st johns wort & amphetamines?

[begreen0]

Some people say it's ok, or even good to add st johns wort to your daily adderall for increase in mood/less irritability/crash, and some say to avoid it due to possibility of slight maoi effects...what do you think? Is it safe? Who here has tried it?

[Massari]

Originally Posted by begreen0

Some people say it's ok, or even good to add st johns wort to your daily adderall for increase in mood/less irritability/crash, and some say to avoid it due to possibility of slight maoi effects...what do you think? Is it safe? Who here has tried it?

When I swallow something, I want to know what it is, and its precise amounts (in mg) as well as what it does to me. St. John's worth is a natural product. It's like tea. Something you take for a "soiree of complaisance" when you play a card game with your family, relaxing or enjoying your sitcom. It's the kind of fancy, fashionable treat for people without any problems who just want to add a flavor to their evening, same as you do with icecream, smoke sticks or perfume.

My point is, if you try to reproducibly obtain a painkiller effect or to reproducibly remove amphetamine comedown with a natural product you are probably wasting your time. It might work but chances are it won't and if it does, it only does a few times and the effect is not reproducible.

Similarly to laboratory experimentation, reproducibly obtaining the same result 100x in a row requires understanding of what's going on. For example, to reproducibly obtain a certain alkylation product, one must use 100% hexane with AlCl3 catalyst with 100% nitrobenzene.

Removing amphetamine comedown is a reaction just like that one, that requires precise stuff. Using St. John's worth is like shoving 1 liter of solvent from the organic waste cylinder and use it to do your alkylation. Similarly to St. John's worth, a chemical waste has 1000s of products and bi-products. There's no way you can control anything. Control is power.

What you are looking for is ONE compound, pharmaceutically PURE, that removes your comedown.

[holepunch]

Originally Posted by begreen0

Some people say it's ok, or even good to add st johns wort to your daily adderall for increase in mood/less irritability/crash, and some say to avoid it due to possibility of slight maoi effects...what do you think? Is it safe? Who here has tried it?

To quote myself...

I would like to point something out (due to my concern for your well being, and that of others...). St. John's Wort (as you already noted) involves re-uptake inhibition of serotonin. Sympathomimetics (i.e. Adderall, Dexedrine, other amphetamine products) ALSO inhibit re-uptake, AND directly cause dopamine release by reversing the DAT transporter on neurons. On a smaller scale, they also affect levels of serotonin in the brain.

**FURTHER** - High enough doses of amphetamines can inhibit monoamine oxidase, an enzyme that is responsible for breaking down neurotransmitters. If this mechanism is triggered, and you happen to be taking St. John's Wort as well, an interaction can be extremely dangerous (i.e. serotonin syndrome), if not fatal.

Punchline: Please avoid taking St. Johns Wort with amphetamine medications (and check for interactions with other medications since it seems to interact with just about everything!). Of course, if your doctor has advised otherwise - then all the power to you - but I feel its due diligence to let you know of the potential interaction!

Best,