Have you tried Vitamin D and magnesium aminoacid chelate / orotate / citrate.
On the other, I spent nearly two decades of my life suffering from this horrendous illness, and nothing has helped as much as daily magnesium does.
I take a big Magnesium pill, a men's health multivitamin and I add D in the winter. Even my sleep apnea went away, and there's no damn reason that makes any sense.
Biology is stupid.
If you are depressed/whatever always check your stats if you haven't already (i.e., take a blood test, check your vitamins). Maybe it won't help, but better get that out of the way because those things can make a dramatic difference.
I'm continually amazed at how many people on a host of antidepressants never done any kind of test with their GP.
I buy quite a few things from iherb.com, their shipping from California to Tasmania is quite swift, and they sell a brand called Now Foods which seem to consistently have what I want at the best price.
Any of the magnesium glycinate, citrate, orotate, here https://www.iherb.com/c/Magnesium should be okay. You just want to avoid magnesium oxide, it's poorly absorbed and causes water retention in the guy, possibly leading to loose bowels.
Here in Australia we're lucky to have a few brands that do good magnesium gylcinate / citrate / orotate powders with cofactors - a few B vitamins, but especially B6, folate, B12.
One good way to lose yourself in this is to start with The Nutrient Bible by Henry Osiecki.
Maybe you could import a few pounds of magnesium glycinate and have it tested, I've heard the testing isn't that expensive when you're dealing with multiple thousands of doses of a product.
And, yikes: https://labdoor.com/review/solgar-magnesium-citrate
But I think it may have been discontinued or changed recently- my orders on Amazon say the ASIN that I ordered no longer exists? Regardless, "Magnesium Glycinate Lysinate Chelate" is the keywords I'm looking for when I find a new source.
I'm taking a single 100mg pill per day, though I've recently noticed the recommended dose is 200mg. shrug I guess 100 is enough for me, when combined with my other dietary intake.
I was already taking magnesium, B6 ... everything else.
8000 to 12000IU of Vitamin D a day for four weeks weeks cured me of my suicidal ideation / depression / emotional instability / irritability.
I went to the doctor and got a prescription for antidepressants a couple of times, drove to the pharmacist and sat in the carpark in my car crying for half an hour before I drove home without getting the medication.
Vitamin D was the keystone that's made all the other supplements work way better.
Now I'm on a much lower maintenance dose, a few hundred IU a day average taken as larger random doses throughout the week.
I guess it makes sense if I think about it, I get almost no sun exposure, and when I am outside I'm covered in long sleep and pants because the sun here in Tasmania is either too low in the sky to warrant shorts and a tshirt, or it's summer and the sun here cooks my pale skin in minutes.
Your millage may vary. Vitamin D and magnesium are considered very non-toxic even at stupendously high dosages for short periods of time. And they're both fairly cheap.
Disclaimer: this does not constitute medical advice, do your own research, and all of that. I'm not insured to give nutritional advice.
It’s not uncommon for doctors around these parts to prescribe pharmastist depended 20,000IU gel caps, after a test of course.
Also, there was an article doing the rounds a few months back indicating we neee way more vitamin D than the current guidelines. I’ll see if I can dig it up.
Edit to add: here we go https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15867918
Can you point me to some further reading, thanks.
I'm not in any high-risk categories for asymptomatic chronic infections, so I'm not sure this is a concern.
There remains a question: should health, asymptomatic, fit / active, non-smoking, non-drinking, individuals, undergo a barrage of tests at Medicare's (public health insurer in Australia) expense?
Also, I studied nutritional medicine in a formal setting for four years, so I consider myself sufficiently qualified to make that call. Otherwise, you're probably right, it makes sense, in general, for people to have tests for nutrient deficiencies, especially if there are comorbidities.
I very much agree that a healthy person should not do random tests. But when there is a suspicion of deficiency, one should investigate thoroughly before taking big doses of a steroid hormone that may suppress immune system otherwise known as “Vitamin D”.
That's what my aunt says about homeopathy.
On the one hand, homoeopathy is just expensive water, so it probably can't do much harm. Except that people might substitute it for actual medicine, or other therapies, that do work.
On the other hand, placebos work, so <shrug>.
On the other-other hand (you make me wish I had three hands), vitamin deficiency is a real thing.
No, it's not, homeopathic remedies have been recalled multiple times for having serious harmful ingredients, most often dangerous levels of things on the official ingredient list that would not be possible with the claimed dilution.
The thing to realize with homeopathy is that it claims to be made by a process that would leave only expensive water, but because of that it is not subject to the kind of controls which would provide any advance assurance that anything like the claimed process is actually used. So, effectively, homeopathy could be just about anything.
I spend 10 of those indoors at work.
It's not feasible for me to get enough sun light most of the year.
For a lot of people, supplementing with a specific vitamin/mineral will help. For many others it will have minimal to no effect.
It's probably worth having a test for Vitamin D if you have any depressive tendencies.
I used to be extremely depressed. If you are low on a single vitamin or mineral it can mess you up.
Most of the food we eat now tends to be lower in key micronutrients. Add stress, caffeine, lack of sun, alcohol, lack of sleep and those micronutrients can get consumed or flushed out of your body fast.
Exercise can also deplete those key nutrients due to sweat.
Now I take a shotgun approach, supplement all vitamins and minerals and then begin trying to add more structure and discipline to my life to control the feeling of helplessness and chaos.
Depression is complicated.