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Post by pretty on Jan 18, 2011 19:43:56 GMT -5
It has routinely been about 0 here in Homer the last two weeks and in retaliation for that here's what I've been doing: 1. As soon as I get home I head for the couch with a heating pad on my feet/neck/belly whatever is coldest 2. Drinking ginger tea like it's going out of style. really warming. 3. Had to move our bed away from the window. Even so, have to sleep with a giant extra blanket around my head and neck. Always using heating pads at night too.... 4. Takes 15 minutes to warm up my car in the morning! 5. Drinking hot water Up here the SAD lights are ubiquitous. everywhere! especially at the health club! Lots of people taking lots of Vitamin D Lots and lots of depressed and sad people are all over the place here. It's an epidemic. But in summer, watch out: we all get giddy and manic and stay up all night long....
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Post by Karen on Nov 12, 2011 9:18:41 GMT -5
I don't think you need a specific lamp. There are light bulbs called Daylight and they are maybe $1 or 2 more then regular bulbs. Its the wavelength of the lightbulb that you are looking for, and these have a similar colour temperature to natural daylight (which is blue). I believe its around 4000 Kelvin that the lights generally are. Bright sun is usually 5600 Kelvin. The reason they sell the SAD lamps is to give you a high wattage of these lights in the face. Granted I am sure they are much more effective then having a lightbulb change-up, but I have done just the light bulbs and I find it makes a slight difference. You can also try getting "grow light" light bulbs as well. Its the same concept, of matching the colour temperature of the sun. Ok, so last year I tried the grow bulb in my bathroom and didn't notice any difference. I was thinking of splurging for a SAD-beating lamp this year, but wasn't looking forward to the high cost. BUT, at work this week, we had a speaker come in to talk about lighting, efficiency, and how indoor light can affect us. He's involved in a lot of studies regarding lighting and had a lot of really, really good info (though he was an odd presenter, reminded us of Rodney Dangerfield!). He talked a lot about bulbs that mimic the daylight, and has switched out entire offices from yellow-hued bulbs to the blue-hued bulbs from 5000K-8000K and the results were pretty drastic. Turns out there are receptors in our eyes that pick up more in that kind of lighting, so people in that environment had less eye strain, had to use reading glasses less, and were more alert. There are even studies regarding the lighting in schools and for 3rd shift workers and a lot of evidence that blue-hued bulbs help your body wake up by suppressing melatonin (the hormone that makes your body sleepy). Of course, you have to coordinate it right - being exposed to that blue-hue in the P.M. right before bed can delay you going to sleep for about 30 minutes. So... that prompted a trip to Home Depot this morning. I picked up a daylight bulb for about $9 (5000K, though I would have preferred higher) to put in my bathroom. When I'm in the shower in the morning, I have a heat lamp on so I swapped out that bulb for the new one. Figured I could blast my body with that every morning when I'm in the shower. And, since it's only on in the morning, I don't think I'll be confusing my body in the afternoon. If this experiment goes well, I may bring a regular lamp to work and put a 5000K or higher bulb in it.
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Post by hellsbells on Nov 12, 2011 9:23:13 GMT -5
I really should think about something like this. I'm so badly affected by this.
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Post by 1234 on Nov 12, 2011 10:11:49 GMT -5
Helen, I got one of those lights. It made ALL the difference in the world. I've done better in our current house, which has more windows than our 1 room attic apartment we lived in when we first got married. I've also done TONS better since getting off of the birth control pills. But waking up with that light was the difference between me sobbing (for absolutely no reason) and hardly able even to get up and walk downstairs to my bike to go to work, and really being pretty much just fine. The light, and getting off the birth control pills.
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Post by hellsbells on Nov 12, 2011 10:25:01 GMT -5
Cheers. I'll deffo look into it!
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Post by JC on Nov 13, 2011 7:31:26 GMT -5
I have been wanting a brighter light in my house for so long! As soon as the sun goes down I'm falling asleep and I can't get any studying done. I'll also be curious to see how my winter blues does now that I'm taking high doses of Vit D. When I worked at the hospital in DC they were doing a study on the lighting in the hospital for the night time shifters. They were trying to figure out if putting in daytime bulbs in the ceiling for the night shift that it would help them be more alert and more productive at night. I wish I knew the results of the study! But the fact that they had a clue that this might work supports the idea that these bulbs work I guess. Now I wanna to get a new bulb!
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Post by Karen on Nov 13, 2011 7:53:49 GMT -5
The speaker talked about a similar study! Sounds like it is still ongoing, but still, sounds like there's a lot of evidence that lighting can have a big effect on meletonin. There's a study with schools and lighting, and they would put on yellow light to calm kids down and a daylight style light when kids were taking a test. I think it'd be worth a little experiment yourself, J!
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Post by JC on Nov 13, 2011 7:58:52 GMT -5
Ironic that I reply to this post, I'm studying for my neurophysiology test and we're talking about special retinal ganglion cells in the eyes that help the brain interpret when to release melatonin to regulate the sleep cycles. So it's definitely true. The light plays a HUGE role in releasing neurohormones in the brain for many different reasons beyond just your sleep cycle too.
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jaye
Full Member
Posts: 165
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Post by jaye on Nov 13, 2011 9:23:34 GMT -5
www.4bc.com.au/blogs/4bc-blog/vitamin-d-expert/20110727-1hzzy.htmlI think some of you might like this interview. It's the most comprehensive thing I've heard on Vitamin D and not very long. I thought I knew enough about Vitamin D but I learned a lot from this. Especially the seasonality and daily timing differences of sun exposure. Also, I never knew that overweight people need way more Vitamin D. I've been trying to get sun-exposure mid-day, everyday, but supplement with 5,000 units when I can't get outside, or it's cloudy, or it's winter. Also, I gave up sunscreen this year halfway through summer(I'm a ginger so it was a hard decision). I'm hoping my D stores are better this year because of it.
