( Grand Rapids, January, 22, 2003, 3:57 p.m.) Do you get much natural light during the day or are you cooped up in a building? For some people it can have a major impact on the way they feel. It's called seasonal affective disorder and a local clinic is addressing it.

The lack of natural light during winter months can have an adverse affect on people. For many, it causes depression. It's known as seasonal affective disorder, or sad.

Often times doctors use traditional anti-depressants to treat patients but one local doctor is using an alternative approach.

The Born Preventive Health Care Clinic in Grand Rapids uses both traditional and alternative medicine to treat patients.

The clinic focuses first on nutrition and allergies, and uses medication as a last resort.With seasonal affective disorder they typically begin to treat a patient with light therapy.

Many doctors recommend full spectrum lights, which are different from standard light bulbs because they emit the same wave lengths as sunshine.Dr. Tammy Born says these wave lengths help by stimulating the brain's neurotransmitters affecting how you feel.

Dr. Born says, "Some people when they don't get enough sunshine develop a chemical imbalance and become much more depressed."

Dr. Born says, "I think that seasonal affective disorder could be just a symptom of some underlying metabolic disorder also...there could be other factors that are affecting someone."

So Doctor Born also focuses on a patient's lifestyle and believes a healthy diet, enough exercise, good sleep habits and herbs or supplements could be just what a patient needs.Karen Beery travels three hours one way to come to the clinic and is happy with her progress.

Karen says, "At this clinic we work on me being accountable and me changing my lifestyle and understanding what's going on, because anything I'm doing here is carried over to the rest of my life for healthy living."

Here's more information about seasonal affective disorder and where to find light therapy.

LIGHT THERAPY LINKS:
http://www.fullspectrumsolutions.com/ParaLite.htm
http://www.northernlight-tech.com/eng/default.asp