Posted by bleauberry on September 8, 2012, at 16:47:16
In reply to Supplements not mixing well with medication?, posted by AlexCanada on September 4, 2012, at 20:40:33
I am fairly familiar with all of the substances you are using. These are my opinions.
Keeper. Resveratrol...is generally calming to the nervous system, strongly mops up a variety of neurotoxins, the benefits of the stuff as so much, this is a keeper. It is highly unlikely to be causing any side effects or to be interacting with the other substances. However, if your resveratrol is from grapes instead of polygonum cupsidatum (japanese knotweed) then you are missing out of most of the good therapeutic value. Switch to a brand such as Source Naturals or Paradise Herbs, be sure it is derived from japanese knotweed not grapes. Resveratrol is a solid keeper, and your dose is very low. It should be that dose or double that dose, three times a day not once a day. Keep in mind, you aren't dealing with maintenance of good health, you are dealing with a therapeutic situation, which dictates a higher dose. I've taken as much as 4X400mg 4 times a day, and doses that high are also recommended by herbalist experts. Right now I take Paradise Herbs version, 2 capsules 3 times per day.
Problematic. Ginkgo, overhyped, bizarre side effects common but not commonly mentioned to us, and benefits not that great when/if it has any at all. I would drop that one.
Problematic. Korean Ginseng, maybe a bit too strong and destabilizing. Anxiety from this one is almost predictable. The only people I've known that can handle it well and get benefit from it are people fully healthy to begin with, just looking for energy or endurance. Sick people can react bizarrely to it. It is too strong and erratic, I would drop it.
Keeper. Rhodiola is a keeper, but dosing is very tricky. Rhodiola is sort of like 3 or 4 different meds, it takes on a different personality at different doses. So the dose has to be carefully customized to each person. Going simply by what it says on the bottle or what someone else says is completely wrong. Even just a 25mg difference can change what it does and how it feels. Generally it is more activating at lower doses, more calming at higher doses, but for some people the opposite happens. Excellent plant, one of the best on the planet, but it takes some work to find the best dose, and even the best time to dose it. For me, breakfast is bad, afternoon is too late, but mid-morning works very well. Someone else, may be different. You have to work with it and experiment with it, in both dose size and timing.
Ritalin and valium, I dunno, I don't see the sense in taking a stimulant and then squashing it with valium. Take less of the stimulant and skip the valium, or vica versa.
MG Glycinate, yeah, this stuff can have paradoxical effects. Sort of like how some people become activated and wired on sleeping meds such as Ambien and others. I would probably drop it just to remove a possible place of confusion. Can always restart it any time if you want.
Musical chairs is needed to identify what the problem substances are. That means, stop the ones suspect to see what happens, then restart them one at a time to see what happens, and in the process identify what is doing what.
Zoloft for melancholic depression. Well, yeah, there are some clinical studies that point it in that direction, but still, the studies are not exactly solidly convincing. Only a little bit better than sugar pills. For melancholic depression, zoloft could work great if coupled with a noradrenergic med such as savella or nortriptyline. But with the ritalin already on board, that could work too. I like the zoloft idea, just not as monotherapy....there has to be a NE component to go with it.
poster:bleauberry
thread:1024910
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20120830/msgs/1025154.html