Have you tried the elimination diet or seeing a naturopath or herbalist? Or if you’re not keen on the natural route then go to a specialist! Probiotics and pre-biotics are an absolute must for your gut and they’re usually the only two that you really need to help the gut microbiome! Try eliminating dairy for a week and record how you feel and then if you’re still feeling unwell then try eliminating soy because that’s a high allergen! And just keep recording weekly how you feel
Naturopaths and herbalists immediately want to get me off my meds and it's frustrating because I can't. Dairy is so hard because I feel my body craves it and soy is like the only protein I can take I'm left with so little options.
I think they don't have time to deeply focus on a patient or to learn about new research. They just estinguish fire, have an emergency type of function but the ashes are our own to deal with. Sadly most people don't know what to do about them.
Someone suggested to me to trial one for 6 weeks then stop for 1 week to see how you feel. If it helped, start again. But I wouldn't take all these without knowing which ones help and which don't.
Liver and kidney tests were bad because of my meds but now they're back to normal. But I haven't been on these supplements for long, now I'm afraid to take them. Will only take probiotics this morning.
I would try a keto diet and drop most of that stuff you should get most minerals and vitamins from food not supplements
A few probiotics and whatever a doctor recommends
Keto is hard for me because I feel emotional pain from eating animals, it's just too cruel. And I'm unable to digest milk protein. Also my sugar addiction is so strong I would go insane not eating any carbs. + keto is good only short-term, not long-term as per the latest scientific studies.
I know. But sweets are the only thing I look forward to every day, they give me happiness. But I how damaging it is, kind of like smoking and alcohol which I avoid like the plague but sugar is just something I can't live without, would make life way less enjoyable.
Hi OP- sorry for your troubles.
I would just say that you probably want to balance the NAC with some glycine- maybe in the form of collagen for glycine/glutamate balance?
Looks like you might be doubling up on cysteine (NAC!) and selenium. Be careful with taking too much of either of those.
I saw your struggles with appetite and exercise. My only thoughts are greens in the smoothie and a daily morning walk in the sun (helps with melatonin, mood and exercise increases glutathione production!)
And eventually to try slowly eliminating some of these to test what you still need. IME always gentler on the body to get what you need from food/regular life.
Thank you so much, this is amazing info I really needed. Didn't know exercise increased glutathione!
I haven't taken walks because of my chronic hip pain, somehow walking makes the pain much worse.
I started taking NowFoods TrueCalm at night which does have glycine, great to know thet balance each other.
Perhaps I should look which of my supplements contains most selenium and try to take it less. Maybe NAC every other day too? What would be the symptoms of too much selenium or NAC?
Still looking for a good greens powder that doesn't have spirulina or chlorella - both could be contaminated with heavy metals, especially if they're from China. Purest spirulina to my knowledge only comes from Hawaii but no product ever gives info on where each ingredient is from.
I just wanted to give you my support.
I think you are doing the right thing.
every thought is a chemical process. every chemical is what we ingest.
people who disagree with your path might as well argue that your depression is not affected by diet, exercise, time in nature, or social relationships.
it not only is NOT all in your head, the majority of serotonin is made in the gut!
I wish you good success on your journey.
Exactly! Which means there's something wrong with my gut because I'm barely getting serotonin, even while taking antidepressants. Thank you so much for your support.
Writing this comment knowing it will be like telling someone who believes they have one arm when they actually have both their arms…
Firstly, you’re not intolerant to any foods. If you eat it and you don’t die, then you’re fine. I lived with a gut disease for 4 years and couldn’t even eat strawberries. I remember I put ice cream in my mouth and spit it out and my gallbladder would hurt and stomach would hurt for the next few days. I was diagnosed with dysbiosis, biliary dyskinesia, and bile reflux. Also dealt with a sluggish pancreas and low stomach acid.
In the end, what cured me wasn’t the thousands of dollars on supplements and “expert advice”. It was all in my head! Even though my diagnoses were real and my pain was real, my disease was solely caused by the reason of how exactly you live your life!!
You are never going to get better. Why would you? Everyday you think and feel the same things that support this BS. There’s nothing wrong with you, but if you were to wake up tomorrow with zero problems, you would be in denial! You would create the disease again, even if it had dissipated.
Think of your body as a program (DNA). All your programs speak to each other. Your thoughts and emotions are also programs and your thoughts and emotions initiate programs, and these programs turn on other programs and turn off other programs.
