Tue, Aug-28-01, 20:31
|
|
Forum Founder
Posts: 37,415
|
|
Plan: LC, GF
Stats: 241/190/140
BF:
Progress: 50%
Location: Eastern ON, Canada
|
|
L-carnitine ... is popular with athletes as a sports nutrition supplement .... so you would be more likely to find it in a health food store that also carries sports stuff. I bought mine here in Ontario at a regular "chain" health food store in a mall - "under the counter" of course. I bought it because I'd heard it was helpful for fibromyalgia and myofascial pain .. it's supposed to help the muscle tissue take up fats to burn as fuel. It's prohibitively expensive, $41.99 for a bottle of 30 tablets, 1000 mg each. The recommended dose is 1000 to 3000 mg per day. Now I'm not sure that I even want to bother taking it ..
Apparently a number of combination formulas have some l-carnitine in them, like 50mg or less .... and this is way too little to be of any benefit at all, according to Dr. Atkins in his "Vita-Nutrient Solution"
I haven't taken 5-HTP, but I have taken L-tryptophan. It is available in Canada by prescription, and it too is outrageously expensive (once upon a time I had a drug plan). It worked well for my fibromyalgia-sleep disorder ... but again, I needed 3000mg per night. And 100 tablets, 1000mg each, cost over $140. So now I take a low-dose tricyclic, which helps, and is cheap ... and has weight gain and altered carbohydrate metabolism as side effect. And if I don't take it, within a week I am in so much pain I cannot function. Such is life.
St. John's Wort can be amazing for some, and it can have serious side effects for others. It interferes with a long list of prescription medications. It causes sensitivity to the sun, not just for increased sunburn risk, but also sun-damage to the eyes. This is of concern to folks who use bright light therapy in the winter months to combat Seasonal Affective Disorder. There's a really good personal website about SJW, not commercial at all .... http://www.sjwinfo.org/
Doreen
|