Don’t be surprised when some of your friends seem to be grumpy or irritable these past few days. We are now on the tail-end of the four-month long winter season. From the months of November to February, the days are shorter and colder, and the nights longer and darker. As the climate changes, many people actually tend to feel gloomy and miserable. Such mood disorder is known as winter depression, or Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

Based on statistics released by the SAD Association, 500,000 people in the United Kingdom had experienced some form of winter depression, while doctors have estimated that 20% of the population, or almost 2 million people are affected by the disorder in Sweden. Norman E. Rosenthal is the US doctor who coined the term SAD in 1984. Winter depression has a sound medical basis that involves changes in the body’s mood centers brought on by shorter daylight hours and a lack of sunlight. Most people suffering from this depressive illness experience a sense of utter isolation and loneliness. The only consolation is the fact that many people go through the same grumpiness during this time of the year. It provides a sense of comfort and assurance that sufferers are not alone.  Read more... (543 words, estimated 2:10 mins reading time)

The vitamins and essential minerals are just that – essential. They must be part of the diet every day, day after day, year after year. Long-term failure to include enough of even one vitamin or essential mineral from the diet will cause disease, cell death and tissue degeneration. Eventually, the entire body will begin to die. Obviously, this is not a scenario consistent with the goal of Healthy Aging, as deficiencies of essential minerals and vitamins are the unhealthiest way to age. In the paradigm of healthy aging, ensuring adequate intakes of these essentials is the first step. Without this essential foundation, the other pillars of healthy aging crumble fast.

Today, in this enlightened, affluent, highly educated era, it would seem acceptable to think that no one in the United States could suffer from a vitamin or essential mineral deficiency, or so the US government and the American Medical Association may have you believe. Unfortunately, however, this isn’t true.  Read more... (567 words, estimated 2:16 mins reading time)