[WildChild]

Please note to get Omega 3s from flax you do need to grind it but also don't heat it. Heat will destroy the Omega 3s. If you buy flax oil keep it refrigerated. I use a coffee grinder and sprinkle it in and on things. I do also bake with ground flax but that is to increase the fiber content and I like the nutty flavor that the seed gives.

[kira]

Sunlight does trigger the release of serotonin. Serotonin is the target of most antidepressants and studies have shown people who are more outgoing and positive have higher levels of serotonin in their brains. So sunlight does have a chemical/hormonal cause to making you happier. Except for me cause my brain is messed up and when exposed to serotonin increase (medication or natural) goes a bit nuts. Serotonin also gets converted in to melatonin when you are no longer exposed to enough sunlight which is what tells your body it's time to slow down and sleep. More serotonin=more melatonin and better sleep.

[Guest]

Ehh...the sunlight...YES! Actually the bright light from the sun has been PROVEN to be directly linked to increases in Serotonin...

Sorry, I had the chemical wrong. It's NOT Dopamine but Serotonin that is released and is SCIENTIFICALLY tied to sun light....er...bright light actually.

Sunlight brightens your mood. Just about everyone, regardless of whether or not they suffer from depression, feels better when the sun comes out. What most people experience intuitively has come to be understood scientifically in the past two decades: Exposure to sunlight boosts serotonin levels in the brain. Sunlight (or bright light, to be more exact) is the most abundant and easiest to absorb anti-depressant you will find. To receive your daily dose of bright light all you need to do is open your eyes. When bright light reaches the retina it stimulates the optic nerve, which sends a signal to the part of the brain that regulates production of serotonin and melatonin. You will recall that serotonin is the same neurotransmitter that is boosted by Prozac, Paxil, and the other selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors. It relieves stressful feelings and produces a general sense of well-being. For depression, bright light works faster than medication, usually within a week, and with fewer side effects. Drugs that boost serotonin generally take two to four weeks before beginning to work, and in some cases up to six weeks.

Bright light has been used as a treatment for winter depression for over twenty-five years. Its efficacy in treating winter depression, also known as seasonal affective disorder (SAD), has been supported by dozens of studies. As the days get shorter, cloudier and colder in the winter months, people with SAD frequently suffer from fatigue, irritability, depression, carbohydrate craving, sleep problems and weight gain. Exposure to bright light from the sun or a high intensity light fixture for 30-60 minutes a day is remarkably effective in alleviating the symptoms of SAD.

More recently, we have found that bright light is also effective in treating depression that arrives in seasons other than winter. Over fifteen controlled studies have demonstrated that bright light is helpful for people suffering from non-seasonal depression. This confirms what I have observed with my clients. In fact, people with a variety of other conditions, including PMS, depression during pregnancy, bulimia, and insomnia, have also shown improvement from exposure to high intensity light.

Are you getting enough bright light? If you’re like many Americans, you may not be. As we spend more of our time indoors we are becoming increasingly deprived of the bright light that is essential to our health and well-being. For most of human history, people spent almost all of their waking hours outdoors. Our brains and bodies evolved in an outdoor environment bathed in sunlight. Our eyes have special light receptors, connected directly to the middle of the brain, that respond only to the brightness of outdoor light. That light, absorbed by the eyes, stimulates the release of neurotransmitters and hormones that regulate mood, sleep, and energy. Without it, our natural sleep-wake cycle goes awry and our mood and energy suffer.

Many of us are not aware that we are light deprived and suffering from the effects of light deprivation. Because of our eyes’ extraordinary ability to adapt to changes in brightness, we tend not to be aware of how little light we actually receive when we are indoors. Typical indoor lighting is 100 times less bright than outdoor light on a sunny day. Even a cloudy day delivers ten times more brightness than ordinary indoor lighting.

Many people who live in the northern United States feel less happy and more sluggish in the winter. People who live in sunny climates tend to feel happier than people in darker environments. A recent survey of 1.3 million Americans found that those who live in the sunniest states tend to report the highest levels of happiness. The top seven happiest states in the 50 state survey were all in the Sun Belt (in order): Louisiana, Hawaii, Florida, Tennessee, Arizona, South Carolina, and Mississippi.

The best way to get the mood enhancing benefit of bright light is to spend at least thirty minutes a day outdoors. Walking outside on a sunny day is an ideal way to combine exercise, light exposure, and the beauty of nature. In order to receive the mood-boosting effect, the light needs to be absorbed through your eyes, so do not wear sunglasses. You do not need to look up at the sun. Simply being outdoors will enable you to absorb the light you need.

On a snowy, rainy, cloudy or very cold day, it may not be practical or possible to get thirty minutes of exposure to bright sunlight. If you can’t get thirty minutes of sunshine outdoors, a high intensity light box can provide the boost you need.

A high intensity light box offers a convenient and reliable way to receive your daily dose of bright light. To receive maximum benefit, the light fixture must provide 10,000 lux of light at a distance of two feet. Lux is a measure of brightness. On a sunny day, the brightness of sunlight is anywhere from 10,000 to 100,000 lux. In contrast, typical indoor lighting is only about 100 lux! That’s why a high intensity light box provides such a powerful lift to light-deprived people who spend little time outdoors. It gives them a blast of light that approximates the mood-boosting brightness of sunlight.

There are many high intensity light boxes available, ranging in price from about $100 to $500. In selecting a model, choose a fixture that has an adjustable stand. The light should be about 18-24 inches in front of you. You can set the light fixture on a desk or table so that it is about six inches above eye level, shining down into your eyes. This approximates the angle at which outdoor sunlight hits the eyes. It is the best angle for stimulating the light sensors in the eyes. You should not look directly into the light, as this can hurt your eyes. You can receive your light exposure while you read, work at your computer, or eat breakfast. You can also get your daily dose of light while watching television or walking on your treadmill. The diagram on the opposite page shows how to position the light fixture for optimal benefit.

