[PLUG-TALK] Vitamin D and Depression

[Keith Lofstrom]

> > Keith Lofstrom <keithl at gate.kl-ic.com> dijo:
> > >My wife the doctor says that low Vitamin D is associated with
> > >depression (and worse). 

On Sat, Apr 13, 2013 at 12:05:37PM -0700, MJang wrote:
> I take a different approach -- my wife calls it a "grow light",
> something I use for 1/2 hour in the mornings on our many cloudy winter
> days, ref
> www.amazon.com/Lightphoria-Euphoric-Energy-Light-System/dp/B004JF3G08

A small light probably helps a little, with mood and brain stuff.

Direct sunlight on the skin (1kW/m² optical) is a heck of a lot more
power, including the UV-B light which does the actual work of turning
cholesterol in the skin into vitamin D and cholesterol sulfate. 
Probably also helps synthesize other molecules we don't know about
yet.  I would need to do a little more digging to find out how many
watts per square meter of normal sunlight is UV-B, but you don't
want it shining in your eyes. 

I've been considering a kludge - A box of high intensity UV-B tuned 
lamps, and a fiber optic cable that directs the light to a patch I
can wear under my shirt.  Along with a Very Bright LCD monitor 
(replacing the LED backlight strip with much brighter LEDs). 

The goal is to reproduce the through-the-eyes signalling effect Mike
writes about, and generate enough UV-B to do some real chemistry in
my skin, at levels appropriate for all-day exposure, NOT shining
into my eyes and threatening corneas and retinas.

I'm guessing the box would get hot - to make 50 watts of UV-B 
light would probably require a kilowatt of wallplug electricity.
For summertime, a much simpler system that I can use outside 
(same bright display, some kind of shield over head and optical
path) would do.  I mean, ya gotta geek out for 12 hours a day,
pinned to your chair, but you can still get some sunlight.

Stephanie Seneff is a biology-trained CS professor at MIT
who writes a lot about this, especially neglected ideas about
the body's neglected sulfur biochemistry.  She is somewhere on
the spectrum between crackpot and visionary genius, and on most
days I tend towards the latter.  Explore her web pages:

http://people.csail.mit.edu/seneff/

For now, I'll say the demonstrated crackpot part is her penchant
for non-portable Powerpoint presentations, but hey, what can you
expect from someone with an office in the "Gates tower"?  I spent
a couple of hours in her office in February talking about this
stuff;  she is passionate about this, as well as her "day job",
speech recognition.

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993