OCD

[starlight]

Hi Shelley,

Thank you for all the info the other day, on the herbs for my son...listen, I had done some reading about OCD today, and I'm thinking he may suffer from that....he did fit the symptoms pretty much. This was a natural remedies site, and they suggested seratonin, and passiaflora (I don't know if I spelled that correctly)....LOL...they also said that St Johns Wart TINCTURE is very good for IMMEDITE relief of bad anxiety....now, before I go out and buy all this...I'd like your opinion.....how much seratonin and passiaflora should he take? Listen, thank you so much Shelley, I think I'd be lost without you!

Sincerely, Starlight
P.S.- he's been taking a Liver Support herbal complex from Solaray, with Milk Thistle in it......I was thinking that would help clean out the liver, and maybe THAT would also help...I imagine a clean liver would be beneficial here.

[shelley]

yes, a clean liver always supports your other efforts towards well being.

Seratonin is something the body is supposed to manufacture, it's one of those things that if you swallow, it will simply be digested, because all hormones are are simply very complex proteins. It won't necessarily affect your mood that way, it will just feed you.

But you CAN get things that ACT upon the body and brain so that it: produces more seratonin;
or accepts more seratonin in the seratonin-uptake process.

St. John's Wort is one of those things that acts upon the UPtake part of things, which is why it has such a long delay time before it actually starts working. Tincture or pill, it doesn't matter, it has about a 30 day lead time either way.

Tryptophan, the sleepy protein in Turkey and other poultry, and nutritional yeast flakes, plus calcium, is the best type of supplement for people with anxiety disorders that spring from a LACK of seratonin. There are lots of arguments about how to actually take the tryptophan and how much, so experimentation is necessary. It's definitely worth researching further into.

The big drug companies saw their profits dwindle when word got out that prozac and all those could be replaced with tryptophan, so they worked with the FDA and AMA to get it off the shelves for awhile but I think you can still find it. Most health food stores have a "depression" shelf with mood modifier type supplements, so if you can find one that has tryptophan AND St. John's Wort ttogether, that would act the fastest. Beware of ones with Valerian, Kava Kava, as they are very hard on the liver and not appropriate for long-term use.

Hope that helps!