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Vitamin D and Depression (2020)

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

41–50 of 221 posts

Re: Vitamin D and Depression (2020)

#41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> was given 50,000 IU a week vitamin D to get it up. It should have gone up significantly. I wonder if your body has a problem with Vit D absorption. I was put on the same dose of vit d for a treatment and I felt it within 20 minutes.

Is vitamin D fat soluble? If so, pretty sure it needs to be consumed with fat. That's partly why it's common in milk.

It is fat soluble, but it doesn't need to be consumed with fat. It's believed that that will help improve uptake, though. (I don't, I take it in the mornings long before my first meal and that seems to be effective for me based on my test results.)

Re: Vitamin D and Depression (2020)

#42

Daily morning and afternoon exposure to bright light might actually be more important to reducing depression than direct vitamin D supplementation. Low vitamin D might just be an indicator that you are not getting enough sunlight. Sunlight also affects melatonin and serotonin levels, and synchronizes your Circadian rhythm. Not sure why that article doesn't talk about Seasonal affective disorder (SAD), and how bright…

Sunlight’s effects on body chemistry also have a damping effect on inflammation. It’s a funny thing.

Sunlight has an impact on many chemical processes in and on the body. One example: Our skin is coated with a bunch of chemicals. There’s a number of different acidic chemicals. These are known as the “acid mantle”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_mantle

One of these substances is urocanic acid. The body manufactures it as the trans-isoform. UV light – as in sunlight – causes it to change into cis-urocanic acid. (Ultraviolet-induced isomerization.)

Cis-urocanic acid fits a certain serotonin receptor – type 5-HT2A. Cis-urocanic acid is a 5-HT2A agonist. That receptor is known to be profoundly immunomodulatory.

It’s super interesting! There are some recent papers on it like “ Cis-urocanic acid, a sunlight-induced immunosuppressive factor, activates immune suppression via the 5-HT2A receptor” – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17085585/

“Molecular basis for cis-urocanic acid as a 5-HT2A receptor agonist” – https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960894X0...

This is absolutely fascinating. I think people take me as a crackpot when I point to these papers. These are just simple and solid papers from molecular biology :)

Re: Vitamin D and Depression (2020)

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> was given 50,000 IU a week vitamin D to get it up. It should have gone up significantly. I wonder if your body has a problem with Vit D absorption. I was put on the same dose of vit d for a treatment and I felt it within 20 minutes.

Is vitamin D fat soluble? If so, pretty sure it needs to be consumed with fat. That's partly why it's common in milk.

It's common in milk because it helps with calcium absorption.

Re: Vitamin D and Depression (2020)

#44

Vitamin D supplementation didn't affect my depression. Going for walks to get more sunlight made it worse. I understand that not everything works for everyone and I wish those around me, including my doctor, did as well so they'd stop blaming me when their "cure" doesn't work on me.

No post body was provided.

Re: Vitamin D and Depression (2020)

#45

Daily morning and afternoon exposure to bright light might actually be more important to reducing depression than direct vitamin D supplementation. Low vitamin D might just be an indicator that you are not getting enough sunlight. Sunlight also affects melatonin and serotonin levels, and synchronizes your Circadian rhythm. Not sure why that article doesn't talk about Seasonal affective disorder (SAD), and how bright…

Sunlight’s effects on body chemistry also have a damping effect on inflammation. It’s a funny thing. Sunlight has an impact on many chemical processes in and on the body. One example: Our skin is coated with a bunch of chemicals. There’s a number of different acidic chemicals. These are known as the “acid mantle”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_mantle One of these substances is urocanic acid . The body manufactur…

You, sir, just blew my mind. I have some reading material to go through. This is fascinating indeed!!

Re: Vitamin D and Depression (2020)

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is vitamin D fat soluble? If so, pretty sure it needs to be consumed with fat. That's partly why it's common in milk.

It is fat soluble, but it doesn't need to be consumed with fat. It's believed that that will help improve uptake, though. (I don't, I take it in the mornings long before my first meal and that seems to be effective for me based on my test results.)

https://www.jandonline.org/article/S2212-2672%2814%2901468-3...

"The mean peak (12-hour) plasma vitamin D-3 level after the dose was 32% (95% CI 11% to 52%) greater in subjects consuming fat-containing compared with fat-free meals (P=0.003)."

Re: Vitamin D and Depression (2020)

#48

Daily morning and afternoon exposure to bright light might actually be more important to reducing depression than direct vitamin D supplementation. Low vitamin D might just be an indicator that you are not getting enough sunlight. Sunlight also affects melatonin and serotonin levels, and synchronizes your Circadian rhythm. Not sure why that article doesn't talk about Seasonal affective disorder (SAD), and how bright…

Sunlight’s effects on body chemistry also have a damping effect on inflammation. It’s a funny thing. Sunlight has an impact on many chemical processes in and on the body. One example: Our skin is coated with a bunch of chemicals. There’s a number of different acidic chemicals. These are known as the “acid mantle”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_mantle One of these substances is urocanic acid . The body manufactur…

> That receptor is known to be profoundly immunomodulatory

Any change for a layman's explanation on what that means? This seems super fascinating but admittedly above my understanding.

Re: Vitamin D and Depression (2020)

#49
post #21

Sunlight and gardening have had such a dramatic impact on the way that I feel, it's unbelievable.

For me sunlight and some light exercise everyday were a game changer. I had tried Vitamin D supplements (1000 IU daily) before but there was barely any noticable effect.

I don’t think that’s enough, I needed 5k daily before it started working. My blood tests all come back in the correct range now.

Re: Vitamin D and Depression (2020)

#50
Maybe the relation is not as direct as we might think at first.

Maybe the vitamin D deficiency is keeping people from going out more, which makes them feel isolated, not engaged fully with their friends and family which, in turn, pushes them to depression if they're prone to it.

And that may explain why it seems that, as the writers of this paper mentioned, when some of the subjects get vitamin D the depression goes away. This can be caused by the effect of the intake on their ability to gain their more active way of life.

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