Posted by LOOPS on October 9, 2006, at 22:14:01
In reply to Re: Any kind of herbal thing like xanax?, posted by sregan on September 15, 2006, at 15:41:19
Hi -
over the years I've found changing my diet and trying to find natural vitamins has been more important for anxiety than any herb or synthetic vitamin supplement.
If there was one thing I would recommend it would be either magnesium alone (not oxide or carbonate) or combined with calcium and zinc. AFter that, vitamin C, then fish oil, then a herbal concoction (Bupleurum & Dragon bone is a good Chinese anti-anxiety combo), or maybe passionflower (passiflora). Valerian can be good, but some people react badly to it (more alert). Kava can be very effective, but it is easy to overdo and become depressed (well for me anyway).
I have found a good potent extract (like 10:1) of Siberian Ginseng to be very balancing in a calming sort of way. Even red ginseng, if it is of high enough quality can be calming/balancing. I have found cheap ginseng more stimulating which doesn't seem good.
Zinc and B6 together are very good also. You need enough of these to manufacture taurine in the body. Taurine can be anti-anxiety, although I found it to be strangely energizing. I don't take amino acids as it is easy to mess up the balance in the body as I have found out with various aminos.
GLA - this had a profound effect on anxiety for me - I took it with fish oil. However I didn't like the eventual side-effects from continued use - lethargy, depression and also some weight gain (evening primrose oil). Fish oil alone helped me with depression but not with anxiety much.
5htp - really powerful for anxiety for me, but made me depressed. Again, I don't mess with aminos these days as they are too one-sided.
Gotu kola - excellent for social anxiety.
There are many others.
Loops
poster:LOOPS
thread:680873
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20060817/msgs/693441.html