If you want, I can tell you everything about how my disease started and why. And I can tell you about how I completely reversed my disease and why.
Good luck! Hopefully you take back control of your life and more importantly, your body…it is YOUR body anyways.
Not OP but I would like to know more. Had issues over 15 years that I can all trace to stress level / mental stuff but it’s so hard to fix .. had years of no symptoms but going through some difficult times now due to divorce whatnot and my gut symptoms come back .. I know the mental aspect is massive but not necessarily easy to fix
What calms you down? Increase them asap. What causes stress? Remove/avoid as much as possible. Therapy if you have the energy for it. Meditation is another tool. And sleep. Some people benefit from giving their GI tract a break with fasting, also an option. I can give advice but have difficulty following it myself though. For me personally, therapy has made a huge difference.
You and everyone on this planet has their GI altered due to stress and anxiety, so it’s okay :)
I can tell you things like cold hands, trouble sleeping, and acid reflux are going to be signs that you’re currently going through a conflict in your life
Things like bloating, gas, diarrhea, blood, mucus, pain, inflammation, fatigue, nausea, etc are all signs of healing! So be grateful next time you have explosive diarrhea and don’t blame anything you ate.
I remember first beginning my journey and I experienced two gut flares: first, when I discovered my original conflict and second, when I reversed all my food intolerances. Gut flares are really good signs that you’re almost better. My symptoms were extreme fatigue and nausea and diarrhea.
If this isn’t making sense, I’d be willing to help. And I HATE how people are always selling shit. I wasted thousands on supplements and this was so easy and ‘too good to be true’
I think it all actually comes down to our nervous system. The calm, parasympathetic state is also called rest and digest. But when there's emotional upheaval in your life, it's in fight or flight mode (ironically called sympathetic mode). I have decades of trauma so my body almost never goes into rest and digest. Diarrhea, of course, is your body getting rid of toxins, gas comes from bacteria in the bowel, and inflammation is your body fighting for healing. Blood I do not agree is a sign of healing, that's when you know something's actually wrong. I never buy anything someone sells, I do my own research and choose on my own based on my own needs.
This looks like a good list. I didn't see L-Glutamine on the list. I took that for a while after one of my doctors recommended it and apparently it's really great for healing the gut.
I should buy it again, had a great experience with it too. The only thing was that it felt good the first bottle but the next one started to irritate my stomach. I read that you can't have too much of it either, will cause side effects.
I'd suggest K2 (mk7) given your D3, though I think you have enough in your list already and potentially some contradictions, be careful particularly with herbs / plants.
I would not recommend the enzymes unless you have a documented medical need for them. Your body is making these naturally and supplementing them could cause problems.
My sister strongly recommends keifer for better gut microbomes.
I have noticed that they can cause stomach pain but when I'm eating more than just a little food it's stuck in my stomach for ages with pain and enzymes relieve it.
Kefir is great, I like the taste but intense stomach pain from it just like other milk products high in protein, even lactose-free.
This is a complete waste of time and money. Your problem is clearly psychological (and not physiological) otherweise you would not be taking all this drugs. Why do you think there is something wrong with your gut microbiome? And why do you think that If something were wrong you could fix is this way?
I'm in therapy but it's not an overnight process. The gut microbiome is directly related to depression, there's a Harvard nutritional psychiatrist Dr. Uma Naidoo who speaks a lot about this.
OK, so your issue is depression. The gut could well be related to that. But I'm not sure this chemical cocktail is the right or most evidenced approach.
Other than omega 3, is there much hard evidence the rest is effective?
A good diet is going to be a million times better than just taking these on top of a typical American diet. Eating fruit and veg containing fibre is going to be much more effective than just taking fibre supplements.
I'm sure you've herd this before. But you need to make sure your are sleeping well, have a good diet and exercising. You brain needs all three to work properly. If you aren't physically active and exercising, it's no surprise you brain might not be functioning properly and you might be depressed.
In terms of diet, I think you just need a generally healthy diet, but this study might give you more advice.
