I know Humanbean is reading The Mood Cure, and I am wading through The Diet Cure. I wondered if anyone has tried her regime?
I am a bit wary, having tried so many things over the years that did little or nothing for me. But on the other hand, as always, its a very convincing argument. I'm just a sucker for an american health book! Mind you, I didn't do the Hay diet, or the Atkins diet either.
I have a fifty year history of depression (not all the time, thank goodness!)and have always been rather low energy, long before my thyroid threw in the towel, AND I am a sugar addict. I haven't made all that many attempts at dieting, and life has been only middling stressful, but I never coped all that well with what life threw at me, while others seemed to sail through. But I can tick most of her boxes for most of the issues she lists.
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Ruthi
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I haven't started The Mood Cure yet. I found a big collection of classic science fiction stories in Kindle format for 74p on Amazon. Much more enjoyable than reading serious stuff!
But your description of your life and circumstances makes me think - Twins!
Lovely, my Sci Fi addiction goes back even further than the depression! In fact in my darkest teenage days I used to escape into those yellow library books!
And I am off to France for a while, so this can be light reading when hubby's snoring keeps me awake!
To be honest, one way and another I am no longer unhappy. But I do have a huge problem getting my arse in gear, even when it's stuff I really want to do.
And I spend far too much time in displacement activities. It's far too easy to blame myself, but it does feel as if it's totally out of my control.
Thank you Bean, that symptom list in the first article has me down to a T. I have Tyrosine coming from Amazon tomorrow. I wanted to try GABA too but not available in the UK.
Since I found out about dopamine and have (briefly) followed it up I have found myself reading about nootropics. The list of (legal) supplements that people take is a lot longer than I had ever been aware of before.
"Nootropics (pronunciation: /noʊ.əˈtrɒpᵻks/ noh-ə-TROP-iks)—also called smart drugs and cognitive enhancers—are drugs, supplements, or other substances that improve cognitive function, particularly executive functions, memory, creativity, or motivation, in healthy individuals."
Oh yes, of course, didn't think to look at them. They are a bit slow and you have to put together a huge order to get free shipping, but I have used them before.
The first video talks about GABA and dopamine, etc. I tried to have a look at his web site - Hashimoto's Healing.com - but you have to be a member to access the interesting videos.
Mmm, yes, I watched the first one. It all comes down to the same thing - I have bu**ered my health and my brain by eating gluten even though I knew it caused problems.
OK, a quick google suggests that there is a thing called a DAT test which measures how much dopamine is being made. Its used to diagnose Parkinson's. However, it would appear that there is a huge variation in what is 'normal' (where have I heard that before?) so I doubt if the results would be meaningful, given that a PD diagnosis requires dopamine levels to drop to 20%. The test requires injection of radioactive isotopes and brain scanning.
I think we are just going to have to see if any of the supplements make a noticeable difference.
Thanks, Ruthi. I imagine doctors are horrified when they realise how willing people are to experiment on themselves with all sorts of supplements, but from my own point of view it has helped me enormously. Good luck.
Well a) we always imagine supplements are harmless and b) some of us are pretty desperate! When faced with a minor risk (except to the bank account) with the promise of marvellous improvements who wouldn't experiment?
Nothing particularly avant-garde. I take lots of ordinary vitamins and minerals. But on top of that I also take :
L-Glutamine powder (a heaped teaspoon in water, twice a day) which helps reduce gut pain which doctors can't find a reason for.
5-HTP for depression and it also helps me sleep.
Rhodiola Rosea soon after I wake up which gives me a bit more energy and makes me feel mentally more alert.
Garlic capsules which might help to lower the risk of blood clots. A family history of heart attacks makes me paranoid about this now.
NAC (N-Acetylcysteine) taken only when necessary when my lungs feel a bit congested. I was a very heavy smoker for a very long time. I'm now an ex-smoker but the damage I've caused myself means I get congested quite often and I have difficulty clearing it out. (Disgusting, I know, but I can't turn the clock back.)
I think doctors need to be inured to desperation or they won't ever sleep! And its easier to blame the patient, or dismiss their desperation than admit to it.
I choose to believe they have the best of motives, at least to start with. Which leads me to the inevitable conclusion that they become morally bankrupt if they choose to stay in the system. When you see what happens otherwise to the likes of Doctors Skinner, Peatfield, Chandy etc it's understandable, but not forgivable.
