Rolly polly

[ewt]

[Poll #862953]



NOTE: I am not suggesting that anyone take any supplements, particularly if currently on prescribed medication. The combination of, say, St. John's Wort and SSRIs, for example, can result in Serotonin toxicity.

Comments

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

I know this, though happily not from experience. I can't take St. John's Wort with my oral contraceptives anyway.

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

I've been on various oral contraceptives since 1999.

Stopping taking them (I have tried this a few times) leads to debilitatingly painful periods which are also very irregular, as well as some other PCOS-related symptoms getting worse. I would be taking contraceptives even if I had no partners.

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

its a good idea to stop taking it for 3 months every two years

Urban myth. That just unbalances you and means you have to go through the process of reacclimatising to any side-effects. I heartily recommend birthcontrol for exciting discussion of this and other issues.

[pasdeschiens.livejournal.com]

its a good idea to stop taking it for 3 months every two years

...only if you're taking very very old-fashioned, outdated (not out-of-date) forms of oral contraception. The new ones have been designed to eliminate the need for this.

That said - yes, they can cause the symptoms you mention, but it's better to shop around for different hormone levels rather than taking breaks - particularly if you (like me) feel that becoming pregnant would be even worse for your mental health than taking artificial hormones.

[purplecthulhu.livejournal.com]

Does it count as a supplement if you try to have oily fish occasionally or have ground flax seed in bread?

[spangle-kitten.livejournal.com]

I actually stopped taking prozac without the doctor's permission. I hated the stuff, I had bad side effects and I hated what it did to my moods. I'd rather have the highs and lows of depression than be in the constant middle ground where all emotion washed over me.

I am diagnosed as a manic depressive, yet I purposefully came of the meds. I was on 90mg a day, which is a lot, I cut down with the Dr but I didn't tell him I was not taking them any more at all untill I was off them all together.
This may seem weird to some people but having come off it I can now understand my illness better and actually embrace the creativity it can give me. Byron didn't take prozac so why should I?! I don't take St John's Wort as I found it did nothing whatsoever for me.

I'm a firm believer in homeopathy, be it a placebo effect or whatever I've seen it work. My grandad was wheelchair bound and on death's door. As a last ditch attempt he tried homeopathy and stopped taking the prescriptions. Within a few months he coud walk again, with a stick however but before he could hardly move his legs, and went on to live for another 10 years when the doctors gave him only a few months. There's a theory that to utterly detox and introduce certain encouraging substances kicks the immune system back in gear, because of prescribed meds doing it's job for it the immune system gets lazy. (though obviously a bit more scientific!)

So many of the supplement pills are a total con though! They only work if you eat right as well, so vitamin C is relased if you eat friut as well, which undermines the pills because you get enough vitamins from the fruit...

The pills I do take are the contraceptive pill, if I come off it the periods are unbearable, as well as period specific painkillers, and meds for when I get a migraine. Despite trying homeopathy for the migraines, nothing has helped. I get proper migraines that can last for days of just lying in a dark room in agony, and only prescribed painkillers can make it go away, and prescribed anti nausea can stop me throwing them back up again. Also allergy pills, I have some bad allergys and I'm going the way of my dad with was to slowly swap the prescribed drugs and go to homeopathic ones - my dad couldn't go outside in spring at one point because of pollen causing such a bad reaction!

Though having said that, having come off prozac the migraines are getting less and less :)

[pasdeschiens.livejournal.com]

My doctor suggested I take evening primrose in order to try and combat some moodswings I have which we don't *think* are hormone-related (wrong point in cycle etc, oral contraceptives making 'cycle' a moot point really anyway), but we're trying anyway. Placebo affect perhaps but they do seem to make a difference and I'm considering increasing the dose.

Also helping brain: Rescue Remedy (although I need a new bottle, I've decided this one doesn't work any more and instead the three drops of herbal brandy (which is all it is, really) make me giggle, even when dispersed through a bottle of water), and pretty much anything vitamin B related. Both recommended while doing my last year of high school, and invaluable since.

Also invaluable! (Can't believe I forgot this!) ...tissue salt, Kali Phos. "For nervous tension, depression and irritability." - it's a 'nerve nutrient'. Has worked wonders, through late last year when I was grieving for my grandfather, suffering a still-unknown illness (and chronic pain), dealing with an infected wisdom tooth, and coping with a relationship that was on its last gasp.

Taking them regularly (and now on an as-needed basis), I got through that patch and they've helped immensely since.

The ones I use are Martin and Pleasance (http://www.martinandpleasance.com/products.php?dis=cat&ca_ID=1&pr_ID=38"), but I strongly advise that you look into this yourself. As much as I don't like the idea of one thing fixing everything... this has been a magic pill for me - and it's non-medicinal, making it totally non-addictive / dependency forming, and as far as I know, there are no contraindications with most medications (please, please check that one for yourself, of course). It's also relatively cheap - I got mine for 100 tablets for less than AU$10.

It was recommended to me by a friend (a pseudo-auntie, in fact), who had it recommended to her when she was not coping well with the death of her partner. She too, claims Kali-Phos as a magic tablet, and credits it with the reason she was able to get through that time.

Good poll. I like it.

[spangle-kitten.livejournal.com]

I have a friend who doesn't take a week's break inbetween cycles so she gets no periods. She's done this for several years and her doctor says it's safe, and how the pill was originally designed, but women feel they need to have periods so the week gap happens. I'm thinking of doing this myself but am a bit worried in case it messes with my seratonin levels, which are a very finely balanced!

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

If you make a point of having a certain number of servings per week and you usually have that number of servings, yes. If you generally try to remember to eat more on principle but don't keep track of what that means or really have any idea about amounts etc, probably not. It's borderline.

