Effect of DHEA

I have taken 25 mg DHEA (Dehydroepiandrosterone) for the last 4 days daily in the morning. No other supplements were taken. 

Positive effects:

• Increased good mood
• Increased ability to fantasize romance
• Reduced anxiety
• Reduced stuttering
• Reduced sleepiness post lunch

Negative effects:

• Mild nausea - only on the first day. From second day onwards, no nausea was observed.
• Mild headache - started in the afternoon and persisted into late night. Headache decreased in intensity with 12 mg zinc gluconate and half tablet stresstabs intake.

Neutral effects:

• No change in libido
• No change in erection
• No change in focus or concentration
• No change in energy

Exercise increases libido and mood

Exercise, particularly cardiovascular exercise increases libido and penile erection significantly. Also, it increases mood and happiness.

Walking for 45 minutes to 60 minutes increases blood circulation and mild improvement in alertness, focus, concentration and mood. But, no spurt of happiness or libido happens.

During the walking, particularly after 30 minutes of walking, jogging for 3-5 minutes (250 - 500 meters) with faster respiratory rate (literally gasping like a dog), increases the happiness and libido after few hours.

Also, walking 1-1.5 km after each meal improves the blood circulation and keep the mood active and alert. Consumption of food diverts the blood flow to stomach. This decreases the blood flow to brain which is already receiving poor circulation. That's why dullness and drowsiness happen after the lunch ( a heavy meal). So, walking immediately after each meal improves the circulation to all parts of the body and to brain also. This sort of exercise may be practiced to improve the energy levels, focus and concentration. 

Calcium supplementation increases dopamine

I have taken 1 tablet of neurobion forte multivitamin tablet + 1 tablet folic acid 1 mg daily for 10 days either in the morning after breakfast or after lunch.

Composition of Neurobion Forte Tablet:

Thiamine Hydrochloride (Vit B1) 10 MG

Riboflavin (Vit B2) 10 MG

Pyridoxine Hydrochloride(Vit B6) 3 MG

Cyanocobalamin triturate in gelatin equivalent to cyanocobalamin 15 MCG

Niacinamide (Nicotinamide/Vit B3) 45 MG

Calcium Pantothenate 50 mg

Also, I have taken Calmagic HD tablet for last 5 days along with the above tablets.

Composition of Calmagic HD tablet:

Elemental calcium 500 MG

Elemental magnesium 100 MG

Vitamin D3 1000 IU

I observed the following effects:

1. Decreased tension, decreased anxiety

2. Decreased heart rate (from ~ 90bpm to ~ 82 bpm) and decreased blood pressure (from ~128/86 mmHg ~ 116/78 mmHg)

3. Increased libido and increased erection

4. Slightly increased working memory

5. Increased ability to drive car at faster speeds with better steering control

6. Slightly increased stuttering

All these effects indicate that there is an increased dopaminergic activity. Similar effects were observed during the period 2014-2015 where I took calmagzinc + methylfolate + methylcobalamin.

Easy ways to increase libido

I have followed the following practices to increase the libido. Sure, these practices increased libido. The effectiveness of the practice is given in the descending order.

1. Increased carbohydrate intake - rice or wheat

This practice increases good mood and libido. Many people, due to dieting, decrease their carbohydrate intake. This practice decreased my mood and libido. So, increased carbohydrate levels increased my libido.

2. Eat eggs daily

Take 2 eggs in the morning and 2 eggs in the evening. This practice increased my libido very much. Half-boiled eggs gave maximum benefit. Alternatively, the eggs can be mixed with chopped onions (small red onion-South Indian variety) and prepared as omelette and consumed.

3. Eat mutton and chicken weekly 2 times each

This practice increased my libido very good. I consumed mutton one day followed by chicken, then followed by mutton and chicken. This order can be continuous or can be with other type of meals in between. 

4. Walking for 30 minutes - 2 hours per day

In my experience, 30 minute walking is not that much effective. At least, 1 hour of walking improved my libido.

5. Taking supplements

Supplements such as folic acid, ginseng, general multivitamin, DL-phenylalanine increased my libido. This whole blog is about my trial and error on this practice. It is not easy to find a suitable supplement. This requires lot of trial and error. Sometimes, it requires taking supplements with unusual dosing regimens such as taking them on alternate days.

Effects of egg consumption, abstinence from multivitamin and milk consumption and meat consumption on hand pain

For the past 3-4 months, I have stopped all multivitamins. For the past 20 days (during the fasting month) to 1 month, I have been consuming two eggs per day (one at breakfast and another one at dinner). Also, I have consumed mainly wheat based items for past 15 days.

Positive effects:

1. Reduced anxiety and feelings of joy happened after stopping the fasting. This lasted for few days and start to decrease after that.
2. Reduced stuttering and gasping for breath while talking
3. Increased libido, strong erections, enhanced feeling of orgasm.

Negative effects:

1. Unable to sustain focus or concentration on research related work (review and writing of papers).
2. Reduced productivity in terms of research related work.
3. Hand pain, lower back pain and buttock muscles pain (gluteal muscle) slowly start to occur after 3 months of abstinence from multivitamins. Sometimes, the pain gives much discomfort in continuing the computer work.

Milk consumption:

1. These negative effects are almost overcome by the consumption of full cream milk at night just before going to bed. Half a glass full cream milk was consumed after 4 hours of dinner and just before to lie on bed. Next morning, higher energy levels, positive mood, increased focus and concentration were observed. This effect was observed with all dairy products such as milk, yoghurt, butter and ghee except cheese. However, the pain component stayed there. Not much change was observed in the hand pain, finger pain, low back pain and buttock muscle pain.

