Best natural supplements for depression. Pharmaicst review what may actually work💊🧠 #MentalHealth
If you’re feeling sad during the holidays and you don’t want to be on a prescription medication, what are some natural options that you can do? I’m either I’m a pharmacist. Let’s talk about it. And with any of these options, be sure to talk to your doctor or pharmacist. So, the most effective that you will see is St. John’s wart. But I’ll be honest, I just don’t like it because it interacts with everything. So, if you don’t take anything, then I guess it’s an okay option to use. Next, we have 5HTP, which may help improve symptoms. Some patients say that it works as well as prescription medication because five hydroxyryptophan gets converted to serotonin in our body. I’ll also discuss with patients acetal lcarnitine. If you go this route, try to do one to four grams a day because those are the doses that have shown to improve mood. And what studies have shown is that it may be better in older patients with these higher amounts. Then if you don’t want to take anything, there’s also acupuncture and usually like mild to moderate depression. Yoga again for short term. With this and like acupuncture, it’s more for just like relaxation and like less stress, but I don’t know. I think I’d be kind of stressed doing that. Also, folic acid, but usually you want to take that with an anti-depressant. Then there’s also lemon balm. Taking by bath may help with symptoms of depression.
31 Comments
If you’re able, ask your doctor for a blood test to see what vitamins you’re deficient in. I was deficient in b & d and taking them helped so much
I I take magnesium glycinate, fish oil, and turmeric supplements. However, it seems rare for practitioners, whether doctors or pharmacists, to mention how long these supplements take to show noticeable results. I am not formally educated in this area, but from the qualified research I have read, supplements often take about 90 days to show any corrective effects.
I think that is one reason people tend to stick with traditional prescription medications. If someone is really struggling, especially with the holidays coming up, it might be better to go on Prozac for a short time to get you through, since it generally starts working within 2 to 3 weeks, with full effects in 6 weeks and is affordable even without insurance.
I also went off Prozac because of complications specific to my other conditions, but stopping it was easy for me. I did not experience withdrawal symptoms and did not need to taper off slowly.
Being a kid again would help
I'm with you on the St John's wort. It interacts with a liver enzyme that helps to clear other drugs from the body. But it often helped in the short term.
SAM-e?
i take 5HTP for sleep and it works amazingly well. I also notice a huge difference in my mood when I don't take it for a couple days
i'm bringing this video to my doctor asap!!!!! I'm taking cymbalta & propranolol but i just got diagnosed with persistent depressive disorder this year despite those medications & other treatments. so when PMDD makes its rounds its really really hard to get back up.
I find Chamomile and Lemon Balm herbal teas can help (i also take prescription meds). The action of sipping a hot tea mindfully is beneficial
I cant thank you enough for this video. ♡
ASK JESUS TO HEAL YOU!
What if you take them all.
Talk therapy helps many people.
Am I correct in the knowledge that folic acid will not help my fellow ADHDers out there, because folic acid doesn't get to our brain, so We need to take L-methylfolate. Am I also correct in stating that with caffeine L-methylfolate will help your ADHD symptoms and without caffeine will help anxiety. Can you make a video on it? Maybe a part two of what to take or something? Thank you in advance If you do!
I use the lights but they don’t do it for me, this will be the first winter on Auvelity . 🤞
Don’t let this pharmacist fool you. St. John’s wort is just fine if you have surgery you might want to stop it a week ahead of time, then continue on as usual after the surgery.
Vitamin D 3 w K2 is great also!
💅🏻 tell us queen
can you take any of these with Mounjaro
Sorry, let me pre-empt my rant, because this "Natural vs Conventional Medicine" is a passion and pet peeve of mine due to misinformation and pervasive dogma that is completely erroneous.
It is not aimed at anyone in particular, just doing an information dump in a semi-passionate way 🙂
When are people going to realize that "Natural" vs conventional medicine is (almost) completely irrelevant because it is ALL just chemicals.
The advantage that conventional medicine has is that it is STANDARDIZED, isolated to what you actually need and thoroughly tested, where as in "Natural" medicine, you get a cocktail of drugs/chemicals on unknown proportions and concentrations!!
Yes, natural can be effective, BUT you are taking a chemical cocktail and natural DOES NOT MEAN SAFER!!
Arsenic, Cyanide, Strychnine, Anthrax, Ricin, Lead, Mercury, Radon, Conotoxin, Botulinum Toxin, delta-hexatoxins (Sydney Funnel web), tetrodotoxin (TTX, Blue-ringed Octopus) are all very natural and very DEADLY. Would you take them JUST because they are natural?
Yes I live in Australia where everything is trying to kill you, but I am a former Clinical Pharmacist with decades of experience.
Sure some of these actually have therapeutic potential, like arsenic as an adjunct in chemotherapy, there is research into conotoxin as a non-opioid analgaesic (pain killer), and digoxin and morphine are natural substances, they are life saving medicine, but the active ingredient is isolated and purified. My point is:
a) Natural does not mean safer or effective.
b) Natural is actually often a cocktail of chemicals that can interact in unpredictable ways. 1 leaf or root = many chemicals, not just 1!!
c) Natural is not standardized so you never know what dose/concentration of any given drug/chemical you are actually taking or the ratios of the cocktail.
d) I also want to point out that many conventional drugs have their origin in nature anyway, ACEI, Digoxin, Paclitaxel, Morphine, Atropine etc.,
e) The difference is conventional medicine, purifies the compound and thoroughly (usually) tests it so the effects are known, the correct dose, frequency, duration etc is also known.
