Posted by Marc Boucher on November 25, 2005, at 12:24:41
In reply to Re: I was diagnosed with Dysthymia and ADHD., posted by Declan on November 25, 2005, at 11:49:39
> Marc, maybe if you can get your system into balance your sex drive will improve as a sign that you are just better off generally. Tryptophan might perhaps improve your sex drive by improving your sleep patterns.
**Interesting that you bring up sleep patterns and link it to better sex drive. In doctor Braverman's book : The edge effect, he says that serotonin is like a car's alternator, in that it recharges one's brain. He says that by serotonin deficiency throws off the balance of other neurotransmitters--one looses it's dopamine edge etc..so sleep appears to be MOST important in brain health. I recall that when I was discussing with him in his offcice, he said to me : *Marc, your brain is fried, but the good news is there's a 90% chance you're going to recover.*
What puzzles me though is that I constantly read that serotonin kills libido, and dopamine promotes it--in my case for instance Deprenyl TOTALLY killed what little sex drive was left, and tryptophan and/or 5-HTP really helps it--especially 5-HTP. Magnesium, and zinc make quite a difference in the sex drive btw--at least in my case--B6 and theanine help me much WRT libido as well. I'd be interested in knowing more about serotonin improving libido through better sleeping patterns--I like the juicy details.
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> Paxil might nor do much for your sex drive as such, but if it affects you favourably in a general way that may not matter. The Paxil dose is lowish so there's that much less chance of it damaging you**Yep, the dosage is on the low side--I agree that it shouldn't harm me much, however I cannot help but wonder why he prescribed Paxil, since I kept complaining about a very low sex drive ? Perhaps I should consider that Paxil might provide improvement in my overall physical condition, which would impact libido indirectly.**
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> Why do you think Braverman doesn't use NE as one of his categories? Is it (for him) a subsection of dopamine? Linkadge said something about a seesaw balance between NE and Acetylcholine, so I wondered whether your NE levels were low.**Funny that you ask that about NE--I too have wondered about it, but I honestly don't know why he diddn't include it as a fifth neurotransmitter in his book. I think that he must see DA and NE as walking side by side if you will, cause he uses pharmaceutical drugs that increase NE. What is the seesaw relationship between NE and Ach that you mentioned above ? I'd like to know more about that, as I'm not enlightened about that very relationship.**
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> Yeah and uh, the penile vascular study...like, how do they do it? I've never heard of it, but now that I have I'm interested. Something like a mammogram?**The penile vascular study, uh well, I sure don't like that kind of examination, but now I know that blood flow in my willy is A ok. It's quite a simple procedure : The technician had me lie down on the DXA scan table (bone and adiposity scanning machine) since it was the nearest one--the procedure goes like this : you lie on your back, the technician gave me a velcro cuff to put around the base of my penis (I only had to unzip my pants--no need to get nacked)which I did myself(the tecnician doesn't get to touch your penis, which is great to me)--once you got that cuff set up, he then gives you a light-weight plastic clamp--one end of the clamp harbors a sensor, so at first you put the sensor-side of the clamp up, then he performs a reading, then he has you flip it around to get the underside of the glans penis, and does another reading--the whole thing takes a maximum of 10 muinutes. Of course you have to pull down on the foreskin before you can position the clamp. I forgot to mention that the velcro cuff in inflatable, so when both the clamp and velcro cuff are in place, that technician inflates the cuff as part of the penile vascularity reading. I hope it helps. I knew my penis had no vascular issue going, cause when my sex drive is up, my penis inflates like magic, but now I got confirmation of it.**
**I wonder whether Dysthymia can lower LH and FSH ? I found indiction that major depression does, but not in Dysthymia.**
Have a good day there Declan
Marc
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> Declan
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poster:Marc Boucher
thread:580925
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20051025/msgs/582084.html