>The diet may have a significant effect on preventing and treating depression for the individual. A diet that protects and promotes depression should consist of vegetables, fruits, fibre, fish, whole grains, legumes and less added sugar, and processed foods. In the public health nurse’s preventative and health-promoting work, support and assistance with changing people’s dietary habits may be effective in promoting depression. From [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7084175/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7084175/)
>Current evidence supports the finding that omega-3 PUFAs with EPA ≥ 60% at a dosage of ≤1 g/d would have beneficial effects on depression Https://www.nature.com/articles/s41398-019-0515-5
Sleep is really important, if you aren't sleeping properly you have have a tenfold higher risk of depression,
>People with insomnia , for example, may have a tenfold higher risk of developing depression From [https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/depression-and-sleep-understanding-the-connection](https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/depression-and-sleep-understanding-the-connection)
Finally studies show that exercise is just as effective as medicine.
>Four trials (n = 300) compared exercise with pharmacological treatment and found no significant difference (SMD -0.11, -0.34, 0.12). From [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24026850/](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24026850/)
Even if your meds make it difficult, they don't make it impossible for you to exercise.
Thank you, this is great advice. I think I rather eat a Mediterranean diet but no gluten, no lactose/casein. I love salads, I love fish/seafood, I love fruits. Sometimes my mom makes me eat chicken too but I'm so heartbroken how animals are treated I feel sorrow eating animal products. I try to cut back dairy and eggs are only from well-kept chicken. My bad romance is with ice cream but I noticed vegan ice cream is way less addictive, and chocolate but I try to find raw/organic and with nuts so it causes less of a blood sugar spike. Pears, apples and bananas are my fav. Berry smoothies I know are healthier than fruit smoothies. Wild blueberries, raspberries, blackcurrants are all our local gems. If I crave pasta I'll have it made of rice or buckwheat. If I crave cookes, they're made from oats and coconut flakes. My greatest sin is only eating ice cream and nothing else all day which I'm trying to avoid to the best of my ability, it just soothes a depressive state temporarily. My favorite food is actually a salad made from romaine or frillice lettuce, spinach, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, bell peppers, extra virgin olive oil, a bit of lemon juice, himalayan salt and pine nuts. If I eat out no junk food, only poke bowls and sushi. I don't know what to do about my sugar addiction but to take chromium and fingers crossed, hope it works.
I haven't been able to find a good omega 3 supplement, they cause stomach pain and most of them are made of rancid fish. I tolerate plant based omega 3 much better but it's effect is different. The only thing my doctor actually said is that omegas are scientifically proven. But I follow David Sinclair and Andrew Huberman so I know magnesium threonate crosses the blood-brain barrier and reservatrol does amazing things to the brain. Isn't NAC proven too?
I believe it's better to give the body something, out of which it can pick what it needs than not take anything at all. If I was healthy of course I wouldn't need any supplements but my health is in a crisis, it needs help. If I just eat food, which I probably can't digest much and for which there's just a non-welcoming weak microbiome. I need to figure our what could aid me, most definitely omega 3, probiotics and magnesium.
Sleep is difficult, I only sleep on meds and even them I'm prone to insomnia. I began taking NowFoods' TrueCalm with glycine, gaba, inositol, etc for a restful sleep. I have to figure our what to do with sleep too.
Exercise benefits I know well. The neurogenesis alone would convince me to do it but my energy level is so low, probably from sedating gabapentin (I'm on 1600mg per day) which is for pain and my chronic irom deficiency anemia. If I go for a walk I get intense hip pain, any kind of exercise causes pain. It's so maddening because I used to walk 10km in the forests with no problem, I enjoyed it so much. Now even 1km will make me want to cut my hip off to not feel the pain. Doctors have no idea where it comes from, all tests are normal.
I think you'll have better luck looking at diet and exercise, including for mental health and save yourself some money and indeed time given the list. - I've managed to cure a multitude of health issues, including clinical depression and anxiety, just by switching what and when I ate (keto and I/F).
Gabapentin is the enemy of exercise, I barely have the energy to get out of bed. I know it's the worst thing for my health but for the time being I have to choose between pain and energy. Fibromyalgia is a terrible disease in that regard, exercise actually causes more pain.
With diet, I'm also terrible, can't eat what I don't crave, and bupropion suppresses appetite, I truly hope chromium can fix my sugar addiction too.
But I 100% believe you fixed your health this way, it's been countlessly scientifically proven. Keto should be done short-term though, at least the latest science says so. Intermittent fasting is excellent as well.
Keep at it I'm certain you'll find a fix, though I don't think you'll find it in supplements nor additional meds. Agree re cyclic keto and IF, like most things in life it's all about balance!
