St John’s Wort for midlife crisis

Bit old and a bit fat?

The Daily Mail today tackled midlife crisis and they have gathered some pearls of wisdom from various ‘leading health experts’. And what a panopoly of colourful opinions it is. Here are some evidence-lite highlights:

The trichologist sticks to unerring logic and tells us the hair is made of protein ergo a high-protein diet will help.

Energy levels in the hair follicles are at their lowest in the morning – another reason why you musn’t miss breakfast.

Eh? As I read this I can feel my hair aching – perhaps my follicle energy levels are dipping. So to summarise: if you have hair then eat.

The plastic surgeon recommends dark berries rich in vitamin E for wrinkles because it is good at “maintaining healthy, smooth skin”. Plastic surgeon?? Thanks, but if I want advice on my diet I’ll go to a nutritionist…

The nutritionist wades in:

Weight gain is often a factor in the midlife crisis. If you have gained weight around the middle, cut back on wheat and refined grain cereals, breads and biscuits as the yeast and sugars in these cause bloating and fat deposits.

To summarise: eat less expensive processed food.

And take a combination of multi-vitamins and minerals in addition to a well-balanced antioxidant formula, such as Vitabiotics Menopace Plus.

To summarise: eat more expensive processed supplements. I will ignore the lack of evidence for supplements and antioxidants to make this point: the article highlighted that men are more likely to be depressed in their midlife crisis. Menopace Plus “is a specially formulated food supplement for women during the menopause.” I don’t expect it makes much difference to the efficacy but, chaps, before you rush out it might be worth bearing that in mind.

The acupuncturist:

Giles Davies, acupuncturist at the Barry Road Clinic, South-East London, says: ‘Try to sleep before 11pm. In acupuncture, chi – the life energy that affects every cell in our body – moves like a tide around the body and it hits the gall bladder at about 11pm.

‘If you are not in a completely relaxed state by this time of night, this can lead to an imbalance in the gall bladder which will disturb your thoughts and make it difficult to sleep. The more you cannot sleep, the more tired you’ll get and the more difficult you will find it to face your midlife challenges.

I’m posting this at about 9pm – that gives me around 2 hours before my chi tide hits my gallbladder. I have to admit I do feel a bit bilious.

The GP

So, after all this drivel at least we can turn to the GP for some sound commonsense advice.

Dr Mike Dixon, GP and medical director of the Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health, says: ‘People associate taking the herbal treatment St John’s Wort with depression. Though it’s a useful therapy for the condition, it is also a great pick-me-up for anyone who wants to feel more invigorated, so it is a good pre-emptive strike against the classic symptoms of the midlife crisis. You should always check with your GP before taking it as it can interact with other medicines.’

Who knew? If you had checked with me I would have told you that I am completely unaware of the evidence for any benefit for St John’s Wort as a ‘pre-emptive strike against the classic symptoms of midlife crisis’. I was aware of the evidence for its use in depression; but its benefit as a prophylactic in midlife crisis had completely passed me by.

Thank you Dr Dixon. I’m looking forward to delving into the evidence for the prophylactic use of herbal antidepressants in the well documented medical condition of being a bit old and a bit fat.

Or alternatively, I could follow the advice from the urologist who recommends that fat middle-aged pie-munchers (I am paraphrasing) should get some exercise. Give that surgeon an OBE.

Hat tip to Blue Wode and his cool tweets.