Statewide Iowa — With the Christmas holidays behind us and the cold reality settling in of three months of winter ahead, some Iowans may find themselves feeling like a dark cloud is looming overhead.
Annette Shipley, a program therapist for seniors at Van Diest Medical Center in Webster City, says we all go through physiological changes when we start having less sunlight in our days.
If those blues last more than a few days, it may be Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD. Shipley says there’s a long list of potential symptoms.
About five-percent of adults in the U.S. experience SAD and it typically lasts about 40-percent of the year. Also, it’s more common among women than men.
There are things you can do to boost your mood, including buying a special light that’s very bright and sitting under it — what’s called light therapy. You can also add foods to your diet that are rich in Vitamin B-12, like beef and other protein-rich foods, and increase your intake of food with Omega-3 fatty acids, like fish, and raise your Vitamin D-3 intake. One other easy potential solution — get more sunlight.
