Winter and sunshine shortage affect you?

In winter there are a number of ' solstice ' days (one of the two times a year when the sun is the most equatorial to the north or south) that will engulf us on the longest and darkest nights of the year. there. Surprisingly, people turn it into an opportunity for constant fun and partying.

Even so, it does not all have a positive impact on people. As the sunlight gradually fades, the curtain drops, millions of people begin to feel depressed, languid, and even appear indifferent to those around them.

With interest from experts, Seasonal Affective Disorder - or SAD for short, has shown signs of better control. According to epidemiological studies, the prevalence of this disease in adults is from 1.4% (Florida) to 9.7% (New Hampshire).

Researchers have noticed similarities between the symptoms of SAD and seasonal changes in other mammals, especially for animals that overcome the dark winter by hibernating in warm cavities. Eastern animals have circles around the brain that can sense the length of the day and control seasonal changes. Can people be like that?

In 2001, Dr. Thomas A. Wehr and Dr. Norman E. Rosenthal, a psychiatrist at the US National Institute of Mental Health, conducted an interesting experiment. They studied two groups of patients during the 24 hours in the winter and summer, a group of seasonal weaknesses, the rest did not.

An important biological marker for seasonal changes in sunlight is melatoni, a chemical that is produced in the dark and disappears in the presence of light. Dr. Wehr and Rosenthal have found that patients with seasonal body weakness have a longer period of night excretion of melatonin than in summer , like some mammals have. behavior changes with the seasons.

Winter and sunshine shortage affect you?(Photo: Nytimes)

Why don't normal patients have seasonal changes in melatonin secretion? There is a possibility that exposure under industrial light sources may prevent melatonin changes. Perhaps by maintaining the sources of artificial light throughout the year, we can prevent the melatomine naturally occurring to SAD patients.

Several hundred thousand years ago, in order to have a chance to survive the winter people had to work less and maintain energy by sleeping and eating more. Those who suffer from the current seasonal weakness - the unfortunate descendants of ' ancestors ' have adapted very well to the harsh climate of winter?

Despite that, no one with SAD has to wait until spring or summer for better health. According to Dr. Rosenthal, who is currently a professor of psychiatry at Georgetown Medical School and author of ' Winter Blues ' (Guilford, 1998),' Early morning light is a powerful treatment. , fast and effective for seasonal body weakness, light as a 'nutrient' for those patients '.

The calculation of time for light treatment is also being considered. Michael Terman, director of the Center for Biomedical and Light Therapy at Columbia University Medical Center, said: 'To determine the best time for light therapy, you need to know a patient's symptoms appear in one day '.

According to Dr. Terman, normal people can recognize them without having a blood test? By answering a simple questionnaire on ' light ' and ' darkness ' and which factors relate specifically to the level of melatonin in the plasma body.

The nonprofit activity center treating environmental-related diseases made a survey on the Web site www.cet.org.

When you determine the appropriate treatment time, a standard treatment every day lasts 30 minutes lighting under a light intensity fluorescent light to about 1000 lux (lighting units). The effect of this light therapy is very rapid, usually 4 to 7 days compared to the 4 to 6 week treatment method for antidepressants.

For sleeping treatments, use light rays like dawn light . You will have 90 minutes of sunlight-like light from a timer with a timer starting from a fairly intense light like stars and ending with a soft sunlight. However, this method is less effective than real light.

There may still be some doubts, but the use of cathode gas electrodes will promise to be a good solution . Terman, who discovered this by accident, used a negative ion generator as a real light replacement therapy. This negative ion therapy has a positive effect on the patient's spirit.

The warm environment and air-conditioned air contain low amounts of ions, and in humid places such as forests or beaches, there are huge amounts of ions. But the fact that behind all that exists is a paradox that hot and dry winds or mixtran winds carry many ions that are harmful to humans, more dangerous it can drive patients crazy.

In short, you can treat it by shining light, ionizing or heating the sun or going to the tropics. There are many therapies to choose from.