getting minimal sunlight for prolonged periods of time can negatively impact your mood.
Your body is designed to be in the sun and get sunlight. If not supplement with Vitamin D
Even though we are fast approaching the winter months, it’s still important that you get out in the sun when you can. It’s well known that there’s a proven association between darkness and depression. And now there’s a new study out that reveals the profound changes that light deprivation causes in your brain.
In this study, neuroscientists kept rats in the dark for 6 weeks. The animals not only showed depressive behavior but also suffered brain damage in regions of the brain that are known to be underactive in humans during states of depression.
Also, neurons that produce the neurotransmitters involved in emotion, pleasure, and cognition began to die. (Not a good thing.)
These dark induced effects may stem from a disruption of the body’s clock. When an organism is not receiving normal light, it may lead to changes in the brain that affect your mood.
Both “Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)” and “Winter Blues” are directly related to a lack of sunlight.
The takeaway message here is this: getting minimal sunlight for prolonged periods of time can negatively impact your mood. Your body is designed to be in the sun and get sunlight. So make sure you take advantage of those sunny days this winter!
[Tweet “minimal sunlight for prolonged periods of time can negatively impact your mood. “]
Talk to you soon,
Dr. Justin Trosclair dc
serving Breaux Bridge, Lafayette, Henderson, Parks, Cecilia 70517, 70506, 70592
Sources:
Scientific American, August 2008
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences March 25, 2008, vol. 105 no. 12 4898-4903
