
Depression-Fighting SAD Lamps Aren't Just for Your Winter Blues - sageabilly
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/depression-fighting-sad-lamps-arent-just-for-your-winter-blues
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leoh
In case anyone is curious — here is the lamp used in the study:
[http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00PCN4UVU/ref=mp_s_a_1_1/184-...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00PCN4UVU/ref=mp_s_a_1_1/184-2212292-9332300?qid=1447969060&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=carex+light&dpPl=1&dpID=31WFLHEU3RL&ref=plSrch)

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Jtsummers
My conjecture on why it works (for non-SAD cases of depression): People who
are depressed are likely socially isolated (by choice, perhaps because of
depression, or by circumstances, perhaps causing depression) and also
physically isolated in homes or offices without good natural sunlight (again,
the physical isolation may be a consequence of depression and wanting to be
alone, or causal). I've spent several hours a day outdoors or in buildings
(mainly a gym) with large windows providing lots of natural sunlight this
year. I'm also in the best mood I've been in years. Of course, two factors
have changed here for me: more light, more physical activity. Both are
correlated with improving mood for people with depression, so I can't say
which has had the greater effect for me.

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snewk
a well balanced diet helps alleviate depression too.

too many weeks of staying cooped up in the basement eating pizza rolls will
take its toll both physically and mentally

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dfc
I have heard this from a couple of people but I have never seen any studies to
support this folk-medicine remedy for clinical depression. Do you have any
literature pointers?

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astrange
Well, pizza rolls in the basement have a terrible ratio of omega-3/omega-6 and
no vitamin D, and omega-3 supplementation is quite effective against
depression.

[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21939614](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21939614)

So there ya go.

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dfc
That is for one supplement or for "a balanced diet"? Because the way I read
that it seems I could eat whatever and take the fish oil supplement.

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astrange
Sure, why not? You could always eat your ingredients instead of cooking too.

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dfc
I am not trying to be rude but I really don't know what you are trying to say.
Yes, if I understand the study you linked to, as long as i take the supplement
or drizzle fish oil on my pizza I could eat a totally unbalanced diet of raw
or cooked ingredients. But your original comment was about "a balanced diet"
not the benefits of one very specific supplement?

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astrange
I didn't make that comment, and I can't immediately provide proof of the
health of a regular diet vs a bunch of supplements.

But they have a ton of sodium and not much fiber, so if anything you'd get
pretty constipated.

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ortusdux
Are there concrete characteristics to a SAD lamp? Could I achieve similar
results if I fill a room with led bulbs?

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nickgully
Seems pretty easy to duplicate with LED bulbs with these characteristics: CRI:
85 or above Color Temp: 4000K About 70-80W of CFL, so that might be around 60W
of LED. Using omnidirectional bulbs, perhaps 7-8 mounted near each other all
shining to get the same 10,000LUX intensity at your face.

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jacobolus
You should look at the spectral power distribution. CRI (color rendering
index) score and CCT (correlated color temperature) are pretty uninformative
metrics.

The CCT just tells you (approximately) how the relative excitation of short
vs. medium/long cones in the eye from a particular lamp compares to that of a
black body radiator, and the color rendering index tells you how whether a
particular set of paint chips looks roughly the same under your lamp as it
would look under either daylight or an incandescent bulb (or some value based
on linearly interpolating between the two, depending on color temperature). To
judge color differences, the CRI takes cone responses and multiplies by a
matrix (chromatic adaptation transform), and then uses a standard color
difference formula.

Most of the so-called “full spectrum lamps” have a spectrum nothing at all
like sunlight. It’s not at all clear what kind of spectrum would help fight
seasonal depression, but I suspect you want a bit of near ultraviolet
radiation, which wouldn’t be measured by either CCT or CRI.

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1024core
Question: can you make your own lamp with a, say, 100W LED array? I'm just
thinking of a DIY option...

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exception_e
If your concern is about the prices, you can find very reasonably priced lamps
by Verilux on Amazon. Got mine for under $150, but there are ones even
cheaper.

If you're simply trying to get an Open Source/DIY project together, power to
you!

An aside: I'm very grateful for my light box. I have S.A.D. as well as 2
anxiety disorders. Really helps me out and would recommend a box to anyone
that is on the fence or unaware of their existence!

