Posted by Melanie-00 on December 21, 2010, at 22:34:44
In reply to Re: Non-prescription therapy for anxiety (GAD): ideas?, posted by bleauberry on December 21, 2010, at 17:53:34
Hi Bleauberry,
Only problem with just trying stuff is that this could get really expensive really fast. I don't have much of a budget for this stuff. So I'm trying to hedge my bets by looking at the research, as I make my choices about what to try and in what order. Anyway, this is the kind of person I am. Sort of scientific-minded, though not a scientist myself. But I agree that rat studies are not going to tell us anything very useful, but sometimes they are an indicator. Usually rat studies preceed any clinical trials on humans. The clinical trials on humans may turn out totally differently from the rat studies, but that's the starting point.Again, I wanted to say thanks again for all your many suggestions posts/suggestions. It's really great to get your ideas, and as time goes by, I'll probably experiment with more of them. I've been taking a calcium glycinate chelate/magnesium glycinate chelate supplement and rhodiola rosea supplement for a week+ or so now (along with inositol and NAC), and I think it's helping a bit. I broke my own rule by adding in supplements faster than one at a time, so I don't know for sure which one is helping the most. (It's not the inositol, since I was on that one for 2 months before I started the others.)
My anxiety may be linked to trichotillomania (I've suffered from that for decades), which is why I've focused on the inositol and NAC in addition to the more "traditional" alternative/complementary treatments for anxiety.I wish there were more research on botanicals, I think this would be extremely useful to so many people. But most medical researchers just aren't interested. What a shame! So, yes, to a large degree, we do have to go it alone because even if we are research-oriented (as I am), the research just doesn't exist. But when it does exist, it can be a useful guide (not definitive in any way, but a guide, anyway).
It sounds like you are very interested in Chinese medicine, and that is another wonderful medical tradition that certainly deserves attention. I don't in any way discount it, but, frankly, I know almost next to nothing about it, and I don't have a Chinese medical doctor to advise me. It would take me a while to get to the point where I was proficient enough in it to be able to comfortably use it in my own medical decision making process. But having been a patient in the Western biomedical system all my life, and having some basic background in biology, I do feel that I can read a medical journal article and take away something from it that might be useful to me. So that's why I usually go in that direction (versus thinking about herbs from a Chinese medical perspective or some other perspective). Nothing beats out personal experience, though. Except that personal experience may miss out on some of the risks/hazards. For example, an herb may work great for anxiety but be harming your liver without you even knowing it. That's the one area where personal experience alone may not be quite enough to protect you ... Although I think most of these herbs/botanicals are probably extremely low risk at low doses.
Best wishes.
poster:Melanie-00
thread:973355
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20101202/msgs/974250.html