Folic Acid Helps Beat Depression

[yeahright]

Folic Acid Helps Beat Depression ; Goodhealth

Daily Mail

09-21-06

FOLIC acid, the vitamin linked to prevention of birth defects, may be a new treatment for depression.

Research shows that people with depression have low levels of the vitamin, and an NHS trial is being launched in which 700 people with moderate to severe depression will be given daily folate supplements.

The trial, scheduled to start later this year, comes in the wake of a report by researchers at St George's Hospital in London, which says that adding the vitamin to antidepressant medication may boost the overall effect of the treatment.

'We have found that 2mg of folic acid can help control the symptoms of depression when used in conjunction with medication, but more work is required to confirm these results,' say researchers.

Other studies suggest that folate deficiency may occur in up to one-third of patients with severe depression.

According to research at Tufts University in Boston, USA, men and women who have experienced major depression have lower concentrations of the vitamin in their blood than those who had never been depressed.

Just how it works is not clear, but the Tufts research, based on 3,000 people, suggests supplementation helps by reducing fatigue and improving energy levels.

Good natural sources for folate include spinach, cabbage and strawberries.

 

[bioman]

I take about 3-4 mg per day for my depression and YES, it works. Coupled with other co-factors like B12, selenium an chromium, it can really help with seasonal depression as well. It will of course, depend on where your depression is coming from. If it's deficiency related, which is very common IMO, then it will do very good things. For emotional trauma based depressions, obviously one needs to seek professional help.

 

[yeahright]

Depression is such a complicated condition with so many contributing factors that it seems like a baseline should be to address nutritional deficiencies and then work outwards from there to try and identify and alleviate other contributing factors.

 

[Kam]

This is funny, i've been taking 2 a day for the week. Looked at the bottle and it said one a day. So i stopped and now I feel like crap, chances are it's not a direct result, it could be the fact I woke up early. But from now on I'll keep on schedule because without the stims and natural boosters I don't feel that great. And this weather is depressin as fuk.

 

[FYI777]

Lots of folic acid supplements are only 400mcg. therefore one would need at least 5 pills,some are 800mcg. then only 3.

I think this supplement is much underated,as are all vitamins really.Considering the state of our food supply,something I feel we should get back from corporate big business and do ourselves, this and other studies are of extreme importance to everybodies well-being and are not being given due notice as they should be.

Yeahright your on the money with this as using nutrition first and formost as the foundation.

Think about all the people medicated for depression and never even asked about their nutritional habits or having their nutritional status assessed.

 

[bioman]

Depression is such a complicated condition with so many contributing factors that it seems like a baseline should be to address nutritional deficiencies and then work outwards from there to try and identify and alleviate other contributing factors.

That's basically what I did. I could not identify any real stressors or triggers for this depression that hung around from my teens until my late 20's when I began supplementing.

I had read of other studies about folic acid and gave it a try first. It helped quite a lot, but not 100%. Over time I cycled through various supplements until I hit upon the chromium and selenium. The trio pretty much took care of all of it except during the darkest days of winter. I may try to get a light box this winter for that reason, but last winter it was not even necessary. It was the first winter in my adult life that I was not depressed.

Obviously, a healthy balanced diet should be the cornerstone to this approach, but I get off track pretty often with diet so I use these 3 nutrients in pill form as insurance. As anyone who has had severe depression will say, you really don't want to go back to that place once you've struggled free from it.

 

[yeahright]

That's basically what I did. I could not identify any real stressors or triggers for this depression that hung around from my teens until my late 20's when I began supplementing.

I had read of other studies about folic acid and gave it a try first. It helped quite a lot, but not 100%. Over time I cycled through various supplements until I hit upon the chromium and selenium. The trio pretty much took care of all of it except during the darkest days of winter. I may try to get a light box this winter for that reason, but last winter it was not even necessary. It was the first winter in my adult life that I was not depressed.

Obviously, a healthy balanced diet should be the cornerstone to this approach, but I get off track pretty often with diet so I use these 3 nutrients in pill form as insurance. As anyone who has had severe depression will say, you really don't want to go back to that place once you've struggled free from it.

Those full specturm or "natural light" lightbulbs also work wonders. They're not as effective as the serious lightbox but they brighten up the whole home. They cost a lot more than regular bulbs but the quality of light makes an amazing difference during the winter. Just today I swapped out the bulbs in my kitchen overhead lighting with "natural light" bulbs in anticipation of the coming darkness.

GE Consumer & Industrial Lighting: Products: GE Reveal light bulbs

 

[juggernaut333]

interesting.400-800 has been the norm of dosages i have seen till now.i recently read in lef i think it was about using 2-3+mg dosages for life extension props.and its supposed to be even better at keeping homocysteine levels under control.
i dont have depression anymore but i still get bummed and always looking for things to improve overal mood.i have a bunch of folic acid,i may start taking 2mg per day and see if i notice anything.
is this more of an immediate effect or cumulative or both?

 

[bioman]

It will likely be a gradual change unless you are currently depressed. When I was pretty seriously depressed and started using folic acid, it made a huge difference in just a few days. In your case, it may decrease the number of blue days you get..or not. Depression can be different in everyone.

I may try out the lightbox deal this winter. I was thinking of hanging one over a treadmill (when and if I get one) for my AM cardio.