6 replies to this topic

[smithx]

If you're depressed, get your D levels checked, and supplement if below 30ng/mL. 

This may also explain Seasonal Affective Disorder (at least partially):

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/25791903

Psychiatry Res. 2015 Mar 5. pii: S0165-1781(15)00108-0. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2015.02.016. [Epub ahead of print]

Associations between vitamin D levels and depressive symptoms in healthy young adult women.

Kerr DC1, Zava DT2, Piper WT3, Saturn SR4, Frei B5, Gombart AF5.

There have been few studies of whether vitamin D insufficiency is linked with depression in healthy young women despite women׳s high rates of both problems. Female undergraduates (n=185) living in the Pacific Northwest during fall, winter, and spring academic terms completed the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) scale weekly for 4 weeks (W1-W5). We measured serum levels of vitamin D3 and C (ascorbate; as a control variable) in blood samples collected at W1 and W5. Vitamin D insufficiency (<30ng/mL) was common at W1 (42%) and W5 (46%), and rates of clinically significant depressive symptoms (CES-D≥16) were 34-42% at W1-W5. Lower W1 vitamin D3 predicted clinically significant depressive symptoms across W1-W5 (β=-0.20, p<0.05), controlling for season, BMI, race/ethnicity, diet, exercise, and time outside. There was some evidence that lower levels of depressive symptoms in Fall participants (vs. Winter and Spring) were explained by their higher levels of vitamin D3. W1 depressive symptoms did not predict change in vitamin D3 levels from W1 to W5. Findings are consistent with a temporal association between low levels of vitamin D and clinically meaningful depressive symptoms. The preventive value of supplementation should be tested further.

[timar]

Not surprising.

[Kalliste]

I have megadosed Vit D through some winters and found it does not alleviate the symtoms. Maybe improve them. There is more to winter depression.

[timar]

What do you mean by saying that it did improve but not alleviate symptoms? For me as a non-native speaker both sounds quite synonymous.

 

Of course depression as well as the "winter blues" are much more complex conditions than a simple lack of some nutrient or neurotransmitter and, as I wrote before, the paper by Patrick and Ames doesn't suggest such monocausality or the prospect of a quick and simple fix for depression. I don't think that it would actually be desirable to completely avoid every trace of depression and the feeling of melancholy that goes with a mildly depressed state of mind. For me it is part of winter, of the mind resonating with the natural cycle of seasons, life, death and renewal. Just think of all the great works of art inspired by this very sentiment. I think a world without depression would be a bland and boring place to live in - although some trait of our technology-obsessed, capitalist society - particularly in the US - seems to evoke exactly this shallow world of facile happiness and mindless productivity.

 

I think an important part of overcoming the dark side of depression is actually to accept depression as an existential state of being.

 

However, having a genetic disposition for very low vitamin D levels myself, supplementing vitamin D did not only help to cure me from the atopic dermatis flaring up in the winter months but also to alleviate the "winter blues" I often experienced to the extend that I now can actually enjoy the melancholy without feeling paralyzed.

 

I very much agree with what Andrew Weil has to say about the value depression in this talk:

 

Edited by timar, 01 April 2015 - 11:12 AM.

[Dolph]

Mmm, with all respect Timar, I congratulate you for never having suffered clinical depression. It's obvious from your statement you haven't...

[Kalliste]

Sorry I was explaining myself poorly. I wanted to say it did not help much. Comparing pre-winter-Vit D diarys with current diaries that I keep tells me feelings of winter blues are much the same.

[timar]

Mmm, with all respect Timar, I congratulate you for never having suffered clinical depression. It's obvious from your statement you haven't...

Congratulate someone else. I have been in inpatient care several weeks for severe depression in my early twenties.