How To Fight Depression With Supplements

In this article today I'd like to talk about several different methods that you can use to help fight depression with simple over-the-counter supplements.

Depression, called clinical depression, affects millions of Americans and in fact millions of people all over the world and can be devastating not just to the person who has it but also to their surrounding family and friends as well. The first thing anybody who thinks they may have depression should do is to consult a doctor.

I'm not suggesting that you don't consult a doctor and I'm not suggesting that you don't follow their advice. The generally prescribed treatment for depression is to place the patient on a regime of antidepressant pills such as Prozac or other similar pills. These can work very well but unfortunately 3 out of 10 people seem to fail to get better from them. This article is for those people more than anyone else.

Certain supplements have proven to be quite effective when it comes to fighting depression. The first thing to focus on is finding a high potency multivitamin or multi-mineral complex. Make sure that it contains about 50 mg of each of the B. vitamins. B. vitamins help to supply some things that are needed to manufacture neurotransmitters.  When you have depression your body can no longer create adequate levels of neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine so anything you can do to boost those levels using supplements is beneficial.

The next supplement to focus on is S-adenosylmethionine or SAM-e.  What this is is a bioactive form of the amino acid methoinine which enhances neurotransmitter activity. There have been many many studies that suggest SAM-e is quite effective in combating depression. Most of these tests are high-quality double-blind and a placebo controlled tests.

You're going to want to take about 200 mg once a day and after about a week or so you may find it necessary to increase that up to two doses a day. Be sure to consult with your doctor before taking any sort of supplement whatsoever.

Finally you want to look at different herbal supplements which have been effective at mood enhancing activities. St. John's wort is a fantastic herb that has been shown in over a dozen studies to combat depression significantly. It also helps to increase a feeling of well-being which is an added bonus. Basically what it does is block your brain from soaking up serotonin which means more of it stays in your system where it's needed to combat depression.

The normal dosage is about 300 mg several times a day. Some people can get away with only twice a day while others need up to four times a day and it may take up to two and sometimes three weeks before you start to see results. Again you should consult your doctor before taking any sort of supplement including this one.

So there you have several different ways to fight depression using regular over-the-counter supplements. You don't need a doctor to buy the supplements though I highly suggest you consult your doctor before taking any of them.