Posted by Tomatheus on April 4, 2012, at 11:37:50
In reply to Re: selegiline onset of action » Tomatheus, posted by Phillipa on April 4, 2012, at 9:51:47
Scott and Phillipa,
The anti-aging supplement that I've taken is TA-65. It activates the telomerase enzyme, which helps to repair and lengthen short telomeres. Telomeres are strands on the ends of chromosomes that are thought to protect DNA, and these chromosomal strands generally shorten with age. Shortened telomeres have been implicated in age-related diseases, and two studies have found short telomeres to be correlated with depressive illness, while a third study showed that short telomeres and chronicity of depressive symptoms were correlated. Depressive disorders and shortened telomeres share some of the same risk factors, and both depression and short telomeres have been found to be associated with oxidative stress and inflammation. Furthermore, activating the telomerase enzyme in rodents has been found to promote hippocampal neurogenesis and to produce antidepressant-like effects, while blocking the enzyme has been found to reduce the rate of hippocampal neurogenesis and to induce behaviors that are thought to be indicative of depression.
I took TA-65 for two days -- March 28th and 29th of this year -- and decided to stop taking it due to tingling-like sensations in my head that emerged after I took my second dose of the supplement. I noticed reductions in the severity of all of my depressive symptoms -- especially my hypersomnia and difficulty concentrating -- on the two days that I spent on TA-65, but what surprised me was that the therapeutic benefits that I first noticed when I took the supplement didn't fade during my first few days off of the supplement, and some of these benefits still haven't faded. I did notice that my energy level was slightly lower yesterday than it had been since I took TA-65, and today my psychomotor retardation seems to be slightly worse than it's been as of late. I think that the reduced energy I noticed yesterday and the increased psychomotor retardation that I've noticed today might be signs that the rest of my depressive symptoms will get worse once again, but my hypersomnia and difficulty concentrating have not grown worse since I've stopped taking the TA-65. So, my vegetative depression, though not in remission, still seems to be remarkably less severe than it was before I took TA-65. At this point, I am considering taking more TA-65 to see maybe if taking it every few days might produce the best results, but for now, I want to see if the benefits that I'm noticing will continue without having to take the supplement regularly.
It obviously hasn't been very long since I stopped taking TA-65, so I don't want to jump to any conclusions about what long-term benefits it can produce, but I think that my response to the supplement can have some interesting implications if it persists into the long term -- especially if I don't need to keep taking the supplement to reap its benefits. Although my understanding of telomeres and the telomerase enzyme isn't very advanced, it makes some sense that activating the telomerase enzyme would lengthen critically short telomeres -- something that TA-65 has been clinically shown to do -- and leave them elongated in the long term unless they become shortened by age, stress, or other risk factors for telomere shortening. This might explain why I seem to be noticing long-term benefits from TA-65, even though I discontinued the supplement several days ago.
If I continue to experience long-term benefits from having taken TA-65, I will eventually start a thread on the alternative board detailing my response to the supplement and how it may evolve with time. At this point, I'm not ready to declare myself cured by any means both because I still have depressive symptoms and because it hasn't been very long since I stopped TA-65, but it will be interesting to see how well I do in the long run, whether or not I decide to take the supplement again.
Tomatheus
P.S. Thanks for the correction, Scott. What you wrote makes more sense now.
Dx: schizoaffective disorder
Taking Abilify and 3 supplements
tomatheus.blogspot.com
poster:Tomatheus
thread:1014890
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20120328/msgs/1014925.html