do 5000iu x 250 = £17ishIf you are old, didn't get much of a tan in the summer, are pregnant, depressed or run down then the 5000iu at one a day or 5 or 6 a week would be ideal to maintain a high vitamin d status through the Winter.
PS I've editted the above to make it a bit clearer. The Veith research used 4000iu/d for general depression while the Hollis research used 100,000iu (not daily) to treat SAD. At the end of December in the UK unless you've just come back from a sunshine holiday, your vitamin d status will be low and will need raising quickly so the 50,000iu capsules would do this best, but after you've raised your status you would need to keep it there by either taking one 50,000iu a fortnight =25000iu week= 3,500iu/d or use 5 or 6 of the 5000iu capsules.
If you weren't starting now but at the end of September when the nights were drawing in, you could start on the 5000iu/d. The bodies daily requirement is between 3 and 5 000 iu so those who are sensitive to low vitamin d status or anyone who wants to reduce cancer risk by 29% and their MS/diabetes/hypertension/obesity {see vit d council for the research} would do well to use amounts within this range between October and March. (if you cannot go outside during the day (shift work) then it would be all year) There is absolutely no reason why you shouldn't just buy the 5000iu and take up to twenty to start with. It's simply this is a Moneysaving website and the 50,000 work out cheaper. Vitamin d has a half life of 3 weeks once in the body so how you take it, daily, weekly, fortnightly makes little difference providing the total divided by the number of days averages between 3 and 5 thousand iu.

Ted_Hutchinson

Al_Mac wrote:

Ted will be along at some point, he can explain about vitamin D. I don't understand his amounts

I appreciate your problem. Why the people who make the stuff and the researchers and the advisory bodies don't agree on ONE method of describing the basic unit I don't know.

I prefer to use IU as mostly the supplements do state IU contents.
Official recommendations for daily intake are all based on OLD science and MYTH. There is no support for the idea that your body only needs 200iu/d. This amount will not stop you getting lower and lower levels of vitamin d status.

There is equally NO new scientific support for the Toxic Upper Limit of 2000iu.
Toxic symptoms MAY occur but only after using 10,000iu/d for MANY months at least a year but maybe not till a couple of years at this rate.

I am happy to suggest people use the 50,000iu capsules because they are Moneysaving, and because I think when people see they are 12,500% above the RDA they will suss out they don't need one of these every day. Taking 2 now (shortest days of the year) and then one every fortnight will enable those with low vitamin d levels to raise their status and keep it there until March, When they can STOP the fortnightly capsule. So the question of taking 10,000iu/d for many months will not apply to anyone who pays attention to the research findings.

I should also warn people not to buy vitamin d from Zipvit or Simply Supplements. The case against ergocalciferol (vitamin D2) as a vitamin ... sets out the reasons why D2 Ergocalciferol is NOT a substitute for vitamin d3 cholecalciferol and so it SHOULD NOT be used. (if you've got some finish off the bottle it's not bad, just not as effective particularly for the elderly)

I've just checked the last link and found it didn't take you to the full text of the article this one should lead you to a freedownload of the article

Ted_Hutchinson

Just had another idea about cheap sadlights (though I really think you'd be better taking vit d high strength (the last order from Biotec USA took 8 days to arrive but I ordered some stuff from Zipvit same day and it arrived in the same post. So as likely the delay was our post system)
however my idea is to copy this LED sadlight £54.95 with three of these 24unit desklights.
Although I haven't seen the Boots LED light working a similar shaped model elsewhere on the net shows 66 leds glowing. so you'd actually get more light from the 3 desklights at a cost of
LP3009 24 LED Desk Lamp £6.44 GBP each£19.33 GBP Post free from the LED SHOP
you'd have to wait for them to arrive from Hong Kong but other MSE's speak highly of their service.