at other times of the year in your lifetime (outside of that two year period), but the episodes of SAD have to outnumber the other de- pressive episodes over your lifetime. A little confusing, yes. You can be assessed by a professional if
you want a more official diagnosis, but what most people are inter- ested in is not so much a diagnosis but a plan to feel better.
Keep SAD at Bay
An Action Plan Whether or not you have full-blown SAD, there are a number of
things you can start doing right now to make this winter less difficult: • First, start taking some vitamin D. This is fairly easy and
inexpensive. Look for vitamin D3 with added vitamin K to help you absorb it better. Since vitamin D is fat soluble, you have to remem- ber to take it with a source of fat, otherwise you are wasting your time because the vitamin will not be absorbed. • Second, it’s time to really get serious about those omega-3
fatty acids. Many people choose to take a good quality fish oil to meet this need (let me stress that you must choose quality because you don’t want to take fish oil that has gone rancid, has mercury or PCBs in it, or that doesn’t have enough EPA and DHA to do the job). For those who can’t stand the down sides of fish oil there are some promising newcomers to the plant-based omega-3 market (for a good one, try the just-released SolleMegas at
SolleNaturals.com). • Third, exercise is key. Exercise is one of the most effective
things you can do to treat depression of any kind. It’s relatively fast- acting, and the side effects are usually pretty friendly. A recent study at Duke University showed that exercise was not only as effective as a standard antidepressant, but also that people who exercised instead of taking an antidepressant were significantly less likely to relapse. You don’t have to work like a maniac to get anti-depressant effects from exercise. Work at about 70% of your maximum in order to reap the benefits of exercise’s anti-inflammatory and stress reduc- tion effects. • Fourth, purchase a light box for some light therapy. There are
By Alison Caldwell-Andrews, PhD
as the days get shorter, and it is more common in people who live farther away from the equator. About 1 in 20 adults (mostly women) meet the full criteria for this diagnosis, and roughly 1 in 5 experience some symptoms of winter depression that don’t meet criteria for the actual diagnosis.
Y The Diagnosis
Essentially, the criteria for SAD is this: you first have to meet criteria for an episode of depression, and then those episodes must occur at a particular time of year, following a pattern that lasts for at least two years without any other periods of depression that are non- seasonal. You can have SAD in the summer if depression is brought on by summer but this is fairly uncommon compared to winter depression. So if you start feeling down in December but the depression
seems to lift in April, and then you feel fine until the following December when you get blue again, you might have SAD, that is, assuming that you don’t (or didn’t) also become depressed again in, say, May or August. You can still have SAD if you’ve been depressed
30 Natural Nutmeg October 2012
ou probably know someone who gets down, depressed, or even just a bit blue in the winter. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a kind of depression that tends to reoccur each year
a variety of models on the market and most range between $100 and $300. Blue light therapy has an advantage over traditional light boxes; because your eyes don’t fatigue as quickly in blue light you can receive a larger dose of treatment each time. Usually about 30 minutes each morning is enough to do the trick. I recommend that my patients start using light therapy in late September or early Octo- ber. Don’t skip this step, as light therapy is an extremely important part of effective SAD treatment. • Fifth, if your sleep is not well-regulated, it’s time to fix that
now. You want to sleep about 8 hours every night, and it’s a good idea to fall asleep relatively early. Circadian rhythm experiments
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