Seratonin or Melatonin

Hello,

I have done lots of research on Nutition and found a great book (which I've since lost !) on supplements. I read in my lost book that Seratonin offers relief from SAD and I have been taking it with some success, but now I have done a Circadian Rythm test on apollo healths website and it advises me to take melatonin supplements ? So anyone know how these work as they seem completely different ?! :(

Also anyone used a solarmax visor ? I have finally ordered one as I couldn't sit in front of my light box for long enough at the right of day due to having to little girls to get ready for school ! :?

Kerry

Hi Linda thanks for your reply,

it is 5- htp that I've been taking I bought it from Holland and Barrett and found it good to curb my excessive sugar cravings. I have checked which light visor I have bought and it is the higher lux one which should mean that I only need 30 minutes use (!?mmmm we'll see !) I am kind of anxious now as I have been pinning my hop es for ages on getting the visor and getting some much needed relief from my symptoms - but we'll see.

Kerry

Hi Linda,

I'm in Anstey. I have had a light box for several years but I have always struggled to get into a routine with it. My SAD started when I was 14 and was noticable in my attidue and performance at school ! Since then it has got progressively worse and last year I had a major episode of depression which nearly led to me being hospitalised and which my two little girls witnessed which really shocked us all - so this year I am really focused in doing everything that I can to ease the sypmtoms. I am pinning a lot of hopes on the visor helping so fingers crossed I won't be disappointed.

Thanks for your response

Kerry

Depression = low serotonin = antidepressant is propaganda from big pharma. No one has ever proved that depression is due to low serotonin, and it is not possible to measure the serotonin levels of a living human being.

Depression can be a very complicated issue with many different possible causes. Do you think you have SAD? Can you think of other reasons why you may be feeling the way you do? Sometimes depression or mood swings can be caused purely by nutritional deficiencies or illness. Often life issues and a person's methods of coping with them are a factor. It's difficult to know what to tell you specifically, but please bear in mind that antidepressants do not address the root cause of anything.

To be honest, what you describe sounds to me like the normal ups and downs of everyday life, especially given your circumstances. Our society is increasingly pathologising normal existence and suggesting that anyone who is not always happy and healthy all the time has a "condition." If you are stressed and have "family issues," whatever those may be, it would be unusual for you NOT to be feeling frustrated and low sometimes.

Hi piglet, I thought about the visor a couple of years ago, but was a little worried about eye strain, is there 1 or 2 settings on it or can you turn the light down further?


paul

Thanks for that, just had a look on the website, they dont look as silly as I thought, bit pricey though.Do you find that they work as well as a lightbox?

The way I understand it is that melatonin hinders the production of seratonin.

It's really interesting Debbs thanks. I do know that carb cravings are one of the main fundamental symptoms of SAD and one of the things that distinguish it from other illness'

Yep, that sounds like me. It s so obvious and simple when you put it like that Debbs.

When not taking drugs for depression, my sense of smell it terrific too, so perhaps that links up with the taste sensitivity you speak about.

One step closer to a cure...

Me x

HI debbs, thanks for your post, it has given me plenty to think about.

What are these trials Linda?Do you have more details?
As you well know,"clinical trials" when performed under certain conditions can produce any result you want.Most medications(not just Ad's)will"barely out-perform placebos"-but even to barely outperform is better than nothing surely.?

I was referring to the trials that drug companies use to get their drugs FDA-approved, though of course there are other studies. I was reading yesterday about one that supposedly showed Effexor was 10% more effective than SSRIs; but as other trials were done over time, this figure was whittled down to nothing. The article was written by a physician who had accepted cash and perks from Wyeth to give "talks" on Effexor to other doctors, in effect becoming a drug rep with an MD; eventually deciding he felt like a hypocrite, he quit.

You will get no argument from me about how clinical trials can be manipulated. I haven't seen anyone do such a good job of this yet, though, that anyone has hugely sung ADs' praise as a truly effective "cure" for depression. More often what I see is criticism that we are an increasingly medicalised society.

Is there particular info you are wanting? I would also ask, is this the place to discuss it? I don't feel like getting into arguments in other threads. You can talk to me in Antidepressant Info if you want.

you can purchase Osram or philips flourescent tubes in triphosphur 6500k
maybe if you change your light fitting in your kitchen to a flourescent fitting and fit these tubes then this will help, as the morning is when you need to increase your seratonin levels so as to give you a feeling of ell being throughout the day, and as most of us start the morning in the kitchen with breckfast this could be very helpfull for SAD.