Re: Using supplements

I am always somewhat skeptical in the use of single supplements to treat mood disorders, along the line of psychiatry, that uses single drugs for treatment. Nutritional therapy is far more complex than drug therapy. The latter only mask symptoms without addressing the causes of the mood disorders. Nutritional therapy tries to correct complex nutritional metabolic pathways to get a person to produce a certain neurotransmitter such as serotonin, as an example.

Quite a host of vitamins and minerals , co-enzymes, have to work in concert to achieve the goal. Certain vitamins or minerals need other nutrients to make them effective. Furthermore each person has what's called a biochemical individuality, that makes treatment for one useless to another person. Then you have to take into account the myriad of blockages and obstacles; allergies, possibility of heavy metal intoxication, idiosyncratic requirements of nutrients for a particular individual.

I have explained some of the obstacles in:

Hit or Miss Supplements for Depression

Then we have to take into account the various silent diseases that are related to mood disorders.

In nutritional therapy we tend to veer towards the natural - properly called "holistic nutrition", in contrast to focussing on particular or a small range of nutrients (as a guessing exercise), as if they are drugs.

Start off with the simplistic to the complex. Start off with hypoglycemia and then work your way through to the more complex, if problems arise.

In the end you will need a person with extensive knowledge of nutritional biochemistry to help you out, IOW a nutritional doctor or therapist..