10 Antidepressant Alternatives Proven to Work

re: 10 Antidepressant Alternatives Proven to Work

nowuccas — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 03:01:33 GMT

See www.sjwinfo.org/ and www.hypericum.com/-

Apparenlly many brands don't have standardised hypericin content, or have insufficient hyperforin.

I am currently recommending Jarsin, Perika, and Kira brands only, but would appreciate advice on this, and suggest that Mercola.com either sells, or recommends brands known to be effective, as a community service, and am informed that people who take low doses of 5HTP along with antidepressants experience no interactions, and that the combination is well tolerated, and more effective, but that could be explained by the mere presence of a supplement which is known to be effective.

The question occurred to me whether it would be alright to try a low dose of 5HTP with the wort, because hypericum is thought to act in a similar manner to antidepressants, but increasing the levels of the neurotransmitters serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine across the board, rather than just boosting serotonin levels.

re: 10 Antidepressant Alternatives Proven to Work

backyardbreederssuck — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 19:29:21 GMT

Exercise and wild-caught salmon have brought me from SEVERELY depressed to 90% back to normal. I am no longer suicidal, I have motivation, and my relationship has improved drastically. A week without exercise and I start to feel it again. Placebo effect? I think not.

re: 10 Antidepressant Alternatives Proven to Work

kas_3 — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 20:45:27 GMT

I have been on anti depressants for 20 years because #1 I have sleep apnea and no doctors thought to test me for that. #2 My body had lots of mercury in it from fillings and fish etc. #3 I was allergic to many foods like wheat and did not know it until this last year. Why doctors prescribe an easy pill before testing is beyond me and makes me furious. They didn't test hormone levels. The ONLY thing they tested me for 20 years ago was thryroid and we know how inaccurate those tests are. So I would suggest if you are suffering from depression to check on these big three items before you end up on meds because it is very difficult to get off of them. A safe and effective plan to get off meds is to visit the archives of the withdrawal and recovery yahoo group, where you will find a plethora of material to read.

Another tip that was given is a lack of folate. or the ability of 50% of the population to absorb enough folate level. You can do this through a product called Deplin. If you are on any kinds of seizure meds, you will be lacking folate and may become depressed. The doctors never told me that either. Try this first before anti-depressant medication. It may help and it may not but it can't hurt you.

Just my 2 cents but I hope this helps someone out there in cyberland.

Peace

re: 10 Antidepressant Alternatives Proven to Work

Elizabeth Hensley — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 06:03:20 GMT

I have used ALL the things recommended above plus the EFT Dr. Mercola recommends, + t4 & t3 thyroid meds, melatonin, prayer, & I managed to get help for poor adrenals too. Plus I have used & still use many other treatments including getting all the help I can for my complex sleep apnea & staying away from everything I possibly can that I am allergic or intolerant too. I would do exercise but I am just too exhausted to do very much. Guess what! I still need antidepressants! But they work PRETTY WELL! And if I had been on them instead of trying only "natural treatments" for 10 years I might have succeeded in graduating from college instead of giving up & dropping out. Natural treatments help but they are not the complete answer for some of us. Dr. Mercola is right about many things and we should believe him most of the time when he says something helps but when folks say something doesn't help we need to take that with a grain or 2 of salt. Same for standard medicine. If they say something helps it might, but when they say something won't help don't be so sure until you have tried it. Why can't everybody get together and admit no one knows everything? But when someone has a hammer every problem looks like a nail to them. Not every antidepressant works for every person. if one does not work try another. I use a very sedating one. Someone else might benefit from one that wakes them up. (By the way do not use Prozac before bedtime like is recommended because it will NOT help you sleep). But the one I do, does help sleep very much. It is the only one that does not lower REM sleep & only brand name works. The generic is worthless. Many of the studies that show antidepressants do not work were done with inferior generics. The government lets the generic companies claim their versions have just as much of the active medication when they really have only 80 percent & different fillers than the brand name can cause problems in some people. Don't you just love the FDA? :(

re: 10 Antidepressant Alternatives Proven to Work

paragonx — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 05:45:47 GMT

Cripes, he sounds like Tom Cruise: Exercise and vitamins are the answer! Sorry, been there, done that. I can barely muster enough energy to get out of bed much less exercise. Some antidepresants do work. If I am not on a mood stabilizer, I go into a depressive funk. The stabilizer at least brings me up to a 5 (1-10 scale) so I can contemplate things like exercise and meditation.

