Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants • Hacker News Board

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

#541

Post by ifyoubuildit » Thu, Jan 29, 2026, 7:02 PM UTC

hombre_fatal wrote: post #536

ifyoubuildit wrote: post #478

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A: The same is true for people that say that antidepressants are mostly placebo. They are not. B: When people say that antidepressants saved their life, they aren’t joking or exaggerating in the least. Are placebos unable to save lives? Not claiming antidepressants are or are not mostly placebo, and don't mean to minimize the pain of depression in anyway. I just don't think whether or not they saved a person's life i…

When you do this, you're just accusing people of having no real evaluative power about their own experience. It's pointless, and it's not really an opinion. Placebo-controlled RCTs show that some people react well to antidepressants with major variation from person to person.

Maybe I wasn't being clear, since I didn't mean to accuse anyone of anything.

I'm not disputing that someone had the genuine experience of antidepressants saving their life. I'm asking if that precludes antidepressants acting as a placebo.

In other words both things can be true: antidepressants saved someone's life and antidepressants can act as placebo (even in the case where they saved someone's life). And notice I'm saying "can be true". I'm not saying they are true, cause I have no idea.

This is a logic question, not some kind of moral attack.

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

#542

Post by mrguyorama » Thu, Jan 29, 2026, 7:03 PM UTC

Aurornis wrote: post #329

ghusto wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The hate on antidepressants is not because they're not effective, but rather that they're abused by psychiatrists. Ideally, a professional will prescribe them as a necessary helper to becoming (more) mentally healthy whilst tackling the root cause. Most of the time however, it's more of a "here, take these indefinitely". It's like if we took sleeping pills every time we had trouble sleeping. Having said that, I just…

> The hate on antidepressants is not because they're not effective, But that’s exactly what many claim. Even this article is trying to claim that Vitamin D has 4.5X higher effect size than antidepressants (e.g. that they don’t work) > It's like if we took sleeping pills every time we had trouble sleeping. Having said that, I just realised I have the impression that's exactly what people do in the USA? USA is actually…

The "hate" on antidepressants is mostly from a place of "The kids are taking pills for things that aren't diseases and just need to get out more" and other stupid takes about how "back in my day we didn't have this much mental illness", which is why the hate is maintained even for things like ADHD medications which are so thoroughly proven scientifically that they are one of the best proven treatments humans have access to for any disease.

Similarly, SSRIs have much better evidence in treatments for many other situations, like anxiety, and yet the medicine itself is attacked, not using it to poorly treat a disorder we barely even begin to understand.

The "hate" is not based in science, despite the fact that SSRIs are objectively a mediocre treatment for depression.

We just don't really have much in terms of better treatments because we know so damn little about depression.

The medical community knows SSRIs are mediocre and have a low success rate at treating depression. They don't have better tools. Everything is a bad treatment for depression because "depression" is a loose collection of symptoms and statistics that we have really poor understanding of, and will certainly be broken up into the actual diseases that make it up when we figure them out, and we will be able to medicate those diseases more effectively.

Every single doctor that would prescribe you an SSRI for your depression will also prescribe vitamin D supplementation if your blood shows low levels.

Someday we will also have a situation where we are going to have to admit that for some subset of the population, their depression has no cause other than "Your life is utterly terrible, for reasons entirely outside of your control, and nothing I can do as a medical professional can fix that".

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

#543

Post by maerF0x0 » Thu, Jan 29, 2026, 7:03 PM UTC

witherk wrote: post #537

maerF0x0 wrote: post #436

I saw a thing from HealthyGamerGG youtube[1] that he said one of the things about depression is that it causes/influences one to avoid the things that would make their life less depressing. eg just to paint the picture: you're depressed so you don't get out of bed, therefore you don't go do your workout, therefore you lack endorphins and look in the mirror and see squishy, you're sad about how squishy you are and so…

>he's a real Dr. Careful, he is also a believer in Ayurveda[1]. Which basically basically categorizes people into different elements like fire and water and then tries to change their diet and habits to match their elemental style or something. You can hear him talking about it here [2]. Kinda reminds me of Humorism [3]. Dr. K seems like a nice enough guy but don't get too lured in by the "Harvard-trained" credential…

I agree there's nuance, but he's way above the "has a webcam and yeti blue" bar that most of youtube falls under, that was my point in putting his credential up. Not to rise him to a perfect status, but to not allow him being on youtube to fall to the minimum bar of youtube.

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

#544

Post by hirvi74 » Thu, Jan 29, 2026, 7:06 PM UTC

I started back on Vitamin-D and Omega-3 (with extra EPA & DHA) about 2 months ago or so. Sadly, I don't feel much of a difference, but I believe the potential harms are quite minimal, so I am going to maintain supplementation for the purposes of self-experimentation.

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

#545

Post by volkk » Thu, Jan 29, 2026, 7:07 PM UTC

Aurornis wrote: post #311

ivm wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tea, especially green tea, doesn’t have the same caffeine bioavailability as coffee – otherwise people would abuse it just as much as coffee. I’m quite sensitive to caffeine, yet I can drink green tea all day without noticing much effect, while even a light coffee or a caffeine pill is clearly noticeable. I can also drink tea before going to sleep without any problems.

> Tea, especially green tea, doesn’t have the same caffeine bioavailability as coffee – otherwise people would abuse it just as much as coffee You can absolutely get high doses of caffeine from tea if you really want to. It comes down to the type of tea, how much is used, and how strong it’s brewed. There is nothing special about tea that breaks the rules of caffeine. It comes down to the content of the leaves, quant…

i thought that the mechanism in green tea is that it has l-theanine that helps with caffeine jitters/spikes. a bunch of people drink coffee + theanine which gives a much calmer high.

