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Showing posts with the label SAD

SAD? SW Scotland? Vitamin D?

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The Libyan sojourn earlier this year means that now, nearly three months after my return, the rain is still something of a novelty. Just as well, given the SW Scotland climate - which is noticeably much wetter than it was in NE England: you understand the meaning of rain shadow when you move from one to the other. Maybe that's why Glasgow and environs have such poor health . It's a vitamin D deficiency, and all those lectures from middle-class people in Islington about diet (based on the deeply rooted belief that everyone here is munching deep fried Mars bars all day long), were misplaced. Incidentally, I notice that the BBC's "news" story looks as if it has been based on a 2006 paper , (you can't get it without Athens or a payment, but there is a less detailed open-access article on the same subject by the same author, Oliver Gillie, here ). There's the whole SAD thing to consider , too. I don't think Gillie mentions happy-lamps. You can buy Vit...

Driech? Saltcoats?

It adds nothing to the cheerfulness of this story, incidentally, that Galloway was born and grew up in Saltcoats, on the Ayrshire coast. The adjective “driech” is not actually used (Scottish meteorological term for slit-your-own-throat grey and drizzly), but driech conditions are what Saltcoats is principally known for. Hmm. I had already decided to deploy the Anti SAD Lamp as soon as we passed the equinox, and this has reminded me to dust it off. And as for the Galloway book. I've never seen the point in misery memoirs - why spread it around? But the review says there's more to it, so I'll give it a go - hopefully the Saltcoats library will be stocking up with plenty of copies.