I supsect, well I know, that many 'experts' on depression have never experienced a serious bout or chronic depression in their whole lives.

Take antidepressants if they work for you. Don't be a sheep follwoing this herd..

re: 10 Antidepressant Alternatives Proven to Work

Gary Burgess — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 04:06:41 GMT

Depression problems are often effectively addressed by Dr. Bob Marshall of Round Rock TX. Marshall is an internationally trained biochemist, is past pres. of the Int'l and Amer. Assn of Clinical Nutritionists and he has worked with more than 50,000 patients over the past 35 yrs. using alt.hlth techniques. He reports that in Germany, people diagnosed with depression problems can not by law take drugs of any kind until they have undergone a 21 day (minimum) trial on a very popular natural metholated B vitamin complex. This, he says has yielded an 85% lasting relief to the problem. Marshall is at www.prlabs.cc and he has this product available. I have been a student of his brilliance for more than 10 yrs. Gary Burgess

re: 10 Antidepressant Alternatives Proven to Work

Wendi — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 20:07:41 GMT

Just skimming through the comments I didn't see much on hypothyroidism. It would be really curious to me to find out how many people that are on antidepressants are also on synthetic T4 medications or have undiagnosed hypothyroidism. For info about this I have found enormous value in the website www.stopthethyroidmadness.com It is more than worth your time to check it out! I have no interest in the site it has just helped me out more than I can express in words!

re: 10 Antidepressant Alternatives Proven to Work

Keikukaren — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 16:52:11 GMT

Holy Basil is a supplement that is used to "calm, uplift, and balance". It certainly can help with dealing with stress, anyway. It's been used for years in Ayurvedic medicine, they call it Tulsi.

re: 10 Antidepressant Alternatives Proven to Work

sydcixel — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:53:40 GMT

Here's the explanation for the cause of my depression, and you've probably never heard of it before: grape juice.

I was depressed for ten years beginning in my mid-twenties. As I started looking for answers everywhere, I came across an article that stated that grape juice contains a sugar that causes depression. At first, I did not believe it. However, I gave it a try. The first thing that I did was avoid grape juice, and found, over the next few days that my state of emotional health improved. I then conducted an "experiment" - perhaps with greater risk than I should have accepted - in which I drank approximately a litre of grape juice from frozen concentrate within a short period of time. The next day was one of the darkest in my life, and I had difficulty remembering that an experiment was being conducted and that I had found the explanation that I had been longing for.

For the last 15 years, I have rarely touched grape juice - and then only in small quantites - and the depression has not returned.

re: 10 Antidepressant Alternatives Proven to Work

jmtd — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 05:30:18 GMT

I have suffered from depression for many years, but I didn't know it. I thought that was just the way things were. I know better now. I discovered myself that physical exercise made me feel better. But now I have a grocery list of auto immune diseases and can no longer move like I want too. That in it's self is very depressing. Medication doesn't work for me. So I do things that make me happy. I surround myself with positiveness and keep away from negitiveness. Music, jokes, sunshine, puzzles, helping others (this can be tricky to keep positive), pray, singing is very good - you must look up to sing and it fills your lungs with air and makes you smile. This is hard to do everyday but you must be committed to doing something joyful for yourself everyday and things will get better. You must plan it until it becomes routine.

re: 10 Antidepressant Alternatives Proven to Work

metallic — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 05:07:41 GMT

The most potent mood modulator is mercury. Mercury and depression go hand in hand with significant amounts of research to support it.

