quoth dean fienberg:
> Does anyone here take prescribed medications ontop of their raw food
> diet?  If so, does it seem to work O.K.?

nope.  the last synthetic drug i allowed into my body came with
the wisdom tooth experience.  i swallowed a little tablet before the
operation they claimed would dry up my saliva, while refusing the valium
tablet offered with it.  general anaesthetic for the first time in my
life.  awakening groggy but alive, i fasted on a water/lemon/honey for
3.5 days.  i wouldn't even let my mom fulfill the prescription that the
dentist had insisted on giving me, just in case the pain trumped my
ideals.  (dr. thomas stone advised me to discover a skilled oral surgeon
in my area, as i didn't fancy the idea of being driven all the way from
his reccomended surgeon in san francisco after the cutting & yanking).  i
took some white willow & cinchona bark for the incredible pain.  the day
after i read _the celestine prophecy_ in its entirety.

> I've been trying for some time now to work through depression on a raw
> food diet alone.  Though I've noticed improvement, depression still
> remains a problem.  I used to take anti-depressants on my old standard
> diet and they seemed to help.  But I fear they might seem too foreign
> to my body now that it's much more purified.  Anyone have experience
> with this sort of thing?  Or at least some ideas?

	my close friend's sister took prozac for a while.  i passed her
some articles that referenced studies in europe suggesting st. john's
wort produced similar results without the major side-effects.  the one
side-effect from st. john's wort that i've come across repeatedly:  sun
sensitive skin.
	a girlfriend here at ucsc last year gave up prozac and went with
the wort, at my urging.  buying little bottles of the stuff & leaving it
in her room helped her avoid procrastination.  in a completely
unscientific, non-double-blind experiment, she stopped taking it for a
few days to a week now and then.  she felt noticeable improvement when
returning to the aromatic perennial herb.

	from _the honest herbal_:

		st. john's wort  (hypericum perforatum l.)

		much of the activity reported for the plant was initially
thought to be due to the presence of hypericin, a reddish dianthrone
pigment.  more recent studies have linked the antidepressant effects of
st. john's wort to various contained xanthones and flavonoids that act as
monoamine oxidase inhibitors.  tests on small animals and preliminary
tests in humans have confirmed this activity.
						third edition, 1993

	from my apiarian research, the effect of regular use of royal
jelly has the researchers label:  "euphoria."  don't sound like
depression to me.  euphoria with royal jelly, for those who have chosen
to accept bee products into their nutritional experience.  enjoy!


with honey on my tongue,
			bodhi