Light therapy can help decrease depression

Question

According to Harvard health light therapy can help improve seasonal affective disorder (SAD). It can also be effective for major depression, and depression that occurs during or after late fall and early winter. Light therapy allows the body to be exposed to light for a certain amount of time that then influences the body's natural circadian rhythm,  improving mood and sleep patterns by stimulating the production of serotonin and regulating melatonin levels in the brain. Which then can help with heightening your mood and making you feel better overall.

Comments

You did a great job explaining your source. This is vital because it's always good to have a thorough explanation for the point you're addressing. I liked how you built off of your claim by adding good evidence and reasoning. Overall, great job!

---

I really enjoyed your response. This is well written and proves a really good point. It is really interesting and I am looking forward to searching more about it. Good Job!

---

I really was impressed with the source that you used because it had a lot of factual information that proved this claim to be true. Your claim was very interesting and I found this to be true by looking for your link for more research. Good job on citing important information in your description as well!

---

I think that BLT (bright light therapy) can be effective in helping with depression. It seems to be especially helpful with seasonal depression when there is less sunshine. It can also help to create a false vitamin D serotonin feeling for the nervous system. It is also a treatment that has fewer to no side effects than many other depression treatments. "A 2018 research review suggests that light therapy may effectively treat MDD with seasonal patterns and non-seasonal MDD. It may have fewer side effects than traditional depression treatments and act more quickly, too." The only issue with it is that people are replacing it with going outside. Although there may not be sunlight outside, exercise is one of the biggest things that help with depression.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5403163/

https://www.healthline.com/health/depression/light-therapy#expert-opinion

Answer 1

This article is well laid out with clear details explaining your claim. This article is super beneficial and helpful to those curious and who are researching this idea. Very good job!

Answer 2

This claim is true. The article was published by an well-known prestigious educational institution which are typically very reliable sources that undergo rigorous fact-checking. The author is a health journalist who has years of experience in the field. Additionally, I researched other health journals in hopes of corroborating the claim with more sources. I found that multiple studies had been done on the topic (Yale School of Medicine, Healthline)  all of which came to the conclusion that light does actually help with depression. Therefore, this claim is true. 

https://www.healthline.com/health/depression/light-therapy

https://medicine.yale.edu/psychiatry/research/programs/clinical-people/winter/obtain/

Answer 3

This claim is in fact true. Harvard is a well known and reputable source whose article backs the claim. It says that "SAD seems to be triggered by a drop in daily sunlight exposure." The article then gets into the science of the circadian clock in the brain which is what is responsible for causing SAD.

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/light-therapy-not-just-for-seasonal-depression-202210282840