3 replies to this topic

[Puppeteer]

Hey.

My mum's been taking this store-bought herbal concoction antidepressant for a while now - she says it's helped some, but from the outside it's pretty clear that it's only slightly taking the edge off her neurosis, anxiety, depression, etc. issues. What complicates things is she definitely has something of a medicine phobia - she takes a few things but only stuff she finds out about and herself - she's also taking Co Q10 and some blue green algae thing at the moment - but won't see a psychiatrist, won't try nootropics or any of the more effective herbal things I recommend to her, etc. Just thought it'd be useful to get some more informed opinions on the value of this thing she's taking so I can better approach what to suggest she use, whether she ought to replace it, etc.

The product is Swisse "Mood". ingredients:

EACH TABLET CONTAINS:
Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine from pyridoxine hydrochloride) 20.57 mg
Vitamin B12 (cyanocobalamin) 25 mcg
Folic acid 250 mcg
Tyrosine 150 mg
Phenylalanine 50 mg
STANDARDISED EXTRACTS EQUIVALENT TO DRY:
St. John’s Wort 2.25 g (Hypericum perforatum dry flowering herb top, hypericin 1.13 mg)
Siberian Ginseng 150 mg (Eleutherococcus senticosus root, syringaresinol diglucosides 89 mcg)
Ginko 250 mg (Ginkgo biloba leaf, ginkgo flavonglycosides 1.2 mg, ginkgolides & bilobalide 300 mcg)
EXTRACTS EQUIVALENT TO DRY:
Schizandra 150 mg (Schizandra chinensis fruit)

It's a once a day thing, which is odd because AFAIK it's recommend across the board to split SJW into three doses.

Anyhow, it's all stuff that you hear thrown around as useful in mood and such, but are those quantities effective, is having them all packed into one thing a good idea, how decent is the quality going to be when this is something you can pick up at any super market?

Also, it's $25 for a 50 day supply which seems pretty damn steep to me. An estimate of the actual value of all that would be great too.

Thanks guys!

[blood]

I just wanted to comment on a few of the ingredients in the product your mother is taking.

- St John's Wort is problematic - chronic consumption has been tentatively linked to higher rates of cataracts. This has been discussed on longecity - search for some of the threads on St John's Wort. St John's wort is one of the better supported (in terms of research) herbal antidepressants - it does appear to work as a gentle antidepressant. Just not sure if it is safe with respect to eye health.

- Most people are OK on gingko, but some people get a paradoxical/atypical elevation of blood pressure on it, including me.

I take curcumin as a herbal antidepressant. Works for me. There is one (admittedly problematic) human clinical trial showing curcumin is about as effective as prozac.

Edited by blood, 19 November 2013 - 01:58 AM.

[_alex_]

There is a bunch of other herbs that is much better for your issues then the ones in that supplement, look around in the threads/stacks for anxiety/depression. And as blood says, curcumin is great for many things.

[addx]

St Johns Wort is cool.

Cataract feature is uncool although I have read it is only in combination with bright light/sunlight, so should be ok during winter time(which is usually also depression time)

Anyway, I use it on demand maybe a few days per month or less. I don't use it during summer.