Summer Seasonal Affective Disorder

I’m totally thrilled with the interview! They even have a four picture slide show of me, and the entire transcript! Here is the transcript of the interview and there is a link to the podcast.

http://weekendamerica.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/05/22/seasons/

I just got back from the Frank Stanton Studios in downtown Los Angeles where Marketplace/Weekend America/SCPR/KPCC are partially produced or taped. I met with the engineer Tim Bomba, who was wonderful and brought me a cup of tea. Tim had even investigated my name, and discovered that ironically Saskia might mean “valley of light”, haha! Tim was also kind enough to take the picture of me posted below!

They set me up with earphones and sat me in front of the mic, where I was introduced to Desiree Cooper, one of the familiar voices of NPR (and a Winter SAD sufferer!). We actually spent a long time talking about Summer SAD, and of course they had me do a few runs of “goodbye” and “hello,” and repeat a few answers. Of course in true Saskia fashion I rambled on a bit, so I’m sure they can dig out one or two good sound clips! I don’t know that much about radio but from my experience today it seems like a fun job to have.

The piece will probably only be a few minutes long, and should air this weekend on “Weekend America” at 1pm on Saturday on your local public radio station. I’m hoping I’ll be able to post the podcast or even better just the segment clip–I’ll see what I can do. Although I cringe at the idea of hearing myself on the radio, I’m very excited to hear how they put everything together!

Weekend America just contacted me and some other Summer SAD bloggers (http://community.livejournal.com/summer_s_a_d/) about being interviewed for a short segment they’re running this weekend about Summer Seasonal Affective Disorder. Coolio!! It’s supposed to be just a short 2-3 minute bit but hopefully it will raise more awareness. The link to the live journal website also has more information.

It sounds strange, but Nature recently ran an article called Thyrotropin Triggers Birdsong, which details how TSH (a thyroid precursor hormone) may influence seasonal reproductive behavior in birds. Basically, there may be a cellular explanation for light induced behaviors!

It has been known for over 40 years that day length triggers the Spring breeding season in birds, and the mating songs we all enjoy (well in the case of my local mockingbird, not so!). No one knew how this was happening, until recently when two researchers discovered a cellular explanation that TSH functions not only as a thyroid stimulating hormone, but also in the birds as an indirect signal for the pituitary gland to secrete sex organ hormones. This is mainly via discovering that an area called the pars tuberalis, on the surface of the hypothalamus, also produces TSH.

All of us with thyroid disease know that TSH is produced by the pituitary to make T3 and T4, which is what is in those thyroid tablets we depend on. T3 and T4 are known to be involved in metabolism and thermogenesis (heat generation). But the researchers discovered they could induce breeding conditions in birds by injecting TSH into their brains, concluding that the thyroid hormones are like a shot of a summer’s day length of light.

The researchers concluded that since humans also produce TSH in the pars tuberalis, it might also affect us as it does birds but manifesting in human concerns such as seasonal affective disorder and even infertility problems.  This is of course not necessarily to say that by injecting TSH into a human’s hypothalamus would stimulate our sex hormones (who knows!) but it could have developed other pathways in our brain, triggering different behaviors.

But still, it’s fun to speculate: Winter SAD prescriptions for shots of a speciality TSH blend to give you that “summer feeling”, lol! But I think Summer SAD people are more complex……unfortunately, we still don’t know the why, who, what, etc.

Now, I have to say I have central hypothyroidism (dysfunction of pituitary, hypothalamus, or hypothalamic-pituitary). It wouldn’t surprise me at all to learn that something in my brain is messed up in terms of light signals stimulating a cellular response, whether it be over or under-stimulation. Who knows! But it seems like science is slowly starting to unravel some potential answers/therapies to SAD.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v452/n7185/abs/nature06738.html;jsessionid=60B791215798BC06D1A5704C74A4E97D

Ack! Wordpress just lost my post, so here it goes again.

So this second hot-as-sin heatwave in Los Angeles has nudged me into accepting that, yes, summer is here once again. Time to dust off the old Summer SAD website and make all the improvements I’ve been talking about! More information, more tips on how to cope, an improved forum/bulletin board, and maybe a chat room that actually works!

It has been nearly one year since I started the site, coinciding with the LA Times article about Summer SAD. While I didn’t do everything I wanted with the site, I did feel like it was successful in helping some people, including myself! I’ve just had another journalist inquire about Summer SAD in Britain, so word about the disorder seems to be still gaining interest–any Brits with Summer SAD email me and I’ll put you in touch with her–she might feature you in an article!

