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Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants

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Re: Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants

#81

Because it's common to hate on antidepressants, I've always personally had a bias against them. For the past 15-20 years, november thru february are basically a writeoff due for me due to seasonal affective disorder. Cold showers, exercise, no alcohol, strict sleeping rituals. Vitamin d. I can still sleep 11 hours and feel like reheated cat shit. Enter citalopram. "It will take up to six weeks to dial in" they said.…

Same for me with buproprion. Night and day difference. Made me wonder how different my life would be if I had been diagnosed appropriately when I was a kid.

Re: Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants

#82
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't the oral intake pretty much negligible anyway? I remember getting a vitamin d supplement in a syringe (to be put on bread, from a physician) containing a very large dosis. I'm not stating the dosage is wrong. Looks like it is anyway.

It is easily possible to overdose on oral Vitamin D tablets and damage your body.

Source? There have been many articles on HN showing the RDA to be ~10x too low (something like 5,000 IU) and that the daily safety limit to be significantly higher than that (something like 30,000 IU).

Edit: for clarity I am not saying it is impossible to overdose on oral tablets, but rather that with most tablets 400 IU to 1000 IU and the safe limit so much higher than these, it seems like it would be extremely unlikely for someone to be taking 30+ tablets daily. Not impossible, but not easy either.

Re: Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants

#83

Because it's common to hate on antidepressants, I've always personally had a bias against them. For the past 15-20 years, november thru february are basically a writeoff due for me due to seasonal affective disorder. Cold showers, exercise, no alcohol, strict sleeping rituals. Vitamin d. I can still sleep 11 hours and feel like reheated cat shit. Enter citalopram. "It will take up to six weeks to dial in" they said.…

[flagged]

How would you prove that?

Re: Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants

#84
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being at the beach (in summer) for a half an hour will produce 10,000 and 25,000 IU for the average european. See: Vitamin D and health: evolution, biologic functions, and recommended dietary intakes for vitamin D (293 citations)

So? What's your claim here? Are you claiming that our skin works the same way as our digestive system? That would be a ridiculous claim. And fyi, many people get a proper sunburn, if they stayed in the sun for 30 min straight without protection, at least in summer. So your 30 min statistic doesn't really tell us anything about something being healthy or not.

I've given you everything you need to find out for yourself. Your incredulity on this is a self-confession.

Re: Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants

#85
post #4

Please do not take 5000mg/day of Vitamin D. The author confuses IU and mg which is very dangerous.

So 5000 IU is the recommended amount?

I was taking 2x2000 IU with almost no sun exposure and then did bloodwork. My level was 77.8 ng/mL. The lab's reference ranges listed 30-50 ng/mL as optimal, 50-100 as high, over 100 as potentially toxic, and over 200 as toxic.

Re: Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants

#86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to what I read in a newspaper article, the recommended dose is much lower, at 800.

According to the internet, it is way higher, probably over 9000. Edit because the comment might be to shallow for HN: I sympathize with the struggle against depression and, after first-hand experience, share the skepticism against the widespread prescription of antidepressants and the methods of evidence presented for it. Very serious and important topic. Regarding Vitamin D, I am also supplementing in the Winter, bu…

It’s important to take Vitamin D, as a fat soluble vitamin, with dietary fat during a meal. Something about bile production and absorption.

Also important to take it with Vitamin K.

Re: Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants

#87
post #4

Please do not take 5000mg/day of Vitamin D. The author confuses IU and mg which is very dangerous.

If you don't have an underlying condition it is way better to get the Vitamin D from the sun in 10-30min increments per day after which you are saturated for the day. Overdose is not possible via the sun (excluding sun burns of course).

> A single, optimal sun exposure session might produce the equivalent of 10,000 to 25,000 IU from a supplement, but it will not keep increasing with more time in the sun. That's your max per session.

Re: Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants

#88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's equivalent to about 10 minutes of sun exposure. Not very much when you look at it that way.

That comparison doesn't work. Only 10-20% of the vitamin D we intake is delivered through food and the body cannot process more sourcing from food. Even if you take more you will not benefit in an unlimited way, processing more. The skin is much better at generating/making/doing it.

The skin is definitely much better, but a higher than "recommended" dose is definitely (anecdata) effective at bringing up and maintaining the measureable Vitamin D3 level in your blood if you are under the recommended range. It's an important metric to track in your regular blood tests.

Re: Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants

#89
To many people without relevant expertise give medical advice online.

I remember a similar case with levelsio who was advocating people to take melatonin and discussing how much grams is good vs bad. When I said that people shouldn't take medical device from someone who was successful in building web apps, he blocked me.

Re: Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants

#90
post #4

Please do not take 5000mg/day of Vitamin D. The author confuses IU and mg which is very dangerous.

So 5000 IU is the recommended amount?

It depends. I have MS and I take 10k IU. My cousin who also has MS takes 20k but gets regular blood tests for it.
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