If you don't chelate the mercury (and lead) from the body then you can take st. John's Wort until the purple cows come home and it still won't deal with the root problem.

Clay baths and internal clay I would say are the most potent ways of getting mercury out of the body. I would also take a systemic heavy metal remover like a good zeolite.

www.tuberose.com/Mercury_and_the_Heart.html

Mercury and Heart stress and damage:

www.sciencedaily.com/.../020429073754.htm

www.tuberose.com/Mercury_and_the_Heart.html

linkinghub.elsevier.com/.../S0021915099002725

Mercury and Lyme disease:

www.chroniclymedisease.com/mercury-and-lyme-disease

autism and Mercury:

video.google.com/videosearch

**note* one does not have to be manifesting symptoms of autism to be mercury toxic. It can influence the body in numerous ways, oxidative damage to blood vessels (increasing risk of stroke or heart attack), immune suppression (deactivation of white blood cells), central and peripheral nervous system damage etc.

re: 10 Antidepressant Alternatives Proven to Work

size8jeans — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 00:01:27 GMT

Nothing but medication could help me and it's given me my life back. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I would have killed myself so anti-depressant medications have literally saved my life. I lost 19 years of my life to this illness and I refuse to lose any more time.

re: 10 Antidepressant Alternatives Proven to Work

grannylove — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 22:31:51 GMT

Mariehelm is so right about having energy to get the exercise you need when you are depressed. It is almost impossible! The thing is to be as preventative as possible, use the other methods to feel better, find any supplement(s) and or techniques that work for you and then eventually get into as much activity as you can. Depression is very complex and very unique for each person. What works great for one person doesn't work at all for another. The things that are universally helpful though are those 5 things I listed earlier and that Dr. Mercola mentioned; sun,exercise, proper diet, sleep and some one to listen to you. It is so important to be diligent in your health and keep trying to find the combination of things that help you to feel better. Managing Stress is a huge thing as well. Depression is one of the major stress related illnesses. 85-90% of all people who die by suicide are known to suffer with depression or related mental illness, so depression is like cancer, it has the potential to be fatal. Recognising it early and being diligent in your self care and healthy lifestyle choices will increase your chances for a happy balanced life. If you are at risk for depression, you need to manage it like any other chronic illness.

There is another alternative choice for people suffering with Bipolar disorder that may work for you.. go to www.truehope.com I've some friends who have literally been saved by this supplement, but there is controversy around it too, so educate yourself first before making any decisions.

re: 10 Antidepressant Alternatives Proven to Work

grannylove — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 22:01:49 GMT

I work for a Suicide Prevention Resource Centre in Alberta Canada. I am the public Education Coordinator and speak to many people (mostly youth) each year on how to recognise depression and ideas about how to treat it and how to help a friend. This article (as always) is awesome. I always say there are 5 things a person needs to be mentally healthy, 1-Sunshine, 2-Whole natural food in a well balanced diet, 3-Exercise, Exercise, Exercise, 4- good restful sleep, 5- at least one person to listen to you. I have printed and book marked this article as it validates and gives credibility to what I have known for some time and gives me some extra background information I can use in this role and as a Health Coach. Thanks Dr. Mercola.

One little thing....Politically correct language, as a survivor of suicide (one who lost a daughter to depression) I should mention that we do not use the term "commit" when we refer to suicide. It implies an illegal act like committing murder. We say "died by suicide":, or "completed suicide". Thanks!

re: 10 Antidepressant Alternatives Proven to Work

ThinkingMF — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 19:19:41 GMT

It is important to keep in mind that depression it is not a disease in the sense that diabetes is a disease. One is physiological and the other is metaphysical. Indeed, depression can lead to physical sickness but it is not in and of itself a sickness. The sooner this is realized the sooner people will stop being deceived into treating the ethereal/mental with toxic anti-depressants. Mercola's mentioning of exercise and light therapy cannot be stressed enough. Something I also find helpful is to avoid being too ruminative or self-absorbed. This takes effort and self-denial, which many frown upon. Either way, anti-depressants are not the answer.