10,000 lux

Lux is a way to measure how bright a light source is, as perceived by humans. (If you want the complete skinny, look up "lux" in Wikipedia.) Roughly, one lux is the same as moolight at high altitude in tropical areas. In order to create a device for relief of SAD, for those of us who are Winter Challenged, we have to stuff 10,000 of those moons into one single little metal box.

10,000 lux is the standard number of lux needed for the treatment of SAD. But if you don't want to deal with all those moons (figuratively speaking) you can, like the nice lady in the illustration to the right, use a BioBrite Deluxe Light Visor.

The Deluxe Light Visor has a variable light output of between 500 and 3000 lux, meaning that the wearer can control the lux output and the time of the light session by means of two knobs on the battery pack that comes with the Visor.

But, you are wondering, is a device with 3000 lux as effective as one with 10,000 lux?

Yes, because the light source sits much closer to your eyes, and therefore much less light is lost to diffusion. Peer reviewed tests have shown that the Visor is, indeed, as effective as a light box, and the Visor goes with you. You do not have to sit in one place to absorb the beneficial lux.

Later Mornings; Earlier Evenings

As the days shorten down in the rush to the Winter Solstice, we the Winter Challenged can, without treatment, feel our energy fading, being squeezed, perhaps, by the collapsing day.

We know that treatments by a powerful (10,000 lux) light source can help improve our mood and energy level. But perhaps some do not know that a SunRise Clock can "set the table" for a light therapy treatment.

A SunRise Clock is one that fades up in the morning to brightness, and fades down in the evening to dark. It wakes a person by flooding his or her room with light, not sound. (Although they do have back up alarms, if made by BioBrite.) This mini light therapy has been found in small tests to enhance the effectiveness of standard light therapy.

For the Winter Challenged, who need every advantage we can get when fighting off SAD, the SunRise Clock starts a day with light when we need it most.

We Winter Challenged REALLY Have a Problem

Those of us who are Winter Challenged sometimes cause hesitancy and head scratching among health providers. When the Winter Challenged seek help from our family practitioners, we are frequently tested for such conditions as: underactivity of the thyroid, hypoglycemia, or perhaps chronic viral infections such as the Epstein-Barr virus. And these tests regularly come out negative, causing our health providers to wonder if we are simply haunting their offices because we like the magazines in the waiting room. And causing us to feel faintly guilty for taking up the time of busy professionals.

Seasonal Affective Disorder is a real condition, for which there is no laboratory test. According to Normal Rosenthal, MD, "The diagnosis is made on the basis of history alone."

So if you think you may be one of us, the Winter Challenged, if you just get run down when the short days come, suggest to your family doctor that you may have SAD and tell him or her the symptoms. If that is the problem, BioBrite has the tools that may allow you to beat the winter and let the sunshine in.

The Earth is Tilting Towards Short Days in the North

Uh ohh. It is happening right on schedule. Mornings are starting to take longer to get here and nightfall is creeping down the clock face from 9 towards 5.

Those of us among the Winter Challenged know to get the lights ready, for our 20 minutes to one hour daily sessions with powerful UV free lighting that we use to lighten up our psychic load in the bleak winter months.

We at BioBrite would like to remind you that we invented and patented and are selling our Delux Light Visor for the Winter Challenged. We even conducted the research (reviewed by the National Institute of Health and NASA) that shows that our Deluxe Light Visors are as effective as a full sized light box.

And the neat thing is, when you are wearing a Deluxe Light Visor for a therapeutic light session, you can still move around, get your coffee, or get your treadmiling done for the day. That kind of two-fer is enough to brighten anyone's day.

Sun Screen

It is tempting, for us, the Winter Challenged, to soak up the energy giving sun during the gloriously long and light filled summer days. But beware, as I have noted before, the UV rays of the sun are harmful if we stay in them too long.

So we should use suntan lotion, which used to be called "suntan lotion". But no longer. In the constant upgrading of both language and products that we subject ourselves to, boring old suntan lotion has been divided into "sun block" or "sun screen." And there is the SPF.

We have all seen bottles of sunscreen with big SPF numbers on them, 15 or 30 or 45 are the common ones, I think. The higher numbers are sure more powerful and better. Right?

Not so fast, amigo. SPF stands for Sun Protection Factor, and it measures the length of time a product protects us, not the strength of the product. It might take 15 minutes for a skin to redden without protection. SPF 15 protects us 15 times longer than without protection; or, for four hours. But we should reapply sunscreen, at whatever strength, every two hours. So for most of us, most times, SPF 15 is just fine. SPF 30 protects 30 times longer, and blocks only 4% more sunrays. 30 times longer is 8 hours, during which you should reapply three times anyway, so buy the SPF 15.

Early to bed.....

The long summer days make Ben Franklin's saying about Early to bed and early to rise... kind of hard to carry out. Going to bed early in the long summer evenings means getting down before sundown. The Scaninavians must be used to that, but most of us here in the United States are not.

Similarly, the sun comes peeking up in the morning way earlier than many would like.

For those of us who are winter challenged, it is wonderful. For those who lack our unique characteristic, it can be rather a bore.

But the "fade up" and the "fade down" of the sun is the basis for the SunRise Clocks that BioBrite makes. Our SunRise Clocks fade up and gently wake you in the morning and fade down and help you fall to sleep in the evening.

Just like the sun.

The alternative alarm clocks - the ones that bleat you out of bed in the morning, and don't provide soothing fading light in the evening - seem to us to be unnatural. Or maybe unsunny.

