Posted by LOOPS on April 18, 2005, at 11:37:22
In reply to Re: Supplements for anxiety??? » LOOPS, posted by KaraS on April 17, 2005, at 16:56:20
Hi -
I'm presently taking 3 caps /day of Solgar's Ashwagandha, but I've also got some liquid from a while back which I'll be using up too. Ashwagandha is an odd herb, as it is both relaxing and mildly energy-giving. I always try to include an adaptogen or two in my regimen as they always have a positive effect on me, and over a long period of time too. Note Ashwagandha has never been great for sleep for me so I don't use it for that.
The fish oil - I ordered recently some of Source Natural's 'Arctic Pure EPA', which has 500mg EPA and 90mg DHA per capsule. I'm not sure why they bragg about it being from the Arctic - as the Antarctic is the cleanest place for fish - they probably think their customers won't remember the difference! The place I'm ordering it from, it works out a lot cheaper than Omegabrite (which I haven't tried) - and you get much the same deal in terms of strength.
Right now I'm making it a bit complicated mixing up different brands of fish oil - I take
1 cap SN EPA (500 epa/90 dha)
1 cap NOW double concentrated fish oil (360epa/240dha)
1 cap GNC bogstandard strength (180/120)I do this 3 times a day. I also take 500mg vit C 4-5 times a day, and tried some natural vitamin E caps, but found I started to break out in acne with this (found this before as well) - so rely on the smallish amount of vit E in the GNC brand to do the job (other brands don't state how much vit E is in there with the fish oil).
I would like to see more evidence in studies that EPA is the way to go, and DHA doesn't matter too much in terms of managing mood and anxiety/depression. I would take 6 of the high EPA caps and be done, but that works out quite expensive (120 high epa caps costs me $30), and I have a backlog of other brands like the NOW caps, and also I have the Natural Factors (400/200) to use up as well in the future. Also the first time I tried the high EPA caps, I took 2 and nothing else and felt quite a strong lift in mood (but not in a hyper way).
This may confirm the idea that the DHA takes away from some of the antidepressant effect of EPA - but who knows for sure?? I do know however, that when I started taking a brand that had equal amounts of DHA and EPA, both my anxiety and depression returned with a vengeance.
I read on one site that for bipolar it might be important to get a balance of EPA/DHA, but still with more EPA than DHA. I have not been diagnosed with bipolar (never bring it up with my doc), but I get very strong cyclical moods, so obviously need mood-balancing supplements. So for now I'll take a mix of EPA/DHA.
So this brings me to about 5g total omega 3 a day. I would also say my eczema has cleared up more since starting the high EPA caps, but I have also presently given up dairy and eggs which has also made a difference.
One other thing I take on and off and I am presently back on is lithium orotate. I take 2 tabs of this a day. I don't mix it with 5htp - I once tried this and got extremely monged out and antisocial. Alone with the fish oil it is working great though for extra mood balancing and concentration. I tend to have a problem with anger and flipping out so this is useful for me.
If the fish oil doesn't cut it for anxiety (and I still have a few bad days), I'll take some borage oil or evening primrose oil and this really settles me down.
Hey, one more thing - since taking all this fish oil, my scrabble scores have soared! It's odd, because it doesn't feel like it's 'stimulating' my mind, but now I am beating my husband every night (at scrabble that is!), which he is not very happy about. Now he of course is pinching my fish oil in order to catch up.
One last (really) thing - I have cut down on the other fats in my diet and this seems to be effective as well.
Loops
poster:LOOPS
thread:483446
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20050414/msgs/485897.html