Seasonal Affective Disorder Support Group
Seasonal affective disorder, also known as S.A.D., winter depression or the winter blues is an affective, or mood, disorder. Most SAD sufferers experience normal mental health throughout most of the year, but experience depressive symptoms in the winter or summer. The condition in the summer is often referred to as Reverse Seasonal Affective Disorder. Seasonal mood...
deleted_user
I discovered an amazing new type of treatment that works extremely well for seasonal affective disorder (SAD).
Knowing myself just how miserable SAD can be, I am posting up the details of this treatment I discovered myself in the hope it will help other people with SAD as much as it has helped me.
The treatment simply involves sitting in front of a far infrared ceramic heater, and letting the infrared rays warm you for around 20 minutes or so every day. That's it!
Every time I gave myself a good dose of far infrared like this for around 20 minutes, it would immediately make me feel VERY HAPPY AND ENTHUSIASTIC like you feel on a hot summer's day even though in fact it was the middle of a cold, dark, miserable winter, a time when I would normally have winter depression.
The infrared rays work even better if you take off your shirt, sitting two or three feet in front of the infrared heater. I usually have my back facing towards the heater, letting the heat penetrate nice and deeply into my muscles and bones (it helps melt away backaches also). Unlike ultraviolet light, infrared rays are actually healthy for the skin, and your whole body. You may start perspiring a little after 10 minutes in front of this warmth, but this is fine, and a good sign that your are being warmed.
These far infrared ceramic heaters use the same heating elements that you find in regular far infrared saunas. In fact, the treatment method I am describing here is just like having a far infrared sauna, except that you don't enclose yourself in a cabin, but instead bathe directly in healthy infrared rays by sitting right in front of the infrared heater. You can do this in any room in the house. The room air does not get hot, so you breathe easily; but the body soon gets warmed up in these infrared heat rays.
These far infrared ceramic heaters are very cheap compared to buying a home infrared sauna: you can buy an far infrared ceramic heater for around 100 or less. These heaters typically output around 1400 Watts or so. (Note, there are also quartz halogen far infrared heaters that you can buy for around 20, but these do not work as well; you really need the far infrared ceramic heater, as the ceramic type emits a deeper infrared which can penetrate further into the recesses of your body. Also, don't confuse these "far infrared ceramic heaters" with fan heaters that are sometimes called "ceramic heaters".)
I know that SAD is often treated with full spectrum light boxes that are designed to produce bright white light with some ultraviolet light too, but the infrared treatment I am describing has nothing to do with this. You don't shine the infrared rays from the heater into your eyes, but rather let these rays penetrate deep in your body.
Believe me, it be the middle of a dark winter, but after 20 minutes of this infrared treatment, your mood will soar upwards. You will suddenly find yourself becoming enthusiastic for life, as if it were summertime, rather then being a recluse within your deep winter blues.
If you know somebody that has a far infrared ceramic heater (many homes and workplaces have them these days), you might ask to borrow it, and try out the treatment described. If it works for you too, then perhaps you can consider getting one yourself.
This far infrared ceramic heater treatment worked like a dream for me, and I think it will benefit anyone with SAD.
What is the mechanism behind this far infrared therapy for SAD? Those with some scientific background may be aware that SAD has been associated with a lack of a factor called BH4 (tetrahydrobiopterin). BH4 is a crucial factor the body needs to make the all important serotonin. Low serotonin causes depression, so when you don't have enough BH4 to make serotonin, you will feel depressed.
Fortunately, far infrared will strongly increase your body BH4 levels, which then increases your serotonin levels, which in turn rapidly banishes your winter blues. So this is how the far infrared ceramic heater treatment most likely works to treat winter blues: by raising BH4 levels.
There are not really any effective dietary supplements or drugs that you can take that substantially increase your BH4 levels, but fortunately the far infrared approach works well.
The summer sun provides an abundance of natural infrared light to make BH4, so all you are doing by sitting in front of your infrared heater is getting the warm, infrared rays that you are so desperately missing during those long, cold winters.
Unfortunately in the northern hemisphere winter is now coming to an end, so you may have to wait until next year to test this infrared treatment method for SAD.
But do try this infrared treatment. It may greatly improve your life.
Please post up your experiences with this treatment, because I would like to see just how well infrared treatment works for other people with SAD.
Note that I am just putting this information up for the benefit of others. I found great improvements in my own SAD using this simple infrared therapy, and I really hope that this treatment works well for everyone with SAD.
15th April 2011.
Knowing myself just how miserable SAD can be, I am posting up the details of this treatment I discovered myself in the hope it will help other people with SAD as much as it has helped me.
