Your Seasonal Depression Is NOT A Vitamin D Deficiency

First things first.

Vitamin D is NOT a vitamin. It is a hormone. Do you take hormones off the store shelf? Nah didn’t think so.

When you get blood testing, the lab is testing the storage form of vitamin D NOT the active form. Low levels of vitamin D is indicating chronic inflammation from lack of magnesium. When you are magnesium deficient, your body will lower storage D levels because there is not enough magnesium to convert storage D into active D.

Every process of vitamin D conversion requires magnesium. Vitamin D supplementation can deplete you further of magnesium.

Vitamin D is made from cholesterol. Cholesterol interacts with sunlight and then goes through multiple processes to make it to the liver where it is converted to the storage D. Interesting how we have the highest levels of cholesterol but the lowest levels of vitamin D in this country, huh?

All hormones have a target cell and Vitamin D’s target cells are in the intestines.

It’s target mission is to absorb more calcium into the blood stream, at the expense of magnesium absorption.

Supplementing high doses of vitamin D can deplete you of important nutrients needed for thyroid, adrenal and cellular health.

So is it a vitamin D deficiency or a magnesium deficiency?

Vitamin D blood testing is not a good indictor of vitamin D status but actually a perfect indicator for magnesium status and how the liver and intestines are functioning.

Everyone is testing low in storage D, this is due to our bodies innate wisdom knowing there is too much calcium in the blood so it is keeping the storage D low because there is too much calcium in the blood or there is not enough magnesium to turn into active D.

Your body is intelligent. We have been living through dark winters since the dawn of time, far before Vitamin D supplementation without getting sick or needing to go on medication for what we now label Seasonal Depression or Seasonal Affective Disorder.

So what’s actually causing your seasonal depression?

Not tuning in and learning how to properly winter and surrender to what this time of year means - rest, relaxation and slowing down.

Sure, darker days can be a bit “depressing” but it’s all about mindset and how you approach those days. You are depressed because you have been living in hustle culture - it can be very uncomfortable being forced to slow down and just be.

I’m here to tell you there is nothing physically wrong with you, there is no deficiency but you are probably still trying to do life like you did all summer long and that does not work with our physiology.

Some ways to winter and find joy in the darkness:

• Set up your day to work with the daylight. Get up with the sun and be most productive during those hours before it gets dark. Make it a point to get outside and some sun on your face no matter the temperature or if it’s cloudy.

• Start a cozy hobby that you did not have time for in the summer like baking, crocheting, knitting, reading, painting, house decorating, renovations or learn something new!

• Get a walking pad if you are not able to walk outside, red light therapy and sauna

• Eat with the season and focus on warming foods - smoothies and cold salads don’t belong in the winter

• Gather with friends or family and have evening fires or play games

• Eat dinner under candlelight and set up the lighting in your house to be relaxing with amber/ red tinted bulbs

• Use the night time to run some errands - the world does not stop because it’s dark out! (unfortunately)

So all this to say, you don’t need a Vitamin D supplement- it might be causing more problems than good.

Winter is not going to change, but your mindset certainly can.

“Hey doc, I have been feeling depressed this winter”
“Oh you just need to take Vitamin D”
Hands you a script....

Y’all I lived in Portland, Oregon for 4 years. 6 months of living under a rain cloud, not once did I take Vitamin D, nor did I feel depressed because I mastered the art of wintering.

Vitamin D is a billion dollar industry as the Vitamin D guidelines have changed over the years requiring lab ranges to be much higher than they need to be.

“Vitamin D may never have been the miracle pill that it appeared to be. Sick people who stay indoors tend to have low Vitamin D levels; their poor health is likely the cause of their low vitamin D levels, not the other way around.” - Dr. JoAnn Manson

Now before I get a million comments saying “well what if I live here or there” I welcome you to read the book How to Winter, in this book, the author moves to an area where it is sunless for two months to do research on the season’s negative effects on mental health to find out that those that lived there looked forward to the season. She also travelled to other places with some of the coldest, darkest, longest and most intense winters, noticing how much the inhabitants loved this time of year - she discovered the power of wintertime mindset.

I encourage you to celebrate the winter and use it as a time for rest and reflection and please just ditch the assumption that you need vitamin D just because it’s winter!