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[senatorcarl]

1

[Penny Century]

i'm going to move this post to the supplements section of the board. (if you want me to move it back, let me know)

generally B vitamins are good for the brain (esp. B12 and folic acid)

and EFAs. I take 2000 mgs of EPA a day. (pills come with EPA and DHA in them if you get an omega 3 formula. you don't need more omega 6 so go with omega 3)

in the crazy store we have a supplement section that might give you an idea of that kinds of things other people take.

[null0trooper]

What are some good vitamins that can help the brain. I take ginko biloba. I used to take st.johns wort but i heard its not good to take were prescribed medication so i stopped.

Neither of which are vitamins. However, it is true that St. John's Wort is not a good herb with which to supplement a number of psych meds.

As Penny mentioned, supplementing with B vitamins (B6 is usually the one most people go for) may help the body deal with the additional stress of coping with a mental illness. At least with riboflavin, if you take more than your body needs your kidneys can clear the excess. Some vitamins, like A and D, can be very bad for your health if consumed in excess over a period of time.

I would like to be able to stop taking all my medication soon and only take vitamin suppliments becuase i susspect the long term effects of prescribtion may be bad of physical and mental health.

It's an amazingly bad idea to assume that simply taking vitamins will make all your mental problems go into remission and stay in remission. Yes, psych meds can have ill effects and some are likely to prove more harmful long-term than suspected (It's happened before; it will happen again.) However, they are used to treat illnesses that are WORSE than the meds, both short-term and long-term. By most accounts, bipolar disorder starts bad and just gets worse when left untreated. Also, you have a few decades to go before enough dopamine-producing cells shut off to let the schizotypal symptoms die down on their own.

What is likely to help you far more, would be to make sure you're getting all the vitamins and minerals (including, but not limited to magnesium, calcium, etc.) you need by food and limited supplements, plus some sunshine, and regular exercise. That will NOT replace the meds but it should reduce the dangers that some of the psych meds are known to present.

And don't ask aliens for advice. They don't know jack about human physiology.

Or Scientologists. I might trust an alien over a Scientologist.

[rowen]

I would like to be able to stop taking all my medication soon and only take vitamin suppliments becuase i susspect the long term effects of prescribtion may be bad of physical and mental health.

This isn't quite related to the question, but I thought I would just provide an anecdote that might make you feel a bit better. My grandmother (Bipolar I) has been on psych meds for about 50 years now. Organs are fine, all original teeth, no insulin issues. She did have non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, but we think it may have been inherited - and she's been in remission for 5 years so far. She's a little heavy, but both her and her husband cook well, so there ya go.

My mother (Undif. Schizophrenia) has been on psych meds for 25 years and is still doing pretty well. No organ problems, no insulin issues (Which I think diabetes actually runs in our family), no cancer as of yet. She has had a few root canals, but she doesn't exactly have what you would call a high GAF score, so that could explain a few things. Mom is heavy too - you can blame her caretakers for that one.

Just wanted to give you a bit of hope there...we don't know a whole lot about long-term med usage, but there are people out there who are doing fine.

[serotonin junkie]

I take a multi-vitamin, and a B-complex which contains the full range of vitamins in the B family. On top of that I give myself vitamin B-12 injections every 3 months as I'm vegan and need to specifically supplement my diet with that. I've read it's also good for nutbars like ourselves. Looking into these vitamins might be a good idea.

[nalgas]

I take [...] a B-complex which contains the full range of vitamins in the B family.

As many people have pointed out, the B vitamins are good for you and are some of the main ones considered "brain vitamins". However, something to watch out for is some of the "universal" B vitamin supplements that give you all of them in one pill. Some of them have proper amounts of each proportionally, but at times there have been trends to make ones that have the same amount of all of them (50/75/100 mg/mcg or whatever) straight across, which is totally inappropriate. Your body does not need all of them in equal amounts, and you can even end up with dangerous levels of some of them by taking them that way.

One of the main problems with that type of dosing is with B6. Too little B6 can cause various problems, including some neurological ones if you have way too little. On the other hand, though, too much of it also causes neurological problems. It's quite possible to get up into that range taking a B supplement with way-too-many mg of each B vitamin in it, especially combined with a multivitamin with a decent amount of B6 in it and/or a diet that provides a lot of it. Usually that's more of an issue with the fat-soluble vitamins that don't get the excess flushed out of your system when you pee (such as A and D, like null mentioned), but B6 is one of the water-soluble ones it's possible to get yourself in trouble with if taken in large amounts.

Something to consider when choosing vitamin supplements. Most of the recommended daily amounts/safe ranges to take exist for a reason.

[serotonin junkie]

Yeah I had a look at the B-complex and the amounts aren't equal. I'll do some more searching and reading and math when I'm not so fricken depressed. But thanks. Bout time I looked this stuff up.

[nalgas]

Yeah I had a look at the B-complex and the amounts aren't equal.

In my experience, that's usually a good sign that they're in more realistic proportions. I don't think I've run into one personally (at least while looking in a store; you can find all sorts of silly things online) where they went out of their way to have varied amounts of each but still managed to get the proportions as wrong as that. I'm sure someone must have made something that got it wrong, so it's still worth checking the amounts, but that's an encouraging start. Unless it has 100mg of B6 or something ridiculous like that, you're probably fine, at least for that particular vitamin.

[GroovyGwen]

Semi threadjack - I have a bottle of B-vitamins w/ C from Nat-Rul (why do they insist on messing with perfectly good words?) Health which has the following:

Vit C - 150mg - 250%

Thiamin - 3mg - 200%

Riboflavin - 3.4 mg - 200%

Niacin - 40 mg - 200%

Vit B6 - 4mg - 200%

Folate (as folic acid) - 400mcg - 100%

Vit B12 - 12mg - 200%

D-Biotin - 30mcg - 10%

Pantothenic Acid (as D-Calcium Pantothenate) - 20mg - 200%

But I've been taking 5-6 at a time. This is since I tried those 5-hr energy shots and looked on the label and saw they have 8000% of some B vitamins. Yes, 8000%. The shot actually worked (or it's a placebo effect and I'm easily influenced). This is probably bad for me, no? Or I'm just peeing it out and it's making my liver mad?

[Velvet Elvis]

But I've been taking 5-6 at a time.

Um. Don 't do that.

Once I get the crazystore back up, look at what's in there. I tried to make it mostly sane. There are also some fairly inexpensive books on supplements that are worth a look.

[nalgas]

There are also some fairly inexpensive books on supplements that are worth a look.

I have a little handbook about vitamins and stuff from the Mayo Clinic that I acquired somewhere or other for free. I like it, but I can't even find it on their site and don't remember the name of it off the top of my head, unfortunately. It has a page or two about every vitamin and mineral, including what your body uses it for, who should/shouldn't take supplements for it, how much you should take, and what happens if you don't get enough of it or take too much. It's a pretty handy quick reference for stuff like that, but if you're really into knowing tons of details, you can find things that are much more in-depth. I think this might be it...

[GroovyGwen]

But I've been taking 5-6 at a time.

Um. Don 't do that.

OK - I'll stop. I'm sure that a supplement that gives you 8000% of anything can't be good. My poor liver (or whatever processes vitamins)

I used to know all kinds of stuff about vitamins from a nutrition course I took. Of course 2 weeks after the final all the info seemed to drip out my ear. I'll just go with believing yous guys.