I’ve learned a lot over the past year, and want to re-write a few of my thoughts on Summer SAD. So it’s time to wipe the sweat off the brow, crank up the a/c, and get to work!!

So my blood tests say there is something wrong with me. I’ve been slapped with the label of “Chronic Fatigue Syndrome”. In the past I’ve embraced a diagnosis, so why am I so ambivalent about CFS? It’s hard for me to accept the blood tests actually say there is something wrong with me. Is this really my life?

I’m hoping righting these will put me back on my feet, but deep down I wonder how much my Summer SAD has to do with developing this. If I moved, would I be happier, and then find my health improve. How much does the environment affect my health? and my happiness?

I’ve had a rough 10 years and maybe my body is just done taking the punches. Perhaps the Summer SAD just pushed me over the edge? I’m only 31, but feel like I’m 91! Does anyone out there with Summer SAD have CFS? I really resisted the diagnosis, you know, as ten years ago they tried to say I had it (among other bogus things like “a woman’s psychological problems”, and yes my jaw dropped when the imbecile doctor said that) when it was actually Celiac Disease.  But now they’re saying CFS again because I have very low thyroid, insufficient adrenals, and low progesterone and pregnenolone.  I guess I’ll have to wait and see once they get these hormonal levels back up to see if my symptoms all go away.

Anyway, I suppose I’m just posting this to get it out there. By writing it out, I’m forced to confront it! A bit like an AA meeting where you announce it to everyone, I suppose. I guess I should just treat this as a journey. You know that is an encouraging idea to me…so I’ll leave it at that!

All I want to do lately is go on long hikes, play tennis, go swimming outdoors…I even spent part of Saturday bathing (nekkid!) in a pool of light on my bed..it felt wonderful and restorative.  It’s nice to reconsider my relationship with the sun, and with light.

I also read that exposure to sunlight is important in combating P.M.S. so we’ll see if it helps!

Know that wonderful feeling you get when it rains, or you’re by the ocean? I’ve been told that is probably due to high levels of negative ions in the air. I was reminded of this today while reading a New York Times article about Winter SAD (Brought on by Darkness, Disorder Needs Light).

It mentions that in a trial negative air ionization was used as a placebo for traditional light therapy, and lo and behold they discovered that high levels of negative ions “had positive effects on mood.” To the alternative medicine community I’m sure this is nothing new, but for the rest it confirms what I’ve always noticed: I feel better in forests and near bodies of water (or rain) where there are a lot of negative ions.  Places with pollution, heat and air-conditioning typically have low levels of negative ions.  I suppose that it’s pretty much subjective as to if the positive mood effect is actually great enough to completely combat SAD depression, but it’s wonderful so many alternative therapies are starting to pop up. Or at least gain “validity” in mainstream medicine.

I found the scientific study I’m sure the article sourced from (A Controlled Trial of Timed Bright Light and Negative Air Ionization for Treatement of Winter Depression) , but haven’t had time to read it in depth to see if they examine how the control group compares to the use of negative ions on a non-SAD effected group. My initial feeling is that negative air ions might simply make a lot of people who don’t necessarily have depression feel better.

While there was no mention of Summer SAD and any potential implications negative air ionization might have on our mood, my hunch is that it might actually have a greater effect on us (perhaps provided there is a cooling effect with the ions!). For example, I feel great when it’s cool and gray, but I feel amazing when it’s cool, gray, AND raining. Although it might just be that conditions for negative ions are more hospitable to climates Summer SAD patients thrive in. Of course I have heard from plenty of people who are driven mad by the humid heat of the Floridian summer. It all depends!

It might be interesting this summer, when blasting the air-conditioning, to look into replacing the negative air ions at the same time.  I hate the dry Santa Ana winds and hate the dry air from air-conditioning (which is the only thing to negate the summer heat)–and generally make a point of trying to run my humidifier at the same time.  But I’m going to look into actual negative ion replacement instead, since I’m concerned about mold levels.  I have heard from a lot of you Summer SADders that misters and cool humidifiers greatly help you.  Has anyone tinkered with negative ion generators, salt-rocks, or what have you?

The article mentions one other useful thing –the website for The Center for Environmental Therapeutics where you can take a few questionnaires about SAD and determining your circadian rhythm (are you a lark, or an owl?).

