Antidepressants - Venlafaxine Withdrawal

Dietary supplements for depression

6.3 Dietary Supplements For Immune System Boosting And Beating Depression

Following the above test details an accelerated version of the above drug reduction programme was initiated along with a programme on vitamin, mineral, fatty acid and herbal immune system boosting complementary medication as recommended by the specialist nutritionist who had recommended the HPLC test. This was in line with nutritional support recommended for combating depression in a published journal (Human Givens magazine Volume 9, number 4, 2002)

A - Vitamin boost.
Vitamin C was initially taken at 2 mg three times daily but then gradually reduced until stomach upset was avoided.
Vitamins B3, B6, B12 and Folic acid were taken initially at between 3 to 5 times the recommended maximum reducing to the daily maximums when improvement was consolidated.

B - Flax seed oil, 1000mg x 3 per day

C - Mineral boost.
We took a substance called Wholly Immune which is a multi mineral, multi vitamin and herbal product designed to boost the immune system as well as the above minerals directly. The amounts initially were substantial but were then gradually reduced as the patient began to recover. However magnesium was seen as being a key mineral and B vitamin preparations also contained some Mg as well as the 5HTP (see below) and the immune system booster.

D - 5HTP

The abbreviated chemical name for serotonin is 5HT. Its precursor 5HTP can be obtained as an herbal extract and taken directly. It is available in the UK from health food stores. (The one we took also contains niacin (B3), B6, magnesium and some valerian.) In trials 5HTP has shown to be effective for roughly half of a depressed sample of people and it has none of the side effects of antidepressant medication (see the Human Givens reference above). Although in our case the 5HTP, as measured by the urine sample, was not disastrously low it was used as a temporary help to try to boost the serotonin which was close to zero. We took 100 mg twice daily initially and reduced this to 50 mg twice daily when we saw signs of improvement.