It's easy to peel back the curtains on a February morning and lose all hope. The skies are steely grey. The glass in the window is cold to the touch. Icy winds are bending the trees and fluttering the street lights. It hardly seems worth getting out of bed. If every winter you find yourself thinking that work will get along fine without you or that you don't really need groceries, you could be suffering from seasonal affective disorder (SAD). And while you can't change the weather, you can get help.

The most common form of SAD is winter-onset depression (although there are patients that suffer from summer-onset depression). The symptoms of winter-onset SAD are similar to those of other depressions and usually begin in October or November and clear up in March or April. If you're worried about SAD ask yourself some of the following questions: When's the last time you saw your friends and family? Have you been grumpy or short with people at work or school for the past few months? Are you drinking too much? Eating too much? Feeling tired all time? Do you feel like this happens to you every winter?

What causes it?

It's hard to know what causes certain people to feel depressed in the winter but it probably has a lot to do with not getting enough sunlight. Low levels of sunlight can disrupt your internal body clock which tells you when you should be asleep or awake. It can also tinker with brain chemicals that affect your mood and energy like melatonin and serotonin.

Who's at risk?

Studies have shown that women are more likely to suffer from seasonal affective disorder than men. Not surprisingly, living in the far north (or the far south if you're reading this on a glacier in Argentina) means less sunlight and more cases of seasonal affective disorder. As with many types of depression, having a family member that suffers in winter means that you might, too.

So what can you do about it?

Before we get to the medical treatments, here are some winter survival tips that are worth a try:

• Let the sunshine in. Open up the blinds and park yourself by the window for as long as it's light out.

• Brave the cold. Take a walk at lunch or find a sunny bench and sit for as long as you can take it.

• Exercise, exercise, exercise. It relieves stress and anxiety and makes you feel better about yourself.

If none of the above help, you might need to seek treatment. Here's a rundown of some of the things your doctor might recommend:

• Light therapy It turns out that sitting near bright white fluorescent light for 30 to 90 minutes a day can help activate brain chemicals that the dark days of winter can't. The lamps are encased in a box which filters out UV radiation and protects your skin. Your physician can help you select a good light box and determine what intensity, duration, and times of day are going to work best for you.

• Medication Antidepressants have proven helpful in treating severe symptoms of seasonal affective disorder.

• Counseling Talking to someone regularly can help you work on negative thoughts and patterns of behaviors that are making you feel worse than winter should.

For more information and mental health resources in your community, check out PhillyHealthInfo.org.

Are you one of the 100 million Americans that made a New Year's resolution to eat healthy and/or lose weight this year? Lucky for you we live in the age of technology. If you have a cell phone keeping your resolution can be as simple as a pressing a button....well, almost. The folks at PhillyHealthInfo.org (PHI) decided to review a few health applications for the iPhone and BlackBerry.

Lose It! (iPhone only)

Apple Store Rating: #1 free application in "Healthcare & Fitness" section

Cost: Nada

Overview: Lose It! is a calorie counting application. It keeps a record of calorie, carbohydrate, protein, sugar, fiber, and cholesterol intake of the foods you eat throughout the day. The application has an extensive database of foods, including some popular restaurant dishes. The user can add food information that is not listed in the database manually. If you have to manually enter in food, the application makes it easy by saving the entry under the "My Foods" section for future use. The application keeps a record of the user's progress via calorie and goal (weight) charts. If you are a person that counts calories then this is the application for you!

Unique Feature(s): PHI loves the fact that you can calculate the calories of complete dishes by simply going to the "Recipe" section and adding the ingredients individually.

What it's Lacking: The exercise section of the application is just okay. It only allows you to enter in the exercise type, amount of time, and calories burned-- an extremely bare bones calculation. If you are looking for an application that keeps track of your exercise progress, you will need to use something else.

Similar Good Apps: Calorie Tracker by LIVESTRONG (iPhone and Blackberry, $2.99).

iFitness (iPhone and Blackberry)

Rating: #2 paid application in "Healthcare & Fitness"section (iPhone) and #4 application in fitness category (BlackBerry)

Cost: $1.99 (iPhone); $3.99 (Blackberry)

Overview: An extremely extensive exercise log application that replaces the need for a paper log. In addition to recording progress through intensity (or weight pressed), reps, and personal notes, it also demonstrates (via still pictures and video) how to perform 100s of exercises. You are able to flip back through your log to view your progress or see it visually via a chart. In addition, the application also has a handful of complete routines that take the guess work out of developing your own plan.

