Light is a Drug If reading this at night, you might want to dim the lights. Q: What is the drug everyone is sensitive to? A: Light. (Some, but not all blind people are exceptions – more below) Q:What does it do? A: Change body clocks; in the daytime improve mood and create vitamin D; […]
Getting undepressed – by yourself (2/23/11)
Getting Undepressed Without Drugs I treat many, many sleepy people. Many of them, especially those with sleep apnea, chronic pain, and fibromyalgia, are or have been clinically depressed. Lots of them have seen their GPs and been placed on antidepressants without success. They’re already on a laundry list of medications, and in hard economic times […]
Did Neanderthals get depressed? (12/27/10)
The Four Different Kinds of Human It’s not every year you recognize four different human proto-species were operating at the same time – and relatively recently. What’s even stranger is that we still carry many of their genes. In neurological terms, these groups were close – really close. That fact may help explain what […]
Don’t let daylight savings get you down (11/21/10)
Messing with Mother Nature It happens like clockwork every year. Patients arrive and tell me they can’t handle daylight savings. The body clock change of merely one hour, compared with a flight to Europe, where the change is usually six hours, makes them feel uneasy, skittish, unhappy, unmotivated, and fatigued. How come? Here are some […]
Text tonight, trouble tomorrow (11/3/10)
The Electronic Life The cyborg future is here. Last week I wrote on “Your kid’s new ‘favorite’ bed partner” – the cell phone. It now appears the era of “mobile computing” is creating mass immobility. Kids are texting like crazy at night – in bed. The Pew Memorial Trust survey I quoted had 82% of […]