Syntheso

Does anyone else notice a chance in their symptoms depending on when or what they eat? I notice, generally, around 30-40 mins after I consume something, I have a period of feeling quite spaced out. The role of the gut (home of the ENS, the 'second brain') in mental/neurological illness keeps coming up in my reading. It is not new, but it seems to be taking more emphasis. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=gut-second-brain http://neurosciencestuff.tumblr.com/post/38271759345/gut-instincts-the-secrets-of-your-second-brain Food for thought.

I was feeling pretty good after a week or so on it, then I lost all my pills (I know...also, I managed to lose loads of things on Keppra), had to wait to get some more from the psych. I have just restarted, entering my fifth day, the last four of which were grim, as when I first started taking it. So, still waiting to see! I am quite confident about it. How is the Lamotrigine going?

From what I have read in passing, hair loss, as with many 'diseases' can be treated nutritionally. I would advise this approach before taking a pharmaceutical. Coincidentally, I came across this today. Worth checking out... http://www.hairlikeafox.com/#intro

I have wondered about histamine because I appear to be a histadelic. I am correcting this nutritionally and will report back on how it affects my HPPD. LSD has an affinity for the H1 receptor. Regarding anti-serotonin agents. These are worth looking into; Bromocriptine Lisuride Ondansetron Methysergide Tianapetine — Ray Peat, PhD

From The Pharmacology of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide: A Review

Lorazepam once removed my visuals, anxiety, cognitive dysfunction entirely, at the large dose of 4mg and no tolerance at the time. It was absolute bliss.

Hey guys, Thanks for your responses, sorry for my delay. Seems that I was freaking out a bit prematurely, I should have waited before writing, really. As I came up to five days, the fatigue went. I have been feeling good ever since and my visuals appear slightly diminished (only in the dark, strangely, sometimes it seems worse in the light ). No brain fog, clearer thinking, anxiety diminished. Haven't yet tested my concentration levels in a practice room, that will be the real test for me. I upped to 500mg yesterday (a week) with no adverse effects experienced. So it's looking positive currently... I am not 100% sure how responsible Keppra has been for these improvements.. I reached this level of improvement about a month ago, before Keppra, but then experienced a relapse for a while. This could be another natural improvement, though it certainly times well with starting Keppra, and if anything, it is and improvement on the improvement . Time will tell as I up my dose if things continue to improve. Puppeteer - I wasn't suggesting starting Lamotrigine simultaneously, that would have been.. not fun! Ghormeh - if those side effects had continued I would definitely have stopped - you're right, not worth it. Will keep you posted. Cheers!

I've been taking Keppra at 250mg for four days now and have been pretty much entirely wiped out. As lethargic as my 'worst HPPD days'. This is with doubling my B vitamin supplement intake. I am at a crucial point in the last year of my uni degree, time is valuable. I was doing very well before I went on Keppra. Despite the visuals not changing, I could just about focus enough to get a reasonable amount of stuff done. As opposed to the unearthly brain fog I experienced months back, things were looking much better. Mostly due to nootropics I have been using, but also time.. I felt like I had come through one side. Now Keppra has brought unkickable lethargy back into my life, I was wonder if it is worth continuing, and maybe perhaps just waiting until I have finished my degree to hit something that is going to be so demanding on me. I would like to give Keppra the shot, I believe if I can make it up to a higher dose and be on it for long enough, it has the best shot at resolving things entirely. Before I make any decisions I would like some advice for those who have been on Keppra or otherwise. - After a certain length of use, did you start getting used to the side effects (how long)? - Any supping that helped other than the recommended B vits? As I see it I have a few options; - Discontinue Keppra now. - Continue Keppra, reintroduce Piracetam, ALCAR etc. Modafinil which were helping me through. - Go on Lamotrigine (I have some and have been offered a script). - Lowering dose/spreading it out (on this point - I see this as kind of pointless, I want to get up to higher doses) - Take some acid (lol, jk)

Well if he's been trying for three years, it's worth the shot! I am sure between the board he could get a fair bit...

Hm, perhaps not the best choice.. it can make you quite drowsy, hence it's a good sleep aid. Can't remember exact dosage but I used to take two capsules when they recommended 1-2 for sleep. Always sent me off. I don't use it any more, I use melatonin as a sleep aid (amongst other reasons). By all means try it for your purposes though.. good to have different reports. Have you tried theanine?

Shit. This rings so true for me it is startling. I also had a friend who gave me access to everything that otherwise wouldn't have come to my life in the same way.. and at a time I was depressed. The person in my life who I would equate your friend to turned out to be a negative person to have in one's life, despite all his attractions. He had (has) a heart but he had more problems than the rest of us yet professed we were the ones with issues. He has now gone to travel around India, is still taking lots of drugs and despite the face he puts on, is really depressed. He had it all going for him at one point, he could have done a lot with himself. But he fucked with too many people and didn't tackle his own issues. He let me and others down in many respects. I've never abandoned him (despite him refusing to speak to me for a year at one point) but I don't really want to be around him any more. The worse thing is now he really needs help, won't seek it professionally, and is bad at taking advice. He desperately wants me to be there for him - now that he is really depressed - but I can't do it. I am full of love, but I don't have time for this guy any more. He really let me and people around me down.. I don't have the energy to take on his issues after he caused me lots in many respects. One needs to be very careful of attractive people. There is a very dark side to charisma.

