EiR Blog

I was lucky enough to spend two weeks on holiday/vacation in Turkey recently to recuperate after over-exerting my body and brain completing my bachelor's degree in nutritional health. Being a resident of the UK with its, let's say temperamental weather, I really notice a change in how I feel (mostly good, some bad) when I spend time in a country where the climate is warmer and sunnier. This got me thinking that a good topic for a blog and dscussion would be how climate and weather affect the health of people suffering from environmental illnesses. Personally, my moods and energy levels are greatly influenced by the weather and the seasons and I have in the past been diagnosed with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). Here in the UK it can be sunny one minute and raining the next at any time of year. When it is sunny my mood is correspondingly bright...

 It's that time of year again for those of us in the northern hemisphere, the days are quickly getting shorter now and for many that means symptoms of fatigue, lethargy, depression and more. As a result, it can require the willpower of a polar explorer just to drag oneself out of bed in the morning! One solution to combat these symptoms is the use of a dawn simulator. These are essentially alarm clocks that instead of waking you abruptly with loud and irritating beeping (that makes you want to smash the thing!), produce light that gradually increases in intensity to mimic the rising sun. Many models use full spectrum light which is closest in appearance to sunlight as well. By working in this way you can set your dawn simulator alarm for any time in the morning when it's still dark outside and be woken in a way that is more...

After my own very positive experiences with vitamin D therapy for seasonal affective disorder (S.A.D) which I wrote about a couple of months ago, my interest was peaked this week when I came across a story linking autism to deficiency of the "sunshine vitamin". Researchers from Cornell University carried out a "more refined" analysis of data collected during a 2006 study and confirmed that autism rates are highest in the rainiest counties of the three Pacific coast states of the US: Washington, Oregon and California.  The study is published in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. The original 2006 study, conducted by the National Bureau of Economic Research was highly controversial, as the authors were not medical researchers and blamed higher amounts of TV viewing by children in the rainiest areas for the higher incidence of autism. I reported on this research when it was originally published: Autism Associated with...

As part of my illness I have suffered greatly with Seasonal Affective Disorder, known also by its appropriate acronym - SAD. I notice large seasonal variations in my mood, energy levels and other symptoms and also day to day variations depending on the weather. Even a cloudy or rainy day in summer can make me feel depressed and sluggish. I have recently tried high dose vitamin D treatment after seeing studies that showed very positive results and wanted to tell you about what it has done for me. First though I want to talk a bit about my experience with SAD. There was a time before I knew about SAD and realised I had it when I felt suicidal each year from October to March. All I felt was total despair and spent most of my time in bed. If I hadn't still been living at home with my parents...

Tomorrow is the longest day of the year and the official start of summer in the northern hemisphere (Sorry Aus/NZ etc!). Here in the UK the longer days mean that at least there is more chance of there being periods of clear skies while it is still light! So I thought this would be a good time to discuss sunshine and vitamin D in relation to chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) as there seems to be some disagreement over  how vitamin D metabolism is affected in patients and whether extra, either from sunlight or supplements, is needed. From a personal perspective, as part of my illness I suffer from seasonal affective disorder (S.A.D.) which is also known as winter depression. For a number of years I would become suicidally depressed during the winter months and then my mood would lift substantially from late March. After a few years of this it became...