Natural/Herbal Remedies

Baffled

Feel free to move thread if in the wrong place.

Just wondering does anybody know of natural remedies or supplements you can take to promote good mental health. Ive heard of Ginseng and Gingko Biloba. Any one ever use these (or anything else)?

xzanti

St. Johns Wart... You cant get it in the republic for some reason but you can buy it over the counter up the north

MojoMaker

:eek:

Beruthiel

moved to Biology / Medicine me thinks....
B

DrIndy

In answering this question without specifics.

There are a great number of herbal remedies available. Some are effective and have a reasonable level of evidence base (but not always high enough for doctors to base prescribing on). Others are blatant quackery and it is hard to distinguish this from something which has a small evidence base for effectiveness.

A good site to consider is www.healthspan.co.uk

A number of herbal remedies are banned in ireland which are not in britain - this is because they have potentially very serious adverse effects.

St. John's Wort (which is a mild antidepressant) substantially increases the risk of skin sensitivity to sunlight in certain people and interferes seriously with chemotherapy drugs - hence it is prescription only in ireland.

Gingko Biloba dilates blood vessels and "thins blood". It is regularily used as a tonic amongst elderly people in the far east and there is a small evidence base that this has an effect on cognition and improves memory. However, it interferes with and exagerates the blood thinning effect of aspirin and other drugs and so use together is potentially dangerous (hence ban in ireland).

Gingseng has a very long history of use going back millenia. This has few known interactions (hence on sale in ireland). However, overuse results in the ginseng effect - where blood pressure rises.

Fish oils are also something that are used at times. There is some evidence that these improve cognition in people who are depleted in omega-3 fatty acids. There is a very strong base for evidence that fish oils help in people with heart disease (doctors advise this now and there are high-strength presciption only fish oil extracts available)

Remember that herbal remedies although natural, are impure substances and you are not taking a refined controlled product which a doctor would prescribe. The quality of the product varies also substantially. There are also potentially serious interactions with prescribed drugs. Therefore most doctors are very wary of prescription or endorsing any natural remedies (except in china).

Many websites making claims offer none or very little substantiation for their claims.

This is a website which is run under the umbrella of the National Institute of Health in the USA which offers extensive information on complementary medicines and provides evidence base for their use. http://nccam.nih.gov/

Caution is key.......

Pet

Therefore most doctors are very wary of prescription or endorsing any natural remedies (except in china).

And Germany; herbal prescriptions exceed pharmaceutical prescriptions there (something like 54:46).

Just wondering does anybody know of natural remedies or supplements you can take to promote good mental health. Ive heard of Ginseng and Gingko Biloba. Any one ever use these (or anything else)?

It depends what you mean by "mental health". Do you want to improve your cogniton/memory? Do you want a boost for exams/study? Or are you looking for something to alleviate mild depression/anxiety? There are literally hundreds of different remedies you can try. I suggest you start with www.curezone.com, although take it with a pinch of salt, some of the treatments there can be a bit extreme (not dangerous in any way, just a lot of effort).