25Nov 2012 by Marjorie No Comments

Two months of experiments with melatonin supplements

self-experiment, side effects
In another attempt to kill my insomnia I revisited melatonin supplements a few months ago. I had tried them 15 years ago, once, when I was sleeping three hours a night, whereupon I slept for 24 hours. That kept me off the stuff until a few years ago, when I tried them again, using the dosages listed on the labels -- 1.5 mg, 3 mg, etc. I could feel it working and I got sleepier and sleepier and then...nothing. I get the same effect when I use amber light bulbs and amber glasses, which prevent blue light from turning off your melatonin production at night. Especially if I'm reading, I'll get sleepy and doze-y for about 30 minutes and...nothing happens and I'm wide awake again. Clearly a crucial step is…
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30Jun 2012 by Marjorie 3 Comments

Things that still mess up my mood

symptoms and conditions
August 13, 2017: My theories on this subject have changed. Until I can get my act together to update this content, please see this post. This was adapted from a post on my old blog, Blessed Depth. I've written elsewhere about how I threw off the yoke of my decades-long depression about 15 years ago, but a few things still trip me up. Some are culprits familiar to most sufferers, but some were a bit of a surprise. Insufficient calorie intake. If I undereat for more than two days in a row, my mood will fall. A day of normal eating corrects it. Vicodin. I don't know what I'll do if, heaven forfend, I'm ever in a long-term pain management situation, because even a modest dose makes me feel lousy…
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18Aug 2011 by Marjorie 12 Comments

Seven fomenters of brain fog

nutritional therapy, symptoms and conditions, treatments
Several factors combined together to cause me years of spaciness and difficulty concentrating. Highlights of this period included giving the wrong last name when called on in class and almost getting my head wedged between two floors of a department store while riding the escalator. Most of the causes were ferreted out after I went gluten-free, and now I can face a big project and a tight deadline without sweating it too much, given enough Pepsi. The problem is that metabolizing an acre's worth of high-fructose corn syrup when you're 25 is one thing; now it's quite another. I'm still looking for the final pieces to this puzzle. The main causes were: 1. and 2. High histamine, caused at least in part by low iodine I discovered this by accident…
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28Apr 2011 by Marjorie 5 Comments

My depression and what I did to end it

nutritional therapy, symptoms and conditions
Update July 2022: My theories on this subject have changed. Until I can get my act together to update this content, please see this post. The only items listed here that I still take are zinc and beef spleen supplements. The content below was originally published in February 2012, I think. Updates are in italics. The subheads are new cuz that's what the internet expects of us now. Basically a crushing depression till 31 My depression lasted from junior high until I was about 31. I realized by ninth grade that it was not event- or environment-based. At around 30, after 18 months on antidepressants, I realized they were a disaster for me and I looked elsewhere for solutions. Gluten-free like a miracle A few months later, and after two…
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