MPharm, Grad. Dip. Clin. Pharm, BSc Neuroscience and Pharmacology
Don't take St. John's Wort if you're on ANY SSRIs or other things already working on your mental state. It interacts with a lot, as said, but it'll be really bad if you're already on something around that.
I'd do massage over acupuncture, honestly. Very relaxing, physically loosens tight muscles, and non-invasive.
I use Lithium Orotate (not the medication lithium) and that helps me. Was on prescription psych meds for years and went off them 9 years ago. I feel 1,000% better now.
Non-prescription medication rarely has any noticeable effects for me, EXCEPT 5-htp. I can not believe how much it helped me.. I will always recommend this ❤
St John's Wort is tricky. It's overly used and not everyone can take it due to its possible side effects and possible worsening of symptoms. Like the wal mart brand of herbal supplements aren't really effective and they don't actually have to meet any testing standard. There are a lot of herbal supplements out there that claim to help. But many aren't from good companies and/or aren't what you actually need. I would definitely recommend getting them from a reputable company that has their own testing standards and will pull harmful products from their shelves (like Douglas Labs or Pure Encapsulations) and finding a practitioner who actually knows what herbal supplements are good for you and your needs like a ND, an acupuncture physician, an Ayurvedic doctor, a functional medicine specialist, etc.
Also the actual acupuncture needles are significantly smaller and thinner than the ones you see in pictures. Photographers use the thicker and longer needles so that they can show up in the pictures. Most needles are the width a hair and they don't hurt. Furthermore, scientific studies by the NIH, the VA, and many other medical journals suggest that acupuncture may have a significant impact on neurotransmitter levels, reducing inflammation, improving hormone levels, reducing stress, reducing pain, improving sleep, improving relaxation, improving cortisol levels, improving thyroid function, and improving mood. As a licensed acupuncture physician who is also dually licensed as a mental health counselor (LMHC), I can speak to the effectiveness of acupuncture and other modalities in my practice for helping with veterans with PTSD, chronically and acutely depressed clients, clients with chronic and acute pain issues, and many others.
I have an integrative psychiatrist I see. I’m on medication prescribed by him, but he’s pretty awesome in that he actively is a part of studies that have done stuff like helped get ketamine/spravato FDA approved, and all other sorts of treatments (including shrooms right now, being studied for, hopefully, future approval). He can do medical marijuana, too, but the usage is SUPER restrictive in my state so unfortunately he hasn’t been able to prescribe it for those of us he feels it could be super beneficial for when not much else seems to be helping.
I’ve had visits where we’ve talked about supplements before (go figure my insurance won’t cover THOSE visits, even if you’re ALSO discussing medication, only covering medication management visits, so they’re pricy but am considering doing those again a couple times a year, maybe).
Certain types of magnesium are some of what he’s recommended. Also a GABA supplement I forgot the name of.. I took those for a while and felt some benefit from it alongside my medication so I don’t know why I eventually stopped taking them..
I’d also add vitamin D3! I’m pretty sure that’s the only thing keeping from completely going off the deep end! I might have to add some of these cause I can’t get my prescriptions.
Video stopped before you finish talking about lemon balm. ☹️
Here me out guys. This may be for someone. I’ve never had depression but I have been/gone through some super serious depression triggering events. Most of my extended fam is gone (buried 6 ft), I’ve lost everything 2 times during 2 historic floods, I’ve flooded 3x and had to temporarily relocate as reconstruction took place, previous one a year ago was w a pregnant wife which extended into the birth of my son (we’re back home now btw), and I’m now in a small financial crunch, heck who isn’t nowadays. With a part-time job and $300 to my name, I’m not sure where my next mortgage nor car payment is coming from. But my wife and I have peace. How? Why? “What’s your secret” one may ask.
I’m being completely serious when I say this. I have faith in a God who is The Creator of everything. He IS real and is watching out for us. Not everyone, but those who believe and put their trust in Him, more specifically, a man named JC (Jesus Christ). Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. There goes another one of “them”. eye roll Like I said, I am being serious and, this maybe not for you, but it is for someone. Yes, lies are lies and church hurt hurts. But that’s cause people suck and we depend on other flawed people and not the direct source, THE truth. He and His word (scriptures/the Bible) are truth. If you go to it, you’ll find your identity, your purpose, your place in this world. For starters, I can guarantee, without a doubt say YOU are His creation and He sees you as His heir. You are His child no matter what you’ve done or gone through. And what wouldn’t a loving parent do for their own child. How do I know that? Because scriptures, which still apply to today, say so. Trust in Jesus, and He will give you a peace like you’ve never known. He cures depression, heals minds, hearts, sicknesses, deseases, and most importantly, souls. There are many other benefits which we will never fully comprehend. Seek Him. He cares. He listens. Because He. Loves…You. 🫵
You forgot one of the best…. Vitamin D-3. During winter, the reason for many getting more depressed is Seasonal Affective Disorder(SAD). With SAD, your body isn’t getting enough sun, and that means your vitamin d production is lowered, causing your symptoms.
Unsure if this has already been mentioned: I had a therapist recommend I take vitamin D for y seasonal affective disorder (SAD) in the fall and winter months or whenever there is less sunlight in the year for you. Helped me a lot. Definitely check with your health care team as too much vitamin D in your system is very bad as it stays in your body longer than some supplements/nutrients. Stay on top of blood work 😊
Is 5htp safe to use with ssris?