The treatment simply involves sitting in front of a far infrared ceramic heater, and letting the infrared rays warm you for around 20 minutes or so every day. That's it!
Every time I gave myself a good dose of far infrared like this for around 20 minutes, it would immediately make me feel VERY HAPPY AND ENTHUSIASTIC like you feel on a hot summer's day even though in fact it was the middle of a cold, dark, miserable winter, a time when I would normally have winter depression.
The infrared rays work even better if you take off your shirt, sitting two or three feet in front of the infrared heater. I usually have my back facing towards the heater, letting the heat penetrate nice and deeply into my muscles and bones (it helps melt away backaches also). Unlike ultraviolet light, infrared rays are actually healthy for the skin, and your whole body. You may start perspiring a little after 10 minutes in front of this warmth, but this is fine, and a good sign that your are being warmed.
These far infrared ceramic heaters use the same heating elements that you find in regular far infrared saunas. In fact, the treatment method I am describing here is just like having a far infrared sauna, except that you don't enclose yourself in a cabin, but instead bathe directly in healthy infrared rays by sitting right in front of the infrared heater. You can do this in any room in the house. The room air does not get hot, so you breathe easily; but the body soon gets warmed up in these infrared heat rays.
These far infrared ceramic heaters are very cheap compared to buying a home infrared sauna: you can buy an far infrared ceramic heater for around 100 or less. These heaters typically output around 1400 Watts or so. (Note, there are also quartz halogen far infrared heaters that you can buy for around 20, but these do not work as well; you really need the far infrared ceramic heater, as the ceramic type emits a deeper infrared which can penetrate further into the recesses of your body. Also, don't confuse these "far infrared ceramic heaters" with fan heaters that are sometimes called "ceramic heaters".)
I know that SAD is often treated with full spectrum light boxes that are designed to produce bright white light with some ultraviolet light too, but the infrared treatment I am describing has nothing to do with this. You don't shine the infrared rays from the heater into your eyes, but rather let these rays penetrate deep in your body.
Believe me, it be the middle of a dark winter, but after 20 minutes of this infrared treatment, your mood will soar upwards. You will suddenly find yourself becoming enthusiastic for life, as if it were summertime, rather then being a recluse within your deep winter blues.
If you know somebody that has a far infrared ceramic heater (many homes and workplaces have them these days), you might ask to borrow it, and try out the treatment described. If it works for you too, then perhaps you can consider getting one yourself.
This far infrared ceramic heater treatment worked like a dream for me, and I think it will benefit anyone with SAD.
What is the mechanism behind this far infrared therapy for SAD? Those with some scientific background may be aware that SAD has been associated with a lack of a factor called BH4 (tetrahydrobiopterin). BH4 is a crucial factor the body needs to make the all important serotonin. Low serotonin causes depression, so when you don't have enough BH4 to make serotonin, you will feel depressed.
Fortunately, far infrared will strongly increase your body BH4 levels, which then increases your serotonin levels, which in turn rapidly banishes your winter blues. So this is how the far infrared ceramic heater treatment most likely works to treat winter blues: by raising BH4 levels.
There are not really any effective dietary supplements or drugs that you can take that substantially increase your BH4 levels, but fortunately the far infrared approach works well.
The summer sun provides an abundance of natural infrared light to make BH4, so all you are doing by sitting in front of your infrared heater is getting the warm, infrared rays that you are so desperately missing during those long, cold winters.
Unfortunately in the northern hemisphere winter is now coming to an end, so you may have to wait until next year to test this infrared treatment method for SAD.
But do try this infrared treatment. It may greatly improve your life.
Please post up your experiences with this treatment, because I would like to see just how well infrared treatment works for other people with SAD.
Note that I am just putting this information up for the benefit of others. I found great improvements in my own SAD using this simple infrared therapy, and I really hope that this treatment works well for everyone with SAD.
15th April 2011.
Posts You May Be Interested In
-
I'm trying to exercise daily. I was doing fairly well until I sprained my ankle 2 weeks ago but now I'm getting back on the horse. Today I walked over a mile with my arm weights that are about 22lbs total. I was out of shape and it was hard on my arms. I also did my 30 situps. I'm also going to drink a lot of water and try to eat healthy. I do tend to have a sweet tooth but I'm cutting...
-
Really wish I could sleep like a normal person! I read something earlier about my mind possibly associating my bed/bedroom with insomnia and that's why I am unable to fall asleep in there no matter how tired I am. So a typical night for me...I go to lay down around 10-11pmI will be sleepy but as soon as I get comfortable I will end up being wide awake or my son will come into the room.I have a 3...
