Cheap light box (SAD)

Ted_Hutchinson

mo79 wrote: »

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).
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Are you taking your Vitamin D3 with food?
I always do as Vit d is fat soluble and you need the digestive juices working to absorb it.
I also take 5000iu/daily but my 25(OH)D was 147.5nmol/l last (still waiting for this years test results from blood taken 10th September) 5000iu without sunshine should get you over 100nmol/l so when you've used up those dry powder capsules maybe it would be worth trying Carlsons 4000iu solar gems these are what Dr Davis recommends as he has found they are more reliable for some people than dry powder forms. The D3 is already dissolved in oil so is more readily absorbed.

To average 5000iu/daily with these you'd just need to take 9 each week. So one every weekday and 2 weekends would average about 5000iu/d. But there is a great variation in the way individuals react to D3 supplements, Dr Davis himself takes 10,000iu/daily and he lives/works in Wisconsin lat 43 a lot nearer the equator than we do.

Do next year also consider getting out in the sunshine more while your shadow is shorter than your height. See the calculator here and use the BBC 5day forecast for the UV index for you postcode.

mo79

Yep, I've been taking it with a a pot of fruit yoghurt every day. I'd have thought fat would make it equal to a gel cap?

I know a few others on the net. who are taking the dose I want to consider due to being so-called 'low responders'. One person found 3000IU was enough to sustain in the optimal range. I guess like Cannell says, it's not the dose but the level you achieve that matters.

I guess being naturally brown skinned, and then in London which is both polluted as well as lacking UVB doesn't help.

Ted_Hutchinson

mo79 wrote: »

I guess being naturally brown skinned, and then in London which is both polluted as well as lacking UVB doesn't help.

Absolutely. I was looking at some regional stats for cancer incidence over the UK and they followed a higher in the North and west and generally lower further south except London and the South East had higher incidence than East of England. But once you add in the upper atmospheric pollution from industry and air traffic and atmospheric pollution at ground level from traffic it makes sense.
UVB doesn't penetrate atmospheric pollution Grant has plotted this in a lot of his work.

Even if you moved house you can't do anything about your skin colour so it's got to be more D3.

I wouldn't have been suggesting the dry powder capsules if I didn't know they work for me, but I also respect Dr Davis and he has found folks whose D3 status is more reliably maintained with oil gel caps. I think it's the solid type of tablets are the least reliable. Don't forget you can ask for a 25(OH)D test from your doctor, if they won't do one on the NHS then ask for a sample to be sent to The doctors Laboratory It used to be about £30 but there may be a bit more to pay the person who draws the blood and posts it off and phones you up to tell you the result.

The level as which the body actually meets it's daily needs and starts to store D3 also happens to be similar to the level associated with least incidence of chronic disease.

mo79

What's your opinion on liquid D3? My brother was put on this (somewhat surprisingly easily as well, after debating wanting D3 at a more beneficial dose) as it's the only D3 currently available on the NHS but he's going to be going on the capsules of his own doing too as it's more convenient than pouring a large bottle into a spoon (3000iu per ml, 10ml a week [approx. 4000IU/d]).

Floxxie

noonesperfect wrote: »

I'd really like one for my OH as he suffers so much at this time of year but they tend to be really expensive anyone seen any good offers please?

Check at the doctors - mine lends them to people who suffer from this. Personally have found that if I accept the condition and just get out everyday, it helps.

Floxxie

Ted_Hutchinson

mo79 wrote: »

What's your opinion on liquid D3? My brother was put on this (somewhat surprisingly easily as well, after debating wanting D3 at a more beneficial dose) as it's the only D3 currently available on the NHS but he's going to be going on the capsules of his own doing too as it's more convenient than pouring a large bottle into a spoon (3000iu per ml, 10ml a week [approx. 4000IU/d]).

If this is the product your brother is using then I'd be really interested if you could confirm it and PM me details of his health authority. I'm battling with my PCT at the moment to try to get them to ensure that Cholecalciferol is available on prescription but I'm getting nowhere fast. The fact that other authorities have taken the initiative should make it easier for my health authority to make the move.
As far as I am aware any form of cholecalciferol, providing it is easily absorbed and consumed with food, should be fine.

Ted_Hutchinson

Floxxie wrote: »

Check at the doctors - mine lends them to people who suffer from this.

What a sensible idea. The people who came to buy my secondhand lightbox (that I no longer use now I take 5000iu/d vitamin D3) were complaining that they were recommended to try a lightbox by their consultant but he was unable to provide any details of how to use one or what they were like. The only help he could provide was a list of suppliers and my name was on that list.

just get out everyday, it helps.

Indeed it helps as it is the amount of bright light entering your eyes that resets the pineal gland that controls circadian rhythm. However if you look at this research from Canada you see that taking an EFFECTIVE amount of vitamin D can and does improve the situation. The only things you have to understand is that in Canada most Canadians actually live near the USA border and that is further south than the UK and so they get more days of VitaminD from sunlight than we do here.

Also they are a Continent and we are a cloudy island so they get more hours of sunlight and thus more opportunity each sunny day to D3 free. They also drink Vit d fortified milk and eat Vit d fortified cereals. We don't. Taken together those are the reasons why we in the UK require somewhat more D3 each day to achieve the same beneficial effects that 4000iu/d provides to Canadians.

I have found it is better NOT to accept the condition as inevitable. I don't like being depressed and just treating the symptoms of depression.
It's my view that eliminating the underlying cause of the condition by adopting the NATURAL vitamin d status our bodies would NATURALLY achieve should we live naked as we evolved, enables all the bodies 900+ vitamin d receptor sites to have access to 25(OH)D that fuels their 200+ different gene reactions.

There is a lot hanging on having optimum vitamin d status and failing to correct D3 insufficiency leads to serious health consequences.

rosie-lee

I have been looking at the task light link on pg1 of this thread but can't seem to find a full spectrum bulb in that strange shape - can anyone advise please, i would be very grateful as the days are getting harder and I am dreading the clocks changing this weekend. I need to buy one ASAP. Thanks

Ted_Hutchinson

Ebay £7.99
I'm not sure if the Screwfix light requires a 2 or 4 pin bulb.
Do be aware that the daylight bulb is only for extra comfort it will be only a little more effective that the bulb the lamp comes supplied with in the respect that because it is less harsh you will find it easier to sit closer to and therefore you will be getting a somewhat brighter light in your eyes than the slightly harsher bright white normal low energy 2D TUBE. It really depends on how sensitive you are to the tone of the lights you use. It didn't make a scrap of difference to me if I used the full spectrum or the bright white so I would use the tube it comes with first to see how you get on with that BEFORE you spend on the daylight tube. You may be happy with it as it comes.

Shuell

Hi I have been reading your comments on SAD light boxes. At the end of next month there is a new site comming online which is http://www.solvital-lighttherapy.co.uk, their site is actually online but the shop is not yet up and running. Their site is very interesting, take a look.

:j