Nutritional Support

I'm very fortunate to have a great team of doctor's who work with me.  I have a psychiatrist and a regular doctor who have helped me immensely to get stable after my dx of BPII.  I suffer mostly from depression, my mania is very mild, resulting in a good mood or two!  Anyway my doctor did some blood work and found I was very low on vitamin D2.  You get vitamin D from the sun, and I live in the Pacific NW where it is cloudy for 8 months of the year.  Being low on D2 contributes to depression so I've been getting shots and taking supplements to get my level back up to normal. She also had me start taking B complex and Omega 3.  Omega 3 is huge right now, they estimate a lot of people in the US are deficient.  I also read in a book about natural treatments for depression that it helps some people with bipolar.  It makes sense that when suffering from symptoms it's hard to eat right, but important to keep up your health as best as possible.  

Does anyone else know of or do any nutritional support for Bipolar?  

[Xila31]

As funny as this may sound, you should check into eating as if you have diabetes. I'm talking carbohydrate counting plus exercise. A high fiber diet low in saturated fats is how we should all be eating actually, even people without diagnosis. You don't have to remove anything fully from your diet, we all need a treat here and there or we go crazy, and do not cut out carbs all together, carbs are the fuel we need to function. But, cutting back on portion sizes and adding more fiber is always good. Lots of veggies is really what you're aiming for, and whole grains. And lean meats.

Also, less caffine is good for bipolar as well. And exercise helps with depression.  

[lindahand]

I take omega oils and I find they help a lot. I also take B vitamins and a good multivitamin. I should be exercising but I find that the hardest thing to do - although when I do it the effects are noticeable. I find having the energy to cook decent meals is the toughest of all. I am so tired by the end of the day throwing in a pizza is so appealing.

Well I am going to go eat a Mars Bar. All this talk of food has made me hungry ;) lol.

[lizmcc27]

I am the same way, I rarely have the energy to cook even though I like to.  And I'm sick to death of pizza!!!  Why does this disorder seem to suck the life out of me.  There are so many things I want to do, yet it's so overwhelming and my mind so fragmented I can't seem to put the pieces together.

[moonpanda]

I take Omega-3 supplements and Vitamin D. For Omega-3, you need to make sure that what you're taking has a high concentration of EPA fats, as these are the ones that will actually help with mood stabilization. Look for capsules that come from fish oil, not flax seed, because flax contains a different type of Omega-3 (ALA). I use a brand called OmegaBrite because my doctor recommended it, actually. Apparently it's one of the best out there to help treat bipolar disorder and depression. I'm still always kind of skeptical about this sort of stuff, because there are a lot of companies out there who are taking advantage of this Omega-3 craze by marketing products that aren't really going to help at all. I'm trusting my doctor on this, but in general I think a person looking to take fish oil just needs to read up on the supplements being bought to make sure that they're going to be beneficial, not just a waste of money.

Apparently you do not want capsules that contain Omega-6 and Omega-9 oils as well as Omega-3. You can always boost Omega-3 intake by eating more "fatty" fishes, like tuna and salmon, but I think for bipolar disorder we'd have to be eating fish around the clock, and there's always that whole mercury content thing to worry about, so supplements might be the best bet in this case.

You need to make sure that you're taking a high enough dose to see any real benefit. Since this isn't really regulated like a pharmaceutical, individual doses are going to vary a lot. To see psychiatric benefits you need to be taking a much larger dose than a person who takes it simply for general health needs. I've read things like minimum 1000mg, but it could be a lot more than that. I'm taking 2100mg right now, 6 capsules at 350mg each.

Personally, I do think that it's helping at least a little bit, although I started taking it at the same time that I did TMS therapy, and when I finally increased my Lamictal to the actual therapeutic dose, and when I was able to get out of an extremely stressful environment and into a safer and less stressful one... haha, so all of these factors came together, though I'm not sure which one did the most work to get my stabilized!

As for the Vitamin D, I don't know too much about it, though I'm sure some of the same principles apply, like making sure that you're taking a concentrated form at the right dosage. Bpchrisb started a thread on this a little while ago that might be of some help: http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Bipolar-Disorder/Vitamin-D/show/1190494

Good luck!