Unique Feature(s): The application allows you to create your own routines which you can develop prior to exercising. This saves you the step of searching through 100s of exercises just to record your data. Speaking of the routines, the application has some that are already stored. We love this feature, especially the traveler's routine (requires no equipment at all), beginners, and the 30 minute workout.

What it's Lacking: We only hope in future updates the application adds more (only 12 routines) routines!

Similar good apps: GymGoal (iPhone, $3.99), FitnessBuilder (iPhone, $9.99) Pocket Trainer (BlackBerry, $12.99), iStayFit (iPhone, $9.99) and (Blackberry, $5.99).

Daily Burn's Food Scanner (iPhone only)

Apple Store Rating: #21 paid application under "Healthcare & Fitness" section

Cost: $0.99

Overview: This application allows you to keep track of your food intake through scanning (via iPhone camera) barcodes, food database, or entering in food data manually. This application is really cool, once we figured out how to get the scanner to work!

Unique Feature(s): While the application only records calorie intake, we love the fact that it shows the complete nutritional fact label for all foods (packaged and not). Sure, all that information is listed on the package, but if you are into calorie counting, scanning is way easier than entering it in manually.

What it's Lacking: There are two downfalls to this application: the food database is smaller compared to other applications and you must have a very steady hand when scanning a barcode or you might become frustrated quickly. But for a buck we think it is well worth a look. There are worse things you've spent your money on (i.e. that bag of cookies in your desk at work).

Similar Good Apps: None that scan, but a few that provide complete nutritional information include: CalorieCheck (iPhone, $0.99) and Calorie Count Nutrition (BlackBerry, free).

Reasons for not keeping your resolution are endless, but don't let time, access, or equipment be one of them, especially if you have a smart phone. There are 166 pages of health & fitness applications listed in the iPhone AppStore and over 145 applications in BlackBerry App World. There are applications to help you quit bad habits (smoking, drinking, etc.), applications to help you train for a marathon, count the glasses of water you drink, and applications that increase the harmony of mind, body, and spirit. For more apps, take a look at our website, PhillyHealthInfo.org, where we've reviewed several others.

by The College of Physicians of Philadelphia

Red Wine

Here's the good news: moderate amounts of alcohol can increase good cholesterol (HDL-cholesterol) and thin your blood. Red wine, just like any other alcohol, provides these benefits. So how much is moderate? Here are the latest recommendations:

Men: No more than two drinks per day.

Women: No more than one drink per day.

One drink is a 5-ounce glass of red or white wine, 12 ounces of regular beer (1 bottle) or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits.

We also know, for a fact, that red wine contains antioxidants called polyphenols. Antioxidants protect our cells from harmful substances called free radicals. Free radicals are produced when your body breaks down food or is exposed to nasty environmental hazards like tobacco smoke or radiation. Polyphenols are particularly good at protecting the lining of blood vessels in your heart.

The antioxidants in red wine come in two forms: flavonoids and nonflavonoids.

Flavonoids are found in lots of foods, including oranges, grape juice, apples, onions, tea and cocoa. Other types of alcohol, such as white wine and beer, contain small amounts but red wine has higher levels.

Nonflavonoids are interesting because they appear to help prevent arteries from becoming clogged with fatty blockages. Resveratrol is a nonflavonoid that's recently received a lot of attention from researchers. Red wine provides much more resveratrol than white wine because the skin is kept on the grape longer during red wine making, increasing the amount of resveratrol in the wine.

Studies show that resveratrol could help to prevent the development of numerous diseases including obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. Some research links resveratrol to reducing the risk of inflammation and blood clotting. However, these findings were reported only in mice, not in people. To get the same benefit from resveratrol used in the studies, a person would have to drink 100 to 1,000 bottles of red wine a day. Please don't try that at home.

Dark Chocolate

Remember those flavonoids you get from red wine? Dark chocolate has them, too. When cocoa is processed into chocolate, it goes through several steps to reduce its naturally bitter taste. Flavonoids are what make cocoa taste bitter. The more it's processed the more flavonoids are lost. Dark chocolate is processed less so it retains the highest level of flavonoids. Milk chocolate not so much. In fact, milk may even prevent your body from absorbing the antioxidants in chocolate.

Eating dark chocolate can also lower high blood pressure in patients with mild hypertension. In a study from 2003, patients with high blood pressure were given a 100-gram bar of dark chocolate every day for two weeks. They were asked to balance its 480 calories by not eating other foods similar in calories. Participants in the study showed a drop in blood pressure by an average of 5 points for systolic (top number) and an average of 2 points for diastolic blood pressure (bottom number). But, remember, you have to balance the extra calories by eating less of other things.

