Winter Blues

Putting away the last remnants of wrapping paper, cleaning out the leftover holiday scraps from the fridge, and pulling down the Christmas decorations all indicate the January blues are nipping at our heels. For some the "Winter Blues" are very real and are accompanied with difficulty waking in the morning, a tendency to overeat and still have no energy, a difficulty concentrating or completing tasks, and a feeling of being depressed. These symptoms are not the result of over spending during the impulse buying frenzy that strikes every year at Christmas. The fact that the winter blues are more prevalent as you move from the equator towards the North Pole seems to implicate either a lack of natural sunlight, a tendency to hibernate indoors, or a combination of both habits. In any case the most effective natural treatments that have proven track record are bright light therapy, negative air ionization, and exercise -especially out of doors. Although only about 15% of Canadians experience some winter blues symptoms, all Canadians can experience benefits from regular exercise and are challenged at this time of year by snow, ice, cold and inertia. This is the time to be creative and try mall walking, indoor tread mill, cycle, or stair master and on sunny days get outside as much as possible. At Silver Hills we are not hibernating but tuning up for our first session of the year in February.