Herbal Relief for Depression: St. John's Wort

[abductor]

Hey all,
At least as effective for moderate to severe depression as drug from Prozac family.
Does

anybody here use that herb?

reference:
http://www.hypericum.com/

[]s
Duc.

[Gegogi]

I use it sometimes. To be

effective you have to take it several times a day to build it up in your system. In other words it's not like an

aspirin. Also, it makes you extremely photosensitive (sunburns easily) and defeats birth control

pills.

However, I found licorice root, consumed in tea or capsule form, can be taken like an aspirin. It

provides an obvious mood boost in 15-20 minutes. It's very good for stage fright. It does increase heart beat a

little.

[DrSmellThis]

Never heard of the licorice

remedy, but St John's Wort has a lot of research in Europe supporting its use for moderate depression. By

itself at least, it seems less effective with severe, clinical depression.

I take two capsules a day, and

notice the difference when I don't. I also take 5-HTP, which to me gives some short and long term benefits. Even

the St Johns seems to have some short term benefits to me personally; though the major bennies are long term.



B-vitamins, fish oil and Mood Max (sexual health product from action-love.com) round it out for me. I do pretty

well with mood these days.

[belgareth]

http://www.thorne.com/altmedrev/fulltext/inositol3

-6.html (http://www.thorne.com/altmedrev/fulltext/inositol3-6.html)
http://healthinfo.healthgate.com/GetContent.aspx?token=e0498803-7f62-4563-8d47-5fe33da65dd4&chunkiid=21

766 (http://healthinfo.healthgate.com/GetContent.aspx?token=e0498803-7f62-4563-8d47-5fe33da65dd4&chu

nkiid=21766)

[DrSmellThis]

The Thorne site where you got

that is very reputable.

Inositol is a primary component of lecithin, along with choline.

[belgareth]

Those were convienant links.

There are a lot of others. Some of the best work was done at the University of Tel Aviv. If St. John's Wort

doesn't work that would be another good compound to try.