Vitamin D deficiency makes you depressed

All content is checked by medical journalists.

MunichIn the winter months, the level of sun vitamin D in the body rushes into the basement of many. American researchers suspect a deficiency could also be related to winter depression.

Alan Stewart and his colleagues from the University of Georgia assessed the current study situation regarding vitamin D and winter depression. The scientists came to the conclusion that vitamin D deficiency could at least indirectly be a trigger for the mental illness. The researchers came to this conclusion with four different facts.

• The vitamin D level in the body fluctuates seasonally. In summer most people have a large amount of the sun vitamin in their blood, in winter they have little.
• Various studies have shown that people with depression have lower vitamin D levels. A connection with other mental illnesses has also already been discovered. Researchers from Iran were able to show that vitamin D deficiency increases the risk of schizophrenia 2.16 times.
• The sun vitamin plays a central role in the production of serotonin and dopamine. Both are suspected of triggering depression - patients have too little of it in their blood.
• There are many binding sites for vitamin D in the hypothalamus. This region of the brain is responsible for controlling our biological clock.

Lack of energy and sadness

Next, the researchers want to check whether dark-skinned people who live in countries with low solar radiation are more likely to suffer from winter depression. That would be another indication of a vitamin D dependence of the disease.

Winter depression is a seasonally dependent depression (SAD) that occurs annually in the dark season: It begins in the autumn months and usually ends in spring. During this time, those affected complain of a lack of energy and excessive sadness. Often they have more appetite, especially for sweets, and gain weight. In some cases, people with winter depression also lose weight. Further symptoms of winter depression are an increased need for sleep and general listlessness. (away)

Source: Stewart A.E. et al .: Possible contributions of skin pigmentation and vitamin D in a polyfactorial model of seasonal affective disorder, Med Hyptheses, Nov 2014.

Tags:  hair sleep womenshealth