|
My 2C.. Our system doesn't provide the testing and data to make accurate, choices to build upon. We are at the mercy of over worked Drs, who look at basic tests, and often just have a minute to review at most. Our health is bound to the sheer luck of drawing a Dr who reads between the lines and can spot/sympathize/analyze our various issue(s). My hypothesis is that there is too much variance in day to day life, activity, stress, food and liquid intake. In order to really test something I'd like to limit variables by using health apps for BP and HR, limiting diet by using something like Soylent for a month. That would establish the baseline test, then implement the change/drug/supplement, and test daily or weekly. FWIW Yohimbe made me feel like shit. I would caution anyone looking at quick fixes without reading and setting up groundwork to accurately test yourself, even if its only anecdotal. Why do I say we need to personally track things? There's a lot to learn.
Is your system starved for, or already flooded with the element you're about to consume? Is your system lacking a precursor? Is your system failing downstream to break something else down which is causing a cascading build up? Everybody up-regulates and down-regulates stimulants, catacholamines, etc at different rates. Are you able to break it down from it's required co-factors upstream or downstream? As for Yohimbe, our adrenergic receptors are part of the puzzle there. Many people have metabolic enzymatic variances, deficiencies, to full blown impairment and we all have changing levels of receptors. Some elements cross the blood brain barrier, some don't. Some people can benefit from a supplement, or an enzyme but to others it's actually detrimental since it may block another pathway. Even commonly known Dopamine and Serotonin require various ingredients that may or may not be present in our systems such as dopamine beta hydroxylase, LDopa, BH4, etc. Various receptor density in any area can impact both the uptake and down regulation, while cascading their impact neighboring systems. We as humans, are all very different on what works, and what doesn't. It sucks, and it's amazing. |
Of course psychiatrists have a difficult job - there isn't a simple blood test for many mental conditions, for example, so starting out by compiling checklists is almost unavoidable. But none of the psychiatrists whose care I've ever been under (8 or 9 I think) has ever done so much as a blood draw or discussed even the possibility of doing a brain scan, or well, anything.
At best I've gotten confirmation for the research I did on the internet or in the library, and while I'm sure it's very annoying to have patients with no medical degree coming in and asking half-baked questions about this or that study, I don't feel very sympathetic considering that it's really the psychiatrist's job to apprise the patient of those options, or at least to take the patients' reports and suggestions seriously and work wit the information available.
While I'm (obviously) pissed off about all this, at the same time I consider myself very lucky - I live in the age of the internet and despite having a lot of mental problems I'm also smart and discriminating so at least I'm able to exert some influence over my own treatment. Most people with mental illness enjoy no such advantages. My best friend suffered a psychotic break about a year ago and was institutionalized for most of a month, right here in the Bay Area. Conditions were better than a jail, but not much. I was especially struck by the dire low quality of the food; how can you expect people to get better when their nutrition is such an obviously low priority?
I'm going to shut up now - as you can see I have a vested interest in this topic and the inequities anger me so much that it doesn't make for good conversation. Apologies to my fellow HNers who may have found this difficult to read.