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Post by 1234 on Nov 13, 2011 9:55:57 GMT -5
I have a light up for grabs if anyone wants it. I haven't used it since getting off the bcp and moving to a south-facing house on top of a hill. I hate biking up the hill every day, but it has its advantages. Happy to drop it off (Jenaya) or mail it (Karen); probably not cost-effective to mail it to UK (Helen).
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Post by hellsbells on Nov 13, 2011 13:24:55 GMT -5
And it'll probably get broken...but thanks for the thought!
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Post by littlestar on Aug 20, 2012 16:04:50 GMT -5
Hi,I am new to the forum. So I thought I would put a blip in about SAD. i had this for years. I ended up moving to the South West, but formerly I lived on the East Coast. I ended up getting a sun lamp from a company called Sun Box. I think it ran somwhere in the $100 dollar range, but it was well worth it. it increased my energy and made the shorter days more bareable. I would use it at the end of the day when the sun was going down. it was as if it would trick my brain into thinking the day was longer as it mimicks natural sunlight. I remember I had also started doing yoga which helped. It lightened my mood, and it got me out to a class around people. Although thinking back I probably could have used a support group or a very safe place with women to share some of the things that were bothering me.
I will try to think of some more things that I did that helped. Oh yea, thinking back again, i think I would have created a place for myself like a bedroom or something with beautiful pictures, daily thoughts and reminders, loving reminders that made me feel calm or peaceful. i remember I also went to therapy.
on another note, i was wondering if anyone has mood issues that go along with endo like extreme anger or bouts of being overly emotional. I wasnt sure where to post this. Thanks for reading.
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Post by MustangGtGirl on Aug 20, 2012 16:11:20 GMT -5
Hi little Star.
Welcome, Anger and emotions is something we all know very well but the great thing is you come on here and talk to your friends who really understand you. Please go to the Introduce yourself section and start a thread so we can all welcome you.
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Post by jessabug on Aug 20, 2012 22:38:56 GMT -5
Hi Karen,
I don't have SAD but my mom was clinically diagnosed with it when she was my age. She balances things out by taking anti-depressants and adjusting her life around her condition. What I mean by that is, SAD (which I'm sure you've already learned) is caused by basically a lack of a certain chemical produced by people. People with SAD have a harder time with this. They need more exposure to sunlight than the average person to compensate for such deficiencies, so that's why my mom lives in California -- she would never live anywhere that has too much rainy/depressing weather because she knows that her SAD is highly affected by it. Also, she spends a good amount of her time outside, because it's been clinically proven that direct sunlight is important -- people with SAD who live in Ca and spend all of there time inside, for example, are not really much better off than people in states with worse weather. So she spends a lot of time gardening, walking, etc, and soaking up the sun. That, combined with medication, has kept her SAD from affecting her dramatically. When she doesn't take her medication, though, she has a lot of trouble. I realize that not everyone supports the use of anti-depressants -- I'm just saying that's what she does. Also, some of my friends with depression use the lights that some of the other forum members have mentioned. Some insurance companies are willing to cover UV lights, so that may be something worth looking into. Though I personally do not suffer from any chronic depressive disorder, all of my immediate family members do and it is something that I study in school and know a considerable amount about through my school and personal life, so if you want to talk about it feel free to PM me!
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Post by Karen on Aug 21, 2012 17:36:32 GMT -5
I'm glad your mom found something that works! I wish I could live in an area with a better winter climate, but the thought of moving away terrifies me! I'm very anti anti-depressants - I don't react well to meds and my therapist and I agree it wouldn't be good for me to try. In addition, we both feel that there's some medical reason that causes me to feel like that in the winter, and an anti-depressant won't fix it, just cover it up. I know they work for some people, but it's not for me. I'm curious to see how I do this winter after being on a thyroid medication that my body seems to respond to. I honestly believe a lot of my issues in the winter are tied to my thyroid - sluggishness, weight gain, being freezing cold ALL the time, etc. Seriously, I'm often cuddled up on the couch or at work with a few blankets, two pairs of socks, and a space heater. The thyroid regulates body temperature and energy, and when the body is cold all the time, the thyroid is in overdrive to keep it warm and lets some of the other stuff slide. In addition, there's a lot of evidence that T3, the active thyroid hormone, has an anti-depressant effect because it corrects an imbalance. My body temp is low to begin with (97.5 pre-ovulation) and the cold Wisconsin winters makes it that much worse. I've read that often people on thyroid meds do better in the winter when increasing their dose to accommodate for the colder weather so it may be something I have to experiment with. Last year, I got a 5000K light bulb for my bathroom and I have to admit it seemed to work in the mornings to help me be more alert. I've also been tempted to get one of the lights to keep on my desk at work. This is the one I was looking at: www.usa.philips.com/c/energylight/27718/cat/en/#filterState0=ENERGYLIGHT_SU_US_CONSUMER%3Dtrue If I recall, this one even has a timer or alarm, so it could even be something I have turn on while I'm hitting snooze. I know Philips has done a lot of studies on lighting and mood/energy, particularly in the world of healthcare, shift work, and education. We had a speaker come into work last year to talk all about it and it was fascinating, so I know there's a lot to having a light. I dread the colder weather and shorter days... It always hits me in October / early November. Sigh.
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