What's your opinion on John's wort for depression?!
Question: Definately look deeply into this, consulting a doctor and/or and herbalist.
St. John's Wort is a counter-reaction to most medications anywhere from antibiotics, birth control pills, asthma meds, etc. If you're on ANY medication, do not take this with out consulting your doctor.
If you have an allergy to rag-weed, do not take this. Or anything relating to ragweed, for it causes the same symptoms, but think of it in consentrated pill format inside your body, instead of pollen floating by your nose.
Otherwise, I use it myself. It won't help for the BIG depression spurts, nor for actual events that cause you extreame depression. Depending on your body it may calm you, give you a little bit less stress, sometimes it helps you sleep, but it won't solve your problems.
For minor depressing moments, ones caused only by your clinical depression, not just sad moments in your life, it can lift your spirits. Sometimes I can feel a big difference, sometimes very small. In ways it works better than nothing and like you said, prescriptions don't work for you, as they don't for me, this gets things going or at least gets you by.
Like I said, consult a doctor if you take any other medications or have seasonal allergies, or any medical problems at all. And, trust me, don't take it if you're on birth control, or use another kind of contraceptive that doesn't involve taking a pill/medication.
If you have a GNC store near you, they'll have it there.
Answers: Definately look deeply into this, consulting a doctor and/or and herbalist.
St. John's Wort is a counter-reaction to most medications anywhere from antibiotics, birth control pills, asthma meds, etc. If you're on ANY medication, do not take this with out consulting your doctor.
If you have an allergy to rag-weed, do not take this. Or anything relating to ragweed, for it causes the same symptoms, but think of it in consentrated pill format inside your body, instead of pollen floating by your nose.
Otherwise, I use it myself. It won't help for the BIG depression spurts, nor for actual events that cause you extreame depression. Depending on your body it may calm you, give you a little bit less stress, sometimes it helps you sleep, but it won't solve your problems.
For minor depressing moments, ones caused only by your clinical depression, not just sad moments in your life, it can lift your spirits. Sometimes I can feel a big difference, sometimes very small. In ways it works better than nothing and like you said, prescriptions don't work for you, as they don't for me, this gets things going or at least gets you by.
Like I said, consult a doctor if you take any other medications or have seasonal allergies, or any medical problems at all. And, trust me, don't take it if you're on birth control, or use another kind of contraceptive that doesn't involve taking a pill/medication.
If you have a GNC store near you, they'll have it there.
It can be helpful, but usually if used alone without a change in lifestyle (ie getting rid of stress, adding exercise, removing alcohol or drugs) and some therapy to help with depressive thinking, it is not a cure.
personally I tried this and found that it did not work at all. But in general taking anything to help with depression unless there is a chemical imbalance will only work if you as a person decides you want things to be different and is willing to make changes.
Personally, I don't think its effective. I had NO results, positive or negative, when I tried it. Maybe if someone is having a bad week, it could help, but for clinical depression, I think you need REAL meds, & therapy...
i would research it or contact an herbalist. Im training to be one but have not yet really studied this herb. I would be careful because i know you need quite a bit to get rid of depression and it could be dangerous. I would try using the Tension Tamer tea..by Celectial Seasons. It helps me when im feeling down and stressed.
it helped me alot but it is very bad for your liver. but it was well worth it
I found it didn't work for me at all, I went and got meds from my doctor
Let me explain. The most common theory about depression is that it's caused by abnormalities in certain monoamine neurotransmitters. The big three are serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine. The vast majority of depression is probably caused by an imbalance of these three chemicals. A combination of genetic, biological, and environmental factors can contribute to this imbalance.
For example, one recent theory on depression is that it can be caused by an excess of of a chemical called monoamine oxidase A(MAOA). MAOA basically breaks down monomoaines. In other words, too much MAOA and you get a reduction in the chemicals that make your brain happy. A recent study connects this to a gene called MAOA-uVNTR.
Medications for depression mainly act to increase the levels of serotonin and/or norepinephrine. The most common are SSRIs(Celexa, Lexapro, Luvox, Paxil, Prozac, and Zoloft) which cause your brain to "soak" in serotonin for longer periods of time. The theory is that St John's Wort is a mild SSRI. However, two recent large studies showed that it was no more effective a than placebo in treating major depression of moderate severity. One of the studies was done by the NCCAM(National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine: http://nccam.nih.gov), but it is currently studying it for use in treating minor depression.
Basically it's probably useless for major depressive disorder, which is the serious, hereditary disorder that actually requires medications to correct. Maybe it will help people who are mildly depressed, but don't suffer from a mental illness, but that needs to be studied more. If you have major depressive disorder then you need to be taking real antidepressants.