In this post, I am going over the dos and don’ts of multivitamins for your mental health. Many psychiatrists may accompany multivitamins with a patient’s medication routine. I might agree with them if the patient is only dealing with depression.
Vitamins are important for the synthesis and recycling of certain neurotransmitters such as serotonin. When a patient starts on an SSRI, their practitioner’s main concern is to alleviate depression. The neurotransmitter serotonin is involved in the process of this re-uptake. There are many vitamins such as vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) that contribute to serotonin being produced.
Another approach to healing depression would be naturally with a multivitamin stacked with amino acids. This can get your vitamin intake, and correct any neurotransmitter imbalance you may be dealing with. A multivitamin would help in this case because it would help cycle, activate, and produce the neurotransmitters that are out of balance. An example here would be a multivitamin along with 5-HTP for depression to increase serotonin. Decide which multivitamin form works best for you. Generic synthetic forms, such as ones that contain folic acid, or methylated forms that contain methyl folate.
You can go with generic multivitamins, methylated, vegan, whole food-based, and more choices to choose from.
When Not to Multivitamin
If you are dealing with anxiety, psychosis, or mania, then a multivitamin may be contributing to the symptoms instead of making the symptoms relieved. Because of this, I would encourage mental health suffers to stay clear of multivitamins. They may be doing more harm than good.
There are many reasons to stay away from multivitamins if you suffer from a mental illness or symptoms of any kind. One nutrient in your multivitamin will tell you to go up, while the other says no, go down. A third will be sneaky and twist you in a knot, and the next will make you anxious or moody. Another reason is that b-vitamins are very stimulating, and anxious or patients suffering psychosis, paranoia, hallucinations or upsetting thoughts may get overwhelmed and feel worse.
Anyone suffering symptoms may want to consult a professional mental health practitioner, such as provided by mytelemedicine.com. Practitioners are available 24/7 – 7 days a week online. They are ready to help you start your healing process, discuss your concerns further with you, or get a second opinion.
Your Multivitamin & Epigenetics
Another factor to consider is epigenetics. While multivitamins may be good for overall health, many patients do poorly on multiple b-vitamins. One reason is that b-vitamins compete for absorption and attention. This will lead to your brain competing nutrients against nutrients. Also, some vitamins and minerals are better in the morning, while others are better at night such as magnesium.
Be careful with multivitamins. If you have been on a multivitamin and it helps with your symptoms, then great! Stay with it. But for many people who suffer symptoms, it may be contributing to the symptoms. Most have different forms of a vitamin or multiple forms of a vitamin. This will let some of the vitamins cross the blood-brain barrier, while others lag behind and contribute to undermethylation if it’s not in the desired form (such as B6, pyridoxine, vs. P-5-P).
Another note is that with epigenetics, methylation therapy is an approach to healing that has proven successful for many patients. This means fixing the imbalance or methyl ratio within the brain. If the multivitamin is contributing to undermethylation due to the wrong form of a vitamin, this can be detrimental to a patient’s healing.
Please read other posts of mine on epigenetics and methylation therapy for more information.
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