Seasonal Affective Disorder & SAD Lamps

For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s that time of the year; especially after the clocks recently went back and the nights themselves are getting longer. So, what to do in the season of 3pm darkness?

First: the problem

The problem is twofold:

1. Our circadian rhythm gets confused
2. We don’t make enough serotonin

The latter is because serotonin production is largely regulated by sunlight.

People tend to focus on item 2, but item 1 is important too—both as problem, and as means of remedy.

Circadian rhythm is about more than just light

We did a main feature on this a little while back, talking about:

• What light/dark does for us, and how it’s important, but not completely necessary
• How our body knows what time it is even in perpetual darkness
• The many peaks and troughs of many physiological functions over the course of a day/night
• What that means for us in terms of such things as diet and exercise
• Practical take-aways from the above

Read: The Circadian Rhythm: Far More Than Most People Know

With that in mind, the same methodology can be applied as part of treating Seasonal Affective Disorder.

Serotonin is also about more than just light

Our brain is a) an unbelievably powerful organ, and the greatest of any animal on the planet b) a wobbly wet mass that gets easily confused.

In the case of serotonin, we can have problems:

• knowing when to synthesize it or not
• synthesizing it
• using it
• knowing when to scrub it or not
• scrubbing it
• etc

Selective Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) are a class of antidepressants that, as the name suggests, inhibit the re-uptake (scrubbing) of serotonin. So, they won’t add more serotonin to your brain, but they’ll cause your brain to get more mileage out of the serotonin that’s there, using it for longer.

So, whether or not they help will depend on you and your brain:

Read: Antidepressants: Personalization Is Key!

How useful are artificial sunlight lamps?

Artificial sunlight lamps (also called SAD lamps), or blue light lamps, are used in an effort to “replace” daylight.

Does it work? According to the science, generally yes, though everyone would like more and better studies:

• The Efficacy of Light Therapy in the Treatment of Seasonal Affective Disorder: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials
• Blue-Light Therapy for Seasonal and Non-Seasonal Depression: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Interestingly, it does still work in cases of visual impairment and blindness:

• Light therapy for seasonal affective disorder in visual impairment and blindness – a pilot study

How much artificial sunlight is needed?

According to Wirz-Justice and Terman (2022), the best parameters are:

• 10,000 lux
• full spectrum (white light)
• 30–60 minutes exposure
• in the morning

Source: Light Therapy: Why, What, for Whom, How, and When (And a Postscript about Darkness)

That one’s a fascinating read, by the way, if you have time.

Can you recommend one?

For your convenience, here’s an example product on Amazon that meets the above specifications, and is also very similar to the one this writer has

Enjoy!

Salt’s Health Risks… More Than Just Heart Disease!

It’s been well-established for a long time that too much salt is bad for cardiovascular health. It can lead to high blood pressure, which in turn can lead to many problems, including heart attacks.

A team of researchers has found that in addition to this, it may be damaging your organs themselves.

This is because high salt levels peel away the surfaces of blood vessels. How does this harm your organs? Because it’s through those walls that nutrients are selectively passed to where they need to be—mostly your organs. So, too much salt can indirectly starve your organs of the nutrients they need to survive. And you absolutely do not want your organs to fail!

❝We’ve identified new biomarkers for diagnosing blood vessel damage, identifying patients at risk of heart attack and stroke, and developing new drug targets for therapy for a range of blood vessel diseases, including heart, kidney and lung diseases as well as dementia❞

~ Newman Sze, Canada Research Chair in Mechanisms of Health and Disease, and lead researcher on this study.

See the evidence for yourself: Endothelial Damage Arising From High Salt Hypertension Is Elucidated by Vascular Bed Systematic Profiling

Diets high in salt are a huge problem in Canada, North America as a whole, and around the world. According to a World Health Organization (WHO) report released March 9, Canadians consume 9.1 grams of salt per day.

Read: WHO global report on sodium intake reduction

You may be wondering: who is eating over 9g of salt per day?

And the answer is: mostly, people who don’t notice how much salt is already in processed foods… don’t see it, and don’t think about it.

Meanwhile, the WHO recommends the average person to consume no more than five grams, or one teaspoon, of salt per day.

Read more: Massive efforts needed to reduce salt intake and protect lives

The American Heart Association, tasked with improving public health with respect to the #1 killer of Americans (it’s also the #1 killer worldwide—but that’s not the AHA’s problem), goes further! It recommends no more than 2.3g per day, and ideally, no more than 1.5g per day.

Some handy rules-of-thumb

Here are sodium-related terms you may see on food packages:

• Salt/Sodium-Free = Less than 5mg of sodium per serving
• Very Low Sodium = 35mg or less per serving
• Low Sodium = 140mg or less per serving
• Reduced Sodium = At least 25% less sodium per serving than the usual sodium level
• Light in Sodium or Lightly Salted = At least 50% less sodium than the regular product

Confused by milligrams? Instead of remembering how many places to move the decimal point (and potentially getting an “out by an order of magnitude error—we’ve all been there!), think of the 1.5g total allowance as being 1500mg.

See also: How much sodium should I eat per day? ← from the American Heart Association