Fireball OR Sealey OR Rhino infrared ceramic heaters
so if you Google search for images of these, you see what they look like:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?tbm=shop&q=Fireball+OR+Sealey+OR+Rhino+OR++infrared+ceramic+heater
They are similar in concept to the red light bulbs that emit IR, but the ceramic "bulbs" are (a) much more powerful, and (b) emit a much deeper, more penetrative and effective frequency of IR.
I don't think the the higher frequency infrared light from the red bulbs will be as effective - or powerful enough. The red IR bulbs are typically 50 to 100 Watts. The ceramic bulbs are around 400 W each.
I use 400 to 800 Watts when I do this treatment. My heater has three 400 W ceramic bulbs, and I typically have on or two of these switched on. It does not use much electricity, because you only need to do this for 20 minutes a day. Thats going to cost on a few cents, if that.
The white ceramic bulbs you see on these heaters are basically a sold piece of ceramic "stone" that has electric wires imbedded within them, and the current heats them. But they never get hot enough to glow with visible light: pretty much all the light is emitted in the infrared range.
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=quartz%20heater&um=1&tbm=isch&biw=1226&bih=765
These are much cheaper, and are found for sale everywhere. They use a quartz glass tube with a filament inside that heats up to produce infrared heat. However, the infrared light output by these quartz infrared heaters, although equally as powerful as the the ceramic types, is again not so deep in frequency, so I am not sure if it will work as well as the ceramic infrared heaters.
I found this info on a clinical trial using far infrared light as a treatment for bipolar disorder:
http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00573196?term=infrared&rank=9
Bipolar is linked to seasonal affective disorder.
So it looks like the idea that ordinary far infrared heat may help with the depression of bipolar is already known.
As you will notice, the wavelengths of light used in this clinical trial are 5 to 15 m.
The ceramic heaters bulbs I mention above typically output far infrared heat in a very similar range: 2 to 10 m range. So these ceramic infrared heater bulbs are the perfect wavelength of infrared light for this treatment.
Note that I used a pretty powerfulfar infrared ceramic heater for my SAD treatment on myself. I set the heater at 800 to 1200 Watts, and sat with my bare back facing the heater, and about 3 foot from the heater. Note that far infrared light is good for skin and body in general.
These ceramic heaters are available in the UK, but I have not seen them for sale in the US when I Google searched (though the ceramic bulbs found in these heaters areavailable in the US, I notice). The UK ceramic heaters of course are designed for the European 230 volts electric power supply.
One alternative you might use instead of the ceramic heaters is what is known asa "mineral far infrared lamp". These are available in the US. These mineral far infrared lamps are purpose-built for far infrared medical therapy. They emit far infrared light at a wavelength of 9.4 m, which is fine. These mineral far infrared lamps do seem to be a little expensive though.
Note that normal "Philips"incandescent-typeglass infrared heat bulbs are not going to work. These are typically around 100 - 150 Watts, which I think is going be much too weak in terms of power. And also thesePhilipsinfrared heat bulbsemit near infrared wavelengths, not far infraredwavelengths;near infraredmay not work at all for SAD treatment. So these Philipsincandescent glass infrared heat bulbs are likely no good for SAD treatment.
You need either a heater that works with these ceramic far infrared bulbs, or possibly a mineral far infrared lamp.
Don't confuse full spectrum light bulbs, blue bulbs, or 150 Watt heat lamps with the FAR INFRARED HEATER that is the focus of this thread.
Full spectrum light may certainly be useful in SAD, but the focus in this thread is an experimental treatment using up to 1200 Watts of radiant far infrared heat, placed at around 3 feet or so from the body (with bare skin, with your shirt taken off, so that the radiant heat reaches the skin and penetrates deep into the body).
If you are doing this right, after just 10 minutes of this treatment, you will start to sweat. After 20 minutes, you will be perspiring as if in a sauna.
This is the nature of the experimental SAD treatment discussed here.
I discovered this new approach by accident myself, but am keen to describe the details of this method to other people, in the hope that it will provide benefits to them too.
This method of treating SAD has nothing to do with existing way of treating SAD, it is completely new, and I am just making sure that this fact is understood.
Of course, I cannot guarantee this new method I happened upon will work for others as well as it did for me, as I have only tried it on myself.
But for anyone that has a proper far infrared heater, it is easy enough to try this method.
If if does work for everyone, it might be the end of SAD as we know it.
It would be great if this technique does work for others. In any case, these far infrared radiant heater that use ceramic bulbs provide a wonderful, penetrating warmth in winter, when you sit close to them.
There's something about this far infrared light/heat that nicely warms your very bones, not just the surface of the body.