If winter brings sadness, try seeing the light
More light may be what you need if you get sad this winter, according to the Higuchi Biosciences Center and the Drug Information Center at Kansas University.
A 19th-century ship's doctor noticed crews became listless in the dark days of arctic winter. In the 1980s, the medical community finally officially recognized and accepted the condition known as seasonal affective disorder, or SAD.
SAD is a brand of depression that lasts only a season, usually the winter. A person must suffer the depression for two consecutive years to be diagnosed with the disorder.
The depression shows up in 2 to 10 percent of the population. But more women than men get SAD.
Two remedies are typical. One is high-intensity light that's five times brighter than office light. Antidepressants like Prozac are also typically used to treat seasonal affective disorder.
According to a report published in the 1990s in the Journal of the American Medical Assn., bright light is just as effective as antidepressants. Studies are now focused on whether a combination of the two is the best solution of all.
If you're in low spirits, can't concentrate and feel exhausted this winter, see your doctor. There's light at the end of the tunnel.
Device offers good news for some bad knees
As much as some of us may loathe our knees for the unreliable, sore, creaking company they provide we'd just as soon keep them. Even a rundown, sports-scarred, crunchy pair of walking joints seems more noble than knee replacements, as useful as those prosthetics can be.
That's why orthopedic surgeons nationwide are encouraged by experiments with a device, called the UniSpacer, that is inserted in the knee to restore stability and alignment while relieving arthritis pain.
About 170 patients in the United States have received the UniSpacer, which has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration but for now is available only to patients in research studies. Surgeons insert the device during a one-hour procedure, says Dr. Marc J. Friedman of the Southern California Orthopedic Institute in Los Angeles. No alteration to the surrounding bone or soft tissue is required.
The device works by providing a smooth surface for bones to glide over when the knee cartilage has worn away. Some patients experience immediate pain relief and improved knee function as soon as six weeks after the surgery, Friedman said.
The device won't help everyone with knee pain. The best candidates are healthy people with arthritis only in the medial, or inside, compartment of the knee joint.
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