Health Expert Deborah Gray shares health management news and commentary at HealthCentral.com. HealthCentral.com is one of the top health destinations on the Web, with more than 35 condition-specific, wellness and general health Web properties. http://www.healthcentral.com/profiles/c/18/index http://www.healthcentral.com/profiles/c/18/rss self application/xml en-us 15 120 19 http://www.healthcentral.com/images/hc_logo_sm.gif http://www.healthcentral.com/profiles/c/18/index http://www.healthcentral.com/depression/c/18/149866/depression Mon, 30 Jan 2012 20:14:00 -0500 Deborah Gray Did you know that Linda Ronstadt, Mary-Louise Parker, Oprah, Kim Cattrall and George and Barbara Bush have thyroid disease? Probably not. Thyroid problems don't make the news, at least not as often as mental health issues do. But if you believe that you have clinical depression, or have been diagnosed with clinical depression, you should make sure that your doctor rules out thyroid disease as a cause or contributing factor.   We are all... http://www.healthcentral.com/depression/c/18/149866/depression http://www.healthcentral.com/depression/c/18/149773/frequently-asked Sat, 28 Jan 2012 16:56:00 -0500 Deborah Gray February is just about upon us and this is frequently a time when Seasonal Affective Disorder or (SAD) is most prevalent.  There have been a lot of questions about the affectiveness and logisitcs surrounding light therapy to treat Seasonal Affective Disorder. In this sharepost I'd like to address some of the Frequently Asked Questions regarding light box therapy as a course of treatment for SAD.  1. Do I need to see a doctor to... http://www.healthcentral.com/depression/c/18/149773/frequently-asked http://www.healthcentral.com/depression/c/18/148644/light-affective Tue, 27 Dec 2011 18:43:25 -0500 Deborah Gray Most people with winter-onset SAD can benefit from light therapy, but in light therapy, the devil is in the details. A very basic, bottom line description of light therapy is that it consists of light entering the patient's retina from a prescribed distance for a prescribed amount of time. But distance and angle of the light, time of day the therapy is performed and amount of light need to be taken into account, tested and possibly tweaked to... http://www.healthcentral.com/depression/c/18/148644/light-affective http://www.healthcentral.com/depression/c/18/148008/therapy-affective Sun, 11 Dec 2011 14:03:20 -0500 Deborah Gray If you have episodes of depression that occur only in the fall, winter and early spring, you may have Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). The hallmarks of SAD are excessive sleeping, carbohydrate and sugar cravings, lethargy, difficulty concentrating and depression. Although many of the symptoms are similar to non-seasonal depression, if your symptoms go away with the return of longer days, you probably have SAD, and your doctor is likely to... http://www.healthcentral.com/depression/c/18/148008/therapy-affective http://www.healthcentral.com/depression/c/18/145907/depression-change Sun, 23 Oct 2011 12:54:00 -0400 Deborah Gray When we're trying to diagnose depression in ourselves or someone else, we often look at how we person feel. We feel sad, hopeless, exhausted, empty and so on. But sometimes it's hard to pinpoint how we feel, and we'll get more insight into our condition by looking at our actions. Socializing and Pastimes (or lack thereof)  Television, reading, listening to music, or video gaming is your main activity when not at work or school. But... http://www.healthcentral.com/depression/c/18/145907/depression-change http://www.healthcentral.com/depression/c/18/144971/link-depression Mon, 03 Oct 2011 09:04:00 -0400 Deborah Gray Two years ago, I spent nine months with sinus infections. I had one after another, and if I didn't go to the doctor and get antibiotics, I got so sick that I would throw up. None of the doctors I saw could figure out why all of a sudden I was so prone to sinus infections. I saw an ear, nose and throat doctor and an infectious diseases doctor, as well as seeing almost every doctor and nurse practitioner at my GP's practice. I had every test you... http://www.healthcentral.com/depression/c/18/144971/link-depression http://www.healthcentral.com/depression/c/18/144972/personality Sun, 02 Oct 2011 21:19:00 -0400 Deborah Gray I've been a very self-contained person from an early age. When I was two years old, my parents separated, and my father moved out. If you don't have much experience with young children, you're probably thinking that it was good that he left when I was so young. If you, however, have children or have spent a lot of time with them, you know that even at that age, they feel the absence of a parent keenly. Two weeks later my father came back to... http://www.healthcentral.com/depression/c/18/144972/personality http://www.healthcentral.com/depression/c/18/137933/professional Wed, 08 Jun 2011 09:16:00 -0400 Deborah Gray I loved my grandfather dearly. He was a gentle, shy man with a quiet sense of humor. I still miss him, even though he died almost twenty years ago. He had one quirk, however, that did make my mother's childhood difficult at times. He firmly believed that when you were ill, you just had to soldier on. When my mother was sick, she would leave the house as though she were going to school, but wait around the corner till he had gone to work, then go... http://www.healthcentral.com/depression/c/18/137933/professional http://www.healthcentral.com/depression/c/18/138065/depression Mon, 16 May 2011 14:33:00 -0400 Deborah Gray Recently I was looking online for some information that family member needed about whether it was safe to take melatonin when you were on an antidepressant. I was pretty sure that they should not be taken at the same time. I groaned when I saw the answer that someone had posted to this particular question on a message board. The answer was, "Melatonin is herbal, so it's safe to take it with anything."   Aaaaghh!   Herbs are... http://www.healthcentral.com/depression/c/18/138065/depression http://www.healthcentral.com/depression/c/18/137851/light-depression Wed, 11 May 2011 14:21:00 -0400 Deborah Gray When I found out that I was pregnant, I made three phone calls. The first was to my husband at work, the second was to my parents and the third was to my psychopharmacologist (a doctor who specializes in psychiatric medication).   My pregnancy was planned, so my doctor and I had already talked about what my options were in terms of antidepressant treatment. Even though I suffer from severe depression, I decided to taper off my medication... http://www.healthcentral.com/depression/c/18/137851/light-depression