[cabd.livejournal.com]

Snake oil sold by charlatans and frauds, for the most part.

If you want something with medicinal effectiveness consult someone who has medical qualifications; if you take medication unsupervised or unregulated then you're asking to be poisoned.

St. Johns wort is poison. It has many of the same side effects as prescription drugs yet you can buy it like its smarties. Same goes for a wide range of herbal 'cures'. While some of them can be effective, I've never met a herbalist I'd trust with so much as a dandelion flower (and I've gone and talked to every new herbalist I've heard of in each of the towns I've lived in).

If you have a balanced diet, then unless you've need medical attention you will not need supplements. If you think you need supplements, then take a long, hard look at your diet and fix it by eating properly.

[purplecthulhu.livejournal.com]

The it would be 'probably not' and I answered right :-)

[spangle-kitten.livejournal.com]

My mum did well on oil of evening primrose during the menopause.

Rescue Remedy (although I need a new bottle, I've decided this one doesn't work any more and instead the three drops of herbal brandy (which is all it is, really)

Brilliant stuff indeed! I think it's placebo effect really but the association between the taste of it and the feeling of calmness can't be knocked if it happens.

Kali phos is also brilliant. I find it helps for mild depression (I'm manic depressive, so have massive highs/lows) but not for the massive extremes, but it can certainly help reduce those sudden mood swings.

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

If you want something with medicinal effectiveness consult someone who has medical qualifications;

Easier said than done; my GP can't even decide if I'm depressed or not (although she has prescribed antidepressants), but puts the majority of my physical symptoms down to stress and depression despite not testing for some of the other things which could cause my problems. This has happened before with other doctors, as soon as the 'depression' or 'low mood' thing is mentioned, everything is due to that and there couldn't possibly be anything else the matter with me.

I'm not saying that all doctors are like this, but I'm pretty disillusioned at the moment. Of course depression can have physical symptoms. Physical problems can have depression as a symptom as well, which is what worries me.

[cabd.livejournal.com]

But the answer isn't to put yourself in the hands of (at best) a misguided person who THINKS they're helping you, or (at worst) a cynical fraudster who will string you along and sell you poison.

Very often the reason why complementary practices like the sale of food supplements do so well is because GP's are crap. Its a nasty, difficult situation, but make no mistake, to go the unsupervised route is really dangerous.

As an aside, the biggest problem here is a complete lack of any good medical diagnostic tools for depression or other mental health issues. If anyone manges to solve that then the world will be a much better place.

[hennes.livejournal.com]

As a child I used to take iron supplements because the iron level in my blood was very low. They drew a tube of blood once per week to measure the iron levels. Since then I haven't had any prescriptions, though I do take some omega-3 fishoil capsules and when I bake bread I usually add some lineseeds.

[ali-in-london.livejournal.com]

The one time I tried homeopathic medicine I suffered no ill effects, but I suffered no positive effects either. Similarly with the ginseng and omega-3, although I don't take it regularly enough and pay enough attention for my experiences to be relavent to the works/doesn't-work debate.

I get a certain well-documented effect with zinc and while I wouldn't necessarily describe it as positive it's not a significant ill-effect.

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

But the answer isn't to put yourself in the hands of (at best) a misguided person who THINKS they're helping you, or (at worst) a cynical fraudster who will string you along and sell you poison.

I was not considering either of those options. I was considering doing a fair amount of research into certain supplements and taking the result back to my GP and saying, "Hey, maybe X or Y or Z will help, what do you think?" I'm really not going to start just buying things willy-nilly and taking them; I've never gone in for that and I'm not going to start now. There are clinical trials into many of the more common supplements recommended for treating depression.

I don't take prescription drugs without similar amounts of research, FWIW.

I suspect in terms of involvement and research I am the exception rather than the rule; most patients take the attitude that they should just take what the doctor tells them.

[ali-in-london.livejournal.com]

Just out of interest, do you (or anyone who has either thing handy) know if such information is mentioned on either the St John's Wort or the SSRIs packaging or instruction leaflet?

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

My citalopram patient info leaflet specifically advises against taking citalopram with a whole host of things, including NSAIDs, phenothiazines, atypical antipsychotics, tricyclic antidepressants, sumatriptan, tramadol, lithium, tryptophan, or St. John's Wort. Or alcohol.

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

This is along with the general "Tell your doctor if you are taking any other medication" thing.

I also seem to recall my pharmacist advising me that I could not take certain supplements with this medication, the first time I had the prescription filled, and checking to make sure I had discussed this with my doctor.

[pasdeschiens.livejournal.com]

I can't remember what level of hormone I'm on, but I can only tend to skip two periods - at the end of the third 21-day 'cycle', I get breakthrough bleeding which suggests the contraception is compromised. There's also the fact that if I do choose to skip one (which I do), then the cramps are worse than if I don't.

Other than that, I've suffered no ill-effects, although the last time I did go the three months, I was on antidepressants, so I'm not sure how it'd affect me otherwise.

[spangle-kitten.livejournal.com]

What I found odd was that when I started taking the pill my depression improved quite dramatically. Guess it was hormone based...

I've found if I skip one I get horrendous water retention, it's usually pretty bad but I thought it not worth the hastle of feeling so bad!

[cabd.livejournal.com]

Taking a great deal of care with what you're asked to take is a good idea; its very, very important to make sure that any advice you get from any kind of complementary practitioner is double checked with your GP, and its a very good idea that you're planning on doing that.

[pplfichi.livejournal.com]

It's certainly listed on an SSRI leaflet - tells you to stop taking the St John's Wart and mention it to your dr on your next visit.

[pplfichi.livejournal.com]

That's for fluroxetine