Vitamin D deficiency, depression linked in international study
Vitamin D deficiency is not just harmful to physical health -- it also might impact mental health, according to a team of researchers that has found a link between seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, and a lack of sunlight.
FAB RESEARCH COMMENT:
This new review makes a strong case for Vitamin D deficiency as a potentially important factor contributing to Seasonal Affective Disorder in particular, and depression more generally.Plenty of evidence documents a strong association between depression and low Vitamin D levels - although this alone can't show that the link is causal.
However, there are many ways in which Vitamin D can affect brain function, as well as physical health.
Vitamin D is needed to make the neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine (both implicated in depression) - and acts on brain regions critical for both regulating emotions, and maintaining the 'body clocks' which co-ordinate multiple brain and body rhythms.
Vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency is widespread in the UK and many other developed countries - particularly in the winter months, as no Vitamin D can be made from sunshine on the skin (the main natural source) between October and the end of March.
The authors also emphasise that individuals with darker skin are at particularly high risk of Vitamin D deficiency - and that this is likely to add to their risks for both mental and physical health disorders.
For details of this research, please see:
For more information on this subject, please see the following lists of articles, wch are regularly updated.
"Rather than being one of many factors, vitamin D could have a regulative role in the development of SAD," said Alan Stewart of the University of Georgia College of Education.
Stewart and Michael Kimlin from QUT's School of Public Health and Social Work conducted a review of more than 100 leading articles and found a relationship between vitamin D and seasonal depression.
"Seasonal affective disorder is believed to affect up to 10 percent of the population, depending upon geographical location, and is a type of depression related to changes in season," said Stewart, an associate professor in the department of counseling and human development services.
"People with SAD have the same symptoms every year, starting in fall and continuing through the winter months."
Stewart said, based on the team's investigations, vitamin D was likely to be a contributing factor in seasonal depression.
"We believe there are several reasons for this, including that vitamin D levels fluctuate in the body seasonally, in direct relation to seasonally available sunlight," he said. "For example, studies show there is a lag of about eight weeks between the peak in intensity of ultraviolet radiation and the onset of SAD, and this correlates with the time it takes for UV radiation to be processed by the body into vitamin D."
Vitamin D is also involved in the synthesis of serotonin and dopamine within the brain, both chemicals linked to depression, according to the researchers.
"Evidence exists that low levels of dopamine and serotonin are linked to depression, therefore it is logical that there may be a relationship between low levels of vitamin D and depressive symptoms," said Kimlin, a Cancer Council Queensland Professor of Cancer Prevention Research.
"Studies have also found depressed patients commonly had lower levels of vitamin D."
Vitamin D levels varied according to the pigmentation of the skin. People with dark skin often record lower levels of vitamin D, according to the researchers.
"Therefore it is suggested that persons with greater skin pigmentation may experience not only higher risks of vitamin D deficiency, but also be at greater risk of psychological and psychiatric conditions," he said.
"What we know now is that there are strong indications that maintaining adequate levels of vitamin D are also important for good mental health," Kimlin said. "A few minutes of sunlight exposure each day should be enough for most people to maintain an adequate vitamin D status."
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