Alternative medicine for depression that's what I'm going to talk about today. I'm Dr. Tracey Marks
a psychiatrist and an on this channel I talk about mental health education and self-improvement.
I publish videos every week so if you don't want to miss one press the subscribe button. We have
many prescription options to treat depression today but there are people who don't believe
in taking prescription medications.
I ain't taking nobody's medication.
But they may be ok with taking
something over the counter. Now keep in mind that just because it's derived naturally does
not mean that it's not a drug. Really anything that has
a chemical effect on your body is a drug.
Nevertheless here are eight drugs that are known
to be used for depression. Number one: 5-HTP
5-HTP is a precursor to serotonin. This means that it's part of the chemical pathway to make
serotonin. So it's serotonin like.
There's been about 30 clinical trials showing some promising
results with 5HTP, but here's the downside. It has a really short half-life which requires you to
take it three to four times a day. So if you've never taken a medication before it's hard enough
to remember to take something once a day much less three or four times a day. The common side
effect is wicked nausea and maybe even vomiting. Number two: Inositol. Inositol is abundant
in the brain and chemically it's a sugar alcohol.
And it's a building block for other chemicals in the body.
We don't really know exactly how it helps depression and there haven't been a lot of studies
showing effectiveness. In the few studies that I've seen though it was used as an add-on treatment so
you would take it in addition to something that you were already taking for depression. The main
side effects of it are gas and mania.
Number 3: L-Methylfolate
Folate is vitamin B9, which is an essential vitamin of the body.
And usually when you hear the term or the word essential it just
means that your body doesn't make and the only way you can get it is through your diet or supplements.
And while I'm talking about this, folate is the naturally occurring nutrient that you get from
green leafy vegetables, egg yolks etc.
Folic acid is a synthetic dietary supplement. Neither Folate
nor folic acid are biologically active in the body. Your body has to do something to it first. So once
your body metabolizes either the folate or folic acid the active form is called L-methylfolate.
So that's where L-methylfolate comes from. L-methylfolate is a building block for serotonin ,
norepinephrine, and dopamine and these are all chemicals involved in mood. Studies have shown
that people with low folate levels in the body tend to have a more severe depression and they
don't respond as well to antidepressants. So in practice, L-methylfolate is best used also as
an add-on treatment to your antidepressant . I don't really think it will do much if you
just use it alone. You can get a prescription for L-methylfolate from your doctor and it's
technically considered a biological food but it still requires a prescription and many insurances
are now paying for it. But if yours doesn't, it can cost upwards of a hundred dollars. So folic
acid can be a good option and cheaper substitute for that, it's just that your body will have to
process it into the L-methylfolate. Next is Saffron Stigna. Yes, this is the same yellow
spice that's use to season rice. There's been a limited number of studies, but enough to show
some positive results. The recommended dose is 15 milligrams twice a day so here again you have the
inconvenience of needing to take it twice. When a medication is recommended for more than once
a day usually it's not as effective or maybe not even effective at all if you only take it
once a day. So if you are going take something like this where it's required multiple times a day, you
really do need to take it multiple times a day to get the desired effect. Saffron is expensive
and you should definitely consult your doctor if you're considering taking it and you're on
blood thinning medications. Next is Sam-E. Sam-E stands for s-adenosylmethionine you never want
to need to say that. It enhances serotonin and norepinephrine. The studies show effectiveness
in treating mild to moderate depression, however many of the studies use small sample sizes and
different forms of the drug like the injectable form, like who's gonna actually do that... so that's
kind of the the downside of the studies. But the recommended dose is 200 to 800 milligrams twice
a day. As far as side effects you can get some nausea with Sam-E and you should also avoid it
if you have bipolar disorder as it can worsen your mania. St. John's Wort. St. John's Wort is an herb
and it comes the closest to the antidepressants as far as effectiveness. It's been shown to help
mild depression as a single agent so all of these others that I've talked about well maybe not
not Sam-E. Sam-E has been used alone as well. The others you kind of need to take it with
something. St. John's wort is another one that has been studied as a standalone agent. It's not as
good though for moderate to severe depression. The recommended dose is 300 milligrams three times a
day. And it can interfere with the metabolism of other medications. So if you're taking another
prescription medication, you need to tell your doctor that about the St. John's Wort so he or
she can determine whether or not it's going to interfere with any of your other medications.
Lastly, there's omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin D. And omega-3 fatty acids fight inflammation
in the body. And depression is thought to have a inflammatory component to it you can check out
a video I did on omega-3 fatty acids if you want to know more about Omega 3's. For depression the
recommended dose is one to two grams of EPA plus DHA and it's better actually if there's more EPA
than DHA. it won't work alone and it's meant to take as a supplement. Most of the vitamin D
in your body is made in your skin from sun exposure. You can get some from your diet, but
it's mostly from sun exposure. Many people are vitamin D deficient and don't know it. Vitamin D
supplementation has been shown to improve depression in people on medication and who are
vitamin D deficient. It was not that helpful for depressed people who were not already deficient.
So just like omega-3, Vitamin D is considered an add-on therapy. The recommended dose is a
thousand to five thousand international units. One important thing about vitamin D though: Vitamin D
is a fat-soluble vitamin so it can accumulate in your body so you don't want to take too much
of it thinking that if a 1000 or 5000 helps then maybe 10,000
even better. More is not better unless you have a deficiency and the only way to find that out
is to get tested. Thanks for watching this today. Check out some of my other videos. Until next time...