The UPside of UV rays

The Deluxe Light Visors we at BioBrite sell are UV free, meaning that you will not be overexposed to UV rays when getting your dose of energy during the SAD months. But, like everything, it turns out there is a downside to UV free. ("UV" means Ultra Violet, a part of the light spectrum that humans cannot see.)

The UV rays are the rays that we filter out in our light appliances are the UV rays that work with your skin to create Vitamin D. Sufficient Vitamin D, a new study at the Creighton University School of Medicine indicates, as reported in the media on 8 June 2007, shows that people with sufficient Vitamin D are 60% less likely to come down with any kind of cancer.

(The study was on 1,200 adult women and is not considered conclusive because of its relatively small size. But the reduction of cancer among those studied was clear.)

Thus, in the grey winter months, when the sun don't shine, it may do you well to take a Vitamin D supplement. The authors of the Creighton study suggest a 1,000 IU's during the winter.

Talk to your health care provider before buying Vitamin D supplements. If you decide to, the tall guy next in line might be me. Say hi.

The UV Blues

Sunny days are here and somewhere a catfish is surely jumping. (Do catfish jump? I’ve never seen one. Have you?) The sun shines down with the light that energizes those of us who are winter challenged. It is tempting to go find a blanket, a grassy field, a cold potation, something with which to crank out the tunes, and zone out.

The strange thing is, we have been so effectively warned, now, against just this activity that our medical colleagues are reporting an increase in conditions caused by a lack of Vitamin D. Some folks need to get more sun.

But, as we know, too much sunlight leads to other problems, beginning with sunburn and working up to skin cancer, and worse. These problems are caused mainly by UV, or UltraViolet, light.

Yikes. What’s a poor winter challenged person to do?

Lovely old moderation is the first line to take. Not too much sun, not too much indoors, just enough of each. If you intend to be in the sun for long periods, wear sun block and/or sun protective clothing. And a nice big floppy hat.

And when the winter comes, as surely as the day follows the night, be sure that the appliance you use to simulate your sun dose, a BioBrite Deluxe Lite Visor, for instance, emits UV free light. (It does.)

An interesting fact about UV light is that some animals, including birds, can see in the UV spectrum, (which humans cannot) and some birds have plumage patterns that can be seen only in the UV spectrum. So to humans, they all look the same, but not to each other. I wonder if we look the same to them?

Clouds in the Summer

Don't we love the long days of summer? The longest day, the June Solstice, is 21 June, and the moment of Solstice is 18:06. The Chinese, my extensive research reveals, refer to this moment as Xiazhi. For the next few months - one before and three after Xiazhi - we are treated to long, light evenings full of activity and energy.

The Winter Challenged among us may wonder if they should stop light therapy during these happy months. As the spring days lengthen, many may be able to turn off their light boxes and Light Visors, especially if they get outside for walks or perhaps their daily croquet matches. However, the clouds will come, especially in the spring before the summer has settled in, and there may be periods of April showers extending into May or June.

If there is a period of extended cloud cover, even in a mild season like summer, the symptoms of SAD may reappear. If the clouds come, and the wintery feelings re-occur, then get out the lamp or the Visor and revitalize yourself. Usually the need will be temporary, so when the sun comes back out, the lamp can go back in the closet.

Ahhh! The arrival of spring; flowers, warm breezes, and mother earth tilting towards the sun and the attendant longer hours of sunshine.

If you are in the community of the winter challenged, this means your energy and interest will be picking up, the days will regain their joy.

So, while you are on top of your game, it is a good time to think about maintaining that cheerful edge through the dreary winter months, coming as surely as that shortest day just before Christmas when you would even kick your dog if you had the energy.

Sitting in front of a 10,000 lux lamp for 30 or more minutes a day may be a valuable aid in keeping your composure through the days of short sunshine. Of course, if you are an active person, then you may want to get one of BioBrite’s Deluxe Light Visors, and wear your surrogate sunshine (which looks like a golf visor) while vacuuming.

All right, not vacuuming. Riding your new exercise bike. OK?

This is an especially fortuitous combination, because the light will tend to lift your mood and the exercise, study after study shows, will improve your self image and use up the calories that you usually store in the winter.

Think of it; better moods all winter and a bathing suit that fits in the spring.

If you are affected by Seasonal Affective Disorder (“SAD”) you probably know that a dose of light is helpful. It is, after all, logical. We understand what is needed well enough, now, that we have developed an industry standard for the amount of light and the time of the application.

Industry? Yes, there is an industry group (The Circadian Lighting Association at www.claorg.org) made up of companies which are involved with the manufacture of lighting implements for the mitigation of SAD. The Association was formed in 1993, so it has been among us for some time.

And what of the industry standard? The industry believes that to control SAD one should sit in front of a 10,000 lux lamp for 30 minutes daily.

However, each of us is a little different, and you may need a little less than 30 minutes or you may need more, up to an hour.

How do you know? By how you feel. We have not developed a formula for who should get how much, in the way antibiotics are given by weight. But when you get the timing right, you’ll know.

The Winter Blahs

If you dislike winter because you feel depressed and grumpy for the whole time, and wish spring would come, starting in October, you aren't alone and it isn't "just you."

You may have a condition called Seasonal Affective Disorder ("SAD") along with an estimated 18 million other Americans. And another 42 million Americans probably are affected negatively by the winter season.

See? You are really not alone.

SAD is a condition that can be managed, and sometimes brought completely under control, by the application of strong lighting.

So this blog is for the "Winter Challenged" community, and we're going to be writing about coping with winter and we are hoping that you will feel easy about telling us your experiences as a member of the Winter Challenged set. By sharing, you'll be helping.