- Hi, everyone, in today's video
we are going to be sharing some potential vitamins
or supplements that could help in treating schizophrenia.
Welcome back to the channel.
My name is Lauren, and I live with schizoaffective disorder.
I make videos about my experiences with this,
as well as provide educational content
on both schizophrenia spectrum illnesses
and mental health in general.
If you'd like to see more,
make sure to subscribe to our channel.
If you're interested in helping support us
in making this educational content,
you can support us with a monthly donation through Patreon.
The link is in the description below.
In addition to helping us, when you become a patron,
you also gain access to our online peer support community.
It is a growing peer support server
offering support in various ways,
including multiple weekly peer support groups.
If this is of interest to you,
make sure to check out the link to our Patreon page.
All right, so there are a few reasons
why it may be of interest
to learn about potentially helpful supplements
in treating schizophrenia.
Current medications used in treating schizophrenia
don't always eliminate all symptoms for many people.
They also are typically quite bad
at treating negative symptoms.
There is evidence
that the supplements we're going to talk about
help in reducing symptoms, including negative symptoms.
It makes sense that you may want
to supplement your medication regimen
with an extra layer of defense, these supplements.
I've also personally grown a little leery of the prospect
of being on high doses of psychiatric medications,
particularly antipsychotics for prolonged its of time.
My mentality behind exploring more natural supplements
is that of aiming to reduce my symptoms
or manage them to a point where I may not need to be
on as high of a dose of psychiatric meds.
Now, before we get into this, I want to make it clear
that we are in no way suggesting
to replace your medications with these supplements.
It is a really good idea to discuss
what adding these supplements to your regimen may entail
with your psychiatrist before you make any changes.
Now, before I get into the specific supplements,
I want to thank BetterHelp for sponsoring this video.
Is there something interfering with your happiness
or is preventing you from achieving your goals?
Life is complicated, and I know
that therapy has really helped me to sort everything out.
BetterHelp will assess your needs
and match you with your own licensed professional therapist.
You can start communicating with them within 48 hours.
BetterHelp has over 20,000 therapists
with a broad range of expertise
that may not be locally available in many areas.
You can log in and message with your therapist at any time.
You can also schedule weekly video or phone sessions, too.
It important to know that it's not a crisis line,
and it's not self-help.
It is professional therapy done securely online,
and the service is available for clients worldwide.
BetterHelp is committed
to facilitating great therapeutic matches.
So if you aren't feeling your initial therapist
is the best fit, they make it easy and free
to change therapists if needed.
It's more affordable than traditional offline therapy,
and there is also financial aid available.
BetterHelp wants you to start living a happier life today.
Visit betterhelp.com/livingwell.
That's better H-E-L-P,
and join the over 2 million people
working on their mental health
with the help of an experienced professional.
And a special offer
for Living Well with Schizophrenia viewers,
get 10% off your first month at betterhelp.com/livingwell.
Okay, now let's dive back into our list of supplements
for treating schizophrenia.
The first one I want to talk about is omega-3 fatty acids.
A review of eight different studies
found that the this one supplement led to a drop
of about 25% in positive symptoms
for people living with schizophrenia,
positive symptoms meaning symptoms
such as hallucinations and delusions.
And then perhaps more importantly,
because this is a limitation of current psychiatric meds,
it led to a drop of about 25% in negative symptoms as well,
negative symptoms being symptoms
such as with withdrawal, flat affect, avolition, et cetera.
There's also the factor of people living with schizophrenia
having a higher risk of heart disease.
A daily omega-3 supplement is known to help
with cardiovascular health, too.
The American Psychiatric Association recommends
an omega-3 supplement with both EPA and DHA
and taking about a gram a day.
The next supple I wanna talk about are B vitamins.
A review of over 800 patients living with schizophrenia
found that those who took high dose of B vitamins
like B6, B8 and B12 in conjunction with their medications
had significantly reduced symptoms of schizophrenia
compared with those who took medications alone.
B vitamins have been found to be the most helpful
when people start taking them early on in their illness.
Some individuals who were found to process folate,
which is vitamin B9, better due to their genetics
experienced a bigger drop in negative symptoms
when they took B vitamins, too.
But no matter your genes, a certain type of folate,
which is L-methylfolate,
appears to lower negative symptoms universally.
MRI scans have shown that this supplement
causes changes in the medial orbital frontal cortex,
which is the part of the brain
that is linked to negative symptoms of schizophrenia.
It is recommended to take two milligrams of folic acid
or 15 milligrams of L-methylfolate every day.
Folic acid is less expensive, though,
so it's a good thing to try first.
Probiotics are the next supplement I want to talk about.
Probiotics are good bacteria
that live in your digestive tract and keep it all healthy.
These bacteria help you more effectively absorb nutrients
such as vitamins and minerals from food,
which results in healthier brain membranes.
A study from John Hopkins also found
that probiotics help reduce hallucinations
and delusions in some people living schizophrenia.
One of the ways they manage this
is by reducing levels of Candida albicans,
a type of fungus that causes yeast infections,
and which is found in higher levels
in people living with schizophrenia.
According to a 2019 study, people living with schizophrenia
who took probiotics for 12 weeks,
in addition to high doses of vitamin D,
reported large improvements in their schizophrenia symptoms.
So vitamin D is the next supplement
we are going to talk about.
Vitamin D has been found to potentially be protective
among those vulnerable to psychosis.
A large study found that people
who don't get enough vitamin D
were more than twice as likely to have schizophrenia
as those who have higher levels.
This may just be a correlation due to elements
such as people with schizophrenia
being more likely to stay indoors more,
but the relationship between vitamin D
and schizophrenia is currently being further studied.
Research has also shown that babies born
with low vitamin D levels have a 44% higher risk
of getting schizophrenia later in life.
This is why it has been suggested
that regular vitamin D supplements can reduce the risk
of developing schizophrenia or psychosis.
If you are living with schizophrenia,
it is likely that you are taking some type
of antipsychotic medication.
These meds can have many side effects,
including tardive dyskinesia.
We have a video that goes more in depth
into tardive dyskinesia, or TD,
which you can check out here,
but vitamin E has been found to protect against TD.
However, there is no good evidence
that it can help treat the condition
once it has already begun.
Issues like insomnia are also often something
people living with schizophrenia struggle with.
Melatonin is a supplement that is recommended
for sleep regulation.
Melatonin is a hormone your brain makes
that helps to regulate your sleep cycle.
It has also been found to prevent some side effects
from medications used to treat schizophrenia,
such as weight gain.
It is recommended to take one to three milligrams
two hours before bedtime.
All right, so hopefully this video has been helpful
in sharing some of the most current findings
about complementing your medication regimen
with natural supplements in treating schizophrenia.
Again, we definitely recommend
talking with your psychiatrist or doctor
before making any changes to your daily regimen.
I have started to incorporate more supplements
into my own regimen
and have had some positive results so far.
If you'd like to see more videos from us like this one,
make sure to subscribe.
Also just a reminder that if you'd like to help support us
in creating this content,
and if you'd like to join our online peer support community
to check out the link to our Patreon page
in the description below.
Thanks so much for watching,
and as always, wishing you and your loved ones good health.
We'll see you in the next video, bye.