Posted by Lao Tzu on June 4, 2008, at 10:06:18
In reply to Re: Bipolar Depression, posted by bleauberry on June 3, 2008, at 19:49:54
You know, I never tried lithium orotate. There's a product on the market called Serenity, but I've heard that there is no big advantage to taking lithium orotate as opposed to the pharmaceutical Eskalith (lithium carbonate). Some say you require less lithium orotate than lithium carbonate and so issues of toxicity favor a better profile for lithium orotate. But wikipedia says that therapeutic doses of lithium are approaching toxic levels, so I don't think there is any great advantage to taking lithium orotate over Eskalith. And most likely, no matter if you're taking elemental lithium or lithium carbonate you have to get regular blood tests to monitor blood levels of lithium, but that is not a big deal. And if you start having intolerable side effects from it, it may be just a matter of lowering the dosage. You just have to strictly monitor this drug, but then if you are hyperthyroid, you have to monitor your thyroid meds quite often. This is not a big deal if you really care about your health.
You asked about ALCAR and dosages of 3,000-4,000mg a day. These dosages may be therapeutic for people with Alzheimer's or people with severe mitochondrial dysfunction. I haven't really seen anything with ALCAR being a front-line treatment for Bipolar, however. I only take it because there is good evidence that mitochondrial dysfunction in certain areas of the brain is prevalent in bipolar disorder. Many of the genes coding for mitochondria have been seen as deficient in bipolars as opposed to schizophrenia which don't seem to have this deficiency. ALCAR is responsible for transporting fatty acids across the mitochondrial membrane, but I don't know if this is therapeutic for bipolars. It would probably help make the mitochondria slightly more efficient, but there are so many functions of mitochondria and so many different enzymatic reactions and co-factors involved that you are only addressing one aspect with ALCAR. It probably would require pharmaceutical intervention to correct any deficiencies of mitochondrial DNA, which is what scientists are now investigating. Personally, I have seen some benefit with COq10 in helping with fatigue, but there again, the dosage might be critical and I have experienced intolerable side effects from too high a dosage of COq10 including persistent nausea.
I am kind of excited about N-acetyl-cysteine because I have noticed some improvement in my depression, and it's been about two weeks. However, I have not found any information as to exact dosages that have been used in scientific experiments on humans. The studies are all preliminary at this point, but time will tell. So I think it's a shot in the dark at this point. I only take about 900mg of NAC a day, and this might be too low a dosage to have a major impact on depression. There's just no relevant scientific data about it for bipolar disorder at this time. And also, I am taking several other supplements with the NAC which may all work synergistically. For instance, pantothenic acid (B5), NAC, and ALCAR may together help with Coenzyme-A function in mitochondria, as well as magnesium. Vitamin C seems important for my depression, but I don't know if C has any major role in ATP production in the mitochondria. I will update my progress with NAC as the weeks and months progress.
poster:Lao Tzu
thread:832654
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20080326/msgs/832853.html