Posted by saint james on October 29, 1999, at 17:37:11
In reply to Re: prozac,xanax and St.John'Wort, posted by JohnL on October 29, 1999, at 16:11:35
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> > james here....
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> > Since SJW is assumed to be a weak MAOI it would seem using it with any other AD a no no.
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> > JohnL, you seem to be a well read fellow, do you have any comments on this issue ? I would be intrested in what youi have to say.
> >
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> Hi St James. I see a lot of controversial stuff on St Johns. Some studies show it has MAOI activity. Others show that its MAOI is so small it's unachievable or clinically irrelevant in any amount we could possibly humanly dose. So who knows. One study showed its NE uptake inhibition was four times as strong as its serotonin inhibition. Dopamine uptake inhibition too.
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> The saying I once heard that I agree with is that it takes many small streams to make a mighty river. Something like that. I think St Johns has multiple actions, none significant by themselves, that add up synergistically for a total result. Stuff like minimal MAOI, reuptake of all the neurotransmitters, something to do with GABA, something about inhibiting cortisone levels, and other stuff I absolutely don't understand. Not sure anyone really does.
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> All I can say for sure is that I have indeed been taking it with Prozac for months with some benefit and no side effects and no adverse reactions of any kind. I think I would need to double or triple my Prozac dose if I stopped the St Johns. Then I would have all kinds of side effects I don't want.James here....
Take a look at
http://www.la-tierra.com/stjames/411onherbs.htman intresting paper I found, a meta study from the medical point of view of 10 herbs. Most of it bears out what you have said here...you might find the referances useful.
here in the states there is no standard for herbs like there is in Europe, studies have shown that capsule for capsule the amount of active product varies wildly. I always use tinchures because this is a concentrated product, so you get the same active product every time. I think the next big step for herbs is a national standard so one knows each dose unit contains the same amount of actives. In nature the amount of actives is well known to vary plant to plant.
i have seen a few reports of "cheese reaction" to SJW. This makes some sence as the dose of a capsule could be very high, thus making a weak MAOI strong enough to cause this reaction.
I tend to buy herbals that are made in Germany or
using the German Standard. I don't like wildcrafting, we are risking wipeing out some herbs, as goldenseal is endangered. I use herbs grown on farms where multiple strains are grown of the same herb; this get the benifits of wildcraft w/o picking the woods clean.j
poster:saint james
thread:14151
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/19991028/msgs/14185.html