Posted by janejane on March 25, 2010, at 12:20:01
In reply to Re: Supplements for energy/motivation » janejane, posted by morganator on March 24, 2010, at 22:34:17
Yeah, I've read about taking breaks, but I've also seen anecdotal reports of rhodiola pooping out on people who've done that. And I've read of many people who take it continually without a problem, including some (I believe in Siberia) who've apparently taken it every day of their lives.
Most of the recommendations for breaks I've seen seem to be based on the notion that you're just supposed to do that with adaptogens, not with rhodiola per se. The most comprehensive literature I've seen doesn't even bring it up as a concern (this includes a couple of reviews as well a book on rhodiola written by a psychopharmacologist who uses it in his practice as an adjunct to ADs). This is not to say I haven't wondered about tolerance developing, because I have. I just worry about poop out too much to stop taking it.
I do occasionally put flax seed on my salads. From what I've read, it doesn't convert very well (though women apparently do better than men). My feeling is that my needs might just be less than average (especially for EPA), though as I said I would like to confirm this. I'm going to ask my doc about testing when I speak to her next.
I really am a bit of freak in other ways so it wouldn't surprise me if I were atypical in my EFA needs. For example, my serum copper continues too be low despite supplementing (the ironic thing is I asked for the test because I was afraid it was too high), as does my D3 (though to a lesser extent). Yet my B12 was above the normal range when I tested it about a year ago and I didn't take vitamins regularly then so it wasn't from supplementation. I asked for hormone tests recently and I'm hoping that low estrogen will explain the copper thing (as well as other symptoms). We'll see. It's all such a crap shoot trying to figure out these things.
Back to EFAs, I'm actually a bit wary of too much EPA since appears to affect cholesterol (at least in the form of krill and fish). Although this would usually be a benefit for those with bad numbers, my HDL ("good cholesterol") is quite high while my LDL ("bad cholesterol") is a bit on the low side and I'm afraid lowering it further could exacerbate my depression. (One study found that LDL under 100 in women was associated with depression. Other studies seem to have confounding findings, though.) Regardless, I'm going to try to remember to take krill occasionally, at least in weeks when I don't eat a lot of fish.
poster:janejane
thread:940194
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20100322/msgs/940788.html