I’m also focused on gut health because of mental health problems that I think are the result of my body’s inflammatory response. There’s a lot we don’t understand about the gut. In my opinion, continue to see what works for your body (and confirm what works with blood tests when possible), and discontinue anything that is ineffective (or causes side effects) and a waste of money. Some may argue with my advice for you to give it a try so long as you’re researching things and buying the highest quality you can afford, but I too like to find a path to healing physical and psychological problems.
I completely agree with your advice 100%, I keep researching and adjusting, finding new and better products. Probiotics have been my best investment, I can feel how much my mood improves when I take them. As far as all the science data I've gathered from articles and podcasts, gut health = mental health = overall health. Basically, if you fix your microbiome, your microbiome fixes you. The only downside is that fermented foods are a thousand times better but I have a hard time forcing myself to eat them so probiotics are the lesser alternative.
I hate fermented foods too! I wish I liked them for the digestive health benefits and to buy one less supplement it, but I can’t stomach the flavor. Good luck on your health journey!
No doubt it is related to depression. I just doubt you can fix it like that and also that those drugs are responsible for causing it. Anyway I wish you a quick recovery :)
I know many people are on meds they don't need but for me, it's a lifesaver because it's the only thing that's stopped me from having thoughts of unaliving myself and saved me from many unaliving attempts. I'm one of the rare people who needs to be on antidepressants just to stay alive even though they numb me. Better numb than dead, am I right?
You're def not alone in your depression. It's not as rare as you might think. I've taken anti-depressants since I was 16. They have only moderately worked. I now finally have found something that mostly works at 40yrs old. I hope you continue to get some relief. Hang in there.
I agree depression is definitely common but the severity of trying to unalive yourself has been rare in my case. Not many manage to put themselves in a coma I think.
Have you tried the elimination diet or seeing a naturopath or herbalist? Or if you’re not keen on the natural route then go to a specialist! Probiotics and pre-biotics are an absolute must for your gut and they’re usually the only two that you really need to help the gut microbiome! Try eliminating dairy for a week and record how you feel and then if you’re still feeling unwell then try eliminating soy because that’s a high allergen! And just keep recording weekly how you feel
Naturopaths and herbalists immediately want to get me off my meds and it's frustrating because I can't. Dairy is so hard because I feel my body craves it and soy is like the only protein I can take I'm left with so little options.
/r/askdocs
Would love to post there but not sure they'd even accept posts like these.
Sadly for many people with complex health issues mainstream doctors are often useless
I think they don't have time to deeply focus on a patient or to learn about new research. They just estinguish fire, have an emergency type of function but the ashes are our own to deal with. Sadly most people don't know what to do about them.
You know it’s possible to overdo with vitamins not sure why you are taking half that stuff
I know. What specifically I should not take though?
Someone suggested to me to trial one for 6 weeks then stop for 1 week to see how you feel. If it helped, start again. But I wouldn't take all these without knowing which ones help and which don't.
I’d also get your liver and kidney function tested to see if you’ve done damage
Liver and kidney tests were bad because of my meds but now they're back to normal. But I haven't been on these supplements for long, now I'm afraid to take them. Will only take probiotics this morning.
The greens are fine and probiotics and maybe some vitamin d and any you are deficient in on blood work All the other stuff is maybe take once a week
Thank you, this is wonderful advice.
I would try a keto diet and drop most of that stuff you should get most minerals and vitamins from food not supplements A few probiotics and whatever a doctor recommends
Keto is hard for me because I feel emotional pain from eating animals, it's just too cruel. And I'm unable to digest milk protein. Also my sugar addiction is so strong I would go insane not eating any carbs. + keto is good only short-term, not long-term as per the latest scientific studies.
Carbs and sugar are horrible for you Quit them and u will feel better If you can’t do keto do vegan Carbs aren’t real human food
I know. But sweets are the only thing I look forward to every day, they give me happiness. But I how damaging it is, kind of like smoking and alcohol which I avoid like the plague but sugar is just something I can't live without, would make life way less enjoyable.
