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Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants

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Re: Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants

#121

Post by mvcosta91 »

isoprophlex wrote: post #43

Because it's common to hate on antidepressants, I've always personally had a bias against them. For the past 15-20 years, november thru february are basically a writeoff due for me due to seasonal affective disorder. Cold showers, exercise, no alcohol, strict sleeping rituals. Vitamin d. I can still sleep 11 hours and feel like reheated cat shit. Enter citalopram. "It will take up to six weeks to dial in" they said.…

“God, I see what you’re doing for others, and I want that for me.”

I had a very similar experience, except it killed my libido, so I chose to endure the suffering of Winter rather than live with emotional numbness.

Still, I strongly recommend it for people flirting with the abyss. It was life-changing for me while I was raising an autistic 2yo during the pandemic.

Re: Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants

#122

Post by Der_Einzige »

sarreph wrote: post #83
Der_Einzige wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

How would you prove that?

I don't need to "prove it", because all I have to do is link this:

https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.01754

https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.01491

https://aclanthology.org/2025.acl-short.47/

https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.06166

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Signs_of_AI_writing

https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/wzveh_v1

https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.08872

https://aclanthology.org/2025.findings-acl.987/

https://aclanthology.org/2025.coling-main.426/

https://aclanthology.org/2025.iwsds-1.37/

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.14.24307373v...

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/21522715251379...

https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.21817

Either they used an LLM to write part of it, or the linguistic mind virus infected them and now they speak a little bit like an LLM.

Re: Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants

#123

Post by energy123 »

moritzwarhier wrote: post #65
zelphirkalt wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to what I read in a newspaper article, the recommended dose is much lower, at 800.

According to the internet, it is way higher, probably over 9000. Edit because the comment might be to shallow for HN: I sympathize with the struggle against depression and, after first-hand experience, share the skepticism against the widespread prescription of antidepressants and the methods of evidence presented for it. Very serious and important topic. Regarding Vitamin D, I am also supplementing in the Winter, bu…

There's likely significant individual variation in bioavailability. I would start with 2-5K/day, then measure and iterate.

Re: Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants

#124

Post by pjc50 »

sschueller wrote: post #87
r1ch wrote: post #4

Please do not take 5000mg/day of Vitamin D. The author confuses IU and mg which is very dangerous.

If you don't have an underlying condition it is way better to get the Vitamin D from the sun in 10-30min increments per day after which you are saturated for the day. Overdose is not possible via the sun (excluding sun burns of course). > A single, optimal sun exposure session might produce the equivalent of 10,000 to 25,000 IU from a supplement, but it will not keep increasing with more time in the sun. That's your…

.. how do you calibrate this against a cloudy sky? It's pretty dark up here at 56 degrees north, and on top of that it's been overcast for days.

It also sucks a lot when it's dark before starting work, dark after leaving work, and during the day rather cold to be exposing skin to the sun.

Re: Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants

#125

Post by johnisgood »

weird-eye-issue wrote: post #114
johnisgood wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with "Just Google it" that you can find a lot of bullshit on this.

You can find scientific papers on Google if you know how to use it.

I do, but surprisingly a lot of people do not.

Re: Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants

#126

Post by dmos62 »

Der_Einzige wrote: post #73
isoprophlex wrote: post #43

Because it's common to hate on antidepressants, I've always personally had a bias against them. For the past 15-20 years, november thru february are basically a writeoff due for me due to seasonal affective disorder. Cold showers, exercise, no alcohol, strict sleeping rituals. Vitamin d. I can still sleep 11 hours and feel like reheated cat shit. Enter citalopram. "It will take up to six weeks to dial in" they said.…

[flagged]

Your sense of smell is not something to write home about.

Re: Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants

#127

Post by comrade1234 »

Before you start taking crazy amounts (or any amount) of vitamin D just get a blood test. It's simple. As part of my insurance I can get a bunch of different blood tests, but I did have to pay about $50 extra to add the vitamin D test.

Based on the test I was just a tad under where I should be and so now I am taking 800 IU per day. I may stop in the summer when I get more sun.

I read somewhere that too much vitamin D has similar effects as too little (permanent hair loss, anemia, etc) but that may have just been on a blog similar to the linked blog on this submission.

Re: Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants

#129

Post by weird-eye-issue »

zelphirkalt wrote: post #113
weird-eye-issue wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just Google it. There's tons of research on this so I don't know why I need to provide a specific link when this is common knowledge. But also here is something to think about: your body will produce more D3 than that by being in the sun for just several minutes. So if you consider such a low dose of D3 an overdose then you better steer clear of the sun!

> But also here is something to think about: your body will produce more D3 than that by being in the sun for just several minutes. So if you consider such a low dose of D3 an overdose then you better steer clear of the sun! This is another superficial statement, that displays shallow-at-best understanding. Staying in the sun and producing via the skin, and intake via food are 2 separate pathways. You cannot just mak…

Thanks for clearing that up for me.

Re: Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants

#130

Post by voidUpdate »

b800h wrote: post #10

Can I just add: In addition to this, if you struggle with anxiety or have some sort of ADHD, then try cutting out caffeine entirely . Not just switching to "decaf" (which isn't), but cutting out tea and coffee, and switching to an alternative like Barleycup. Doing this has had a massive positive effect for me, and combined with decent nutrition and daily exercise, has been wonderful.

I wish I could cut down on my caffeine intake to help my ADHD. Unfortunately, I already have basically zero caffeine intake (apart from diet coke sometimes)
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