04/17/2010: Sheryn from Milwaukee, Wi: "Susan and others...I noticed while researching several options to treat low-level depression, that many caution against using if your depression has a bipolar (manic) component. My guess is that increasing serotonin in that instance leads to the manic activity and irritability (depressed mood manic energy me = one serious crabby-butt, lesson learned with an ill-fated combo of stimulants for attention deficit).

The solution for you may lie in working with other parts of your brain chemistry. Maybe see what folks are recommending for bipolar/cyclothymia."

[YEA]  07/28/2009: Sveta from Des Plaines, IL: "Having been suffering from bipolar, bulimia, anxiety disorder and depression for 5 years. Tried ACETYL L-CARNITINE. Have one thing to say, it's freaking amazing! I'm surprised you don't hear about it much. It helps my anxiety better than cold showers, antidepressants, and even Xanax! I'm so happy that that i found out about it. It's like the hell I've been living in for years is over. This supplement has the strength of a prescription drug. I advise everyone who has anxiety problem to give a try. Though I need like 50 mg a day instead of 5000 the way they recommend. 5000 is too much for me to tolerate. Find your dosage. And never give up. Try every supplement for depression and anxiety out there, one by one. Some will do nothing, some will make you feel worse, but there'll be one, two, or even more that will help you and make your life a beautiful and joyful thing to have. Good luck everyone."

EC: More info about this supplement on our L-carnitine page.

[YEA]  09/23/2012: Lighta from Auckland, New Zealand replies: "i agree! Started taking it on intuition a couple of days ago. My depression (bipolar2) is already much improved thanks to supplements, diet and stress-free lifestyle changes over 6 years, but this is giving me a noticable extra boost: dont get fatigued nearly as easily, noticably better tolerance to stress and to sugar-induced anxiety, better clarity, not wanting to comfort-eat, and finding a calm smile on my face. Have read briefly online about how it helps all kinds of things, from excercise recovery, energy, any degerantive brain diseases, heart function etc. Im taking 500-1000mg a day. I have read cautions for people with bipolar or who are taking some medications, and that doses higher than 3g may make some people nauseous, get stomach upset etc."

09/01/2008: Teresa from Kenedy, Texas: "Some information on blue light therapy, link at bottom of page.

Using blue light for "light therapy"

As you probably know, there's a version of depression called "Seasonal Affective Disorder" (SAD), or "winter depression". This kind of depression -- which is very common in people with Bipolar II -- can be treated with light. Plain old light will do, but in some parts of the country in December plain old light is hard to come by So several decades ago researchers studied whether sitting in front of a bank of lights for 30-60 minutes might help reverse the seasonal sag in mood, and found that indeed some people seemed to respond very well. In the most recent study of "light therapy", sitting in front of a box of light every morning during a Canadian winter was as effective as fluoxetine (Prozac).

But the light needed for this, from a suitcase-sized "light box", was hard to get: insurance companies almost never pay for these boxes, which are expensive, usually around $250-300. They are not very portable.

However, now a very small light box is available for around $140 (e.g. from Costco last winter) that's much more portable, so you can use it where you happen to be in the morning. The key was finding just the right wavelength of light for this purpose, which allowed the box to be much smaller. I hope you already know, from the story above, what wavelength that is: blue light -- the striped peak in the graph above, which comes from the manufacturer's website (I have no financial connection to that manufacturer, and get no gain from telling you this story. I'm telling it here because I think it's a great story, and because understanding it may help people get an effective treatment they might not have considered otherwise).

This little light box has been tested for effectiveness just as the older bigger light boxes have, and shown to be superiorGlickman to the "control" condition -- a dim red light, admittedly not the greatest control condition, but this research has been hard to do, coming up with a plausible "placebo" treatment. A better test would be a comparison of the blue light versus white light, which might be more plausible as a placebo, as the older light boxes emit a white light. That study has been done, and the blue light was superior (not yet published, the manufacturer tells me, as of June 2006). The best test would be a head-to-head study of the little blue one versus one of the older big ones, which we know from years of research are truly better than a placebo. But the blue-light manufacturers have little incentive to do that study (what if theirs was not as good?), so we're not likely to see that research unless one of the manufacturers of the old light box pays for it!

link http://www.psycheducation.org/depression/BlueLight.htm"

EC: For more information on this remedy, please see our Blue Light Therapy page.

[YEA]  08/04/2005: Trevor from Cambridge, NY: "My hot water tank malfunctioned recently so I had to take cold showers. At first I dreaded the idea but have since found that tepid showers invigorate my spirit and lighten my mood. I'm bipolar and have crushing depressive episodes. Believe me when I say that I feel my cold showers mitigate the effects of my dark moods and project a feeling of well being and joy throughout my whole body and mind!"

[YEA]  06/21/2012: Rcohen from Kingsport, Tn: "On the track of researching a more broad based concept, having BiPolar Illness, Fibro and now Cancer in our family, I have discovered a few common demoninators across many "chronic diseases". First we must note our medical system's propensity to sell symptoms to the general public AS illnesses so they can "treat" them indefinitely. Then understand that most things we eat, consume as medicinal, breath or otherwise consume is TOXIC, and in the case of foods, contain little to zero nutritional value. Even if the food is SUPPOSED to be healthy for you, the way most companies TREAT / PROCESS it will leave it devoid of any of the good stuff.