What about the fat in chocolate? As it turns out chocolate isn't all that bad. The fat in chocolate is made up of oleic acid (a heart-healthy unsaturated fat also found in olive oil), stearic acid, and palmitic acid. Stearic acid doesn't raise or lower cholesterol either way. Palmitic acid does raise cholesterol levels but it only accounts for one-third of the fat calories in chocolate. For the record, that's 1/3 good, 1/3 bad, and 1/3 neutral. It kind of evens out, doesn't it?

Chocolate selectivity is key to healthy consumption. Caramel, marshmallow, nut-filled ooey gooey monstrosities aren't heart healthy in the slightest. On the other hand, a small piece of dark chocolate a few days a week is nothing to feel guilty about.

Want to see for yourself? Come sample dark chocolate and red wine at PhillyHealthInfo.org's Dark Chocolate and Red Wine Evening on Friday, February 12th. Visit PhillyHealthInfo.org for details.

By The College of Physicians of Philadelphia

Depending on your relationship with your family and the state of your personal finances, you may find yourself on an airplane this holiday season. PhillyHealthinfo.org, the public health resource of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, has some tips to keep air travel from putting your health at risk.

Blood Clots

If you've received a panicked call from your mother about blood clots the night before a long flight, you're not alone. While the evidence connecting air travel and clots isn't conclusive, there is some reason to be concerned. Sitting still for long periods of time naturally causes small blood clots to form in your legs and feet. For the most part, your body will naturally bust up the clots. The danger comes when the clots get big enough to block a vein or break free and block blood flow to the lungs. Conditions that increase your risk for rogue blood clots include cancer, heart disease, infection, pregnancy, obesity, and recent injury or surgery. If you fall into one of those categories, here are some tips:

If you're not at risk for bleeding, take a baby aspirin one-half hour before takeoff.

• Wear loose clothing and comfortable shoes.

• Avoid crossing your legs while seated.

• Get up from your seat and walk at least once an hour (provided the pilot has turned off the seat belt sign).

• Drink lots of water and avoid alcohol, caffeinated beverages, and salty foods.

• Keep the space under the seat in front of you empty so you can exercise your feet and ankles.

What about the pain in my ears?

Many people feel more than just a "pop" due to changes in cabin air pressure during take off and landing. The pain is due to the air pressure stretching your eardrums. You can help the process by swallowing, chewing gum, yawning, or opening your mouth wide. If that doesn't work (and sometimes it doesn't) try a trick called the Valsalva maneuver: Close your nose with your thumb and index finger and exhale gently against a closed mouth. There are also special earplugs, like EarPlanes®, that help relieve the pressure on the eardrum. Try taking a decongestant and/or using nasal spray before you get on the airplane, particularly if you are suffering from a head cold or swollen sinuses.

What can I do about jet lag?

Crossing several time zones can leave you feeling worse than eggnog. Headaches, upset stomach, nausea, difficulty concentrating, and trouble sleeping are all common symptoms of jetlag. Flying eastward travel usually means you'll have trouble falling asleep at your destination's bedtime and waking up in the morning. Traveling westward means you'll probably want to fall asleep early in the evening and wake up before dawn. Jet lag usually lasts for several days and it's generally easier to adapt to westward travel. To help alleviate the symptoms of jet lag, try the following:

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By The College of Physicians of Philadelphia

We've all received emails from a well-meaning friend, family member or colleague warning us about something or someone that will put us in harm's way. Many of these emails contain medical information with a plea to pass it along to others we care about. Some of my favorites are flesh eating underwear, asbestos in tampons and killer toilet spiders- Oh My!

Jokesters, scam artists and malevolent people are constantly finding ways to manipulate and scare the public using the Internet. They fall into a number of categories.

Hoaxes and scams are emails started intentionally with the purpose of causing disruption or harm to an individual, group or business. Beware! They can be very persuasive, and could easily separate you from your hard earned cash or steal your personal information.

Urban legends are stories often thought to be true by those circulating them. There may be an iota of truth somewhere, but the facts are distorted or exaggerated. The sender of these emails frequently report that their tale of woe happened to a "friend of a friend" (FOAF). For example, there is the famous FOAF about the unsuspecting tourist who was drugged in his hotel room and woke up the next morning in a bathtub full of ice minus a kidney. Relax! This is an urban legend, although the case for a black market organ trade makes this seem very convincing.

Bogus health related emails are everywhere. Be skeptical of unsolicited health warnings announcing new medical breakthroughs and be very wary of requests asking for financial support. Those requests to help a sick child repeatedly tug at my heart strings. But you really need to confirm their validity before responding or forwarding them on.

