Your Health: Try portable sunshine to beat blues

PEOPLE who suffer from the winter blues may soon be helped with their own portable ray of sunshine.

Around three million people in Britain suffer from SAD - Seasonal Affective Disorder - which means that during the dark winter months they feel depressed and listless.

Patients, who often "hibernate" by spending more time in bed, seem to lack the ability to absorb and use the lower light levels of the winter.

At the moment, the only way to boost their levels is to stand in front of a special light box in their home, which sends rays through the retina of the eye to stimulate energy hormones.

But they can't get the benefit when they are outside the home.

Now scientists have invented a portable device which can be strapped to the knee. A tiny pad gives off pulses of light which are absorbed through the skin into the bloodstream.

It also has an electronic timer so people can top up as they walk around.

The new device is having its final trials and should be on the market by the autumn. Professor Paul Gilbert of Kingsway Hospital, Derby, who runs a clinic for SAD patients, is fascinated by the new device.

"We know some people with SAD respond to light therapy," he said.

"But taking light through the skin to increase melatonin, the hormone which controls sleep patterns and physical activity, is an unusual approach."

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