The Iron Ring

Good news! My lab has officially moved to our new building! We are no longer located in a basement! And the best part of is that I have a view now, I have about a foot of window space at eye level when I am at my desk where I can just see the top of the Palestra. This is living. The picture I’ve included here was taken from the roof of the new building this past weekend by one of our new lab neighbors.

All my excitement about my new light got me thinking about Seasonal Affective Disorder (http://www.nmha.org/infoctr/factsheets/27.cfm). As I grew up in a relatively cold climate I am familiar with the disorder, the symptoms of which are depression due to lack of light.

The exact physiologic mechanism of SAD is still under investigation. What is known is that it has something to do with the body’s internal clock, the ‘circadian’ rhythm, and it also has something to do with melatonin. The body produces the hormone in darkness, and it is depleted in light. People with SAD don’t destroy melatonin properly and the excess causes changes in circadian rhythm and depression. The disorder is usually treated by use of a light box.

What I found on this mayo clinic website is that the benefits of light box therapy only occur if the light hits the eyes directly; it won’t work to just be exposed to the skin. However, the light needs to enter your eyes indirectly, as direct light is damaging to the eyes.

I still find it fascinating that hormones play such a critical role in neurological pathways; for example, we learned all about cortisol this spring in Neuropharmacology. I think it not only indicates the complexity of the central nervous system, but also that studying it in isolation will likely leave out major pathways. I hope I am not revealing too much when I say (for example) that I am on a medication that is traditionally used to treat depression but I am on a very low dose that is designed to affect a completely different system altogether......