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

#546

Post by QuantumGood » Thu, Jan 29, 2026, 7:09 PM UTC

isoprophlex wrote: post #513

QuantumGood wrote: post #429

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What dosage of Citalopram? 40 mg/day? (Roughly equivalent to Lexapro 15mg/day; Saffron 30 mg/day if Crocin+Safranal properly standardized)

10 mg a day, down from 20 but that made me feel wired, like I ate a bunch of 9V batteries for breakfast. Big pupils, trouble sleeping, manic thoughts, the works. I'm a small, generally sensitive guy so ymmv...

Thanks. Ever try Saffron extract standardized to crocin content (typically 2-3% crocin, dosed at 20-30 mg/day)?

One meta-analysis showed an antidepressant effect size around 1.2-1.6 , and unlike pharmaceutical antidepressants, saffron with standardized crocin has no well-documented or commonly reported withdrawal syndrome in clinical studies or reviews.

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

#547

Post by redhed » Thu, Jan 29, 2026, 7:13 PM UTC

Aurornis wrote: post #334

seba_dos1 wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's usually pretty hard to get to toxic levels though, most people that don't live in a particularly sunny climate won't get anywhere near there on 5000 IU/day. Just test your blood levels before you start and then after 3 months or so. It's quick and cheap, and the only way to know whether the dose is right.

> It's pretty hard to get to toxic levels though, most people that don't live in a particularly sunny climate won't get anywhere near there on 5000 IU/day. No, that’s literally what I was doing when I reached the excessive range: 5000 IU/day in winter with an indoor job. This commonly repeated idea that everyone is deficient and you can’t overdose on 5000 IU/day is wrong. > Just test your blood levels before you star…

It can also be at non-toxic levels but still cause arterial calcification.

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

#548

Post by tootie » Thu, Jan 29, 2026, 7:14 PM UTC

jlebar wrote: post #369

ghusto wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The hate on antidepressants is not because they're not effective, but rather that they're abused by psychiatrists. Ideally, a professional will prescribe them as a necessary helper to becoming (more) mentally healthy whilst tackling the root cause. Most of the time however, it's more of a "here, take these indefinitely". It's like if we took sleeping pills every time we had trouble sleeping. Having said that, I just…

> Ideally, a professional will prescribe them as a necessary helper to becoming (more) mentally healthy whilst tackling the root cause. I wish people would stop saying this. Our understanding of the brain is not sufficiently sophisticated to allow us to identify the "root cause" (whatever that means) of depression in most people. Indeed we have no reason to believe that there even is a root cause to most people's dep…

I was diagnosed a while back with a chronic neurological disorder. One that has a heavy effect on my mood and can conversely be triggered by my mood. The underlying cause is scientifically proven to be physiological. I lack a specific neurotransmitter due to inactive cells in my hypothalamus.

For a long time I wrote off my symptoms as being all in my head. And after a formal diagnosis, I am 100% certain they are all in my head because that's where my brain is. Symptoms are also unequivocally psychosomatic. What I'm feeling can influence my physical symptoms and rather abruptly at that. It's right in the definition of the illness. None of this means that disease is imaginary or not real or I can talk myself out of it. It's as physically irreversible as losing an arm. There are some very good treatments, but I will never ever be cured (barring a miraculous breakthrough).

While the causes of mood or personality disorders are less well understood, it seems entirely plausible that they can be just a physically inevitable. Every thought, feeling, sensory input and motor output is a physical process originating in your brain and your brain can malfunction if it's ill. And we can treat illness with medicine.

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

#549

Post by Forgeties79 » Thu, Jan 29, 2026, 7:18 PM UTC

jodrellblank wrote: post #515

Forgeties79 wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn’t say it was simply that. You’re twisting my words and these studies to discount all of behavioral health.

Yes you did. No I'm not. (I've written paragraphs and paragraphs thinking through some of my views in this thread. You wrote three words naming a thing which doesn't seem to exist. If you want more engagement, engage more. What words am I twisting? Where did you say it was anything more detailed than that? What behaviour that people "can't control alone" are you talking about?)

I did not and I am telling you I do not believe that it is that simple. You do not need to waste time arguing against your incorrect interpretation of my comment. If you need me to say I could have phrased it better, sure, I could have phrased it better. But I am now telling you exactly what I mean and think so we don’t need to do this song and dance.

For emphasis: I do not think it is simply/exclusively “chemical imbalance.”

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

#550

Post by zahlman » Thu, Jan 29, 2026, 7:19 PM UTC

ncasenmare wrote: post #316

nxobject wrote: post #35

Be careful - many studies in the Vitamin D meta-analysis *enrolled patients already taking antidepressants.* [1] Reporting effect sizes without specifying "on which population?" is misleading. (As an aside, Cohen would be the person not to tell you to assign qualitative values to effect sizes. They are as arbitrary as any other threshold used by working statisticians.) [1] https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/psyc…

Hi, author of the blog post here! Thanks for bringing this up -- it wasn't my intention to say one should replace antidepressants with vitamins (the conclusion even says "(Don't quit your existing antidepressants if they're net-positive for you!)", but you're right that the intro may give that impression. I'll edit the intro to say you can stack, not substitute, regular antidepressants. > many studies in the Vitamin…

> Yes, and that's even more encouraging, that there's still effects of Vitamin D on major depression even if already on antidepressants! This suggests we can "stack" the interventions.

I think the point here is that such a study selects for people where their antidepressants are already known not to work very well for them, or they wouldn't be interested in participating.