Anyone using light therapy?
 

Hi Ladies :wave:
I usually post over at the South Beach Diet threads but today I am looking for some info on light therapy, and hope that maybe someone here can help me.
I have been reading alot about this and have checked out several sites that supply these lights.

Does anybody here use some form of light therapy?

Do you have a box or a desk lamp?

Is there a difference between "full spectrum" and "lux"? (I saw one box that will deliver either FS, LUX or both, so I am confused.

Where did you purchase yours?

Can you just buy the light and place it in any fixture, as long as it fits? Or do you have to buy the expensive fixtures?

Thanks for any advice that you can give me.
~~~Sil

I have used a light box since January.....until the end of April....in the summer I felt really good....we had lots of sunshine in the summer. Then I started to use the light box in the 2nd week of September when the clouds & rain came because I could feel myself getting depressed....but didn't use it evey day then.

I started using it every day on October 1....after the time change in the latter half of October.....I found myself getting more depressed. I live in the north....in British Columbia....500 miles north of Vancouver.....there is a lot of seasonal affective disorder here.

The light box wasn't enough....so I had to go on an antidepressant for the fall, winter & next spring.....the light box really helped a lot last winter.....I will use it every morning when I wake up....this fall, winter & next spring.

Bobbie

April99, I'm in Canada too. Could you tell me what brand/model you have and where you purchased it?
I know how dark and depressing your winters are. My daughter has lived in Nanimo for the past 20 years and still is affected.
I'm glad light therapy helps you.

Hi Ruth

My light box is made by SADELITE
Northern Light Technologies

It is 10,000 lux....when I went to counselling last winter....they said it should be 10,000 lux....I sit at it for 1/2 an hour when I first get up.

I went undiagnosed for 21 years.....but thankfully I was diagnosed last winter.....then I got a new doctor.

The serial number is....102941....don't know if this helps.

I bought it at PG Surg-Med in Prince George.

April

Thanks, April. I'll check out medical supply places in Kingston and Ottawa.

This is where I get confused. When you look at the light boxs that say it delivers 10,000 Lux, they do not say what wattage the bulbs are. These boxes can be $300. But then you can buy bulbs seperately, they saw what the wattage is but not how much Lux they put out.
I want to purchase one of the full spectrum lights (bulb) and place it in my desk lamp. I wonder if this would work just as well. If I sit with it for an hour while I work on the computer each morning, maybe it will help.

Sil,

Read this thread, it might help

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/show...threadid=33588

Thanks Leens, but I had already read your sticky on light therapy. It doesn't really answer my questions about watts and Lux equivalence, however.

When I bought my light box in February.....the lights were already there......I didn't have to buy them separately.....they fit across. I was told they cost about $25 Canadian to replace.....there are 4 lights in them. I sit in front of it at the kitchen table. They work best when used when you first wake up in the morning.....I know....because at one point....I was using them at 10 A.M.....& it didn't work at that time of the day.

April

Thanks for all the info. April, I have ordered the same model as yours. We can do stereo therapy! Thanks again!

Hi Ruth.....where did you order it from......did you order it from the company that makes them....the light boxes?....did you order it for yourself or your daughter? It has made a big difference for me.

April

I have one too, also from Sadelite.

I looked up the meaning of LUX:

a unit of illumination, equivalent to 0.0929 foot-candle and equal to the illumination produced by luminous flux of one lumen falling perpendicularly on a surface one meter square.

Then I looked up WATT:

the SI unit of power, equivalent to one joule per second and equal to the power in a circuit in which a current of one ampere flows across a potential difference of one volt.


Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm thinking watts is the amount of power required to RUN something, and LUX is the output???

I think lux is the output also......I think it is somhow compared to the brightness of the sun.....could be wrong about that though?.....all I know is that it helps.

JudoMom.....do you use the light box every morning in the fall & winter?

April

April - I bought it through a medical supply company in Montreal. I got it for me but may get Mary-Ellen one later.

I'm Jealous !! LOL

I'll be getting one soon.

april.. I seriously need to get mine out. I usually start around Thanksgiving (early October here in Canada) and go until end of March... 1/2 hour first thing in the morning. I haven't started yet and I need to. This hasn't been a great end of summer/fall for me and I can feel the world pressing in on me.

The SADlite arrived this morning! It was ordered Friday, shipped Monday and here today! Wow! I will start using it tomorrow morning and keep my fingers crossed that it does lift my spirits a bit. (I may get Harry to use it too - it could help him recover faster.)

Ruthie good luck with the new light, let us know how it works.

Hugs !!!

Hi Ruth.....yes....hope it helps you. Don't do what I was doing last week.....I seemed to be waking up later & later.....then I was using the light box about 9:30 or 10 A.M......too late for it to work.
So now I am setting the alarm clock for about 8:20....so I start using it by about 8:30.....am feeling better the last 3 days.

April