I can think of about a million reasons to get outside and bask in the sunlight every day — but if you’re looking for one of your own, how about this: It can slash your risk of a stroke.

The latest research shines some light on stroke risk, with one new study finding that people who live in the nation’s sunniest climates have a 60 percent lower risk of stroke than those who live up north.

The one exception to the rule: The so-called “stroke belt” of the south, where obesity and diabetes — both big-time stroke risks factors of their own — are higher than they are in the rest of the country.

In other words, all the sun in Georgia won’t undo the ravages of a double-extra-large waistline.

But if you’re slim, trim and living in Minnesota or Maine, you don’t have to lower your latitude to lower your stroke risk — because you can harness the real power of sunlight anywhere on earth.

All you need is some vitamin D, as another new study shows again how the sunshine vitamin is the real reason for that lower stroke risk.

In this one, researchers found that people who had the highest intake of D were 11 percent less likely to suffer a stroke than those with the lowest.

If that sounds a little… well… unimpressive, that’s because the new study didn’t offer a real look at D levels. Instead, the researchers used food frequency questionnaires.

Most people don’t get the bulk of their D from food anyway.

Once you look at real levels of D, you see real benefits — with other studies showing that low D can boost your stroke risk by up to 50 percent.

If that’s not enough of a benefit, other studies have shown that vitamin D can help protect your heart, bones and brain and slash your risk of colds, the flu, diabetes, allergies and even cancer.

You can let your body make its own D by stepping out into the sunlight, but unless you live in a warmer clime don’t count on that alone. Everything from your clothing to the seasonal angle of the earth can impede D production — so take a supplement to make sure you get what you need.

The only thing scarier than a stroke is having one and not even knowing it.

It’s the so-called “silent” stroke — given the name because it comes and goes with no symptoms.

Not on the outside, anyway.

But in the inside, a silent stroke can tear away at your brain, causing the kind of serious damage that can increase your risk of a not-so-silent stroke down the road.

And since your brain has already suffered stroke-related damage, you’ll face a much greater risk of disability afterwards.

A silent stroke can strike anyone, anytime, anywhere — but the latest research finds one set of people who have a much higher risk than everyone else: The millions of people who suffer from sleep apnea.

As I’m sure you know by now, sleep apnea robs you of your breath as you sleep, sometimes for a minute or more and sometimes for hundreds of times a night.

When you don’t breathe, oxygen doesn’t make it into your body. It doesn’t get to your heart, boosting your risk of heart problems — and it doesn’t get to your brain, which is why it’s already a well-known risk factor for strokes.

In a new look at 56 stroke patients, German researchers found that 51 — or 91 percent of them — suffered from sleep apnea, with the apnea patients also more likely to show the kind of white matter damage that indicates they’ve had a silent stroke.

Apnea patients who had five or more episodes a night had the highest risk of silent stroke — and when the “real” stroke came, they were also more likely to suffer from disability after being discharged from the hospital.

Strokes — silent or otherwise — are notoriously tough to predict. But apnea is a lot easier to figure out: If your spouse has seen you gasping in the night or heard steady snores mixed with utter silence, there’s a good chance you have it.

A night in a clinic can confirm it — but you don’t need a sleep lab to start turning it around. In most cases, apnea is linked to obesity — and if you simply lose the weight, it’ll go away on its own.

You’ll not only slash your stroke risk and sleep better at night… you’ll feel better all day, too.

The only thing worse than a late night at the office catching up on paperwork is late night…after late night…after late night…at the office, stuck in a job where you’re always catching up, but you never quite get there.

If that’s your story, you might want to consider a career change before it’s too late: The latest research finds that people who work the longest hours have a higher risk of major depression.

(And attention bosses who expect all those late nights: No, your employees don’t do it because they love the work — they do it because they fear losing their jobs.)

In the new study, some 2,000 British office workers were tracked for nearly six years — and those who clocked more than 11 hours a day were nearly two and a half times more likely to come down with major depression than those who stuck to the “normal” seven-hour or eight-hour shift.

You might think some of these people were depressed to begin with — which is perhaps why they were so willing to throw themselves on the mercy of their jobs.

But, in this case, the researchers wrote in PLoS One that none of the workers showed any sign of mental problems at the start of the study. The link even held after all the usual risk factor adjustments.

In other words, it’s the work — and, more specifically, far too many hours at work — causing that increase in depression risk.

And that’s not the only danger that comes with too much overtime. Those long hours could actually kill you.

One recent study found that people who work between three and four hours of overtime a day have a 60 percent higher risk of a heart attack than those who stick to regular office hours.

That same study also confirmed what’s already obvious to anyone regularly putting in 10 or 12 hours at a time: All that extra work can cause stress, aggression, hostility, and sleep disorders.

And of course, overtime can sap your social life and alienate you from your family.

It’s never easy finding a balance between work and home — but find that balance. It could literally save your life.

You might not feel mentally ill — but you are. You just haven’t been diagnosed yet.

The psychiatric industry is getting ready to update its “bible,” the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, and you’re not going to believe what’s inside it.

Just about every common emotion, condition, quirk, challenging life event, or personal flaw will become a disorder to be diagnosed and treated in the new book.

It’s so wacky even the shrinks themselves are protesting it: More than 11,000 mental health professionals and counting have signed an online petition to stop it before it’s published.

But maybe they don’t really mean that — maybe they’re just suffering from “oppositional defiant disorder,” one of the many proposed new conditions.

Yes, I AM serious.

That one’s actually aimed at kids, of course, and it’s what we used to just call “being a brat” or maybe even a “teenager.” The definition includes “performs deliberate actions to annoy others.”

Can you think of a single kid who has never deliberately annoyed others?

Of course, children aren’t the only ones being targeted. You’re in the crosshairs, too.

Sad over the death of a loved one? No you’re not! You’re actually mentally ill, locked in a battle with “chronic depressive disorder.”

At least you’ll have company: That same label is also going to be slapped on anyone who’s lonely or just plain unhappy.

Don’t give a hoot about stuff? You’ve got apathy syndrome. I’d tell you more about that one…but I just don’t care.

Spending too much time online? You need treatment for Internet addiction disorder. No more House Calls for you!

Even serious and violent crime would get a makeover in the new book. Rapists, for example, are just sick now — fighting off “paraphilic coercive disorder.”

You just can’t make this stuff up.

Once you have millions of new “sick” patients, you get millions of new customers — and not for some simple talk therapy. Talk therapy is on the outs — many shrinks don’t offer it, and many insurance companies offer little to no coverage for it.

No, the real goal here is to get more patients on meds, because everyone wins: Shrinks make more in 15-minute sessions renewing and tweaking prescriptions than they ever did in 45-minute talk therapy sessions. It’s cheaper per patient for insurers. And, of course, the drug industry loves it so much they’d print the new book themselves if they could.

Everyone wins — well, except you of course.

I’m not done with mental health yet. Keep reading for the latest on depression.