High intensity light boxes contain fluorescent bulbs, which are cooler and last longer than incandescent bulbs. Some fluorescent bulbs flicker, which may cause eyestrain and headache. Look for a light box that uses flicker-free technology.

A lengthy response but worth it....

[WildChild]

The flip side of this is that you do need to be sleeping in the dark too.
Hmmmm, we need sunlight in the day and dark at night! Shouldn't need any science to figure that out.

[ItsASecret]

Sorry, I had the chemical wrong. It's NOT Dopamine but Serotonin that is released and is SCIENTIFICALLY tied to sun light....er...bright light actually.

Serotonin does I know that one for sure. Dopamine is pretty much do anything and it will be released in some way.

[CaliGirl7]

So I started taking those omega fish oil vitamins, I got them from Target. I also wanted to know I'm drinking a lot more water and at the place I work at I get free water bottles and they have 2 kinds smart water and planet water. I will not drink planet water anymore because I found out it was making people sick. So ill only drink the smart water. But when they run out of it ill drink the lime crystal geyser sparkling water. Besides the mineral and flavor is there a difference from drinking it instead of regular water?

[kira]

Not really. Most bottled water is your local tap water run through a ton of filters to make it "pure" (exact definition varies by method) water and then they add minerals back in for taste and to prevent health problems (drinking distilled/ro is bad except as part of specific diets). The only thing that really varies is the exact mineral mix added back in and therefore the flavor. Only a few brands of water, generally the really expensive ones, are bottled in a special location and not treated. These come under fire all the time for the natural bacteria content but I drink them whenever I can get them because I prefer the flavor. My immune system is really hardy so I don't worry about it. I just avoid straight tap/well water around here because it's disgusting with all excessive amounts of minerals. Red and brown out of the tap even in town isn't uncommon. I used to make what I called fake water for fish tanks by taking 99.9% pure water and buying bulk minerals and salts to custom blend it for the fish. That's pretty much what bottled water companies are doing.

[randomguy2011]

ok so im a 22 yr old female and i've been with my boyfriend for over 2 years now. I love him so much and i want to spend my life with him. When we first got together we couldn't keep our hands off each other, we were always fooling around and having sex sometimes 4 times a day everyday. We've been through so much together and we have definatley become closer but our sex has gone to maybe once a week if even that, and its not him its me. I dont know whats wrong with me i love having sex with him but the last couple months i just have not wanted it and i know its affecting him cuz he always blames himself, no matter how many times i tell him its not him its me. I've tried talking to him about it but he just thinks im not into him anymore which is why im here.
I've done everything, reserched, stopped taking my bc, doing everything to make myself feel sexy again. Im just lost and i want to have a good sex life with my man again.

Sorry to tell you it is him. Well not really its both of you. People who are young and in love like to be intimate with eachother hence what your sex life use to be like. You commented that you've been through a lot with eachother. There is you're problem. Typical males are problem solvers and try to fix things. Typical women do not need their problems solved as they are smart enough to figure it out on their own.

My guess is you're starting to lose your connection with him. Men can have sex because they want sex. Many women cannot or do want to if they don't feel a connection with their mate. It happens often.

I'd say be honest with yourself about how you really feel and address that. I also find it interesting that you preface your post by telling everyone how happy you are. Some would say that maybe you're trying to fool someone?

[randomguy2011]

Jeepers...

I try not to read replies and only read the OP when I comment. I do take these forums seriously as they are sources of help for people. So I posted my comment which is not likely something you want to accept. Maybe you do need to eat more omega 3, drink more water and sit in the sun but my question is now what happened that would have caused a deficiency in any of those things?

In life, generally speaking of course, what it is most likely to be is what it is and there is usually a simple answer to what seems to be a complex issue.

Here is my experience and forgive the newbie for overstepping his ground. I went through the same thing with my wife. Dated for 8 years, married for 6 months and then divorced. At first very much in love and a lot of intimacy. As time went on that faded but was still good. Went through some very stressful times with new jobs and grad school. Blamed everything else and didn't consider the most common option. It was us. We went through tough times but it didn't make us stronger it broke us.

She missed her family and hated her job and was very homesick. Much different that your circumstance and i don't mean to compare the too. She leaned on me and i tried to fix her problems when all she wanted was for me to listen. Eventually she stopped talking to me because "i just didn't understand." Fast forward no sex life and zero urge to be with me at all.

I starting urging her to make friends. I often did go with her because of different work hours. She eventually found another guy who helped her realize it wasn't her it was us. We divorced after 8 months of marriage and we are both much happier, i guess she is i haven't talked with her since the finalization.

My point is this. You need to consider the most obvious and simplistic options. If you look at the stats the % of people who have your type of symptoms because of Season affective disorder from Vit D. deficiency is low. Exercise and endorphin release helps you feel better but is not a fix to the relationship. And after all if you've been trying these things and they aren't working it's point back to the obvious.

Good luck with all, honestly will always be the right call.

[oxy-moron]

On the work side of things google the following
UCLA Study On Friendship Among Women
This study showed how women handle workplace stress-from the article
--The discovery that women respond to stress differently than men was made in a classic "aha" moment shared by two women scientists who were talking one day in a lab at UCLA. There was this joke that when the women who worked in the lab were stressed, they came in, cleaned the lab, had coffee, and bonded, says Dr. Klein. When the men were stressed, they holed up somewhere on their own.

Do you have a friend at work to talk with- Getting some good friend time could help.