Posted by bobman on June 20, 2010, at 3:28:32
In reply to Re: please be civil » bobman, posted by Dr. Bob on June 20, 2010, at 2:21:42
Recovery has not been linear, and overall slower than I expected.
Amino acids & related:
At month 7 I discovered SAM-e, and ingesting that gave me the first cognitive/memory jump forward. I made huge progress within a few days of starting that (at low dose too...400mg first day, 200mg 2nd, and 100mg/day after that...gradually back up to 400/day within a few months). I haven't taken SAM-e for 3 months, and the improvements are here to stay. PS SAM-e is naturally produced by your body, so I consider it ok for recovery purposes, especially since it increases polyamine & monoamine synthesis (and therefore neurotransmitter synthesis btw) which was shut down by lamictal (partially by extracellular glutamate inhibition, but mainly because it reduces serum levels of methyl-tetrahydrofolate reductase, which is an enzyme necessary for the reduction of folate to the final, central nervous system relevant version of folate (5-methyl-tetrahydrofolate).Nootropics:
I wouldn't mess with any of the stronger stuff, for fear of psychological addiction (meaning piracetam and aniracetam).I'd recommend taking Acetyl-l-carnitine (ALCAR). ALCAR has very promising studies on its effects on neurite outgrowth in the presence of BDNF (BDNF is always present in the brain, is basically something that activates the growing function of your brain...neurites are baby neurons...if they are not able to connect to a neighboring neuron, they die, so anything that enhances neurite outgrowth is very good)
Herbs:
Research Ayurveda, namely medhva rasayana.I would recommend whole herb gotu kola and turmeric, organic from Frontier Coop or another high quality source. I eat 1-2 teaspoons/day of turmeric (this one is ~5% curcumin) and 4-9 grams of gotu kola. I would also recommend a good ashwagandha extract (NOW Ashwagandha is cGMP certified, recommended). All of these increase neurogenesis dramatically in animal studies, and are demonstrated to be neuroactive in humans. Curcumin is neurogenic only at a low dose, and so I wouldn't take an extract. The whole herb also has much higher bioavailability of curcumin, and provides enough curcumin (1-2 teaspoons aka 4-8grams of Alleppey turmeric is ~200-400mg curcumin). Ashwagandha I'd recommend an extract (NOW Ashwagandha is the best I've found). None of these herbs make you feel like you're taking a drug. And you are not. I would recommend you incorporate the gotu kola and turmeric into your diet, and after a time switch to whole herb ashwagandha and use it in tea.
Finally remember that until a circuit is restored there is no signal, and so you will not experience any change until the connection is melded. Taking the right herbs & nootropics will ensure that nerve regeneration is dramatically sped up, but regardless of how you approach your recovery, your experience of recovery will be non linear.
Pm me if you have any questions. I've done a few thousand hours of research on neurology, the systems that lamictal affects, neuronal plasticity in response to "soft" sources (like experience, meditation, emotional states), and "hard" sources, like pharmaceuticals, nootropics, & herbal psychoactive substances. There is very little that indicates that a person cannot recover fully. People say the brain is very fragile. This is logically implausible. The brain is the single most important organ in the body, and by far the most exposed. If it were fragile, we'd all be idiots by 25.
poster:bobman
thread:951199
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100615/msgs/951570.html