The efficacy of using the herbal supplement VILIFT

[bujily]

I recently found in the internet on Bi Polar topics, the herbal supplement 'VILIFT'  is being suggested as a best substitute for many prescription drugs.It is claimed by the specialist who had formulated that it will not give any side effects, and it has the combination of three main herbs out of Hypericum Perforatum,Ginseng, and  some of of 5HTP  components components with vitamins and minerals.It has been strongly recommended for many of the mental symptoms including manic depression of Bi Polar disorder.can any one give an opinion on this.On one side it is said that 5HTP and the base of the St.Johns Wort the Hypericum perforatom have goven problems of  side effects and also higher level sarotonin which cause problems.Can this be looked into for a  feed back.Thanks.
bujily.

[bujily]

Thanks again for your response.Many psychiatrists give difft prescription and as I had written earlier one says it is manic depression, the other says it is unspecified mood change.Some one prescribes Prozac with Zyprexa, and another says no no, there is no need to have zyprexa and it enough to take  Prozac  for a month or so, yet other  two specialists say it is enough if the patient takes Lexapro.Don't you think the patient or his people will be so thouroughly confused and confounded.To top it all if one goes by some recommendations of Herbalists to go for St.John's wort or 5HTP, or SAM-e then it is found that in case it is not known exactly the type of problem ie, either depression/mood chang or Bi Polar one shd. not venture into all those herbal /chemical types which might aggravate the problem to an extent that the patient will go for a severe Manic depression.I do agree with you  that most of these herbal types are recommended by the company manufacturing the stuff or by persons who have had some other consideration in recommending them.Every thing is so vague and uncertain and ultimately the patient suffers, leave alone the specific recommendation of the qualified Psychiatrists.That is the situation now.Bujily

[ILADVOCATE]

I would say that is the claim of the person who manufactures it. 5HTP and St. John's Wort have been found to have been of some efficacy in clinical studies (outside the United States) on depression but have some side effects of concern so they really should not be taken. There are some natural remedies that can be taken with a psychiatrist's supervision. For informational purpose, although we can't print case study links here to judge if a study is accurate or not see if its mentioned in PubMed or Clinicaltrials.gov. Then if you want to know more you can bring the results to your psychiatrist but whatever it is is still being studied and not FDA approved yet so its an unknown quantity. The internet however, being unregulated there are many sites that are basic misinformation where the "findings" are only those of the person that produces it and that happens to be one of them. As is generally true best to stick a known quantity. The compound I am on is an antipsychotic agent in Phase II FDA study and has shown clear results but I am only take it under strict supervision from my psychiatrist because I could not tolerate all known antipsychotics. Being part of a clinical study is still a risk but a clinically supervised one. But its essential to let your psychiatrist make the determination and also research for themselves the accuracy of anything online and to avoid anything that is self promotional as what you described is.