Health Advice

Seasonal Affective Disorder?

Ever feel you're not cut out for dark wintery mornings and short afternoons? Over the course of the season, most of us will feel occasionally fed up with the lack of sunshine, but if it really starts to get you down in a way that affects how you feel most of the time, then there's a chance you'll be suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder rather than a mild case of the winter blues.

Apart from feeling generally down in the mouth, symptoms may include sleeping much more than normal, feeling low in energy and craving sweets and starchy food. In severe cases this can amount to a serious depressive condition, and hospitalisation is not uncommon. However, the good news is that a range of treatments have been shown to be effective in at least keeping the symptoms at a manageable level. These include light therapy, often involving exposure to bright light sources at particular times of day - such as when waking up. There are a number of domestic appliances, such as alarm clocks, that use this approach to good effect. Another approach involves ionizing air - and similarly, there is relatively inexpensive equipment available to achieve this at home. If you feel that the time of year is getting you down, it may well be worth trying either or both of these approaches to cheer you up.

But if you feel persistently low, and that it's interfering with the way you'd like to live your life, it's certainly worth seeing a doctor, who can make a judgement that may involve medication.

Learn more by starting from the Seasonal Affective Disorder Association, at http://www.sada.org.uk.

Hayfever Season

With spring here it's also the season of Hayfever causing itchy eyes, runny noses and stuffy heads.  To help combat your symptoms this year the NHS has several suggestions to ease your discomfort.

Preventative Measures.

It is very difficult to completely avoid pollen, but the severity of hay fever symptoms can be reduced by trying to stay indoors when pollen counts are high.

Recognising which type of pollen you are most affected by is also important to help take action e.g. grasses, trees, flowers.

There are a number of other things that can be tried:

• Keep windows and doors shut,
• avoid cutting the grass,
• Wear wrap-around sunglasses,
• Keep car windows closed and consider buying a pollen filter for the air vents,
• Keep fresh flowers out of the house,
• Vacuum and damp dust regularly,
• Do not smoke or let anyone smoke in your house,
• Keep pets out of the house during the season, and
• Apply petrolium jelly around the edge of the nostrils to stop pollen from entering the nasal passages.

If avoiding triggers doesn't help some cases require antihistimines, nasal sprays and/or eye drops.  More severe cases require further immunotherapy. If you're suffing from this seasonal annoyance you can always consult a doctor for their expert advice.

For further tips for avoiding hayfever this season visit the NHS Hayfever Article.

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