Inositol

[SassyDevil]

Is anyone taking inositol? I have read it's very good for OCD, almost as good as an SSRI without the side effects, and I want to find out if it's true. I've been advised not the take the inositol until I get my "fatty acids" up (however I do that), and I've read powder is better (except I already got tablets), but I'd like to get info. What are the risks? And has it helped those of you taking it?

[tootall]

all I know is that it's in the multi vitamin I take Sorry I'm not more help

[TryingtoGetWell]

Hi Sassy Devil,

I'm one of the few people (or only one, maybe) here taking inositol, and I'm taking it in maximum therapeutic amount, extremely high dose, though I started with capsules and worked up in dose slowly, since I developed severe sensitivities to other nutritional supplements in w/d, even though I used to take many of them with good results.

I don't take inositiol for OCD, but have read that it can help some people with that. I started taking it because although I wasn't put on paxil for depression and didn't have depression, when I stopped taking paxil I developed really severe clinical depression, along with anhedonia, depersonalization, and indescribably feelings of terror for no reason.

I hadn't found paxilprogress at that time, but in researching on the net for something to relieve the changes that had abruptly happened to me, I found the research on a study of large therapeutic doses of inositol helping some people with clinical depression (the study had nothing to do with paxil or ADs).

Although inositol is considered to be a B vitamin, it technically isn't a B vitamin, although it's considered part of the B family because it works synergistically with them or something. It's actually an isomer of glucose. I can't tolerate B vitamins anymore, but I had no problem with inositol, and take the largest dose use used in the study I read about. And I can't even tolerate enriched flour products due to the B vitamins in them.

Whether the inositol is helping me or not I don't know. The study said it takes a month of so of continuous use to work, and you lose the benefits if you stop taking it. I think it's helping me, but with w/d so much was going on it's hard to be sure. I do know it's not causing any bad effects, and I think I feel worse if I miss a dose so I continue to taking it.

What the study says is that they found that many people with clinical depression had very low levels of inositol in their cerebrospinal fluid. (That may be true re OCD too, I just didn't notice.)

The reason for using the powder form is that to take therapeutic, rather than nutritionally supplemental, amounts, you need to take large amounts - 12-18 grams a day were used in the published study. That means you need to take the powder form by the spoonful! (The average daily DIETARY intake of inositol is one gram/day, from what I've read.)

I was so concerned about the extreme sensitivities I developed that I started with low doses (the capsules, a bit at a time) just to see how I'd respond. I didn't have the exacerbation of w/d symptoms that I had with B and other vitamins (and minerals etc.). So I gradually increased first the amount of fractions of caps (!), then the number of caps per day, then got the powder and gradually used that. I now take the max used in the study, approx 18 grams a day. (The dosage depends on how concentrated the powder is; they all vary slightly - they're not synthetics like most vitamins, at least not the brand I use or the other pharmaceutical grade brands I've seen, and I do strongly recommend getting pharmaceutical grade only. The brand I use is Jarrow and is made from rice only; I use that because it's what the store near me carries and is pharmaceutical grade, though pure encapsulations, I believe it was, is another good brand that makes it and there are a few others.

Like I said, I increased dose very gradually over time to make sure I had no bad reactions. For many months now (since the end of last year , I think!) I've been taking three doses per day (divided doses throughout the day is important according to what I read), two and a half teaspoons per dose. (That's why the powder; no way you could get that or even a lower therapeutic dose from capsules, though the caps are an excellent way to start to see how your body tolerates it - as with any supplements, some people have had bad reactions though I don't know the purity of the brand they used.)

I really can't be sure if it's helping me or not, but it definitely isn't causing any problems and I'm doing better than before, though it's no magic cure. I have no idea if w/d caused me to have low cerebrospinal levels of inositol, but there was no way I was going to have a spinal tap to find out, so I just increased it very gradually to make sure no bad reactions. I'm not symptom-free of the depression that started with w/d, but I'm doing better, and I will not take a larger amount than the maximum used in the study.

The Israeli study I mentioned was the first of only a few studies done on inositol that I'm aware of; I found this article on pdrhealth helpful: http://www.pdrhealth.com/drug_info/n...myo_0145.shtml

(By the way, it tastes like powdered sugar but not as sweet, so you can just mix it in a little bit of water and swallow it down with no problem.) But with any supplement, I advise starting with very small amounts and increasing only gradually. It isn't going to work right away, anyway.

