Posted by Larry Hoover on August 19, 2004, at 6:49:32
In reply to Re: half lifes, posted by andromeda on August 16, 2004, at 9:01:26
> >
> > I hope you will start using fish oil. It sounds like it might be just the ticket.
> >
> > Lar
>
> Thank you very much for the explanation. I will take your word for it bc right now my brains are pretty much mush and comprehension is slowed way down.If you would like me to revisit anything I said, and expand on the ideas, or make it more comprehensible....
> I went and bought some fish oil. Not sure how much to take though. Brand name is Triomega-3 from Wal-Mart. EPA and DHA is 500 mg and Total omega-3 fatty acids 570 mg. EPA and DHA ratio is approx. 2 to 1. It says to take one capsule daily but I am not sure from reading elsewhere if that would be enough. I took 2 capsules last night.
Night? With food, I hope. I'd target four caps a day, maybe split in two doses?
> Am dx with bipolar II with atypical depression and anxiety. I took it once before probably 3 years ago but quit bc of the seal burps but now know to take it with a meal. I didn't give it much of a trial the first time around and don't remember what else I was taking.
If it isn't obviously helpful to your brain, please just use it anyway. It is very good for your heart, helps prevent Alzheimer's, certain age-related visual disorders, and others.
>
> Found an interesting article this weekend in Readers Digest on Drug Sensitivity and genetic blood tests that I thought you might be interested in. Wondered if you knew or have heard anything about this? I'll write it out below in its entirety. Was a short article.Ya, but the pin-prick test was withdrawn by the FDA this year (I'm pretty sure)....it's a computer chip with a mini-laboratory on it. It'll be back, but I don't think it's available right now. There is a blood test available that you need to get the arm-puncture for, though.
Just one example of those enzyme issues, what is called cytochrome P450 2D6. The important part is the 2D6. It has been found that the activity of this enzyme varies by 118-fold (not 118%, 100 times that, 11,800%), and that's just in Caucasians. The most rapid metabolizers are called "extensive metabolizers". Most people are kind of in the middle. The poor metabilizers are called "slow metabolizers". Many drugs are metabolized by 2D6, and you have to consider whether the drug is active before 2D6 changes it, or whether 2D6 makes it active.
In the case of some antidepressants, the active drug is de-activated by 2D6. So, the active drug gradually decreases in the blood as the liver enzyme destroys it. Extensive metabolizers exhibit short drug half-lives, as the drug is rapidly destroyed. They might find a lot of "yo-yo" effect in the physical reaction to the drug, and poor efficacy overall. Slow metabolizers exhibit grossly extended drug half-lives, severe side-effects, and the drug can build up to even toxic levels (just like an overdose), even at normal therapuetic doses.
The other side of the coin is when a drug is made active by that enzyme. An example is codeine, which is converted to morphine. Codeine is meant to be something like "slow release morphine", and it is often considered to be a pro-drug, the term for an inactive drug which is enzyme-activated.
However, extensive metabolizers convert the codeine to morphine in one bang (more or less), and they get quite high off it. Those are the people who just love getting their hands on Tylenol 3's. Slow metabolizers don't get much analgesia at all (if any), and instead are stuck with the side-effects of codeine itself (nausea, constipation, etc.).
So, you may not need a blood test to understand something about 2D6 activity. If you have extensive side effects from antidepressants, and codeine doesn't work worth a ****, then you are a 2D6 slow metabolizer, in all probability.
The neat thing about the blood test is it assigns an exact value to the metabolic rate (not just slow or fast), and you get readings on five (or is it six?) different enzymes, not just 2D6.
> Thanks again.You're welcome.
Lar
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:377551
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040817/msgs/379365.html