I look more into this when I get a chance and post more about negative ions, because there has been a lot written about them (specifically relating to therapies and air purifiers)…for now it’s off to prepare my house for the arrival of my mother-in-law from Germany! Luckily, she has brought the rain with her. Today in Los Angeles it’s a relatively cool 60 degrees, gray, and raining. Bring on those negative ions!

The Winter Solstice marks the first day of winter on December 22nd, so I figured I’d post some last thoughts about Fall in the form of quotes and poems (some of which are truncated, apologies).  I added a few pictures I took in November during a walk with my father through Seattle’s Arboretum.  And to start–a picture of me enjoying the dying of the light.  I love the colors of greens, golds, bronzes, purples, grays and sienna…..it seems that I can only truly enjoy the sun in Fall and Winter!

My sorrow, when she’s here with me,
Thinks these dark days of autumn rain
Are beautiful as days can be;
She loves the bare, the withered tree;
She walks the sodden pasture lane.
Robert Frost
My November Guest

Autumn is a second spring where every leaf is a flower.
Albert Camus

Every leaf speaks bliss to me,
Fluttering from the autumn tree.
Emily Bronte

Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.

George Eliot 

No Spring nor Summer Beauty hath such grace
As I have seen in one Autumnal face.
John Donne
Elegy IX–The Autumnal.

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.
John Keats
Ode to Autumn.

I cannot endure to waste anything as precious as autumn sunshine by staying in the house. So I spend almost all the daylight hours in the open air.
Nathaniel Hawthorne

On fields o’er which the reaper’s hand has pass’d
Lit by the harvest moon and autumn sun,
My thoughts like stubble floating in the wind
And of such fineness as October airs,
There after harvest could I glean my life
A richer harvest reaping without toil,
And weaving gorgeous fancies at my will
In subtler webs than finest summer haze.

Henry David Thoreau

Introit by Charles Bidwell

Now is the darkest and longest night of the year.
Now is the time of rest and restoration.
Now is the time to praise the darkness.
on Earth and
within our bodies and
in our life cycles.
In balance with the light,
there is daily night
and it is blessing and right.
Now is the darkest and longest night of the year.
Now is the time of rest and restoration.
Now is the time to praise the darkness.

AY, thou art welcome, heaven’s delicious breath! When woods begin to wear the crimson leaf,
And suns grow meek, and the meek suns grow brief
And the year smiles as it draws near its death. Wind of the sunny south! oh, still delay
In the gay woods and in the golden air,
Like to a good old age released from care,
Journeying, in long serenity, away.
In such a bright, late quiet, would that I
Might wear out life like thee, ‘mid bowers and brooks
And dearer yet, the sunshine of kind looks,
And music of kind voices ever nigh;
And when my last sand twinkled in the glass,
Pass silently from men, as thou dost pass.
William Cullen Bryant
October

Solstice by Reverend Gary Kowalski
Night has its own kind of beauty, different than the beauty of day.
Night is a time of sleep and dreams and inward visions.
A time of pause within activity.
Darkness is an invitation to imagining and storytelling,
And to using ears instead of eyes to listen to the world in its stillness.
Darkness is the den of life in germination,
And darkness is the portal of death that opens to eternity:
The mystery of all time past and endless time to come.
At the center of our being
there is light and there is darkness,
the known and the unknown,
the named and the nameless,
the finite and the infinite.
Light and dark are different,
but not opposed to each other.
Like a mother and father, they are friends with one another, and with us.

I was intrigued to learn, from a reader, that the ice skater Dorothy Hamill has Summer SAD! In her new autobiography “A Skating Life” she talks about her Summer SAD. I found this snippet in a news release:

Eventually, Dorothy was diagnosed with seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Having summer SAD means her debilitating symptoms occur in warmer months, when she becomes lethargic and depressed, sometimes unable to get off the couch for hours or even days.

I have yet to get the book and read about it but I thought this was very interesting. The ice rink does seem like the perfect refuge for someone with Summer SAD! Secondly, I haven’t heard from any of you who were actually diagnosed by a doctor as having Summer SAD. Where are these informed physicians hiding? Personally I don’t need the “stamp of approval” of a doctor to know I have, without any doubt, Summer SAD–but how is it diagnosed? I passed it by my doctor, who is an “environmental doctor” and he hadn’t heard of it but said it made sense. Are there actual tests that can be run? I assume it is more circumstantial than anything….I feel a renewed inspiration to hunt down some “experts” who can explain more to me the possible mechanisms of this disorder.

Can we recruit Dorothy to be our Summer SAD celebrity poster woman?!