Right, I have a plan. I already have L-glutamine after Bean mentioned it a few days ago. I didn't think it was doing much for my sugar cravings, but that is because I was taking it with food. Here's hoping its more effective if I take it between meals.
I have L-Tyrosine and Tryptophan arriving courtesy of Amazon Prime tomorrow.
Tuesday morning at silly o'clock we are off to my daughter in France so that will give me a chance to read the book again, and evaluate whether these things are making a difference, although I guess the real test will come when we are home again in our normal environment.
And I am about to order GABA, my first reading of the book suggests that this is going to be the most significant for me.
Good luck. I do hope something helps you. I'm sure you've already thought of this, but it would be worth staggering your introduction of these things so that you have some idea what helps and what doesn't.
I had thought of it, but from my reading of Julia Ross, there should be results almost immediately. So I was thinking 3 or 4 days for each introduction. And when I get home I'll stop and restart each one at least once more. I find that I often don't notice things the first time round.
So today and yesterday I took the L-glutamine away from food as it should be and I have lost my appetite! Had a decent lunch both days, and then didn't want any more. Never mind sugar, this is amazing! Surely I'm not going to become a normal eater just like that?
Well, another couple of weeks and I thought I should give you all an update.
L-glutamine
It does seem to help somewhat with appetite and sugar cravings. But its not instant, and not total - I still need quite a lot of self-control. But that may improve with time.
Tryptophan
This really does seem to be helping me sleep better. I have woken in the night since childhood but this seems to be happening later, and I get back to sleep more easily most of the time. Mind you, when something truly stressful happened it did nothing to keep me asleep.
Tyrosine
The jury is out on this one. Its supposed to increase concentration and motivation, and I really haven't seen a change as yet. But I haven't been taking it long, so maybe I need to be patient.
I'm glad you are getting benefit from at least some of your experiments.
I took Tyrosine last year for a little while, and took it in the morning. It gave me a cracking headache so I stopped.
I decided to give it another go fairly recently but changed to taking it at bedtime. I am getting more out of it taking it at bedtime, and headaches haven't been an issue. I take it with my 5-HTP just before getting into bed. I found a suggestion somewhere that 50mg of 5-HTP and 500mcg of Tyrosine should be taken together, so that is what I'm trying.
Since you are taking tryptophan you might like this diagram :
Going down the left hand side of the diagram you can see the relationship between several substances related to sleep and/or depression.
Tryptophan converts into 5-HTP which converts into serotonin which converts into "something I'm not familiar with" which converts into melatonin.
Going down the other path on that diagram, tryptophan ends up finally being converted into niacin. I've always wondered if it caused a niacin flush. Have you had any face flushing?
I take the tyrosine before breakfast, mid morning and mid afternoon. No headache, no flushing either. No nothing if I am honest. Well, I have a whole pot, so no harm in taking it till I run out.
This amino acid regime is fairly complex, with each acid being taken up to four times a day. But its only for 3 months, after that you should be reset, and good diet should produce all you need. We shall see, its certainly not a way of life for the long term!
I have taken Rhodiola before and that did have some effect. To be honest, the thing that helps most is my Lumie clock, so I have to work out how to change the time on it!
OK, so my first conclusion is that Glutamine definitely helps with sugar cravings, which are now sufficiently weak that most of the time I can resist without any real problem. If I forget a dose its a different matter, especially if its my mid afternoon dose, because my peak sugar craving starts just after 4.00pm. Glutamine also seems to blunt the appetite - and makes me feel full sooner so I am less likely to eat too much. While in France I was eating too much in the way of carbs - I wasn't really in control of what I ate, and that masked the effect to some extent. But now I am home and cooking I am beginning to lose some weight without trying. I'm not cooking anything different to before, but I am, of course, not hitting the sugar at 4.00pm!
I would strongly recommend reading the book, and trying Glutamine if you suffer from sugar cravings and other methods haven't really helped. The timing of the doses is critical and a bit of a pain, but at least theoretically its only for three months.
I began to notice strange sharp (and fortunately fleeting) pains, and some joint pain which was bad enough to make me worry about the cause and so I stopped the two most recent additions - Tryptophan and Tyrosine. The pains went away. I have really noticed the difference that the lack of Tryptophan has made to my sleep. I have come across some articles on how its not entirely benign, but most of the research has been on huge overdoses, so I plan to restart and see if the pains come back. Tyrosine didn't seem to make all that much difference.
And my GABA arrived, but so far no obvious change.
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