Posted by Tomatheus on May 27, 2014, at 20:13:02
Hello all,
I've decided to start taking olive leaf extract, in combination with the vitamin D3, niacin, and Abilify that I've been taking. I've taken olive leaf extract before, but never stayed on it for more than a few days at a time. This time around, I plan on giving the herb at least three weeks, assuming that I don't have any major problems tolerating it.
The reason why I'm taking olive leaf extract is that I'm starting to notice diminishing returns on the vitamin D3 that I've been taking to improve my energy, concentration, and overall cognition. I think that the condition or conditions that I suffer from would probably be best characterized as a combination of a psychotic disorder with a long-standing chronic fatigue. My current psychiatrist never discusses his diagnosis with me (although I'll admit that I haven't brought it up, either), and my last psychiatrist (before the one I'm currently seeing) told me that she thought I had schizoaffective disorder. So, I've basically got problems with energy, concentration, cognition, and sleep (especially needing too much of it) to contend with, in addition to some mild hallucinatory phenomena that the Abilify that I'm taking is mostly controlling. I've taken numerous supplements that have helped to an extent with my energy and concentration, but all of the supplements that have helped me have only helped temporarily before seemingly losing all therapeutic benefits.
The tests that I've had ordered have indicated an insufficient level of vitamin D, a high level of urinary pyrroles, and elevated white blood cells. As I said, I'm taking vitamin D3, but about four months into my current trial, the benefits I was noticing as far as energy and concentration were concerned seem to be fading. I think that one possible reason for the fact that my illness seems to be largely treatment resistant (aside from my "positive" psychotic symptoms, which seem to respond to some antipsychotics) is that I may have an infection that's not being addressed, as indicated by my high white blood cell count. As I mentioned in another Psycho-Babble post I wrote on this board not too long ago, I tried going to a doctor's office with my concerns, and they refused to even see me because all of my symptoms were psychiatric in nature.
So, at this time, I've decided to try olive leaf extract in hopes that it might control any infection that I may have. I'm thinking that I might possibly have toxoplasmosis because being infected with the Toxoplasma gondii protozoan has been associated with psychotic and mood disorders and because the inhibition of nitric oxide synthase has been found to lead to progressive toxoplasmic encephalitis and chronic ocular toxoplasmosis in mice (Ghaffarifar et al., 2010). I'm thinking that it's possible that the nitric oxide synthase inhibitor aminoguanidine, which I took about a month before the onset of my psychosis, might have somehow exacerbated a T. gondii infection that I might have had previously, changing the course of my illness. Of course, I don't know for sure that I have a T. gondii infection, but the fact that my white blood cell count has been elevated since 2007 is evidence of some infection, and I think for the reasons that I just stated that the infection I have might be caused by the T. gondii protozoan. Oleuropein, which is thought to be the main active ingredient in olive leaf extract, has been shown to have anti-T. gondii effects both in vitro and in vivo (Jiang et al., 2008), and I'm hoping that taking olive leaf extract will help my body fight off whichever infection I have, whether it's T. gondii or something else. I'm currently taking a capsule of the Nature's Way standardized olive leaf extract, which contains 250 mg of "olive extract (leaf), 12% oleuropein" and 180 mg of "olive (leaf)," twice a day. Any thoughts on whether the amount of olive leaf extract that I'm taking is likely to be effective? I just started the extract yesterday and might be noticing some improvements as far as energy and concentration are concerned, but I think it's far too early to make any definitive conclusions in that regard.
Thank you for reading, and I hope you're all doing well.
Tomatheus
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REFERENCES
Ghaffarifar, F., Abdolah Pour, M., Sharifi, Z., Dalimi Asl, A., & Al-Kawaz, E. (2010). The effect of vitamin D3 alone and mixed with IFN-γ on tachyzoites of toxoplasma gondii (rh strain) proliferation and nitric oxide (no) production in infected macrophages of balb/c mice. Iranian Journal of Parasitology, 5, 48-56. Article: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3279842/?report=classic
Jiang, J.H., Jin, C.M., Kim, Y.C., Kim, H.S., Park, W.C., & Park, H. (2008). Anti-toxoplasmosis effects of oleuropein isolated from Fraxinus rhychophylla. Biological & Pharmaceutical Bulletin, 31, 2273-2276. Abstract: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19043212
Has what seems to be an affective psychosis
Taking Abilify, olive leaf extract, & vitamins B3 & D3
poster:Tomatheus
thread:1066194
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20131226/msgs/1066194.html