How do you determine whether you have been hoodwinked? Here are a couple of suggestions:

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by the College of Physicians of Philadelphia

It's morning or you think it's morning. You put a hand over your eyes to block the penetrating light force trying to laser through your window shade. You lift your head to check the time, but the pounding inside your skull makes movement impossible. Your thick, fuzzy tongue cries for water. But the churning in your stomach takes charge. Off you go to worship the porcelain bowl. Sound familiar? You have a hangover!

A recent study suggests that around 23% of the population may be resistant to hangover. Obviously you are not one of them. The National Headache Foundation's reports an overwhelming 92% of the population has experienced a hangover headache at some point in their lives. Misery loves company - don't you?

Why do I feel so crappy?

Beer, wine, and liquor are all made of ethanol which causes blood vessels to enlarge triggering headaches in some people. Alcoholic beverages also contain chemicals called congeners, which create the specific color and flavors of each drink. Congeners also trigger headaches and induce hangover symptoms. Suffer from migraines? A recent study found that people suffering with migraines are more susceptible to alcohol-induced headaches

Alcohol stimulates the body to produce more urine. Urinating a lot can lead to dehydration or chemical imbalances in the body, resulting in headaches, dry mouth and general lethargy. Alcohol is also tough on the stomach, causing nausea and stomach cramps. The fatigue and shakiness you feel are due to decreased blood sugar levels and the fact that your body is working hard to rid itself of a toxic level of alcohol.

How can I minimize my suffering?

The best treatment for a hangover is sleep, which gives your body a chance to recover. Eating something, even if you don't feel like it, will probably help. After you get something in your stomach, take ibuprofen or naproxen to treat your headache. Don't skip the food or chances are the headache may improve but the stomach problems will worsen. Once the room stops spinning, get up and get moving to get your blood circulating. The endorphins fight the after-effects of all the alcohol.

The National Headache Foundation offers the following advice:

• Drink tomato juice. It's a good source of fructose and it helps the body process alcohol faster.

• Liquids rich in minerals and salts such as bouillon offer relief from the dehydration caused by alcohol consumption.

• Drink sports drinks to replenish your body's fluids.

• Drink coffee as soon as you wake up: Caffeine may provide some relief in alleviating the headache symptoms and decreasing the duration of pain. Caffeine eases the dilated blood vessels.

• Take ibuprofen: it is gentler on the stomach than aspirin and provides pain relief.

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How many of your mornings start like this: you're getting ready to leave for the day and you put on your iPod. The volume is at, say, 60% because it's early and your ears are barely even awake.

Alright, now you're out on the street and the bus goes by, followed by the trash truck, and a tractor trailer. Volume goes up to 70%.

A couple minutes pass and now you're on the platform and the volume is up to 80% because trains and trolleys that aren't yours keep rolling past.

Once you're on the train, you're up to 90% because people are talking and the train is rumbling, and pretty soon you're up to 100% thinking about buying some new ear buds that could give you a little more oomph.

Have you been there? If so, have you ever worried that you might be doing permanent damage to your hearing?

Getting to Work is Loud

Work can be a pretty quiet place. The refrigerator humming in the break room is only40 decibels. A quiet office is probably 50. Your classroom before the bell could be 75. Getting to work, on the other hand, is noisy.

A 2006 study took 57 noise level readings in 17 subway stations and 25 measurements in moving subway cars in New York City. On subway platforms, the average maximum noise level was 94 decibels. Inside the trains was just as bad. One-fifth of the lines exceeded 100 decibels. 100 decibels is like standing next to a running motorcycle. You know, like the one that your neighbor revs up at 5am every morning.

You know what pumps out 85 decibels? City traffic. Inside your car. And the bus. There's nowhere to hide.

Music is Even Louder

In 2006, Apple was sued because iPods are "not sufficiently adorned with adequate warnings regarding the likelihood of hearing loss." As a result, they revised their iPod software to top out at 100 dB. Despite that, iPod volumes have been recorded as high as 115 dB, which is like running a chain saw in your ear. The risk of permanent hearing loss can increase with just 5 minutes of exposure to music at that volume.

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The College of Physicians of Philadelphia

There's nothing wrong with attracting a cutie while working out. However, there are other visitors at the gym that you want to repel! No, we are not talking about the creepy jerk that stands outside of the women's locker room; we're talking about viruses, fungi, and staph-infections. These nasty organisms love gym equipment, yoga mats, locker rooms, and especially your skin. If given the chance, these creeps will wreak havoc on your body and your immune system.

The peeps at PhillyHealthInfo.org want to make sure the only thing you bring back from the gym are rocking biceps and six-pack abs—and maybe an equally rocking date.

