Thanks for the suggestions! I think I may come back to this and expand the number of interventions I’ve reviewed and these are valuable suggestions that could well be worth promoting.
Temperature and daytime sunlight are both somewhat mentioned in the article already but may be worthy of their own specific sections. I’d expect the benefits of daytime sunlight to roughly equal light exposure + Vitamin D. Given that, I think light therapy probably covers the majority of the positive effect but this likely warrants more specific research.
With the larger project I’m working on in mind, there’s a balance to be struck between research depth on a certain topic and breadth in the number of topics that I cover over the next few months, so there’s definitely more depth that could be added to an article like this to improve it.
I think that’s a fair point about the title and have changed it in light of that. I’m curious as to what you’d expect the other 50% of effect to come from? (no snarkiness intended)
On the vitamin D side: In I’m pretty skeptical of reductionist viewpoints in general such as here, ~”the single compound of ‘vitamin D’ placed into supplements has nearly the same effect as broad-spectrum UV on skin affects the body”. I wouldn’t be surprised if broad-spectrum UV had plenty of other effects that we have no idea how to look for, or for example if “UV → {this specific compound that is put in supplements}” is a poor approximation (maybe broad-spectrum UV causes the production of plenty of compounds that are also great, and we’re only inclined to supplement one).
E.g. Vitamin D2 could be an easy way to go wrong here (I’ve only ever criticism about the effectiveness of D2). If Vitamin D supplementation works at all, I would bet on D3, but I haven’t seen you make this distinction.
Overall I think this is pretty complex to make such general reductionist prescriptions (e.g. take ’Vitamin D3, X IUs everyday in the morning…”) unfortunately.
((Also, we might live in a world where the supplement Vitamin D3 is fairly ineffective, but it still causes the blood biomarker to increase, confounding all studies everywhere.))
I used to supplement Vitamin D3 for a few years, but I stopped when I heard about all of these subtle ways that it could be ineffective (or harmful). Instead, I took more walks outside, and I took my shirt off while in sunlight more often. I have also noticed I feel much better this way, quite calmer, and I suspect quite a bit more productive on these days, and I’ve never gotten that from a supplement.
On the light exposure side: 10,000 lux is still an order of magnitude less than sunlight! Also, I doubt these lamps emit any UV, and I expect that a lot of the effect of sunlight comes from UV and that which we cannot see.
Have you investigated the effect of night-time darkness?
https://www.pnas.org/content/116/24/12019
Also of blocking blue/green light? Though there’s only a handful of studies
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7229994/ - found a 58% increase in night-time melatonin (blocking just blue, though separately it might do well to block green too)
I think I have some more notes lying around somewhere if you need them
Thanks for the suggestions! I think I may come back to this and expand the number of interventions I’ve reviewed and these are valuable suggestions that could well be worth promoting.
Temperature and daytime sunlight are both somewhat mentioned in the article already but may be worthy of their own specific sections. I’d expect the benefits of daytime sunlight to roughly equal light exposure + Vitamin D. Given that, I think light therapy probably covers the majority of the positive effect but this likely warrants more specific research.
With the larger project I’m working on in mind, there’s a balance to be struck between research depth on a certain topic and breadth in the number of topics that I cover over the next few months, so there’s definitely more depth that could be added to an article like this to improve it.
Yeah, time constraints as expected. I think I found the title of this post a bit strong then.
Also, I would be surprised if light exposure + Vitamin D approximates daytime sunlight at more than 50% effect.
I think that’s a fair point about the title and have changed it in light of that. I’m curious as to what you’d expect the other 50% of effect to come from? (no snarkiness intended)
On the vitamin D side: In I’m pretty skeptical of reductionist viewpoints in general such as here, ~”the single compound of ‘vitamin D’ placed into supplements has nearly the same effect as broad-spectrum UV on skin affects the body”. I wouldn’t be surprised if broad-spectrum UV had plenty of other effects that we have no idea how to look for, or for example if “UV → {this specific compound that is put in supplements}” is a poor approximation (maybe broad-spectrum UV causes the production of plenty of compounds that are also great, and we’re only inclined to supplement one).
E.g. Vitamin D2 could be an easy way to go wrong here (I’ve only ever criticism about the effectiveness of D2). If Vitamin D supplementation works at all, I would bet on D3, but I haven’t seen you make this distinction.
Overall I think this is pretty complex to make such general reductionist prescriptions (e.g. take ’Vitamin D3, X IUs everyday in the morning…”) unfortunately.
((Also, we might live in a world where the supplement Vitamin D3 is fairly ineffective, but it still causes the blood biomarker to increase, confounding all studies everywhere.))
I used to supplement Vitamin D3 for a few years, but I stopped when I heard about all of these subtle ways that it could be ineffective (or harmful). Instead, I took more walks outside, and I took my shirt off while in sunlight more often. I have also noticed I feel much better this way, quite calmer, and I suspect quite a bit more productive on these days, and I’ve never gotten that from a supplement.
On the light exposure side: 10,000 lux is still an order of magnitude less than sunlight! Also, I doubt these lamps emit any UV, and I expect that a lot of the effect of sunlight comes from UV and that which we cannot see.
The main effect is on training the subconscious to associate certain times of day and places with sleep, and other times/places with activity.
Just wanted to +1 blue blocking glasses.