St. John's wort for depression.

You see it everywhere. You have friends who swear by it and now researchers are not arguing. St. John's wort is effective for depression. Of course, there are many anti-depressant medications available that are also known to be effective, but St. John's wort has some notable advantages over the medical establishment's bigger guns.

Before taking St. John's wort there are a few important considerations. First and foremost, true clinical depression, whether or not St. John's wort is chosen for treatment, requires professional care. Serious depression often has a concurrent risk of suicide, seriously impaired relationships, loss of income and job security. It would be risky to self-medicate serious depression without counseling or therapy to address underlying problems and provide professional support.

In addition, all herbal preparations and food supplements have the common problem of not being regulated by the government. Studies often reveal unlisted substances, sometimes alarming ones, included in the preparations.

Further, you can't rely completely on consistency in terms of the amount of active ingredient in the extraction. What's more, since these preparations aren't regulated there is often very little data on long-term consequences, potential side effects or drug interactions. While St. John's wort has benefited from more research than many, it still has not been subjected to the kind of research scrutiny required to market pharmaceutical products.

With those warnings aside, St. John's wort has been used for various medicinal purposes for thousands of years. Hypericum perforatum is the botanical name. Hypericin is the active extract sold as St. John's wort. All forms of depression, from mild to severe, have been studied with St. John's wort and in many studies it compares favorably to the anti-depressants available by prescription. The possible advantage of St. John's wort over other anti-depressants is the low rate of side effects.

Virtually all the prescription antidepressants come with some degree of annoying side effects such as a dry mouth and sleepiness. Although there are reported side effects with the use of St. John's wort, their frequency is very low.

All anti-depressants work to increase the level of the neurotransmitters serotonin and norepinephine in the brain. Depressed individuals seem to have low levels of these substances. The various medications have different approaches to the problem--either preventing reabsorption or preventing inactivation or breakdown. One theory is that St. John's wort works by using a little of each approach instead of all one, and by doing so acts with each method below a threshold necessary to significantly produce side effects.

Signs of clinical depression include feelings of worthlessness, loss of interest in activities you like, sleep problems, thoughts of suicide, difficulty concentrating and remembering, loss of appetite or overeating, and physical problems like headaches, chronic pain and stomach trouble that don't go away. If you or someone you know suffers several of these symptoms, get help. Look for results of the National Institute of Mental Health study to provide the bottom line on St. John's wort. In the meantime, if you'd like to try it for yourself, AR&FA Editorial Board Member, Sarah Harding Laidlaw, M.S., R.D., M.P.A. gives two warnings. If you are allergic to plants in the daisy family, St. John's wort may cause an allergic reaction. Also, St. John's wort can increase your skin's sensitivity to the sun.

"Don't forget that running and other aerobic activity with its ability to modify neurohormones can be very effective in depression treatment with nothing but positive side effects," adds AR&FA Editorial Board Member Paul Kiell, M.D. (CN)