Posted by NoMotic on December 20, 2003, at 12:41:35
In reply to Suggestion: Try the Fish Oil!!!, posted by KellyD on December 18, 2003, at 23:09:13
I agree that fish oil is effective, for me as well. Easily one of the most motivated, energetic, happy times of my life was when I was taking a tablespoon of fish oil and a TBLspoon of cod liver oil last fall. I was also restricting the other fats in my diet, therefore increasing the metabolic conversion of (hopefully) only the fish fats into brain chemicals. At a rough guess that might not be correct, I'd say I took in about 2.5-3.0 grams of EPA and 1.5 - 2.0 grams of DHA per day.
One thing I noticed that was particularly great was the amazing stimulating effects, across the board. If I had caffeine past a certain hour, I wouldn't be able to sleep. Keep in mind that my hypersomnia symptoms would have never allowed caffeine to keep me up in the past at the amounts I was taking in then. So caffeine keeping me awake, alert, and stimulated was a good sign - a sign that something was different.
My sense of clarity and focus was through the roof. It's just a drag though, for several reasons. 1. It's hard to adjust the fats in my diet as precisely as I did during that time period so as to favor the processing of only the fish oil fats. It takes a lot of dietary effort. 2. THe amount of fish oil I was taking in really is a bit pricey, and I can't afford to continuously take it on a daily basis. Nontheless, the differences I observed were certainly not placebo.
I am somewhat convinced that the reason fish oil worked for me is because it lowered the levels of inflammatory chemicals in my body - i think my mental symptoms are largely connected to my immune system. My whole problem started in my senior year of high school when I got "sick" with some mysterious low grade chronic illness. So anyway, lowering levels of cytokines, Tumor necrosis factor, and other immune chemicals can theoretically effect mood if they are raised to begin with - i think this might be what happens when I take fish oil.
poster:NoMotic
thread:291476
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20031218/msgs/291901.html