riboflavin Archives • Avoiding Rx

28Apr 2012 by Marjorie 11 Comments

Riboflavin supplements and eye floaters

Updated 10/11/16 In my earlier post about my experience with eye floaters, I mentioned that hyaluronic acid (HA) deficiency seemed to be a promising theory as to the cause. I had found a CureZone thread discussing one of their members' success with four months of HA supplements. Vitamin C, which unmistakably makes my eye floaters worse, can degrade HA, so the idea seemed worthwhile. I put off the experiment for the future, however, as I had enough to deal with. Although the floaters can be very annoying, I haven't gotten horribly panicky about them because they've waxed and waned over the years, which led me to believe that in theory it is possible to get rid of them, if only I can figure out how. Recently my floaters got…

The needle and the damage done: three weeks on intravenous thiamine

treatments

After discovering that thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency might be a factor in my insomnia, fatigue, brain fog, and chocolate/sugar cravings, I began experimenting with different formulations of it. Starting with the usual drugstore stuff, I moved on to two Japanese concoctions and then for a grand finale I tried a series of IV treatments to the tune of $1,700, almost none of it covered by insurance, with promising if not miraculous results. Why thiamine? I initially tried thiamine after discovering it is involved in GABA production, an inhibitory neurotransmitter that's a big factor in sleep. Thiamine is also involved in carbohydrate metabolism -- converting food to energy -- and I figured out a long time ago that my infuriating chocolate/sugar cravings must be caused by my brain's inability to process…

A list of supplements that don’t work very well in the versions sold in the US

nutritional therapy, supplements

Updated October 22, 2020. Originally posted November 19, 2011. Over the years I've learned that some of the nutrient supplements on the shelves in the US don't work very well, either because a significant part of the population can't process them, or because the version used is poorly absorbed by the body, or because they are so cheaply formulated that the filler would make you sick before you could get enough of the active ingredient to resolve your deficiency. Here's everything I know so far. Needless to say, the better versions are more expensive and harder to find. Folic acid Processing this synthetic vitamin into its active form requires methyl groups and those of us who are methyl-challenged (low methylators) need to use the methylfolate version. Some sources say that…