May 2013 • Avoiding Rx

25May 2013 by Marjorie No Comments

Bright light therapy requirements changing over time

I've mentioned this in passing a few times on the site -- the exposure length and timing of the bright light therapy I use to control carb cravings, insomnia, low mood, and zombie brain changes over the years. I used to need it only from October to April, for 30 minutes, and it wouldn't work after 9 am. Then I switched to 60 minutes for quite a while, until it started to make me antsy. Now I'm down to 20 minutes, it won't work after 7:15 am, and I seem to need it all year. I consider this further proof that some chicks are not meant to live further north than a palm tree. Here are a few references I've used to figure out timing and "dosage." Chronotherapeutics for Affective…

Weird niacin deficiency symptom: perceptual changes

reference, specific health issue, The Weird, US healthcare system

Recently I came across a discussion forum referring to the use of niacin for social anxiety at multi-gram doses. One commenter mentioned that based on her experience, either niacin has to be repleted in much larger amounts than commonly believed, or plays a much more important role in the diet. Or both. This intrigued me. I’ve never experimented with niacin in any big way, because I never found any mention of big doses used for anything but heart disease or schizophrenia, the latter application made famous in the 60s by Dr. Abram Hoffer. Another issue was the annoying and unpredictable flushing. Somehow I had mistakenly concluded that niacinamide, a form that does not cause flushing, and no-flush niacin were the same thing, and since no-flush niacin definitely gives me flushes,…

Seven things I’ve learned from chronic, undiagnosed illness

chronic unexplained illness, The Weird

During the years I was figuring out the celiac-nutritional deficiencies-liver damage thang, I had a few revelations that probably otherwise wouldn't have been visited unto me until later in life. Several of these were a result of aphasia episodes, wherein my speech became slow and halting and would occasionally just stop mid-sentence. 1. People listen to the pattern of your voice before they listen to what you say. When the aforementioned speech weirdness caused me to break off in mid-sentence, coworkers and friends would laugh as if I'd said something funny, even though I hadn't and even though I clearly had not finished my sentence. Maybe they just thought I was making a half-assed attempt at comic timing. Several years later I discovered with a certain acquaintance that when I,…