OMEGA-3 for Bipolar Disorder

[vsantos]

  
Anyone has had any experience or heard more in depth knowledge with Omega-3 helping with Bipolar symptoms.     From what I have read it mostly helps with mood swings.
I'm trying to help my husband get well (of course he'll keep using Mood Stabilizer).
But anything new that works and can bring about change/ better productive life.

[ILADVOCATE]

Omega-3 is like anything else. There is a reccomended dosage. Best to stick to the standard guidelines which your doctor or pharmacist would know. I believe taking above a certain dosage can induce mania and anyway any nutrient has a specific reccomended dosage and its best not to go above that. Fish oil or flaxseed oil is fine. Cod liver oil should not be taken as a mood stabilizer because higher doses are potentially toxic.

[Alex_X_18]

I've taken BOTH omega 3 and vitmin B12.......
Omeaga 3 works very well in my experince it improved my overall mood esepically towards depression but you don't have to worry about taking too much unlike B vitamins which can cause you to be manic.... but it may be a bit expensive because you need it in the higher doeses 300-400mg pills and you have to take a large amount because you won't really see a diffrence if if you just take like 1 a day. I normaly took 5-9 pills a day like 2-3 before meals depending. When I was having sever mania or panic attacks I took 7-8 pills at once but I noticed that it slowed down my resting heart rate ....I would recomend the brand country life brand they make some decent vitmins, (the brand you buy can really make a huge diffrence) there are a few others offhand but I can't rember their names. Try going to your local whole foods GNC or central market...the workers their tend to know their stuff when it come to suppliments and vitamins so they can answer any questions you might have.
If you can't find any of those look up a health food store
As for B12 I would reccomend niacin. Basicly it really helps to improve your mood and help to make you sleepy at night. What happens is its opens up you blood vessels and pumps alot of blood through your body to you brain and other vital areas
(this is called a niacin flush) afterwards you tend to feel really relaxed as if you have been stretching and loosening up it also seems to make you very sleepy and less anxious so you can go to bed. If you choose there is no flush niacin but I would go with the flush kind cuz you feel really great aftarwards and it improves your overall mood.

[ILADVOCATE]

Yes well vitamin b for schizophrenia as I was reading about on another forum is part of 'orthomolecular therapy" a theory which has basically been debunked. Fish oil or flax seed does show mood stabilization properties though but of course it can't replace standard medications. I just restarted it as it also is in clinical study for tardive dyskinesia and I do feel calmer in a sense so as before I can feel this effect. There's a lot of spam and misinformation out there on the web and so its best to look in known sources such as pubmed and clinicaltrials.gov (for informational purposes only) to known whether the studies are clinically accurate. Research on Vitamin B proved that a while back it was basically ineffective but fish oil does show some promise but as I stated since the medication Lovaza was developed from it once they understand that more if shown effective they may put that more into use.

[paranoid_cataclysm]

I've heard people also swear by omega 3 for schizophrenia along with some other stuff like vitamin B12 which a deficiency of I read can cause a form of anemia which actually produces schizophrenia or at least an uncanny similar presentation to it but I've never tried either of these partly because I had blood tests for a physical and everything in my blood was normal so I figured the B12 theory was out the window for me at least much to my dismay.  Plus that and I had it practically my whole life, I don't see how you could have a vitamin deficiency for 20 years straight non-stop, there's just too many variables there especially with me having pretty much seemingly random groups of foods I choose from at different periods that also have a seemingly random duration.  The studies I read on it say it's still experimental and such in this nature but I never read up on it for bipolar disorder but you know, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are clinically linked somehow anyway.

My friend and this one person on youtube also swear by things like meditation to self-treat things like schizophrenia from their own experience and say anyone can do it which sort of bothered me because it was ignorant to say that because like becradiology said everyone is different and some people with mental illness don't have the concentration to the point they're totally disabled let alone being able to meditate which requires a special kind of concentration to pull off for real.  I only ever did it one time successfully and it ironically happened when I wasn't even intending to and I don't know why it happened because I was in the middle of doing something and it happened without warning and suddenly and it felt like only 10 seconds passed but when I opened my eyes it was like 20 minutes later and I never felt so calm and peaceful in my life as during and after that.  My mom said it was boring when she tried it and I told her well if you do it right and focus correctly you won't even be aware of your boredom.

I mean hell it's kind of like anyone can write music or poetry or paint but only some people have good results with it.

[adel_ezz]

i read that for depression you take at least 5gm (5000mg).

my view if it doesn't help in depression it will sure helps in something else. the list of benefits is long, everybody knows them, if not, they are listed in many sites.  

[becradiology]

Once when I was hospitalized the director of phyc. swore by fish oil capsules.  He said you have to take a higher than normal dose.  1000mg morn. and 1000mg at night.  That sounds like a lot when you read the directions on the bottle but it will not hurt you.  I tried it but I could not tell it helped.  Everybody is differant.  Your husband will have to try several things before finding the right combo.  Plus if it doesn't help his mood, his heart will be in great shape.

[ILADVOCATE]

I don't believe it works on depression but it does work on mood stabilization in general. It can't replace medication but I was allowed to take it as an adjunct mood stabilizer and it was quite helpful in this regard. I do know that they derived the anti-cholesterol medication Lovaza from fish oil and that is an FDA approved medication that is in experimental usage for bipolar:
http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/mhprograms/efc/Omega-3-acid%20ethyl%20esters%20(Lovaza).doc

[Xila31]

From what I have read, some studies shows it helps but other shows it doesn't. In some of the studies I looked at it says it helps with the depression and just in general. In another study I read it said that it could be activating if you take too much. So what I did was ask my doctor and he said to take a low dose. I was taking 1 pill of 750 mg every other day, but I often forget to take it.