Also known as seasonal affective disorder or winter depression, the winter blues is marked by feelings of being depressed around the late autumn season and the early months of winter. This also coincides with the fact that there is less available natural sunlight. Due to the reduced sunlight, this causes the rhythm of the body to become out of sync. For some people, the winter blues occur around the months of winter as we mentioned earlier. For others, however, the depressed feelings they have all year round seem to get worse during the colder months.
Feeling blue in the winter months not only send you rummaging for sweet stuff to eat but also tend to leave you feeling down and depressed. This is a vicious cycle you need to avoid getting caught up in. SAD also known as seasonal affective disorder is a type of depression affecting mostly women and over twenty-five million Americans. This mysterious disorder has been studied countless times and basically what happens is that lower serotonin level in the winter cause the blue feelings. Not only is serotonin responsible for a feeling of well-being but it is also the hunger-regulating chemical that enhances your mood.
The production of serotonin increases with an increase of sunshine. This means that the gray gloomy light emanating through the window in your bedroom is not exactly doing wonders for the chemicals responsible for your feeling good! Symptoms include low self-esteem, napping endlessly, panic attacks, shyness, irritability and becoming obsessive with every little think. There might also be poor sleep brought by the winter months due to melatonin levels being low as well. There can be severe or mild symptoms and generally, folks feeling down in the dumps during the winter weather tend to feel much better around spring and summer. To boost your levels of serotonin, there are a few things you can do.
Wise Eating- stimulate the production of serotonin by eating sensible carbohydrates as well as pushing away all the leftover slices of cake. Simple carbs and sweets such as white bread and white rice tend to raise blood sugar rapidly, get you flooded with insulin and then suddenly send your energy crashing back down again. Avoid empty calories from carbohydrates such as these and instead, load up on nutrition. Avoid coffee at all costs, for the same reason.
Exercise
when you are in the midst of a winter blue cycle, getting some exercise is not exactly easy to do. On the other hand if you are able to begin exercising, just starting out with a fifteen to twenty-minute fast walking or even just dancing to the radio can improve your mood as well as help reduce a sweet tooth.
Increase Indoor Light
Brighten up your light indoors. Stay within three feet of a three hundred watt bulb for twenty minutes thrice daily and this may help boost levels of serotonin, even temporarily.
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