Viruses

It's flu season and God knows how many times your favorite treadmill has been coughed or sneezed on. You may wipe the gym equipment before and after using it, but do you disinfect? Some viruses can survive for 24 hours or more on dirty exercise equipment.

Bottom line: Wipe down cardio machines, mats, and weights before and after using them. If your gym has disinfectant spray, use it! If your gym doesn't have disinfectant wipes or spray bottles on-hand, demand that they get them or start carrying your own.

Fungal Nail Infections

Scratching your head trying to figure out what fungal nail infections are? Don't scratch too hard as fungi can live on the dead tissues of the hair (dandruff), nails, and outer skin layers. Due to the wet, humid nature of gym locker rooms, showers, and pools, fungi multiply like rabbits. Fungal infections can take the form of mold or yeast, leading to some itchy situations.

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by the College of Physicians of Philadelphia

We all see you with your too tight pants, your huge bag, and your four inch heels. Sure, you're looking good, but looking good takes a toll, doesn't it? Here's the question: Are you doing any permanent damage or is temporary misery the price of fame? Oh, and guys, we see you, too; and we have no idea how you got into those jeans.

Your Pants

After a night on the town in painted-on pants, do you feel a tingling sensation? Not that kind of tingle. Get your mind out of the gutter. Pants that are too tight can cause a nerve problem called meralgia paresthetica. Basically, a nerve in your leg gets crushed for too long and causes tingling, numbness, and burning pain in the outer part of your thigh.

For the most part, if you wear looser pants the pain will go away. But if you find yourself tingling and burning for weeks, you might need surgery to decompress the nerve. It'll probably never get that bad but what if it did? It would be embarrassing to have to explain to your doctor that you're addicted to tight pants and you just can't quit.

Your Bag

Seriously, what do you have in there? Cell phone, iPod, water bottle, laptop, car keys, gym clothes, dog, cat, magazine, disinfectant, lunch, life raft, train schedule, breath mint, the list goes on and on. But what about your back, neck, and shoulders? And guys, messenger bags count, too.

Go put your bag on the scale. What does it weigh? Five pounds? Ten? I bet there are some 10's out there. If you have to lean forward or to one side to carry your bag, it's too heavy. You've got two choices: lighten your load or pull a wheeled suitcase.

Doesn't sound fashionable? Chronic back pain isn't fashionable, either. Four out of five Americans will go to the doctor or miss work due to lower back pain at least once in their lives. There's no reason it should happen to you while you're still in your 20's.

Your Shoes, Part 1 (Heels)

Have you seen the sidewalks in Philly? Walking around in high heels is an invitation for head trauma. Even if you avoid those pitfalls, high heels can be killers. How do any of the following sound: corns, calluses, hammertoes(!!!), arthritis, chronic knee pain, sprained ankles, and back problems.

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by the College of Physicians of Philadelphia

Besides the obvious -- bleeding gums, bad breath, rotten teeth -- there are a few other things you should be concerned about before you put your lips on someone. What about if things get steamy and oral sex is in question? Not the appropriate the time to think about oral health? Think again. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. Let's start with the basics.

If you don't brush and floss regularly, you can be setting yourself up for embarrassment in form of halitosis, or bad breath. Everyone has been on a date with someone whose breath smelled like something dead. Don't let it be you! Bad breath can be caused by:

• What you eat (tip: don't eat onions before your date)
• Gum disease
• Dry mouth
• Tobacco
• A medical disorder (i.e. diabetes or a kidney problem)

Using breath mints or mouthwash may only be a temporary fix. Brushing and flossing is the answer. The American Dental Association recommends the following:

• Brushing your teeth twice a day with fluoride toothpaste.
• Replacing your toothbrush every three or four months.
• Flossing daily to remove plaque and food particles from between the teeth and under the gum line that your toothbrush cannot reach.
• Eating a balanced diet and limiting between-meal snacks.
• Visiting your dentist regularly for cleanings and oral exams.

Do you floss? Be honest. If so, congratulations, because you are one of the 28% of Americans who "claim" to be flossing. "Claim" is the key word here because sales of dental floss don't reflect those numbers. So you're either lying or reusing your floss because times are tough. Let's hope you're lying.

Not flossing can lead to gum disease. Why is that important? Because scientists recently found a gene that links gum disease to heart disease. Another study found that people under the age of 55 with serious gum disease were 2 to 4 times more likely to have a heart attack.

Think it's not you? 75% of the population has some form of gum disease. Twenty five to thirty percent of the population has a serious gum infection. Considering that it might keep you alive a little longer, flossing sounds like a good idea.

Forget the myths about oral sex being safer than intercourse. Whenever bodily fluids are being exchanged there is always a risk of contracting some kind of infection.

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