seratonin reuptake inhibitors

[Guest guest]

Hey folks,

I have a friend who is on Effexor, a seratonin reuptake inhibitor.

He's had major anxiety problems and he seems to get tossed from drug

to drug -- xanax last time.

He drinks a boatload of coffee and always has, and he doesn't eat much

in the way of unprocessed foods.

I explained to him that his drug is just modifying a chemical

situation that is nutritional in origin. That seratonin is made from

the tryptophan in whole protein foods, that coffee-stimulated cortisol

prevents it from getting into the brain while carbohydrates encourage

it t get in the brain, so long as your insulin system is working

correctly, which requires zinc and so on, and that it was then

converted to seratonin in a two-step conversion requiring niacin,

iron, copper and B6.

I'm hoping I can get him to look at it from a nutritional perspective.

Does anyone have anything to add? I've heard of the book _Potatoes

Not Prozac_ which apparently addresses this issue but haven't read it.

Should I recommend it? Does it adequately address nutritional

concerns aside from getting carbs?

Chris

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