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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

#661

Post by DanielleMolloy »

Surprised this hasn‘t been mentioned at all in such a long discussion:

I became pretty suspicious of most supplement brands last year. Many omega-3 capsules are rancid (which can have adverse effects and can easily go unnoticed with a capsule), and the vitamin D brands I tried didn‘t seem to do anything for me at all.

I switched to cod liver oil instead. It‘s a staple in Scandinavian cultures, so there are several well-controlled brands available that taste neutral (or are lightly flavored, e.g. lemon). It’s a combined substance containing omega 3, vitamins D, E, and A, and appears to be much more bioavailable than many capsule-based supplements, especially given the oxidation issues. Don’t want to prime anyone - try it yourself - but many people, myself included, report fairly immediate effects. I am not talking about the capsules, they are a fairly recent invention, I mean the plain oil on a spoon like in the old days.

Alongside magnesium, it’s currently my only „supplement“.

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

#662

Post by sn9 »

ncasenmare wrote: post #608
keybrd-intrrpt wrote: post #600

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Thank you! I'll give this a read.

I'd also check out these two episodes from Barbell Medicine on Vitamin D where two doctors discuss the pros and cons of supplementation.

* https://soundcloud.com/user-344313169/vitamin-d-mixdown-1

* https://www.barbellmedicine.com/podcast/episodes/episode-381...

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

#665

Post by mnbpdx »

Iolaum wrote: post #14

Your body makes Vitamin D when in sunlight. Could it be that sunlight - and the whole being outdoors situation - is the thing that helps rather than vitamin d levels?

If this is true, then what would explain just oral vitamin D supplementation working?

that said, yeah let's all get outside more for sure

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

#666

Post by weregiraffe »

jodrellblank wrote: post #347
paufernandez wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree. But sometimes there is no "root cause", the brain is still a mystery. If you had been depressed even when you knew there was nothing to worry about, you would see it differently, because then you deduce that the black cloud is produced within. Chemistry trumps psychology. Good enough chemistry enables cognitive treatments. But to fix the wrong chemistry you need chemistry.

The parent commenter describes seasonal Winter depression. If the problem was brain chemistry, wouldn't it be with them from birth until treatment? Who has Seasonal Type 1 Diabetes, or Seasonal Dwarfism, or Seasonal Missing-an-Eye-From-Birth? Depression generally isn't something children have from birth, it's something adults get temporarily. A few HN submissions recently are in the style " thinking about doing the t…

>humans evolved in Africa, connected to oceans and trees and tribal living

Human evolved to have no modern medicine, indoor heating or refrigerators.

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

#667

Post by sporkland »

klondike_klive wrote: post #533
wincy wrote: post #452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought an E-Bike two years ago and it’s changed my life. I want to ride my bike all the time, and am counting down the days to spring. During the warmer months I run all the errands I possibly can with my bike instead of driving, and ride for pleasure often, going on multi hour bike rides. It’s just such a blissful feeling, and as I’ve gotten more fit I’ve been able to turn down the bike assist and built a lot of l…

Are you riding on roads or trails? How are you treated by other road users? I'm tempted by ebikes but live in semi-rural UK with very poor (and getting worse) road surface and lots of blind bends.

As a regular bike commuter in cities with hit and miss roads, With big enough tires (tyres?) it's totally fine, there are some ebikes out there with massive tires. I'd be more concerned about the blind bends and presumably due to semi-rural people driving very fast. If there's a broad shoulder or you can get off the road at a moments notice then it could be okay but as with most things the cars are the biggest danger.

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

#668

Post by Roark66 »

arghwhat wrote: post #646
Roark66 wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>A good rule of thumb in biology and particular any kind of hormone production and balance is "use it or lose it" - if you start regularly receiving something externally, internal production will scale back and atrophy in response, in many cases permanently. There are ways to "hack it". For example, ~6 months ago I started trt (testosterone replacement). It was the best decision health wise ever. I feel way better ps…

> Some cancerous tumors produce this hormone; therefore, elevated levels measured when the patient is not pregnant may lead to a diagnosis of cancer and, if high enough, of paraneoplastic syndromes. It is unknown however whether this production is a contributing cause or an effect of carcinogenesis. Interesting. Well, I don't think you'll be able to avoid testicle atrophy even if it minimizes it, but the important pa…

>Well, I don't think you'll be able to avoid testicle atrophy even if it minimizes it

I only take 250iu twice a week. 6 months in I can't see any atrophy. Some people take it every other day.

This hormone HCG is very interesting. In fact it is what many urine pregnancy tests test for. I wonder if I did a pregnancy test it would cone out positive :-)

But, the reason why I'm talking about it is to explain that it works the same as another hormone called LH produced by the pituary gland that regulates natural testosterone production by testes

So when one takes external testosterone the mechanism through which body shuts its production down is by shutting down this LH hormone.

By taking HCG ones testes are told to make testosterone. Not a lot of it, but it seems to be enough to prevent atrophy so far.

> Particularly, that adding testosterone will cause changes throughout your entire body (including, for example, shortening life expectancy a bit), and that adding other hormones to the mix will likewise cause changes around the entire body and not just one single process or organ.

For sure. Many of these effects are very positive. For example I was a little pre-diabetic, this has improved a lot (but one may argue via exercise - then again I manage to be consistent with the exercise thanks to psych. changes caused by the testosterone).

Another is these psychological changes. I feel more "stable". I never was really unstable, at least I never noticed, but it feels better. Like, whatever happens I can most likely solve it kind of feeling, even when things go wrong.

Finally about the shortening of lifespan. I think I offset this by exercising, but another factor is getting regular blood tests. The doc monitors things like hematocrit etc. I'm told to drink a lot more water, to measure blood pressure even though I never had high pressure etc to keep it in check.

I think most problems happen with people that do not realise their blood gets "too thick", they get high blood pressure, miss it for years and end up with circulatory system issues.

It is a tradeoff. Not everything is ideal. One negative side effect I did get is worse skin until I found a procedure to exfoliate/moisturise and so on. It's a bit of a pain in the arse as before I'd just have quick showers. Now it takes longer. But so far it is worth it.

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

#669

Post by abelitoo »

abelitoo wrote: post #145
consp wrote: 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.

Oral has felt very effective for me. I take a daily supplement that has roughly 100% of the recommended daily dose of everything. I split it in half. For D3, it is 25mcg / 1000 IU / 125% After splitting in half it's 12.5 mcg / 500 IU / 62.5%. I take with some fat-containing food to allow ir to absorb which is usually breakfast (yogurt, some nuts, some kind of fruit, oats), and it's a night and day difference in my mo…

Follow up to this: I did my latest blood test after a couple of years and I'm now hovering at exactly 30. I should probably take that other half.. but my Cobalamin is at the high end so may swap to pure vitamin D instead
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