Reuters: Fish oils, vitamins, herbs helpful for depression

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=healthNews&storyid=2006-11-23T201317Z_01_COL372417_RTRUKOC_0_US-DEPRESSION.xml

Fish oils, vitamins, herbs helpful for depression

Thu Nov 23, 2006 3:13 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Diet and nutrition may play a key role in helping people fight depression, Australian researchers report.

A number of nutrients, including polyunsaturated fatty acids, St. John's Wort and several B vitamins, have the potential to influence mood by increasing the absorption of chemical messengers in the brain, Dr. Dianne Volker of the University of Sydney in Chippendale and Jade Ng of Goodman Fielder Commercian in North Ryde, New South Wales note in the journal Nutrition and Dietetics.

...

[hsher]

1. The strongest cure is sunshine

It's true.

[AllieB]

2. Vitamin D

It's true!

[Warpy]

8. Well, sunshine and exercise.

However, deeply depressed people generally can't cope with either, let alone both.

St John's wort has been proven ineffective in double blind studies.

Fish oil certainly won't hurt anybody who's housebound, especially in winter. It's very high in vitamins A and D, so people need to watch their total intake. Both vitamins are oil based and can reach toxic levels in folks who don't realize there can be too much of a good thing.

On edit: diet won't cure clinical depression. We'd have diet clinics if it did. However, a lousy diet won't help anyone shake it off, either. Good nutrition is essential for everybody, healthy or sick.

[MannyGoldstein]

10. Toxic Levels of vitamins A & D?

I thought that it was pretty tough to hit toxic levels of these.

[Warpy]

13. It's a helluva lot easier than you think

especially with vitamin D: http://kidneydiseases.about.com/od/medications/a/VitDEditorial01.htm

Vitamin A is a rarer culprit, but there have been documented cases of overdoses among pillheads who don't know the difference between enough and too much.

In both cases, overuse of dietary supplements is to blame. There is no way to overdose on either when one follows a normal diet and gets a normal amount of sunshine on the skin.

There are also some B vitamins capable of causing symptoms of overdose, as well, although those are not nearly as serious as those with fat soluble vitamins. Water soluble vitamins can be flushed out of the body much more easily.

The bottom line is to know what you're taking and why, and to avoid the megadosing found in the more extreme self help guides.

[DavidDvorkin]

18. "Pillheads" That's a useful contribution to the discussion.

In the case of vitamin A, many of us pillheads take beta-carotene, not vitamin A. Beta-carotene is converted to A in the body as needed and is thus not likely to cause an overdose.

Signed,

Your friendly neighborhood pillhead.

[Warpy]

22. ...and you likely take it responsibly

I'm referring to people who don't, and there are quite a few of them out there. I know because I used to be in the business and it was difficult to steer them toward the more benign pills.

THOSE are the pillheads, not people who take supplements responsibly. Some people use it more like part of a conversion disorder and the more pills they pop, the better they feel because that's how they deal with anxiety.

However, if the shoe fits, get help. It can be dangerous. Nobody needs 100,000 units of vitamin A a day and that's the kind of self medication I was seeing.

[DavidDvorkin]

23. 100,000 is astonishing, I'll agree

I think the heftiest beta-carotene pills I've seen are 25K each. 10K seems to be the most common potency.

[distantearlywarning]

21. Actually, I think the Vitamins A & D thing

depends on what kind of fish oil you take. I have read that people should take only take certain kinds of fish oils in the winter (Cod Liver, for instance) and switch to other types in the summer to avoid vitamin overdose.

[charles22]

26. If sunshine cures you, you weren't depressed.

[Psephos]

32. If you believe that you haven't experienced Seasonal Affective Disorder

And it's also more probable that you live south of 35 degrees latitude.

During winter, S.A.D. plagues 20% of Scandinavians, for example. The depression lifts as the days grow longer. The Goth scholar Jordanes first noted it more than 1500 years ago.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasonal_affective_disorder

Peace.

[papau]

3. I hate "conflicting results" :-(

:-(

[flvegan]

4. First of all, duh! More folks would know this if their physicians knew shit about nutrition.

Secondly, I find it almost laughable that St. Johns Wort, a well known and well studied SRI came out so poorly in "US clinical trials" (but that might be because BigPharma has dibs on that with Prozac, etc).

[Jackpine Radical]

6. Funny stuff, that Hypericum.

It only seems to work in Europe, where numerous studies have shown St. John's Wort equally as effective as prescription antidepressants.

Edited to add--all the other stuff mentioned here works too, but not all things work for everyone. Full-spectrum light therapy works well for some (those with Seasonal Affective Disorder). Exercise works for just about everyone who will do it. I always suggest exercise to my depressive patients. Some people show rather dramatic responses to omega-3 oils (fish oil, flax oil). SAM-E is sometimes effective. Various EEG biofeedback protocols have helped. Cognitive-behavioral & other types of psychotherapy are effective.

