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A dose of D may banish winter blahs
A study conducted in Walla Walla aims to find out whether the `sunshine vitamin' can brighten lives.

Updated: Friday, February 9, 2007 4:00 PM PST
By Sheila Hagar of the Union-Bulletin

Look outside. Chances are, if you're in the Walla Walla Valley in February, you'll see gray and more gray, interspersed by wet and fog. The baking heat of a Southeastern Washington summer seems far away.
With what may feel like a month of dreary Sundays can come SAD - seasonal affective disorder.

In the darkest days of the year, some people develop a form of depression, exhibiting fatigue, a craving for carbohydrates, lack of interest in regular activities and withdrawal from social life. Sufferers may gain or lose weight, desire more sleep or be unable to sleep well.

A local physician and graduate student have teamed up to study whether help for the problem may be as close as a bottle of vitamins.

Dr. Bart Moore of Blue Mountain Medical Group and Washington State University nursing student Clarissa Shipowick are working together to test volunteers to see if there is a correlation between vitamin D levels and seasonal depression.

The disorder has been linked to chemical changes in the brain from the encroaching darkness of winter. Natural and specific artificial light are common recommendations to most SAD sufferers.

If light fails to help, some doctors prescribe antidepressants, according to the American Psychiatric Association.

While this area of the country is not fabled for dark, long winters - not like the frozen north - Walla Walla's latitude keeps its residents away from direct sun for five months of the year, said Moore. ``You can be naked at noon outside in the sun and it won't do you any good,'' he said.

While there is wisdom in protecting skin from sun damage, prudent exposure is healthy, Moore said. Those may be fighting words for dermatologists and skin-care specialists, but absorbing sunlight allows the body to manufacture vitamin D, known as the ``sunshine vitamin,'' he added.

That vitamin is essential for letting the body take in enough calcium from food for strong bones; a lack of which can lead to rickets, or a softening of the bones.

Vitamin D is also considered important for protection against muscle weakness, and prostrate and colon cancer, according to experts.

And what many people don't realize is that sensible sun exposure in late spring, summer and early fall will give them the amount vitamin D they need before seeing any color change in their skin, Moore said.

A much harder prescription to fill during winters here, he added. ``The sun is at an angle where your skin won't absorb it,'' the doctor said.

There is evidence to suggest that supplemental vitamin D may do the same thing as sunlight. ``Two studies have drawn a statistically significant correlation,'' Moore said.

To that end, he and Shipowick invited numerous local women to participate in an eight-week study in Walla Walla. Test subjects are age 18 or older, with a lower-than-ideal level of vitamin D. Those in the study had to commit to staying in the area until the study finishes at the end of March and not use tanning beds or antidepressants, Shipowick said.

When the duo's findings are tabulated, that information will add to the data and debate over vitamin D.

Moore and Shipowick are interested in the results for slightly different reasons. The nursing student has long been interested in women and depression, so looked for articles to guide her graduate project, she said. ``I found one that caught my attention where (researchers) correlated vitamin D levels and the Beck Depression Inventory 2.''

Planning for a degree in psychiatric nursing, Shipowick was intrigued with the possibilities offered from such research, she said.

According to the World Health Organization, by the year 2020, depression will be the leading cause of disability worldwide - already in the United States, the costs of the illness account for $60 billion a year, Shipowick added, referring to 2004 data.

Finding a local physician familiar with nutrition in general and vitamin D specifically was a stroke of luck, she said.

``I was exuberant, to discover he would do this,'' she said of Moore. ``Vitamin D is a hot topic right now. It's a good time to be doing this study.''

For Moore, Shipowick's study theme echoes what he has taught his patients for a long time, he said.

The role of vitamin D is not nearly as well understood or appreciated as it should be, the physician feels. The 200-600 units per day that remains the standard is ``completely inadequate,'' Moore said.

The recommended daily intake has been stuck in one place since the medical world discovered such measures would stave off rickets in children; it has remained there for decades, he said.

The largest supplier of supplemental vitamin D to the general public is fortified milk. However, for 50 years it has been the vitamin in D2 form added to milk, Moore said.

This has been a double whammy, he believes - not only is milk an inadequate delivery system for vitamin D, but D2 is only marginally effective, compared to the natural form. And those with milk sensitivities are really out of the loop, he noted.

It's a new paradigm for those who have always considered a balanced diet an adequate supply of all nutritional needs, Moore conceded. ``We've been lulled into complacency that 400 units (of vitamin D) is enough.''

The Walla Walla study will administer 5,000 units of vitamin D3 per day to test subjects.

With monitoring, the extra dosage necessary for therapeutic use is considered safe - studies have shown that people would have to ingest 20,000 units of vitamin D each day before problems would arise, Moore said.

He believes the local and other testing will ultimately prove attaining optimal levels of vitamin D can dispel the gloom of seasonal depression. With that answer, people can seek treatment more readily, perhaps eliminating a need for antidepressants or artificial light treatment.

While therapy found in a nutritional supplement won't turn the medical world on its ear, it will be big news to those who need it, Shipowick feels. ``We're hoping it will make a difference.''