[SassyDevil]

Thanks Toot and Trying. The info really helped.

I didn't know it tasted sweet. That could be helpful.

[Betsy]

I tried to use Inositol last year in the pill form and it made things worse for me. I found out later that you are supposed to take it with choline, as well. And I didn't know anything about the powder form and didn't have the info Trying is referring to. Definitely follow her suggestions first, don't just take the pill. It just exacerbated my already rough time. Good luck to you.
Betsy

[Songbird]

I read somewhere that studies had been done that showed inositol worked as a treatment for depression. I hadn't heard about it being used for OCD, that is interesting. It doesn't sound like it's dangerous, so I guess it could be worth a try!

[SassyDevil]

Thank you so much for that info, Betsy.

Songbird, here's a really good article about Inositol and OCD I found earlier today: http://www.homestead.com/westsuffolk...l_and_OCD.html

[genevieve]

here is an article who says that inositol (and kava) can be good for anxiety.

http://www.aafp.org/afp/20070815/549.html

I was surprised to read this since the medical world is usually so suspicious of natural products.

[TryingtoGetWell]

I've read some things about kava that disturbed me very much. It certainly should not be taken along with psychotropic meds (I don't have the thread in front of me so I don't know if you're still tapering; even if you're off you may have reactions to some things like kava for a while, from what I've read).

I don't know if you'll feel better or feel worse on inositol. For me it took a long time to have an effect (you need to try it for at least a month, taken regularly, and I was so ill at that time I don't know that I felt the effects even that soon, I just knew I didn't feel worse or have side effects, which I did - and still do - with all other supplements, even those that helped me before w/d, so that to me was a sign my body might need it). You won't get immediate results from what I've read.

(I've read that magnesium supplements, which help a lot of people here, can take a month or so of taking daily before beneficial results are felt, but then the beneficial results are felt quite soon after taking it. It may be a similar process with inositol.)

But my bad reactions to supplements happen quite quickly, usually the same day or within days, so if that happens (you may need to try it more than once to see if a possible bad reaction was just coincidence or a "bad day" but if you do that, allow at least four days to a week or more between trials) stop taking it and you should feel better soon. It won't stay in your system long.

Betsy mentioned in this thread that you're supposed to take inositol with choline. Normally that's true, since they work synergistically in the body. But if you're taking inositol for therapeutic reasons, which possibly means a real deficiency in inositol, that isn't necessarily true. You can see what works best for you, but I don't take choline supplements at all, just quite large amounts of inositol. For some reason I seem to need that, at least at this time.

Now that I think about it, I might try taking choline in the future, but I know I have in the past and it didn't do anything for me or even might have had a negative on me. That might have been before w/d - I'm really not sure now. It may be that I need a lot more inositol than food can provide, but don't need extra choline. I don't know. If I had some sort of imbalance, presumably caused by w/d, in how my body processes or eliminates inositol but not of choline, that might explain why I seem to need much more of one and not the other, when normally it's advised to take (smaller doses of) both choline and inositol to supplement inadequate dietary intake.

It may take some trial and error to find what works best for you. I'd suggest that if you feel worse, absolutely stop taking it, then decide if you want to try it again at a different time. If the results are the same, you'll have learned more about what your body needs, and like I said, it should be eliminated quite quickly from your body and you'd feel better soon - that's the case with me with other supplements, which still cause bad reactions for me in even tiny doses. At least I don't get any long-lasting bad effects from supplements, unlike meds!

If you do try the inositol, be sure to get a brand that's pharmaceutical grade. If you want suggestions about what kind to get, feel free to PM me. I've only used one brand, but there are several quality brands that selll it. It should say pharmaceutical grade on the label, or you can contact the manufacturer for more information.

I started writing this post re kava - I'd really suggest you research this thoroughly, and avoid it altogether if you're still on any medication. But some people have had quite bad reactions to it, and even sixteen months off I don't feel confident in trying it or in taking any preparation that contains it as an ingredient, even if it's a very reputable brand I have experience with. Physically, my nervous sytem is in too bad a condition post-paxil for me to risk it.