I would highly recommend adding green tea into your daily stack. I have 1-2 mugs a day. The caffeine content is too low (for me, at least) to cause problems. It's just right. The main reason I recommend adding it is because apart from being a powerful antioxidant, it promotes BDNF. Get it in there... (off to have a mug now).

Could you elaborate on this more? Did you try low doses? And can you compare to benzos?

Bumping this. When pondering 5-HT and NMDA interactions as per my other thread, I became curious about the potential objective and subjective effects of taking Magnesium with LSD. I wondered if blocking the NMDAR might offer protection from long term damage, and what other things might happen. It then occurred to me that perhaps Magnesium deficiency on taking [x psychoactive substance] might lead us to HPPD and remembered this thread. Magnesium is the second most common dietary deficiency after Vitamin D. I want to read this article!! http://www.erowid.org/references/refs_view.php?C=ref&ID=3269 That there's a study suggests there was some sort of incline as to something. Aha... there's some links between Magnesium deficiency and visual problems as well... time to get reading. Also bump to the Piracetam and regulating Calcium. I am taking Piracetam again.

I will try to expound this into a more detailed theory, but, put simply.. We know that LSD is a potent 5-HT agonist, and it is thought that it "may exert its hallucinogenic effect by interacting with 5-HT 2A receptors as a partial agonist and modulating the NMDA receptor-mediated sensory, perceptual, affective and cognitive processes" (http://www.nhtsa.gov/people/injury/research/job185drugs/lysergic.htm). As you will see in my other thread, I have become quite interested in modulating the NMDAR. What has fascinated me very recently are the interactions that take place between NMDA and Serotonin. This study interests me wildly. I hope the relevance of this jumps out.. 5-HT ligands react entirely differently in the presence of NMDA (which binds as a selective agonist to the NMDAR). We have, on the forum, seen many attempts at tackling these receptors separately. I do not recall anyone attempting to concurrently affect them. I wonder if our symptoms are derived from a 5-HT / NMDA interaction, and that producing another (inverse?) interaction could mitigate symptoms. I wonder what would happen for example if you took NMDA and a 5-HT antagonist together. Perhaps I am being over excitable, but it's an interesting prospect nonetheless! I will post other relevant studies soon.

I did 800mg/kg the other night, so just over 45g for me. Didn't experience any nausea. Dissolved and ingested it in two half mugs of warm milk. I had some faint lines across my vision for a bit. I can't say I noticed much.. I felt 'fine'. No super breakthrough. I really can't be bothered to keep dosing that to see if the effects are cumulative currently so going to try Sarcosine / Pregnenolone instead.. will save Glycine if I run out of things to try.

Sorry I am A:A Met/Met, typed that wrong. Met/Met seems to make sense in HPPD given the associations above ! I sent my sample to 23andMe, but am looking at the data in the more useful promethease.

Slight tangent, but this might interest you.. I had my genome analysed recently. Of the COMT gene, I have the rs4680 Met158Met variant. Which means: 'Worrier'. More exploratory, lower enzymatic activity See; http://www.snpedia.com/index.php/Rs4680 Some things that immediately pop out... Under conditions of increased dopamine release (eg, stress), individuals with Val158 alleles may have improved dopaminergic transmission and better performance, while individuals with Met158 alleles may have less efficient neurotransmission and worse performance. Some evidence suggests that Val158 alleles are associated with schizophrenia, while Met158 alleles are associated with anxiety. [PMID 16878403] Met158 allele carriers had "a more focused response...during a working memory task." "The met158 allele seems to be beneficial during the performance of working memory and attention-related tasks, whereas the val158 allele appears to be advantageous during the processing of aversive emotional stimuli." [PMID 15673663] "Increased limbic and prefrontal activation elicited by unpleasant stimuli in subjects with more met158 alleles might contribute to the observed lower emotional resilience against negative mood states." I wonder how important this variant could be in HPPD.

The med I want to try most is Levetiracetam, which has the most promising study with regards to HPPD (so it should be easier to get it prescribed). Although there are very mixed reports here about its efficacy. I was meant to go on it four months ago but there have been various delays. That would be my first point of call. Most of what I have spoken about is anecdotal and speculatory, I doubt it'll convince your doc. But you could get hold of it yourself if you want to try. Best wishes!

Well this was inconclusive.. I can't say what effect Cyproheptadine has had overall.

I started Glycine today @ 4g. I will be increasing 4g/day until I reach 800mg/kg. I am hoping that introducing at this rate will help with any nausea.

Odisa, I know you're not taking Nefi any more - how did it go?

I'll be doing Glycine next! Good luck.