is fish oil a mood stabilizer?

Welcome to the Coping With Epilepsy Forums

Welcome to the Coping With Epilepsy forums - a peer support community for folks dealing (directly or indirectly) with seizure disorders. You can visit the forum page to see the list of forum nodes (categories/rooms) for topics.

Please have a look around and if you like what you see, please consider registering an account and joining the discussions. When you register an account and log in, you may enjoy additional benefits including no ads, access to members only (ie. private) forum nodes and more. Registering an account is free - you have nothing to lose!

mylo

New
Messages
63
Reaction score
0
Points
0
my official diagnosis is temporal lobe epilepsy but i've never had a tonic clonic or any other seizure, just simple partials such as random changes in spacial orientation and some pretty severe mood swings.

i'm actually having an almost manic day today, i haven't taken my valproate or loflazepate in about 2 weeks due to weight gain (not good for a strength athlete) and the fact that i actually somewhat missed my "up" moods. i actually found that through some buddhist mindfulness practices i can bring about these "up" and mellow moods more frequently. the only supplements i'm taking are:

l-carnitine, as a metabolism accelerator and purported anti depressant
creatine, to aid absorption of nutrients
and caffeine which isn't recommended, but i've been a daily user of ~100 mg twice daily for months now.

to get to the point, i was considering taking fish oil to aid with my general cognitive functioning, but i was wondering whether it functions as a mood stabilizer as well as some people say to the point where it'd quell my "creative/wired spells" i enter.

sorry for the long post :p
 
by the way my "up moods" aren't that severe, i don't go and use drugs, or think i can take over the world, they're more like simple creativity and motivational sparks, usually they inspire me to follow through a REALLY intense work out or to jot down some of my own lyrics.
 
You are taking supplements that are not that common to take. Make sure you are aware of the risks behind the supplements you are taking and the interactions of the supplements with one another. I would also add to find out the interactions of the supplements with your medications, if you were taking them. You would be wise to consult with your pharmacist to learn what they can offer about interactions. A sports nutritionist or the person who runs your local supplement store CANNOT provide you with the depth of knowledge a pharmacist has to inform you of interactions and side effects. And absolutely no offense to anyone on the forums, but they can't provide you with the information you need either unless they have the knowledge equivalent to that of a pharmacist and are informed of all the medications and supplements you take. In case you're wondering, this is something I feel strongly about because my father is a pharmacist, and too often he has had young people referred to him for information counseling because they nearly died from supplement interactions.
 
Mylo -- I agree with masterjen, you need to be careful when taking a lot of different supplements. They aren't particularly well-regulated or well-studied. That said, fish oil has been the subject of quite a few preliminary studies, and it does show promise for having beneficial effects on mood. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110526091758.htm
 
Back
Top Bottom