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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

#591

Post by the_pwner224 »

brushfoot wrote: post #30
vegancap wrote: post #2

I found this to be the case. Tried Sertraline for a while, gave me headaches and made me feel sick. Then as part of a new gym plan, started taking Omega 3+VitD daily, and I just felt a sense of calm and peace after a few weeks. The massive uptick in exercise probably also helped. I also felt quite an extreme uptick because I was a vegan for 10 years, and found out I had basically zero Omega 3 in my blood. I suspect o…

> I was a vegan for 10 years, and found out I had basically zero Omega 3 in my blood I see your disclaimer, but just for more context, vegans can get Omega 3 without taking pills per se. Flax seeds are an excellent source. I often add a spoonful to a bowl of oatmeal or as a pancake topping along with fruit sauce and granola.

Flax seeds & other seeds provide ALA but not EPA & DHA. You need all 3.

The body has some ability to convert ALA to EPA & DHA, but at extremely low rates (particularly for DHA) - it's not a consideration in practice.

So no, eating seeds will not fulfill your body's requirements.

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

#592

Post by the_pwner224 »

sambuccid wrote: post #197
tock wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean relatively sucks. Else every single human ancestor would have to be super depressed too given the standard of life in the past.

I guess there are different types of "life sucks" that can or cannot contribute to depression, my current understanding is that a lot of it depends on whether you feel you have some control over the situation or if you think you have absolutely no power over it

According to Victor Frankl (psychiatrist concentration camp survivor, author of Man's Search for Meaning) being in a shitty situation without any control over it isn't necessarily bad. Humans can still be mentally okay in the face of extreme unavoidable suffering like in the camps. The key thing is that you need to have some purpose / meaning in life (often a loved one or dependent).

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

#593

Post by [deleted] »

welshwelsh wrote: post #282
isoprophlex wrote: post #43

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.…

How do you know it was the SSRI? To cherry-pick a quote from a review of SSRI studies: >the magnitude of symptom reduction was about 40% with antidepressants and about 30% with placebo. That tells me that antidepressants have some effectiveness, but placebos work shockingly well. You can give someone a sugar pill with no medical properties whatsoever, and a good portion of people will recover, likely crediting the pi…

[deleted]

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

#594

Post by jodrellblank »

Forgeties79 wrote: post #549
jodrellblank wrote: post #515

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 im…

But why do you think it is at all "chemical imbalance" when that doesn't seem to be an actual thing? What evidence convinced you? What measurements were taken on a human brain to diagnose the imbalance?

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

#595

Post by seba_dos1 »

sameesh wrote: post #488
16bitvoid wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's incredibly reductive. I'm sure some people's depression can boil down to a matter of perspective, but it's naive to extrapolate that to everyone with depression. I'm incredibly optimistic and am content with my position in life. My default state is being mindful of the present and I don't think about things too far into the future. I very rarely ever feel stressed out over things in life. However, none of that…

If its not just a matter of perspective and only medication can help, etc, then why do we call depression a "psychological" or "mental health" concern? Why isn't it just considered a neurological disease?

Not sure what your point is, many mental health concerns are caused by neurological diseases.

In case of depression in particular, it appears to be a label given to a big bag of various issues you may have causing similar symptoms.

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

#596

Post by tsoukase »

As a neurologist I cannot be persuaded. Their is a huge placebo and confounding component in the spectrum stress-depression. There are syndromes where AD drugs make wonders, literally saving lives, and others where they are useless. But taking 150000 IU of vitD per month definitely doesn't have the effects it promises.

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

#597

Post by lII1lIlI11ll »

andai wrote: post #373
cameronh90 wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suffer from severe crippling OCD and anxiety. Years of therapy and psychoanalysis have failed to find any cause, and, if anything, made it worse. The best explanation has been it's probably because I'm autistic, and these things tend to happen to autistics. Luckily, sertraline was an almost instant cure. I can come off it for periods, but it tends to reoccur after a while. So, it does mean I have to take a drug ind…

I'm not an expert so maybe someone else can clarify further, but in relation to sleep medications I've heard that they should not be used for more than two weeks, or they can permanently fuck up your sleep cycle. They also give you low quality sleep, because they just knock you out. It's not a natural kind of sleep. At least that's how it was a while ago. Maybe the situation has improved.

> At least that's how it was a while ago. Maybe the situation has improved.

Fortunately it has. Orexin antagonists don't cause dependency and provide high-quality ("natural") sleep.

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

#598

Post by Liquix »

bloak wrote: post #54
Liquix wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

5000 IU is very high, might be beneficial during the winter for folks with very fair skin. but most probably shouldn't take that much every day

You mean very dark skin? It's my understanding that northern Europeans evolved fair skin in order to cope with the lack of vitamin D in their diet.

yes, i had it backwards - thanks for the correction.

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

#599

Post by seba_dos1 »

bulbar wrote: post #162
voisin wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 unli…

I do know somebody taking way more than 30k/day though. Seems to be a thing in conspiracy theories "they try to hide those simple tricks from you (drinking bleach, ivamectin, 100k D3, ...)

It may not be that crazy in fact, unless it's prolonged. Don't take 30k/day for several months without supervision, but doing that for a single month is unlikely to harm you if you start from deficiency. Some people may need even more than that.

In any case, keep your blood levels in check. It's cheap and easy. There are even services you can order to have your blood sample taken at your home.

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

#600

Post by keybrd-intrrpt »

ncasenmare wrote: post #401
Aurornis wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Researchers have noticed it for 13 years! From the linked Ghaemi et al 2024 meta-analysis You’re cherry picking papers. Others have already shared other studies showing no significant effects of Vitamin D intervention. For any popular supplement you can find someone publishing papers with miraculous results, showing huge effect sizes and significant outcomes. This has been going on for decades. With Omega-3s the la…

> You’re cherry picking papers. I just picked the most recent meta-analysis I could find, which also specifically estimates the dose-response curve. (Since averaging the effect at 400 IU and 4000 IU doesn't make sense.) > Others have already shared other studies showing no significant effects of Vitamin D intervention. Yes, and the Ghaemi et al 2024 meta-analysis addresses the methodological problems in those earlier…

Hello, there is another study that might be relevant to you

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28768407/

> A statistical error in the estimation of the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for vitamin D was recently discovered

> ... This could lead to a recommendation of 1000 IU for children 1 year of age, and around 8000 IU for young adults and thereafter.

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