If you’re among the millions who experience holiday blues, vitamin D benefits for depression could make a big difference.
Increased social obligations, hectic, over-booked schedules, and the physical and financial strain of gift buying and entertaining are just a few of the many factors that can contribute to making the holiday season occasionally feel more stressful than joyful for just about anyone. But for millions of people, the problem is deeper than a fleeting feeling of stress; for people who suffer from holiday blues, the festive season is a time of sadness, depression, and anxiety.
Experts say that unrealistic expectations – of yourself, the people around you, and how the holiday season “should” be – are key factors in the holiday blues syndrome. Keeping a down-to-earth perspective on the holidays is crucial; for example, setting yourself an impossible seasonal to-do list of decorating, shopping, cleaning, and entertaining is an open invitation to feelings of stress, guilt, and inadequacy.
But while attitudes and expectations are important, they’re not the only factors that contribute to holiday-related depression. For people who live in the northern hemisphere the holidays fall during the coldest part of the year, which means very little time outdoors and extremely limited esposure to the sun. And lack of sunshine is a primary culprit in vitamin D deficiency, which has been proven to play a surprisingly large role in seasonal depression.
How It Works
Vitamin D synthesis has been shown to play a crucial role in normal brain function. It is important to regulating the activity of neurotransmitters, chemicals that transmit signals within the brain. A correct balance of neurotransmitters including Serotonin, Melatonin, and Dopamine is essential to healthy brain function and mood management.
Scientists have been studying the role of D vitamin in mood maintenance, particularly in regards to seasonal depressive disorders, for almost two decades. Seminal Australian research completed in 1998 concluded that vitamin D deficiency provided a compelling explanation for seasonal variations in mood, a finding that has been echoed over and over in studies done all over the world.
High doses of vitamin D during the winter months have proven to be a safe and surprisingly effective natural remedy for Seasonal Affective Disorder, a debilitating onset of depression and anxiety that coincides with the coming of fall and winter.
How Much Vitamin D Do You Need?
The Recommended Dietary Intake for D vitamin is currently set at 400 IU daily for infants and children up to a year old, 600 IU for adults to age 70, and 800 IU for people over 70. However, some experts believe that higher dosages can be beneficial in some circumstances, and Canada’s Institute of Medicine recently doubled its criteria for safe maximum intake to 4000 IU per day.