With that said, MOST illnesses I believe, including Cancer (look at Essiac Tea), Fibro and BiPolar is due to a toxicity, deficiency and lack of good nutrition or at least nutrition that makes it where it needs to go on a cellular level. Most processed foods CLOG the body to the point where it can't ABSORB the nutrition FROM the foods that we consume, if even it WERE good for us.

The answer in most cases is to DETOX as a regularity and to supply your body with a nutritional boost of some kind (specific to your symptoms) to offset the rest.

Cheers, rcohen"

[YEA]  03/24/2007: George from Houston, Texas: "My girlfriend suffers from bipolar mania and PMS, and I've tried hard to figure out why she can be the most perfect, wonderful, loving girlfriend for months, then turn into a mean, vicious, heartless, remorseless monster and kick me out of the house. Then she started taking an herb called fenugreek to increase milk production while breastfeeding. Within less than two weeks she transformed back into the wonderful, loving woman I fell in love with and it was better than ever! After doing more research I determined that the culprit was a neuropeptide hormone called oxytocin, the love hormone. It's responsible for milk production, bonding, trust, openness, reduction in stress/anxiety, and to some extent libido. It was a beautiful transformation! Apparently there was an intranasal form of oxytocin available previously, but now you have to get it custom made, but fenugreek seems to promote its production. I guess the key is to make sure that she takes it regularly while her oxytocin levels are high and she's still reasonable! Otherwise the bad version of her may refuse to take it!"

[WARNING!]  12/20/2008: Kira from Saratoga, NY: "If you have bipolar tendencies (e.g. getting hypomanic when taking an SSRI anti-depressant) be careful when taking flax seed oil, a very small percentage get hypomanic (e.g. you feel like you have ants in your pants and can't sit still). When such a person continues to take the flax oil, it may trigger a manic episode.

I can tolerate Omega 3s in fish oil but not flax oil or flax mixed with cottage cheese. Not many people seem to know this side effect of flax that effects like 1% or so of users but somewhere online I came across it after already experiencing it myself. Most people aren't bothered."

[YEA]  08/07/2008: Monique from San Diego, California: "My husband has bipolar disorder, mostly manic. He has been taking GABA (amino acid), about 3 or 4 per day, which really helps. He also takes lithium aspartate, about 5 per day, 5 mg. each. Both of these are found at our local health store. These are both calming for him, provided he takes enough. If he escalates into mania, he takes a little more GABA daily, until balanced again."

09/26/2008: Donnie from Albuquerque, New Mexico: "Hey Daniel, I had a bipolar girlfriend. In doing Internet research I found a natural supplement company out of Canada called "True Hope." Though Julie never tried it (in denial about her bipolarity), I heard some good things about it. I remember that it was a lot cheaper than lithium or other less-natural symptom suppressors. Since you're on an all-natural kick, this might be something you might be interested in."

03/14/2011: Jasmine from Budd Lake, Nj: "So true your article was. I just wanted to say that I appreciated it. I am bipolar as well. I am an artist and a musician and mechanic and a cook and so on and so on. I have learned to embrace my multi talents and my deep emotion. Like you said most of the world will never feel as we feel or be as talented and interesting as we are. Well said!"

[YEA]  06/12/2012: Burblemesh from Austin, Texas: "I have taken lithium orotate (40 mg, 4 of the Gabatone pills per day provides this and other useful supplements) to help control bipolar disorder, specifically the mania. It has, however, helped even me out overall, including my depression. I have OCD as well and take 1800 mg of Inosotil and 1500 mg NAC to help with that. This combination has worked better than anything else I have tried, and I have tried a lot (completely exhausted Western medical options to no avail)."

08/02/2012: Desperatemom from Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada replies: "Hi Burblemesh, I want to understand how serious is your Bipolar especially during mania. Did you get into very angry episodes before taking the Gabatone pill. Maybe if you can share some information regarding your mania state. How long you have been taking the Gabatone pill and did you have any mania episodes since? My son has bipolar for several years and in the last several months he got into very angry episodes often. We are using GABA 500mg to calm him down. However I am very interested in getting my son the Gabatone pill if it can even out his mood and prevent the angry episodes. I really appreciate your reply. Desperate Mom"

[BETTER BUT NOT CURED]  07/19/2009: Jeremiah from San Diego, California: "I have Bipolar Disorder characterized most by Manic episodes. Some are not all that bad; they're just a pain in the ass when I have something to do or someone to meet/people to be around. Anyways, I have noticed that when I can't get to sleep at night because my Seroquel doesn't seem to want to do its job, I take Melatonin, usually at 3 mgs. to start off with, then another 3 mgs., which usually knocks me out.

I have also tried Chamomile Tea with positive effects, but since I suffer from enuresis (bed-wetting), I have had to discontinue, because even if I take my medication for enuresis, I still go, which normally wouldn't happen otherwise.

That is not to say that I don't recommend Chamomile Tea. I would actually highly recommend to anybody, except if you have enuresis, even if you take medication for it."