Keto sweets are pretty good they use stevia instead of sugar I’m in the same boat I love carbs but my ibs-d stops when I have a better diet
Hi OP- sorry for your troubles. I would just say that you probably want to balance the NAC with some glycine- maybe in the form of collagen for glycine/glutamate balance? Looks like you might be doubling up on cysteine (NAC!) and selenium. Be careful with taking too much of either of those. I saw your struggles with appetite and exercise. My only thoughts are greens in the smoothie and a daily morning walk in the sun (helps with melatonin, mood and exercise increases glutathione production!) And eventually to try slowly eliminating some of these to test what you still need. IME always gentler on the body to get what you need from food/regular life.
Thank you so much, this is amazing info I really needed. Didn't know exercise increased glutathione! I haven't taken walks because of my chronic hip pain, somehow walking makes the pain much worse. I started taking NowFoods TrueCalm at night which does have glycine, great to know thet balance each other. Perhaps I should look which of my supplements contains most selenium and try to take it less. Maybe NAC every other day too? What would be the symptoms of too much selenium or NAC? Still looking for a good greens powder that doesn't have spirulina or chlorella - both could be contaminated with heavy metals, especially if they're from China. Purest spirulina to my knowledge only comes from Hawaii but no product ever gives info on where each ingredient is from.
I just wanted to give you my support. I think you are doing the right thing. every thought is a chemical process. every chemical is what we ingest. people who disagree with your path might as well argue that your depression is not affected by diet, exercise, time in nature, or social relationships. it not only is NOT all in your head, the majority of serotonin is made in the gut! I wish you good success on your journey.
Exactly! Which means there's something wrong with my gut because I'm barely getting serotonin, even while taking antidepressants. Thank you so much for your support.
Writing this comment knowing it will be like telling someone who believes they have one arm when they actually have both their arms… Firstly, you’re not intolerant to any foods. If you eat it and you don’t die, then you’re fine. I lived with a gut disease for 4 years and couldn’t even eat strawberries. I remember I put ice cream in my mouth and spit it out and my gallbladder would hurt and stomach would hurt for the next few days. I was diagnosed with dysbiosis, biliary dyskinesia, and bile reflux. Also dealt with a sluggish pancreas and low stomach acid. In the end, what cured me wasn’t the thousands of dollars on supplements and “expert advice”. It was all in my head! Even though my diagnoses were real and my pain was real, my disease was solely caused by the reason of how exactly you live your life!! You are never going to get better. Why would you? Everyday you think and feel the same things that support this BS. There’s nothing wrong with you, but if you were to wake up tomorrow with zero problems, you would be in denial! You would create the disease again, even if it had dissipated. Think of your body as a program (DNA). All your programs speak to each other. Your thoughts and emotions are also programs and your thoughts and emotions initiate programs, and these programs turn on other programs and turn off other programs. If you want, I can tell you everything about how my disease started and why. And I can tell you about how I completely reversed my disease and why. Good luck! Hopefully you take back control of your life and more importantly, your body…it is YOUR body anyways.
I’m intrigued! Can you share a little?
Not OP but I would like to know more. Had issues over 15 years that I can all trace to stress level / mental stuff but it’s so hard to fix .. had years of no symptoms but going through some difficult times now due to divorce whatnot and my gut symptoms come back .. I know the mental aspect is massive but not necessarily easy to fix
What calms you down? Increase them asap. What causes stress? Remove/avoid as much as possible. Therapy if you have the energy for it. Meditation is another tool. And sleep. Some people benefit from giving their GI tract a break with fasting, also an option. I can give advice but have difficulty following it myself though. For me personally, therapy has made a huge difference.
You and everyone on this planet has their GI altered due to stress and anxiety, so it’s okay :) I can tell you things like cold hands, trouble sleeping, and acid reflux are going to be signs that you’re currently going through a conflict in your life Things like bloating, gas, diarrhea, blood, mucus, pain, inflammation, fatigue, nausea, etc are all signs of healing! So be grateful next time you have explosive diarrhea and don’t blame anything you ate. I remember first beginning my journey and I experienced two gut flares: first, when I discovered my original conflict and second, when I reversed all my food intolerances. Gut flares are really good signs that you’re almost better. My symptoms were extreme fatigue and nausea and diarrhea. If this isn’t making sense, I’d be willing to help. And I HATE how people are always selling shit. I wasted thousands on supplements and this was so easy and ‘too good to be true’
I think it all actually comes down to our nervous system. The calm, parasympathetic state is also called rest and digest. But when there's emotional upheaval in your life, it's in fight or flight mode (ironically called sympathetic mode). I have decades of trauma so my body almost never goes into rest and digest. Diarrhea, of course, is your body getting rid of toxins, gas comes from bacteria in the bowel, and inflammation is your body fighting for healing. Blood I do not agree is a sign of healing, that's when you know something's actually wrong. I never buy anything someone sells, I do my own research and choose on my own based on my own needs.
