Interesting story in The National this week.

About how people living here in the UAE might be prone to suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) just like those living in regions where the sun rarely shines.

Here is a link to the story.

If you didn’t follow the link, you must be wondering how we can get depressed from a lack of sun-generated vitamin D during the interminable Gulf summer.

The answer is easy and actually kinda obvious … which makes me believe that the researchers are on to something real.

Everyone hides from the sun for six months.

Well, of course you do. It’s too hot. It’s already 90 degrees every day this week, and it’s March. By April, it’s going to be seriously hot, and it will get only worse right through August, when the average high is over 110 degrees, with September only a slight relief and October also prone to severe heat.

Thus, we’re heading into a long stretch when we stay out of the sun.

And it the sun, of course, that helps humans generate vitamin D, which plays a role in depression.

In most of the world, the winter is the danger zone for SAD because you can’t get sun even if you want it, in northern Europe or the northeast of the U.S.

But people here actually go out in the winter. It’s the summer when we’re buttoned up.

The study was done on Emirati women, and it makes sense that they might have even bigger problems than everyone else because they typically wear the abaya, a long flowing robe that covers everything but the face and hands. (Emirati men, meanwhile, are wearing khandouras, which cover just as much of the body; the study didn’t deal with them, though.)

Some people here also wear creams to further limit the impact of the sun. Most people here believe the concept of “tanning” to be insane. Skin darkened by the sun is associated with laborers and blue-collar folk. Pale is in.

So, yes, this makes sense. Despite the sun looming outside like one enormous fireball searing our world, people in the UAE are so good at avoiding it that they don’t get enough of it to avoid depression.

Another hazard of living in the desert. I’m feeling a bit blue just thinking about it.