The Cure for Depression

I have suffered from depression for most of my adult life. I've been on a variety of anti-depressants over the years, but none of them were ever able to completely lift the dark cloud hanging over my life. They enabled me to function in daily life, but there was still the occasional bout of severe depression and the suicidal thoughts.

Now I'm pleased to say that I've found a natural cure that works even better than anti-depressants, without the side effects. I've been completely anti-depressant free for the last six months, and I feel as good or better than I ever did on anti-depressants.

What is this miraculous cure, you ask? It's none other than Vitamin D. Where do you get it? The best source is the sun, but it's also found in cod liver oil and synthetic forms. I started taking cod liver oil supplements around the beginning of this year. Within a couple of weeks, my mood had improved so dramatically that I was able to taper off of my anti-depressants. By the middle of February, I was completely off of the pills and feeling great.

I started by taking cod liver oil softgels (not to be confused with fish oil) four times a day. Later in the year, I also started getting some sun exposure which helped even more. Many experts are now recommending 15-20 minutes of sun exposure 3-4 times a week without sunscreen. This may sound a bit controversial considering all the hype about skin cancer, but as long as you limit your exposure and don't burn, it's perfectly safe. You can also minimize your risk by eating a healthy diet high in omega 3s and antioxidants (which I do).

Do you suppose there's a connection between the fact that so many goths are depressed, and the way they avoid the sun so they can look all pale and deathly? I definitely think there is. I've been there myself and I've seen it too many times.

Some of you may think this sounds a bit far-fetched, but there's plenty of scientific research to support it. Vitamin D deficiency has been implicated in a variety of diseases including depression, diabetes, obesity, certain forms of cancer, and osteoporosis. The fact is that most Americans are deficient in vitamin D. The medical community doesn't want people to know any of this because they can't make any money selling vitamin D.

For more info, visit mercola.com and do a search on vitamin D.

Update - 8/16/2006

Regarding the vitamin D in milk: While it's true that vitamin D is added to all of the commercially-produced milk sold in the US, it's such a small amount that I wouldn't consider it a good source. Besides, there are so many other problems associated with drinking pasteurized milk, but I won't go into that here. (That's an entire topic on it's own)

The US RDA for vitamin D is 400iu, but most experts agree that that's way too low. Optimally, you should get between 1000-2000iu a day when taking vitamin D orally. You'd have to drink 10-20 glasses of milk to get that much vitamin D. Or you could sit out in the sun for 15 minutes and your skin will produce 20,000iu, the equivalent of 200 glasses of milk. Note that it's possible to OD on vitamin D when taking it orally (don't exceed the 1000-2000iu range, depending on your body), but you can't OD on vitamin D from the sun. Your skin will simply stop producing it when you have enough.