5 replies to this topic

[hanzsolo]

Hi all,

I first of all want to apologize for the long post but wanted to explain everything in detail so hopefully you can help me.
I have been visiting this forum (and others) for awhile but never posted here before.
I really respect all the members here and value your opinion;

A little history about me;

I am 38 years old and have quite a bit of inflammation happening along with autoimmune diseases (ulcerative colitis, rosacea, peridontitis and bleeding gums, issues with my skin, etc).

I am relatively healthy, 5 foot 10, 170 pounds, exercise 3-4x per week, sleep 7-8 hours per night, and try to practice mindfulness and meditate whenever possible. My diet is somewhat restricted due to my colitis so I do not eat many fruits, do not eat much gluten, try to avoid sugar, no dairy, and no fried foods...

I am also a pretty anxious person (GAD) and have ADHD-PI - but take dexedrine for the ADHD, memantine for the tolerance to the dexedrine, and am doing a slow taper off the clonazepam and trying to replace it with natural things such as gaba, l-theanine, etc for the anxiety...

I recently stopped my antidepressant (cipralex/lexapro) as it had too many side effects and I did not feel it was helping much. I also stopped low dose seroquel (25mg) and replaced it with natural stuff for sleep...

I am looking to get off the dexedrine and memantine at some point in the future also, and possibly replace with AOR ortho-adapt, siberian ginseng, rhodiola, a concoction of things, or something else altogether.

Basically I have been self medicating in one form or another since 13 years old (heavy alcohol use, heavy drug use, heavy prescription med use) and over the last couple of years decided to try and slowly get myself off the prescription stuff, stop self medicating, and use natural instead - - - as my body and mind have endured TONS of abuse and I have had enough....

I've been on the regimen below for a little while but am wondering;
* most importantly is it safe
* am I taking too many anti-oxidants
* are there things that should be added/removed/replaced
* what can replace stimulants (in your opinion)

Any help or feedback would be much appreciated

BELOW IS MY DAILY REGIMEN

7:30AM

- Orthocore - Multi Vitamin x2
- Life Extension - Super omega3 700EPA/500DHA
- Life Extension - CoQ10 Super ubiquinol 50mg
- New Chapter - Berry green x2
- Life Extension - Resveratrol 20mg
- Life Extension - EGCG Green Tea and Coffee Extract x1
- Life Extension - PQQ 10mg
- Mezavant 2.4G (for my colitis)
- AOR Ortho Adapt x1 (trial)

9AM
- Dexedine 5mg
- Clonazepam 0.25mg (tapering down and off)

11AM
- Metamucil (5 capsules)

12PM
- Dexedrine 5mg
- Clon 0.25mg (tapering down and off)

3PM
- Dexedrine 2.5mg

4PM
- Metamucil (5 capsules)

5:30PM
- Memantine 10mg
- Dexedrine 5mg
- Clon 0.25mg (tapering down and off)

6:30PM
- Orthocore - Multi Vitamin x2
- Kyolic - Aged garlic extract - 300mg 3:1
- Ultimate flora critical care probiotic x1
- Life Extension - Enhanced berry complete x1
- Life Extension - Triple action cruciferous vegetables x1
- Life Extension - Magnesium L-threonate 144g
- Life Extension - Super omega3 700EPA/500DHA
- AOR Tryfonia - 5-HTP 100mg (I recently stopped cipralex and am replacing with this)
- Natural Factors - PharmaGaba 200mg (for anxiety - to replace the clonazepam)
- New Chapter - Ginger 400mg (for inflammation)
- Life Extension - 5-LOX Boswellia x1 (for inflammation)


9:30PM
- Mellodyn 2 capsules (or am testing other natural concoctions such as AOR ortho-sleep, etc)

Thanks so much and sorry for the long post but I wanted to make sure that I covered everything....

[hanzsolo]

UPDATE

I have stopped the dexedrine and am tapering off the memantine and clonazepam...

Meaning I will only be on natural supplements and herbs...

Any feedback on my regimen would be much appreciated;

* is it safe
* am I taking too many anti-oxidants
* are there things that should be added/removed/replaced
* what can replace stimulants (in your opinion)

Thanks

[hooter]

Drop the CoQ10, it can cause heart problems.

[hippocampus]

I can't answer your question, but curcumin (or turmeric with black pepper and some oil) is good antiinflammatory and antidepressant (in my experience; but it has MAOI properties so you probably shouldn't mix it with 5-HTP and be careful if you mix it with psychopharmaceuticals or similar herbs).

@hooter: can you link me to references or topic where this has been discussed? I thought it was good for the heart (at least in elderly).

Edited by hippocampus, 01 February 2012 - 09:34 PM.

[niner]

* is it safe
* am I taking too many anti-oxidants
* are there things that should be added/removed/replaced
* what can replace stimulants (in your opinion)

No one can guarantee that any particular regimen is safe because we all have different genetics and environments, but I don't see anything that would be a known problem for everyone. I don't think you're taking too many anti-oxidants; most of what you're taking is only coincidentally an anti-oxidant, and not a particularly potent one at that. I don't really see the point of 20mg of resveratrol. Is that a typo? The 144 grams of Mag threonate certainly is; that's 144mg elemental Mg from 2g mag threonate? You probably don't need the ubiquinol, though I don't know of any evidence that it would be harmful at that dose. You might want to get your 25-OH-vitamin D3 level checked, since you aren't using a high bioavailability form of D as far as I know. (there's some in ortho core, but it's dry) I'm not sure what could replace stimulants, other than more stimulants. Exercise would probably help.

[hanzsolo]

@hippocampus and @hooter - thanks a lot, will look into that...

@niner - I realize nobody can guarantee that my regimen is 100% safe and that we all have different genetics and environments, but appreciate your feedback nonetheless.

RE the anti-oxidants very interesting - - yes it's 20mg of resveratrol, not a typo lol. I actually have 100mg capsules also, but decided to only take 20mg due to the other anti-oxidants that I was taking. Do you think the 100mg would be ok ??

RE the mag l-threonate, OOPS. Yes that's correct my bad, that's 144MG of elemental from 2G threonate, correct. Is this a good source of magnesium ??

RE ubiquinol, I was told that it helps with focus, energy, mitochondrial support (but then again I may be getting enough from my other stuff)...

RE vitamin D, will check that out and see

And finally RE stimulants, that's what i was afraid of what could replace stimulants?? More stimulants.....

Thanks again for your time and help