33 replies to this topic

[canz]

I've taken 240mg of Ginkgo with no side effects.

Ashwagandha, same brand, I found it quite stabilizing. It made me feel warm and happy and intelligent. I also took 3x that. I do have ADHD, so this may be the reverse-effect phenomenon. It was not that stimulating, but it was rejuvenating. I've taken it mid-day with these effects. When taken before bed, I had no trouble getting to sleep. One thing that prevented the combo from being too sedating (Gotu Kola, Ginkgo, Ashwagandha) was zinc. 12.5mg of zinc gave me my energy back and completed the combo for me. Give it a shot, if you can.

I take Gotu Kola before bed every night. 900mg whole herb. When it kicks in, your head sort of slows down and gets heavy. Takes 10 to 20 minutes. During the day, it prevents the urge to get up and do something else when I'm working.

Thanks for your feedback. I'm going to up my dose a little of the ginko and see where that gets me. I'm also thinking about upping my ashwaghanda, but I'm wondering at what point does it lose effectiveness. I'm looknig for the minimum effective dose. I feel that I may be able to get more out of it so I'm going to up it from 225mg to 550mg if I decide to do so. I may try the gotu kola at night as well, though I'm wondering since I don't have ADHD if it will effect me differently (i.e. speed me up versus slow me down). It doesn't have that effect on me during the day, but then again it could be subtle enough to keep me up at night? I'll have to experiment I supposed.

[LeonardElijah]

Ashwagandha I found a lot more tolerable during the day than Bacopa. Bacopa knocked me out and killed motivation, so I took it at night. Ashwagandha is a lot less sedating. I actually find it a little stimulating in a sort of antidepressant effect: warm, happy, positive, thinking clearer, but also a little relaxed enough to enjoy life.

I take a tablespoon of raw powder of Ash in the morning. It doesn't have the sedating effect that a lower dose used to. I read that is to be expected.

I'm taking my bacopa at night now as well. A tablespoon of powder is equivalent to 6 grams. In India, they will take up to 12 grams. So a tablespoon is ideal as far as I'm concerned.

Take 5-HTP at night before bed. The conversion is L-tryptophan (off the market now due to impurity scares) -> 5-HTP -> seretonin -> melatonin. It is the ulimate conversion to melatonin that puts you to sleep.

If you don't respond to 5-HTP, it's because you have some problem converting it to seretonin. Among other things, you might have a problem converting vitamin B6 to the usable form P5P. There are also other bottlenecks in converting dietary tryptophan to seretonin, but P5P is a common one. A friend of a friend didn't feel any effect from 5-HTP. My first piece of advice was P5P. It didn't help. IMHO, if it doesn't make you sleepy, you aren't converting it appropriately, and you need to keep experimenting to figure out why you have seretonin and melatonin conversion issues. Once you figure it out, you should sleep like a baby.

Instead of L-tyrosine, try phenylalanine. phenylalanine converts to tyrosine as well as PEA, which is itself a stimulating alertness neurotransmitter. I don't know what else phenylalanine converts to, and I would have to look it up again. But getting the full spectrum of alertness neurotransmitters with the precursor to tyrosine might be beneficial.

Edited by LeonardElijah, 16 January 2012 - 12:40 AM.

[nupi]

A table spoon??? How potent (weak?) is that powder?

[gamesguru]

I have tried a pill which contains USDA organic ashwagandha with 3 concentrations of withanolides, 8%, 2%, and 0.2%. It totals like 3 mg per tablet. I have not noticed a difference between taking a tablet and doing 100-200 mg of 3% powder. I'm not as optimistic about ash as I used to be...but it does help with stress and fatigue.