Verified by 
Depression
Hibernate with Cookies and Improve the Symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder
Seasonal Affective Disorder is already starting. Here's help now.
Posted September 22, 2011
The early signs of Seasonal Affective Disorder are popping up like newly-harvested apples at a farmer's market. As the earlier sunrises and sunsets mark the beginning of Fall, many of us are experiencing subtle but real changes in our mood, appetite, sleepiness, and interest in work and social activities. Exhaustion and an intense craving for carbohydrates, especially sweets, are often the first sign that this seasonal depression is starting. A friend who lives in northern New England finds herself buying meringue cookies around the middle of September. "They are so sweet they make my teeth ache, and I could never eat them in the spring," she says, adding, "but as soon as it begins to grow a little dark by late afternoon, I find myself craving their sweetness."
Although Seasonal Affective Disorder ("SAD") and its milder variant was described 27 years ago by Dr. Norman Rosenthal at the National Institutes of Health ("NIH") people still ascribe their Fall and Winter tiredness, depressed mood, and apathy to the lingering effects of a cold or flu or excuse larger appetites as a need for calories when the weather is cold. But the culprit responsible for these changes in behavior is the lack of sun. As the number of hours of daylight decreases, something happens to our brains causing us to experience the symptoms of depression. Fortunately, these symptoms disappear when, by mid-spring, the days are noticeably longer.
Seasonal Affective Disorder is not a trivial occurrence. About 6% of the U.S. population suffers from SAD and 14% from the milder form often called the "winter blues." The symptoms can erode the quality of life for months. Perpetual tiredness, and the need to sleep as much as possible, is common, as is weight gain. Disinterest in work and social activities, irritability, anger and muddle-headedness makes make many people wish that they could crawl into a cave and, bear-like, sleep away the winter. Plans made in the spring and summer for social, volunteer, educational or community activities are laid aside with the excuses,"I am too tired," or "It is too dark," or "It is too cold."
Even this many years after the disorder was characterized, little is understood about how it comes about. Darkness seems to trigger it, but what is actually causing the symptoms? The hormone melatonin has been implicated because melatonin is secreted during periods of dim or no light, i.e. at night, and destroyed in the body during hours of sunlight. A popular treatment for SAD has been light therapy based originally on the assumption that if light decreases melatonin levels, the symptoms of SAD will lessen.
Now, a few decades later, the melatonin theory is being challenged; however, light therapy is still recommended. Specially-designed light bulbs that emit either a full- spectrum light or blue light have been used with varying success. The timing of the light treatment is important. Sitting in front of a "light box" during the early morning hours seems to be more effective than such treatment later on in the day, and some light boxes imitate the light of early dawn. Some people who live under consistent cloud cover (think Seattle) use light boxes year-round and Norman Rosenthal told me years ago (we collaborated on some studies) that he kept a light box in his windowless office at the NIH.
Melatonin may not be the only substance involved in SAD. The early and persistent symptoms of carbohydrate craving suggest that the mood and appetite changes associated with SAD may be due to inadequate serotonin activity. We discovered this link to serotonin among people who snack on carbohydrates when their mood dips every afternoon and among women who increase their carbohydrate intake when they are suffering from PMS. In separate studies we found that the moods of both groups improved significantly after they consumed carbohydrate in a disguised form so they did not know what they were eating.
Their moods improved because serotonin, the "feel-good "neurotransmitter, is made in the brain after carbohydrates are eaten. Their symptoms of grumpiness, depression, anger, anxiety and tiredness, so similar to the moods of SAD, lessened when their brains made new serotonin. So when my meringue-eating friend feels the urge to eat sweet cookies, as the days grow darker, she is probably responding to her brain's need for serotonin.
Drugs, such as Prozac, that increase serotonin activity are now being used to treat people with SAD but what about others who experience milder symptoms? Must they take drugs as well? Eating sweet and/or starchy carbohydrates may be a more natural way of dealing with this seasonal depression. Dr. David Mischoulon, a psychiatrist at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, myself and several other colleagues carried out a study at the MIT clinical research center to see if eating a specific amount of carbohydrate in snack form might relieve some of the symptoms of SAD. Our positive results, published in CNS Neuroscience and Therapeutics suggest that making new serotonin by eating more carbohydrate might be the solution.
The key to getting more serotonin by eating is to choose foods that are high in carbohydrate and relatively low in protein. The amount of carbohydrate that has to be eaten to make new serotonin is relatively small, around 30 grams or 120 calories. Keeping protein low when eating carbohydrate to increase serotonin is important as protein can interfere with the process leading to serotonin synthesis. As we suggest in our book The Serotonin Power Diet, snacking on a carbohydrate food that has very little fat (to control calories) and a low-protein content will ensure that new serotonin is made. We suggest snacks such as popcorn, pretzels, cereals like Cheerios or shredded wheat squares, and low-fat biscotti or graham crackers.
People who suffer from "winter blues" know that their mood plummets as the sun sinks. Late afternoon and early evening are really difficult, as depression, exhaustion and sleepiness take over. Eating a serotonin-producing dinner may prevent you from getting into bed at 7pm with a bag of cookies. Lentils, beans, rice, pasta, quinoa, potatoes and starchy vegetables like squash can be turned into a variety of spicy and tasty foods (think of Indian, Asian, middle-eastern and Italian cuisine). If you don't want to cook, then pancakes, waffles or even oatmeal mixed with fresh or dried fruit are good options. Obviously you can't live only on carbohydrates so eat the other nutrients your body needs at breakfast and lunch when your mood may be relatively better.
Years ago I was invited to northern Sweden to give a presentation. It was early September, yet the sun was setting startlingly early. I must have mentioned carbohydrates and SAD in my talk because during the question period, a man told me and the audience that his favorite winter dinner was a potato sandwich. "You see, it takes away my tiredness and my wife says it puts me in a better humor." You may not want to eat a potato sandwich during the darkest days of winter, but carbohydrates will certainly take you out of your mental hibernation and put you into a better humor, too.
