S.A.D (Seasonal Affective Disorder)
Many suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder by February due to reduced sun exposure. Many people begin to feel depressed or experience mood swings in the winter.
Myself, I know when my vitamin D levels are dipping because I will beginn to feel ‘anxious’ and I’m not an anxious-type of personality.
Feelings of sadness, depression or mood swings do not only happen in the winter months but usually are more intense because most people have low D levels year round but they dip even lower in the winter months due to reduced to no sun exposure, especially in the northern hemispheres, such as Michigan where I live.
Daily direct sun exposure to skin, sunlight to eyes without sunglasses, ultraviolet light, or supplementing with vitamin D3 are proven treatments for S.A.D.
D3 is synthesized in the skin from ‘cholesterol’. The synthesis of vitamin D3 is stimulated by the ultraviolet light rays that we get from sunlight. Sunlight exposure accounts for over 90% of the vitamin D3 requirement for most people. So, one of the effects of decreased sunlight during the winter is decreased levels of vitamin D3. And, vitamin D3 deficiency is a problem for a lot of people.
A deficiency of vitamin D is defined as a blood level of 25-hydroxy vitamin D less than 20 ng/ml but the optimal range goes all the way to 100 ng/ml so 20 would be extremely low let alone if it is below 20 ng/ml.
Many labs will now allow you to get just the 25-hydroxy vitamin D blood test on your own at your own expense without a doctor’s order but it would be wise to get at least the basic metabolic panel with it to also check your calcium level, this too can be obtained without a doctors order if you’re not covered by health insurance for annual metabolic panels including the 25-hydroxy D.
In a study that looked at 15 men and women with SAD they gave half of them either a one-time dose of 100,000 IU of vitamin D3 or timed exposure to ultraviolet light. The depression scores decreased from 10.9 to 6.2 in persons taking the vitamin D compared to the men and women who had the light therapy scores decreased from 12.6 to 11.3.
A good place to start is to take 5,000 IU of vitamin D3 every day for two months then get your D3 and calcium levels checked. A good level of vitamin D would be 55 to 60 ng/ml along with a normal calcium level.
If you haven’t achieved that level, then keep increasing the dose until you do. Don’t worry about toxicity. The studies are clear that there is no chance at all of vitamin D toxicity until the levels are at least greater than 150 ng/ml for months on end.
Check blood calcium levels as you take higher doses of D3 because in certain individuals, especially those with marginal vitamin K levels, D3 supplements can drive up calcium levels and this can happen if foods containing vitamin K aren’t eaten. (i.e. Kale, Broccoli, Brussels sprouts,Cabbage, Asparagus, Okra, Green Snap Beans, Lettuce et al)
if calcium level are high take vitamin K along with D3.
Vitamin K activates MGP, a protein that helps direct calcium to bones and away from undesirable places like the kidneys and arteries. It also prevents increase in blood calcium levels. A dose of 150-200 mcg of vitamin K in the form of MK7 will be sufficient for most people.
In the first paragraph above it is mentioned that D3 is ‘synthesized in the skin from cholesterol’. Do you take statins? Statins reduce cholesterol correct? Is your D level low even though you get a great deal of sun exposure without sunglasses or sun protection? Could there be a connection between statins and low vitamin D levels? We almost have an epidemic of people that are extremely deficient in vitamin D but we also have a large population that take statins daily.
Research has proven that Statins are extremely damaging to muscles (the heart is a muscle!) and that Cholesterol is not the ‘enemy of the body’ it has been demonized to be for the ‘push’ of Big Pharma Statins.
So I ask, is there also a connection between the wide-use of statins and the epidemic of vitamin D deficiencies?
Do Statins reduce cholesterol to a level that with adequate sun-exposure the body is unable to produce the D it needs to utilize calcium for bones, proper brain function, and provide a healthy immune system to fight off disease?
Manage your health …do not wait for the AMA Drug Pushers to TELL YOU what you NEED to take. Our Creator did not design our bodies to need synthetic pharmaceutical drugs to be well. He created our bodies to self-heal when given what they NEED to do so and all they need is found in NATURE from the GARDEN, SUNLIGHT, PURE WATER, REST, & EXERCISE whether at a gym or via your work the body must move to circulate blood and ‘flush’ the lymphatic system!