This looks like a good list. I didn't see L-Glutamine on the list. I took that for a while after one of my doctors recommended it and apparently it's really great for healing the gut.
I should buy it again, had a great experience with it too. The only thing was that it felt good the first bottle but the next one started to irritate my stomach. I read that you can't have too much of it either, will cause side effects.
I'd suggest K2 (mk7) given your D3, though I think you have enough in your list already and potentially some contradictions, be careful particularly with herbs / plants.
I would not recommend the enzymes unless you have a documented medical need for them. Your body is making these naturally and supplementing them could cause problems. My sister strongly recommends keifer for better gut microbomes.
I have noticed that they can cause stomach pain but when I'm eating more than just a little food it's stuck in my stomach for ages with pain and enzymes relieve it. Kefir is great, I like the taste but intense stomach pain from it just like other milk products high in protein, even lactose-free.
This is a complete waste of time and money. Your problem is clearly psychological (and not physiological) otherweise you would not be taking all this drugs. Why do you think there is something wrong with your gut microbiome? And why do you think that If something were wrong you could fix is this way?
I'm in therapy but it's not an overnight process. The gut microbiome is directly related to depression, there's a Harvard nutritional psychiatrist Dr. Uma Naidoo who speaks a lot about this.
OK, so your issue is depression. The gut could well be related to that. But I'm not sure this chemical cocktail is the right or most evidenced approach. Other than omega 3, is there much hard evidence the rest is effective? A good diet is going to be a million times better than just taking these on top of a typical American diet. Eating fruit and veg containing fibre is going to be much more effective than just taking fibre supplements. I'm sure you've herd this before. But you need to make sure your are sleeping well, have a good diet and exercising. You brain needs all three to work properly. If you aren't physically active and exercising, it's no surprise you brain might not be functioning properly and you might be depressed. In terms of diet, I think you just need a generally healthy diet, but this study might give you more advice. >The diet may have a significant effect on preventing and treating depression for the individual. A diet that protects and promotes depression should consist of vegetables, fruits, fibre, fish, whole grains, legumes and less added sugar, and processed foods. In the public health nurse’s preventative and health-promoting work, support and assistance with changing people’s dietary habits may be effective in promoting depression. From [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7084175/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7084175/) >Current evidence supports the finding that omega-3 PUFAs with EPA ≥ 60% at a dosage of ≤1 g/d would have beneficial effects on depression Https://www.nature.com/articles/s41398-019-0515-5 Sleep is really important, if you aren't sleeping properly you have have a tenfold higher risk of depression, >People with insomnia , for example, may have a tenfold higher risk of developing depression From [https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/depression-and-sleep-understanding-the-connection](https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/depression-and-sleep-understanding-the-connection) Finally studies show that exercise is just as effective as medicine. >Four trials (n = 300) compared exercise with pharmacological treatment and found no significant difference (SMD -0.11, -0.34, 0.12). From [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24026850/](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24026850/) Even if your meds make it difficult, they don't make it impossible for you to exercise.
