Cheap light box (SAD)

Ted_Hutchinson

misspointy wrote: »

I bought a beauty lamp last year from Argos for about £49...I think. It didnt help me at all....but maybe I didnt use it enough/sit close enough or posibly the light wasnt bright enough??

Most people find using the Sadlight first thing in the morning has the best effect, you can use them again late afternoon but if you use them in the evening that tends to set your melatonin cycle adrift and you don't get to sleep when you want.

Im thinking of upping my Vitamin D3 levels...as Im desperate, Ive been late up 4 mornings this week, and thats my sign that the winter depression is on its way, and its only september!

It's bound to be worse this year as August was so grey that Vitamin D levels generally are going to be much worse this year.

Can you "overdose" on vitamin D3??

Only if you take 40,000iu/daily for many months.This risk assessment explains this and shows 10,000iu/daily is a safe upper limit Our bodies evolved to live naked in the sunshine. If on a sunny day between April and September you take off all your clothes and when your shadow is shorter than your height, your skin will make around 10,000iu in approximately 40minutes at this latitude. If you are very clever and have lots of short full body sun exposures say 10mins in sun then 20-30mins shade throughout the day so you don't burn your skin and you allow time for maximum absorption of the D3 as it's made it is theorectically possible for your body to absorb 50,000iu over one long sunny day, however this is the exception. Mostly People getting almost full body sun exposure every day end up with levels between 60ng 150nmol/l and 80 ng 200nmol/l and those levels indicate absorption of 6000-8000iu daily.

So you see your body is geared up to deal with excess vitamin d3. The form you need to use is Cholecalciferol as this is the cheapest and most effective.

“How much vitamin D should I take?”Dr Davis says My office experience with vitamin D now numbers nearly 1000 patients. The average female dose is 4000-5000 units per day, average male dose 6000 units per day to achieve a blood level of 60-70 ng/ml
If it usually take 4-5000iu/daily for women at latitude 44° N Winconsin, where they fortify milk/cereals with D3 and they are nearer the equator (more days with UVB) and being a continent and not a cloudy island get more hours sunshine each day than we do. It will take at least 5000iu/daily to achieve the same level. But you will see this level is just a half the proposed safe upper limit and only one eighth the amount that over many months could eventually lead to problems (which stop as soon as you stop taking excessive amounts of D3 daily)
To get the risk of D3 overdose in perspective we generally think that asprin ibuprofen and other over the counter pain killers are extremely safe but last year in the USA there were 16,500deaths from them, the FDA reports shows that over the same period NOT ONE adverse event was reported for D3. So D3 is a dam site safer than over the counter NSAIDs.

Bleurgh

Yesterday was the first dark day here and it gets darker earlier every day from this point on, until youre driving to work in the dark and coming home in the dark. Every winter I want to move to a sunnier country!

I just took delivery of my bulbs and I've ordered the D3 today so I'm armed to the teeth and ready to take on the winter!

Ted_Hutchinson

Bleurgh wrote: »

I just took delivery of my bulbs and I've ordered the D3 today so I'm armed to the teeth and ready to take on the winter!

Do be aware that it takes time to restore your 25(OH)D status. At this time of the year it could be 3 months depending on your genes and particular sensitivity/efficiency at responding to D3.

As your body uses 5000iu/daily and at this time of the year there is virtually no time at all in the day when your shadow is shorter than your height (indicating the lowest angle at which UVB reaches the ground) there is now virtually no chance of Vit d from sunlight. The only other input (apart from the use of low pressure tube sunbeds) is diet and as oily fish is the best dietary source and that is only 400iu you can see why 25(OH)D status drops through the winter until the end of March.

So your 5000iu/d is only meeting your daily needs and does not and cannot create a surplus.

If next year you continue to take 5000iu/d through the year during the summer months any surplus D3 will be stored in your tissues and thus you will have built up a reservoir to ensure (with the continued use of supplements) your status stays through the winter at the level it would naturally adopt if you spent all day naked as we evolved.

The time to start supplementing with D3 to prevent SAD was over a month ago when 5000iu/d + sun exposure could have created more daily than you use daily. Same as money banking, if you spend more than you earn you don't save, if your body ideally uses more d3 each day than you get from sun/diet it can't store D3, it just has to manage without access to any reserves.

In the same way it's good to have some cash available in instant access accounts even if you earn as much as you spend daily, it's a good thing to have a reserve of D3 to rely on as daily inputs from sun are diminishing.

hayden

£3.97 for 2 daylight bulbs Tescos.

Ex bought them for our daughter telling that if they didn't work they would be returned. Good results so far.

misspointy

Do boots sell a high enough strength Vitamin D capsule to help with SAD throughout the winter months?

Ivyleaf_2

Hello all,
My friend has Seasonal Affective Disorder and it's particularly bad at the moment, but he's reluctant to shell out load of money on a special lamp because he doesn't know if it will help. Does anyone know if it's possible to rent these lamps? Or would a UV bulb in an ordinary lamp work? He works indoors without much natural light and can't take long breaks outside.

Many thanks

Ivy

Ted_Hutchinson

Previous thread on SADLIGHT therapy

I don't think it's worth hiring a sadlight when you can get a bright light for £20ish.

This Screwfix Task light will almost certainly enable you to find out if SADLIGHT therapy is effective for you. Just sit as close to the light as you can bear for around 30mins minimum first thing in the morning. There is no limit to how long you have the light on in the morning. But if you use it after 7pm you will find it harder to get to sleep. It's not a bad idea to have one by your bed, one in the kitchen and one at your desk. That way you can stay bathed in bright light all morning and several cheapo lights will cost less than the cost of the same light source tube in a posh plastic box with SADLIGHT on the side.

Ted_Hutchinson

misspointy wrote: »

Do boots sell a high enough strength Vitamin D capsule to help with SAD throughout the winter months?

Not at a sensible price their current High strength D3 Cholecalciferol is 500iu although they say you can take 2 daily that only provides 1000iu. at a cost of 8p daily.
Unfortunately the 5000iu I use are out of stock at the moment but if you buy 2 tubs of those (when back in stock) they work out at 4.5p daily.
You could use the 50,000iu by taking one every 10 days. = 2P DAILY.

Serum 25(OH)D can be expected to rise by about 1 ng/mL (2.5 nmol/L) for every 100 IU of additional vitamin D each day.

UK average status is around 50nmol/l
The Vitamin d level associated with the lowest incidence of many chronic conditions is over 50ng 125nmol/l
to attain and maintain the level that enables your body to actually store D3 requires at least 6 Boots tablets daily and probably 10 = 40p daily.

Dr Davis saysThe average female dose is 4000-5000 units per day, average male dose 6000 units per day to achieve a blood level of 60-70 ng/ml, though there are frequent exceptions
That is based on his experience in Wisconsin. Latitude 42 a lot further south than the UK and they get Vit d fortified milk/cereals.

Savvy_Sue

I will merge into the existing thread.

mo79

Hi Ted,

Nice to still see you spreading the word.

I've been on 5000IU for a year now and a recent reading showed me to have gone from 10nmol/L to 76nmol/L. That's a big improvement but I'm now going to experiment with the max of 10,000IU (taking a 50,000IU pill every 5 days).
I have noticed my PTH go down from 4.1 to 3.7 and total cholesterol from 5.6 to 5.4 (bare in mind I'm probably lower as the latter reading was strangely taken by surprise *unfasted*) but haven't seen detailed specifics, but it's all going good.

I've no health issues but I notice that I feel less tired early than I used to.