St Johns Wort/ RLS dosage

[smilingjane]

Hello team

In response to a study posted a few days ago suggesting the effectiveness of St Johns Wort for some sufferrers of RLS, I have a query.

I have a bottle of SJW as a tincture and am wondering how much I should take to trial it for RLS.? The study mentioned the participants were given 300 gms daily for 3 months.

I started taking it for depression 2 weeks ago and the daily dose is 30 drops, (about a gram or two). The bottle contains 50 gms. If I were to follow the study, I would need 6 x 50 gms bottle daily. It dosnt seam quite right.

Have I misunderstood the study or is it that large amounts need to be consumed for possible efectiveness?

Anybody out there tried this and can report back?

😊

[ChrisColumbus]

Firstly, I believe that study used 300 milligram (300 mg) not 300 gram (300 g) doses. 300 grams at a time would be a very severe overdose!

When I took SJW for anxiety/low mood I took it in tablet form, one a day: these vary in strength, but the last lot I had from Boots each coated tablet contained 425 mg of extract from St. John’s Wort. Others were lower strength, probably 250-300 mg. I've only ever used the tablets (readily available from Boots, Holland & Barrett, Sainsbury etc.)

To be honest, I'm uncertain whether SJW really helped me much with either anxiety or RLS (I had no expectation that it would help RLS at the time, and didn't think about that then - I took SJW on and off over the last 20+ years, and continued to have RLS. Whether it made it slightly better.....). I always thought that it might help with low mood. Would either mood or RLS have been worse if I hadn't taken it....?

I had to stop taking SJW as it is not recommended to take it with various other medications: if you're taking any other drugs, see the Interactions section in the following link

1 from the Mayo clinic in the US:

mayoclinic.org/drugs-supple...

2 And also see this UK advice:

mind.org.uk/information-sup...

[smilingjane in reply to ChrisColumbus]

Hi ChrisColumbusI thought I may have got the dosage wrong - thing is the tincture I have dosnt say what 30 drop equates to!

Thank you for your experience and response.

And for the links.

I am going to try Lithium Salts this week and leave the SJW off for a while.

You never know, I have read promissing although largly anecdotal results of the Lithium. Is it something your aware of?

😊

[ChrisColumbus in reply to smilingjane]

I don't know anything about Lithium from personal experience, but there have been a few posts about it in this forum (use the Search function). There are of course quite a lot of posts about it in the Anxiety and Depression Support group also here on health unlocked.com .Good luck

[smilingjane in reply to ChrisColumbus]

Thanks Chriscolumbus 😊

[SueJohnson in reply to smilingjane]

Lithium is known to make RLS worse in most people.

[smilingjane in reply to SueJohnson]

Is that Lithium Salts Sue or the full blown gp script?

[SueJohnson in reply to smilingjane]

Lithium salts include a number of different ones. Which one are you talking about?

[smilingjane in reply to SueJohnson]

It says on the packet. Lithium Orotate, (5mg elemental Lithium) and the make is Lindens Health and Nutrition.😊

[SueJohnson in reply to smilingjane]

OK. That is probably safe. Let us know how it goes.

[smilingjane in reply to SueJohnson]

Thanks Sue

I will

😊