The Art of Staggering Supplements

That’s an easy one. No it's not! In fact, this is the section that will probably generate nasty emails from health practitioners, and once again, I am in no way shape or form a health practitioner. Some supplements, such as 5-HTP or SAM-e, work better on an empty stomach and others, such as St Johns Wort, work better on a full stomach, right after a meal. Some supplements also lose their effect after several months and other supplements need to take their place to keep your serotonin flow in check. Some supplements, such as St Johns Wort, work by keeping your existing serotonin from depleting. Others, such as 5-HTP actually boost your serotonin levels altogether. Therefore, it seems logical to me that an herb such as St Johns Wort would not be very effective if you hardly had any serotonin in your system to begin with.

The art of staggering supplements is a never ending practice. The staggerer must be persistent in finding the right combination of dosage, time of day, empty or full stomach and most importantly which combination of herbs and supplements, if in fact you feel a combination is needed. Also, take breaks from staggering. First of all, if you are new to all these herbs just try one as directed. You might not need to stagger and that will save you money. Only stagger if one is not working after a few weeks. It takes a while. Keep in mind that it takes just as long for any of those prescription heavy side effect drugs such as Prozac or Zoloft to take effect anyway. Here's what I use to do( I’m ok now and currently don’t take any of this stuff.)

Take:

• 300mg's 5-HTP 3 times per day, two hours between meals,
  the mornings are noticably excellent.
• 300mg's of St Johns Wort 3 times per day, one pill after each meal.
• A muli-vitamin, make sure it has folic acid and all the B vitamins in it.
  Experiment on and empty and full stomach with the multi.

That should hook you up for a few very stable months. When that slow's down switch to taking:

• Between 200 to 800mg's of SAM-e 3 times per day on an empty
  stomach two hours between meals.
• 200mg's of Kava Kava 3 time's per day, try empty and full stomach.
• Always throw omega 3 fatty acids into the mix for all your staggering
  endeavors. Really, it's fun.

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Again, only mix these herbs if you need to! I recommend trying each one solo first for set time periods to see which one might work alone. One of these herbs might be all that you need. They all hold weight in the treatment of depression. Always check with a doctor if possible! I am not a qualified health practitioner! Good Luck!

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