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moron4hire
I have one on my desk. I turn it on when I sit down for work in the morning,
hitting the timer to run for 45 minutes. There is a marked improvement in my
wakefulness, mood, and productivity. I don't care if it's a placebo or not,
Dumbo's Magic Feather is good enough for me.

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qq66
I've always spent a lot of money, floor space, and electricity for high-
wattage lamps and never regretted it. My living room has 4 IKEA lamps and a
halogen torchiere.

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mthoms
Do any HN'ers have experience with the SAD lamp available from Costco?

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sobbybutter
I have the rechargeable variant of the Philips Golite, which looks like the
same model that Costco sells. I like it overall, but the big problem I have
with it is that the battery doesn't hold a charge if you keep it in its case
for any longer than about a week.

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atjamielittle
Does anyone have any anecdotal evidence on the effect of dark and light editor
themes on mood?

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Terr_
I mainly use X-on-black themes because they give me a wider gamut of useful
colors for syntax-highlighting.

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mikekchar
Hard to say from your comment what you are doing, but I've struggled quite a
bit with getting good colours for both dark and light themes while working on
agnostic [1]. Obviously, if you are using 256 colour scheme, then you can
choose whatever colours you like. But if you are using a 16 colour scheme
there are some significant issues you have to keep in mind.

Colours 0-7 are "normal" colours. Colours 8-15 are "bright" colours.
Unfortunately, back in the old days when bold wasn't supported on terminals,
they decided that bold should be implemented with "bright" colours. So now,
any time you use bold, there are applications that force the colour to be the
bright version (i.e., even if you tell it to use colour 6, it will actually
use colour 14 if you specify bold as well).

For light themes, this is a significant problem because most colour palattes
_actually_ put the bright (i.e. lighter) colours in the "bright" colour
section. This means that basically every time you use bold, there will be very
little contrast -- making light themes practically useless. You can't just
change the palette either, because then your non-bold characters will have
poor contrast.

What agnostic does is to use colours 8-15 as "normal" colours and 0-7 as
"bright" colours. This way, when you use bold it actually uses the colour you
intended. Then you can adjust the palatte in your terminal app to use whatever
colours you want. Agnostic is also designed so that it doesn't completely suck
with standard palattes (like the Xwindows/iTerm default, Tango, Solarized
Dark) because it is designed to be a pair programming theme. It works best if
you make your own palette, though.

Saying all that, there should be no reason you can't set up a good light theme
with whatever colours you like, but you will probably have to do the same kind
of thing as agnostic if you want to support bold well.

[1] - [https://github.com/ygt-mikekchar/agnostic](https://github.com/ygt-
mikekchar/agnostic)

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shabbaa
Would like to try.. any damage possible to eyes or skin?

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baccheion
If this works, then you need to elevate your vitamin D (should ideally be
between 40 and 60 ng/ml) and serotonin levels.

Vitamin D:

\- 3000-5000 IU vitamin D3

\- 1000mcg vitamin K2 MK-4

\- 100mcg vitamin K2 MK-7 (to direct calcium away from soft tissue)

\- 200-400mg Magnesium Glycinate.

.

Serotonin:

\- 500-1500mg L-Tryptophan

(or if that doesn't work...)

\- 300mg 5-HTP

\- 3000mg L-Tyrosine (to counter lowered absorption caused by 5-HTP)

\- 400mg EGCG (helps prevent 5-HTP from becoming serotonin in the intestines).

.

If depression isn't seasonal, then there are other supplements that may work
(any of the following):

\- Tianeptine Sulfate

\- Memantine

\- N-Acetyl Semax

\- Fasoracetam

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tshtf
Please don't do this!

EGCG can cause hepatatoxicity and liver failure:

[http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1002/lt.21021/asset/...](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1002/lt.21021/asset/21021_ftp.pdf;jsessionid=5DBC65753D5AD8EC9BCA400197D6F0A1.f04t02?v=1&t=ih6ykgqn&s=20e5b389209b8645fdb741067bd969aefff9cecf)

[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2905152/](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2905152/)

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DrScump
Are there studies that there is a realistically reachable level of toxicity
just by drinking tea, green _or_ fermented? The latter study doesn't seem to
say, and the former link just gives me "Forbidden".

