Posted by bleauberry on October 6, 2007, at 9:36:47
In reply to Question for tealady/whoever - how much mag/calciu, posted by DJJohnson on October 3, 2007, at 6:20:07
The supplements for anxiety and/or OCD require trial and error. Each person's metabolism, logjams in metabolism, and biochemical faults, are uniquely different.
That being said, some people find a balanced ratio of magnesium to calcium best, while others find they need twice as much calcium as magnesium. Magnesium in powder form can immediately calm things down. For some strange reason my body holds on to magnesium, so I get more than enough in eating. Any extra makes me quite lethargic and depressed.
Other supplements you should put on your trial list:
Taurine
GABA
Inositol
5HTP
Tryptophan
B3 in the Niacinimide formAnd though it doesn't make sense on paper, a minority of people find the stimulatory supplements calm them down better than anything else. Stuff like tyrosine or DLPA. So if all the known calming things don't work, go against the grain and try a totally different angle that does not appear to make sense at first.
A handful of herbs are quite useful. Ones to try are:
Passionflower
Lemon Balm
Valerian
Skullcap
Kava Kava
Gotu Kola
Ginkgo BilobaAnd of course, it would be negligent to not mention St Johns Wort. I would recommend the Kira brand. That is the most common one used in clinical trials. It usually has a calming feel to it. Another clinical one is Perika, though it has more reports of people being overstimulated. Sometimes the cheap brands work better. With SJW it is important to start with a top brand, give it minimum 6 weeks, 12 weeks is better, and if it falls short try a different brand instead of giving up on it. The different brands have different feels to them. SJW is longterm trial, so in the meantime hopefully there is another rapid acting supplement that you will find helpful.
Ginkgo is not generally viewed as anti-anxiety or anti-OCD, but it has been shown in both animal trials and anecdotal reports to have anti-anxiety effects to it. And significant antidepressant effects for some people. Too high of a dose can cause the opposite effect restlessness.
With all of the above supplements or herbs, sample the supplements first, one at a time, with 1/4 t 1/2 the starting dose. If no effect, increase. After you have made a judgement in 2 or 3 days, do the next supplement. The good thing about these supplements is that their effects can be felt and judged very quickly, usually in hours or days. Then you can mix and match your favorite ones in a customized way that suits your body's needs. You'll know that by how you feel.
While St Johns Wort typically takes weeks or months to work, many people find it works in a few days or a couple weeks. As with antidepressant drugs, it sometimes increases anxiety and insomnia at first. But that is a minority of people, compared to SSRIs that seem to do it in a majority of people.
The other herbs act fast, like within minutes or hours.
No matter what you do, ignore the directions on the label. Start real low, and come to your own dose depending on how you feel. Generally, increase the dose as you need more of an effect or as long as there are no side effects giving you trouble. Nobody could possibly know how much or how little of something you need to correct your biological flaw when they don't even know you or what your flaw is.
If something on the above lists did not help you immensely I would be shocked. You might find one or two to even be completely curative. In a worst case not-likely scenario if they all failed miserably, well, that is a clue that the underlying biological flaw is somewhere you haven't looked. Something other than serotonin, norepinephrine, dopamine, benzo circuits, magnesium, calcium. In that case, you would want to look for hidden food allergies, excess copper as seen in a serum sample, or an intestinal condition such as candida or gluten intolerance, all of which wreak havoc on glands and the brain. Also very useful is an adrenal test, which involves taking 4 saliva samples in a 24 hour period. If your cortisol is too low, too high, or fluctuating wildly, you will be in a much better position to pinpoint which supplements or herbs would be better than others.
As always, I have to point out, if you have silver fillings in your teeth, you just found the problem. Hopefully you don't.
poster:bleauberry
thread:786636
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20070923/msgs/787232.html