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" Happy Monday, everyone! I thought it would be appropriate to talk about sunshine and warmth today since here in the Northeast, we&amp;#x27;re in the midst of a major winter snowstorm (see photos from my house, above). We&amp;#x27;ve already gotten 10 inches and it isn&amp;#x27;t letting up any time soon. And, all this snow and cold and hats/mittens/scarfs/boots makes me think about the sun. And when we&amp;#x27;ll see it again. And why it&amp;#x27;s pretty urgent that we do....I&amp;#x27;m sure you&amp;#x27;ve all read about the importance of vitamin d and how being deficient in it can lead to a host of medical issues, including, of course, cancer (those of you who read Friday&amp;#x27;s post will agree that everything causes cancer...). There&amp;#x27;s also the mood thing&amp;amp;#8212;seasonal affective disorder (SAD), which is like depression that only hits in the fall/winter. And it basically comes from not having enough sunlight in your life. I do wish I could get outside more and that Alex wasn&amp;#x27;t cooped up and that I didn&amp;#x27;t have to sport my four-year-old winter coat, but other than that, I cope. I don&amp;#x27;t, however, think that I have enough vitamin d in my system. You get it from exposure to the sun or sun lamps or through supplements. I can tell you my sun exposure is pretty limited these days. For one, I&amp;#x27;m not supposed to get a lot (not good for Gleevec takers or cancer patients or redheads or, um, anyone, to get a tan), but it&amp;#x27;s also been a stormy winter here in NY. And when you work from home there&amp;#x27;s no commute during which you can steal a few minutes in the sun. I&amp;#x27;m lucky if I walk to my mailbox before 5 p.m. So, I think one of the many things I&amp;#x27;m going to add to my health to-do list is &amp;quot;start taking a vitamin d supplement.&amp;quot; And pray for spring! How about you guys? Do you get enough natural sunlight? Ever consider a supplement? (Also curious: Is it snowing where you are today? Plan on playing in it?! My mom just called and wants us all to come over tonight for a shoveling/snowman-making/Chinese take-out party. Tempting....) Don&amp;#x27;t ask why we haven&amp;#x27;t put our patio furniture away yet...."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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