Posted by med_empowered on August 17, 2005, at 16:52:20
hi! Yeah, Kava kava has a bad rep w/ regards to liver issues, but it seems that most of the problems were limited to "high risk" people. Valerian is more sedating but not as good for anxiety; dosing really has to be individualized, so I'd recommend you go out and get a bottle or two of the standardized extract and starting taking it 1-2 hours before your target bedtime...when I used it, I started at a little less than the dosage recommended on the bottle, and moved up by 1 capsule until I fell asleep. I think I ended up using 3 caps instead of the 2 the directions recommended, but the sleep was awesome. From what I understand, there aren't any *known* problems with the liver or any other organ system, but if you want to take it longer than 3months, you might want to take a break after a couple months, maybe switch over to a conventional med or a different alternative treatment for a bit, and then re-start it. There's no evidence that Valerian is harmful, but taking a break now and then will definitely help reduce any potential harm and help it keep working for you. Melatonin is a natural hormone--your brain produces it, and it is partly responsible for sleep. Recommendations on dosing range from less than 1mg at nite to 3mgs+ at nite...again, this is something that may require a bit of experimentation with dosing. As for replacing Remeron...I would think you could replace Remeron with something else, conventional or alternative, but its best to taper off most meds, so keep that in mind. A friend of mine uses Melatonin along with Trazodone for sleep--apparently, the combo gives her high quality sleep, and it helps keep the doses of trazodone and melatonin at a minimum, which probably reduces side-effects considerably.
poster:med_empowered
thread:541901
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050816/msgs/543110.html