There is, in other words, a large armamentorium of tools for treating depression. Unfortunately, the medical establishment prefers to acknowledge only the pharmaceutical approach. Most people with depression to to their family practitioners & get fluoxetine or sertraline.

Incidentally, there's some old, old rat data from before Prozac was approved by the FDA showing that the critters habituate to fluoxetine, at least (and maybe the other SSRIs as well), by decreasing the number of serotonin receptor sites in the synapses, perhaps permanently. Nobody really followed this up in humans.

[flvegan]

7. And ma huang in China, and...

oh, nevermind. No real need to go on and on and on...

[brer cat]

5. Link please...nt

[irislake]

9. I haven't experienced a clinical depression

since 1994 when I chucked my prozac and started to eat lots of fish and to take fish oil. No side effects. Well maybe a few fishy burps from fish oil capsules. Mervielleux!

[catzies]

11. Keep your fish oil caps in the freezer...it works, but I can't explain why

Try it.

[ronnie624]

12. I use flaxseed oil.

It contains the omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids, without the fishy burps.

[Bozita]

14. I take a multi, a fish oil, pair of calciums, and a single aspirin daily

Events post 11/7 have added to my optimism.

Good post!

[Phrogman]

15. Moderate amounts of marijuana works wonders on relieving depression.

Without a doubt.

[DemExpat]

17. This is personal as well along with all the other approaches

because there is no doubt in my mind that marijuana and hashish intake for me in my early 20s exacerbated my depression and anxiety disorder.
My first of many debilitating panic attacks which I suffered from for 15 years occurred while stoned.

I would be very cautious with this herb.

DemEx

[catzies]

31. Clearly it is part of an ongoing multi-herbal course of treatment

:hippie:

[DemExpat]

16. My decades long and unsuccessfully medicated depression

and anxiety disorder have been greatly alleviated in the past 15 years through, firstly, Homeopathy (or Placebo Effect for those skeptical :-)), followed by a lifestyle change including a daily long walk, more conscious choices in my diet, supplements: multi, magnesium/calcium, fish oil, Inositol for occasional sleep troubles, and Valerian/Passionflower for extra anxiety days and events.

I have experienced enormous improvement - long term - after chucking my meds.
I am grateful for meds for crises and for some people who find great benefit with them, but for many, many people I do believe that finding their own personal approach will result in the best relief, also long term.

DemEx

[Blue_Tires]

33. great insights

[blue neen]

19. For me personally, a combination of medication and supplements

has been best so far.

The fish oil doesn't seem to do much, but maybe I haven't taken enough of it. St. John's Wort just made me feel stoned, didn't like it at all.

The B Vitamins seem to be very important in treating depressive illnesses. The best type is sub-lingual, so that the vitamins actually make it into your system.

A good thing that I have found for sleep and just general relaxation is called GABA-Calm. It's from a company called Source Naturals. These also are sub-lingual.

Everybody has different experiences. Vitamins and herbs alone aren't enough to help me, but they do seem to help the medication work and may also reduce some side effects.


:)

[distantearlywarning]

20. I take fish oil daily.

I began taking it after coming across several studies showing that it seemed to improve symptoms of several types of mental illness, including anxiety and depression.

I have suffered from anxiety/panic attacks for a number of years, but have found therapists to be unhelpful and I didn't want to deal with the side effects of medications. But I was having daily mild panic attacks on crowded buses and problems like that, so I really needed to do something.

So I started taking fish oil with every meal. After several weeks, I noticed a profound difference in my anxiety. Although it didn't remove everything, it eased my symptoms to the point where I feel relatively ok on a daily basis. My husband noticed a difference in my attitude, and started taking them also because he suffers from mild depression. He also feels like the fish oil has helped him.

Studies also show that fish oil (in very large quantities) is as much or more efficacious in dealing with bipolar disorder than many of the modern medications.

I would definitely recommend fish oil to anyone suffering from mild anxiety or depression.

[earth mom]

24. Is Fish Oil better than Flaxseed Oil? Or are they the same?

Do you know? TIA! :hi:

[DemExpat]

25. I also tried Flaxseed oil for many months without the same effects

as I get from fish oil. I wanted to have the vegetarian version of these essential oils.

:hi:

DemEx

[earth mom]

29. Thank you!

:hi:

[BluePatriot]

27. Fish oil is great. Sam-e worked a while

I have yummy strawberry flavored fish oil capsules from Nordic Naturals. Sam-e was expensive but w/o any debilitating side effects. I quit taking it for budget reasons as I was "feeling better anyway" and boy, did I crash.

Caution: Sam-e can aggravate undiagnosed bipolar. YMMV.

[Ignis]

28. 5-HTP can be a great help, 100mg 2x daily. (nt)

[BornagainDUer]

30. Liquid calcium has done wonders for me.