Are you SAD Summer’s Over? Tan to avoid Seasonal Affective Disorder

Are you SAD Summer’s Over?

Maintaining a post-summer tan can help with mental health

Summer’s over…You’re back to school, or stuck at work with fewer long weekends to enjoy the sun. When the temperature drops and sunlight decreases throughout the day, we spend less time exposed to natural Vitamin D. This important vitamin not only helps with our physical health, but plays an important role in our mental health too.

Seasonal Affective Disorder (aka. SAD syndrome) can affect our daily lives, as our sleep patterns can be disrupt, we lack motivation, and often experience ‘winter blues’. Experts believe that one of the most popular and effective treatments of the SAD disorder is Vitamin D- of course, the strongest source comes from the sun.

Vitamin D can also come from our diet, and can be taken in supplement form. People commonly like to drink Vitamin D in a glass of milk, but most don’t know that it is an added supplement. You’d also need to drink 100 8-oz glasses of milk to get the same amount of vitamin D you’d get from a sun tan.

“To remind us that sunlight is a necessary part of life, nature created a reward system by releasing serotonin the ‘feel good’ hormone, into our bodies when sun touched our skin.” – Dr. John Cannell, MD, founder The Vitamin D Council, The History of Tanning,.

Photo taken at Casa en el Agua when I quit my job and went on an adventure to Colombia

Why do we go away during winter, and escape to the equator? To get a dose of sunlight. Did you notice people who live in the tropics are generally happier and loving life way more than we do up in the far North? It’s the Vitamin D. They believe the sun and sea is a cure to many of life’s problems, including mood.

Of course, indoor tanning won’t provide the full experience of sipping a fruity drink on a patio in summer, and certainly not exposure to the ocean, but it can help us fight mild depression associated with Seasonal Affective Disorder.

Photo taken during my Euro Escape in 2017 at The Pink Palace, Greece

Keep up your colour for confidence post-summer, and into the fall and winter, to look good and feel great. Fight off those ‘winter blues’ before they start, and join the tanning community!

Studies by the Canadian Cancer Society show Vitamin D to be have a protective effect against cancer. Many of us in the Northern hemisphere lack sufficient Vitamin D levels. Low levels are also commonly associated with:

Osteoporosis
Multiple sclerosis
Juvenile diabetes
Influenza

Visit me at Sol’Exotica on Upper Paradise Road, Hamilton to get you started with the smartest and safest way to protect your skin, and build a beautiful colour!