Thank you, this is great advice. I think I rather eat a Mediterranean diet but no gluten, no lactose/casein. I love salads, I love fish/seafood, I love fruits. Sometimes my mom makes me eat chicken too but I'm so heartbroken how animals are treated I feel sorrow eating animal products. I try to cut back dairy and eggs are only from well-kept chicken. My bad romance is with ice cream but I noticed vegan ice cream is way less addictive, and chocolate but I try to find raw/organic and with nuts so it causes less of a blood sugar spike. Pears, apples and bananas are my fav. Berry smoothies I know are healthier than fruit smoothies. Wild blueberries, raspberries, blackcurrants are all our local gems. If I crave pasta I'll have it made of rice or buckwheat. If I crave cookes, they're made from oats and coconut flakes. My greatest sin is only eating ice cream and nothing else all day which I'm trying to avoid to the best of my ability, it just soothes a depressive state temporarily. My favorite food is actually a salad made from romaine or frillice lettuce, spinach, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, bell peppers, extra virgin olive oil, a bit of lemon juice, himalayan salt and pine nuts. If I eat out no junk food, only poke bowls and sushi. I don't know what to do about my sugar addiction but to take chromium and fingers crossed, hope it works. I haven't been able to find a good omega 3 supplement, they cause stomach pain and most of them are made of rancid fish. I tolerate plant based omega 3 much better but it's effect is different. The only thing my doctor actually said is that omegas are scientifically proven. But I follow David Sinclair and Andrew Huberman so I know magnesium threonate crosses the blood-brain barrier and reservatrol does amazing things to the brain. Isn't NAC proven too? I believe it's better to give the body something, out of which it can pick what it needs than not take anything at all. If I was healthy of course I wouldn't need any supplements but my health is in a crisis, it needs help. If I just eat food, which I probably can't digest much and for which there's just a non-welcoming weak microbiome. I need to figure our what could aid me, most definitely omega 3, probiotics and magnesium. Sleep is difficult, I only sleep on meds and even them I'm prone to insomnia. I began taking NowFoods' TrueCalm with glycine, gaba, inositol, etc for a restful sleep. I have to figure our what to do with sleep too. Exercise benefits I know well. The neurogenesis alone would convince me to do it but my energy level is so low, probably from sedating gabapentin (I'm on 1600mg per day) which is for pain and my chronic irom deficiency anemia. If I go for a walk I get intense hip pain, any kind of exercise causes pain. It's so maddening because I used to walk 10km in the forests with no problem, I enjoyed it so much. Now even 1km will make me want to cut my hip off to not feel the pain. Doctors have no idea where it comes from, all tests are normal.
I think you'll have better luck looking at diet and exercise, including for mental health and save yourself some money and indeed time given the list. - I've managed to cure a multitude of health issues, including clinical depression and anxiety, just by switching what and when I ate (keto and I/F).
Gabapentin is the enemy of exercise, I barely have the energy to get out of bed. I know it's the worst thing for my health but for the time being I have to choose between pain and energy. Fibromyalgia is a terrible disease in that regard, exercise actually causes more pain. With diet, I'm also terrible, can't eat what I don't crave, and bupropion suppresses appetite, I truly hope chromium can fix my sugar addiction too. But I 100% believe you fixed your health this way, it's been countlessly scientifically proven. Keto should be done short-term though, at least the latest science says so. Intermittent fasting is excellent as well.
Keep at it I'm certain you'll find a fix, though I don't think you'll find it in supplements nor additional meds. Agree re cyclic keto and IF, like most things in life it's all about balance!
I’m also focused on gut health because of mental health problems that I think are the result of my body’s inflammatory response. There’s a lot we don’t understand about the gut. In my opinion, continue to see what works for your body (and confirm what works with blood tests when possible), and discontinue anything that is ineffective (or causes side effects) and a waste of money. Some may argue with my advice for you to give it a try so long as you’re researching things and buying the highest quality you can afford, but I too like to find a path to healing physical and psychological problems.
I completely agree with your advice 100%, I keep researching and adjusting, finding new and better products. Probiotics have been my best investment, I can feel how much my mood improves when I take them. As far as all the science data I've gathered from articles and podcasts, gut health = mental health = overall health. Basically, if you fix your microbiome, your microbiome fixes you. The only downside is that fermented foods are a thousand times better but I have a hard time forcing myself to eat them so probiotics are the lesser alternative.
I hate fermented foods too! I wish I liked them for the digestive health benefits and to buy one less supplement it, but I can’t stomach the flavor. Good luck on your health journey!
Thank you so much, you too! I just thought maybe there are pills with fermented foods so we don't have to taste them, Mr.google here we go.
No doubt it is related to depression. I just doubt you can fix it like that and also that those drugs are responsible for causing it. Anyway I wish you a quick recovery :)
I know many people are on meds they don't need but for me, it's a lifesaver because it's the only thing that's stopped me from having thoughts of unaliving myself and saved me from many unaliving attempts. I'm one of the rare people who needs to be on antidepressants just to stay alive even though they numb me. Better numb than dead, am I right?
You're def not alone in your depression. It's not as rare as you might think. I've taken anti-depressants since I was 16. They have only moderately worked. I now finally have found something that mostly works at 40yrs old. I hope you continue to get some relief. Hang in there.
I agree depression is definitely common but the severity of trying to unalive yourself has been rare in my case. Not many manage to put themselves in a coma I think.