Bi-polar help

[shy1]

Last night I almost lost a friend who suffers from bi-polar. He does have prescriptions but can sabatoge them with alcohol. It took three of us to finally convince him to make it through another night.

I'm not really sure how close bi-polar is to depression. If you can offer suggestions on to help my friend I welcome them.

Thanks,

[Kelly]

Sorry to hear about your friend, and it's very big of you to be there for him. Bi-polar is usually charactarized with extreme highs and extreme lows... so when he's depressed, he's most likely very depressed. Some really famous actors and comedians suffer from bi-polar without many people knowing about it. The medication can really help but as you say, alcohol can throw wrench into things. He probably knows it too.

I think the best thing you can do for him is what you're doing now: keep being his friend, telling him how important he is to you, and help him through the low periods just by being there. So many people turn their backs on someone who is really depressed, and the person suffering tends to feel very much alone. It makes such a huge difference with friends who show he's not alone, and that you're there for him and trying to understand. You're doing a great thing. I hope your friend is feeling better again soon.

Kelly

[blueberry]

I'm not sure what meds your friend is on for bipolar, but there are a few natural things that can help alot, either with meds or not.

Taurine is a natural amino acid that crosses the brain barrier and is a great mood stabilizer. It calms down overexcited brain activity. It also helps all the cells talk to each other properly and gets things like magnesium, calcium, and sulfur in and out of cells properly the way they are supposed to. Taurine is found in food and our bodies produce it also. Many people with bipolar just don't produce enough of it. At low to medium doses it can improve mood, while very high doses might dampen things down too much and worsen mood.

Gaba is anothe one. But there are conflicting stories on whether it crosses the brain barrier or not. To help it get in the brain, taking niacinimde and inositol with it helps achieve that. Gaba is calming and some people find it mood lifting. Niacinimide by itself is calming in high doses.

Sjw is certainly an option for the depression side of things. But, and it is a big but, controlling the mania side is extremely important because sjw could worsen that...thus the need for taurine and gaba to go along with the meds, and maybe even replace them some day. And another but, sjw interferes with the metabolism of many meds, either increasing blood levels of the med or decreasing the med. You would want to do some research at pubmed.com by typing in "the med's name AND CYP". The CYP represents the specific liver enzymes that break down a med. SJW speeds up one called CYP-3A4. If you took a med that is metabolized by CYP-3A4 enzyme, sjw would speed it up and decrease the amount of that med in your system. SJW does not significantly affect other liver enzymes. So if a med is metabolized say by CYP-2D6, sjw would be ok.