has anyone ever tryed

[donna80]

st johns wart? and whats your experiences?

i have bad experiences with other meds for my health anxiety/depression so i thought i may give this ago along with my valium....

[juliana]

Talk to you doctor before you take any natural supplement with a prescription med. I know St. John's Wort is contraindicated for the SSRI I am taking.

I'll tell you about my own experience with St. John's Wort. When I started taking it for depression, I didn't know that it could make birth control pills ineffective. I found out the hard way -- by getting pregnant while on the pill. I took my pill at the same time every day and never missed a dose, so I was in shock when I got pregnant. It wasn't until months later, when I read an article in a magazine, that I realized it was the St. John's Wort which had made my pills not work.

So, even though supplements are "natural", you need to be careful. They can interfere with lots of prescription medications.

I have read a lot about people taking Kava Kava for anxiety, but it turns out it can cause severe liver damage. So, just because it's natural, it doesn't mean it's safe or appropriate in every case. Best to talk to your doctor. Good luck to you.

[ardrum]

Actually, it turns out the risks associated with kava kava are not what they were made out to be. So long as you only use root-only kava kava (that's all that's available now anyway), there have been no problems.

In addition, the vast majority of the liver problems reported turned out to be due to other drugs the people were taking. Also, they were all taking WAY beyond the FDA recommended dosages.