supplements and behavior

[crillmom]

this may sound silly but is it possible that supplements can worsen behavior. Since my son has been on supp. his obsessional thoughts are gone but he is much more emotional and is crying in school and seems to need to always have his way. it seemed the supplements kept his thoughts at bay but not the other stuff that goes with anxiety. We decided to put hin on lexapro and see what happens. Anyway almost immediatly we saw a difference, I can't imagine the med would work so quickly so my question is, was the supplements causing the emotional outbursts or does my son respond to medicine so quickly? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[Allanque]

Lexapro started acting fairly quickly for me.

[crillmom]

allanque, are you still on lexapro? Are you happy with the results? I am still deciding if we did the right thing. he is much better, no emotional breakdowns etc., but doesn't my son have to learn to control it on his own ? what happens when he is off meds, will he be able to deal with things on his own? any insight would be great

[Allanque]

I was doing fine on Lexapro, but insurance didn't like it.

They switched me to Celexa because insurance covers it.

I'm on it mainly to help stop OCD-type behaviors, but I also seem to be in a much better mood most of the time.

As for him learning to control it on his own...it's entirely possible that as he grows the chemical imbalance will straighten itself out.

[catatonic]

You don't mention what supplements you were using. Were you giving vitamin B6, or amino acids?

[crillmom]

he was taking becalm'd which contains amino acids and mag/cal and omega 3 fish oils

[catatonic]

I would look at the BeCalm'd, which is a product I generally recommend everyone avoid. I don't know that I'd give any supplement that contains phenylalanine, as becalm'd does. Phenylalanine is really not good stuff.

If you take a look at the sweetpoison website, you will see that there is a great deal of reason to believe that phenylalanine triggers ADHD-type behaviors as well as emotional lability. ( www.sweetpoison.com/phenylalanine.html)

In addition, it competes with tryptophan for absorption in the brain, and tryptophan is what's needed for the production of seratonin.

Avoiding phenylalanine is a sound reason not to use the artificial sweetener aspartame (NutraSweet). Read Russell Blaylock's book "Excitotoxins" for an indepth look at how aspartame, phenylalanine, and MSG can do terrible harm to your brain. They may play an important role in development of Alzheimer's, Parkinsons, ALS and other degenerative neurological conditions.

I think it's highly unlikely the magnesium or the Omega-3 have anything to do with your son's behavior. You might try getting rid of the becalm'd and substituting a good multi vitamin that contains trace minerals, along with a B-complex. That will give you better nutrients than the becalm'd without the amino acids, which can be very unpredictable.