Hand pain and meat consumption:

Due to heavy laptop use with mouse, I used to get right hand pain around the wrist, palm and fingers. With rest, this pain usually subsides. Sometimes, the pain is severe. Nowadays, I am not taking any multivitamin. But, I am consuming two eggs per day one in the lunch and dinner. Still, the hand pain is there almost everyday. With rest (not using laptop and mouse), the pain disappears. After consumption of meat (mutton, beef and chicken with mutton being the most significant influencer and chicken the least), I have observed that the pain subsides significantly. Also, this hand pain also subsides after consumption of calcium, magnesium, zinc tablet. These observations suggest that the meat products may contain these minerals and might offer the reduction of hand pain. However, the amount of calcium and zinc in mutton and beef meat are not really that much. So, alternatively, based on my previous experiences, the role of vitamin B12 may be suspected here as meat products especially mutton and beef contain more B12 and might offer some neurological cure to hand pain.

Update on hand pain 2 July 2020:

The hand pain decreased very much after I stopped egg consumption for two days. I am taking osteocare tablets and diabetone capsules every day. Need to analyse which one has reduced the hand pain.

Update on hand pain 25 July 2020:

I have taken magnesium at night after dinner (200 mg of magnesium from vitabiotics brand; They have not mentioned what form of magnesium is present in the tablet) for last few days and found my muscle pain and hand pain decreased substantially. However, the focus and concentration decreased very much with magnesium consumption at night.

Effect of Olive oil

I used olive oil (labelled as "suitable for frying, sauteing") for cooking for last one week. I used this olive oil two times daily (morning and night) for making dosa (1 tablespoon each time). I observed the following things.

1. Increased sense of feeling coldness and not sweating - significant reduction in sweating
2. Slightly decreased sense of body pains and inflammation
3. Generally good mood
4. Reduced libido

References:

1. Oleic acid inhibits cholesteryl esterase and cholesterol utilization for testosterone synthesis in mouse Leydig cells. Metabolism. 1996 Mar;45(3):293-9. PubMed Link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8606634

2.  Oleic acid increases hepatic sex hormone binding globulin production in men. Mol Nutr Food Res. 2014 Apr;58(4):760-7. doi: 10.1002/mnfr.201300304. PubMed Link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24142580

Effect of Bupron (Bupropion SR) - 150 mg

I discontinued fluoxetine and then I took bupropion 150 mg extended release once daily in the morning along with neurogistics multivitamin capsules for 3-4 weeks.

Positive effects:

• Improved mood - No negative thoughts, No depressed mood
• Improved energy
• No procrastination - I could meet the deadline in my job first time in the last 3 years.
• More focus - can remain in a task for more period of time enabling me to complete the work.
• More concentration - can think faster and do faster processing
• No sexual side effects - but no increased libido or strong erections
• Maximum resolution of anxiety - After 2-3 weeks, I experienced a maximum resolution of anxiety which was haunting me for more than 10 years. No worrying thoughts before driving the car. No worrying thoughts before the class. Sometimes, I used to feel tachycardia. This tachycardia went off after taking few deep breaths.
• My eye vision improved. I was not taking omega-3 supplements. Even then my vision did not deteriorate. I could see more brightness in the night while driving. Earlier, this lack of brightness was causing me more anxiety while driving in the night.
• Improved olfactory functions - Taste and smell sensation improved.

Negative effects:

• More aggressiveness - led to more fights with my wife.
• No difference in the affection. I was not able to like and love my family (This condition was there before taking medicines. So no improvement in this part.)
• Music was not enjoyable as like before.
• Dizziness and syncope

Suggestion:

• I may need a less dosage of bupropion to reduce the side effects
• OR I have to include 5-HTP once daily (either morning or in evening) to counteract the probable decrease in serotonin and GABA due to elevated dopamine levels.

Ginger for libido and stuttering

Ginger is known for its antiemetic properties. I used ginger in 2005-2007 when I was not taking any supplements. I used ginger along with tea. I cut the fresh ginger into small pieces after scrapping the skin. I boil the black tea powder in water along with these ginger pieces. Then I filter the water into milk powder. Shake well to get the tea with ginger aroma and taste. After consumption of this ginger tea, I noticed the following effects.

• My stuttering was reduced and my speech was more fluent.
• My libido was slightly increased with more sensation of the penis.
• When taken with oat meal, it gives heavy sleepiness.
• Increased body heat and sweating.
• Anxiety was slightly reduced since speech fluency was more. However the performance anxiety was not reduced much.

However, when I took this ginger tea when i was taking the supplements (5-HTP, DL-Phenylalanine, magnesium and multivitamin), I had experienced one unique symptom. My talking was jumbled up. The first syllable of the first word is substituted with the first syllable of the second word. For example to say catecholamine control, I said kotakolamine kentrol. This did not happen frequently but happened quite no of times when I was speaking fast and caused some embarrassment. I could not control it from happening. It happened with Tamil and English languages (I stutter more in English than in Tamil).

So, my hypothesis about the ginger effect is:

• Increase in serotonin (more fluency), possibly GABA (sleepiness)
• Decrease of dopamine activity in certain areas of the brain (decrease in stuttering, more sleepiness)
• Increase in dopamine activity in certain areas of the brain (increase in libido)

Research indicates that ginger is having 5-HT3 antagonism - gingerol and galanolactone are responsible for this.

Huang, QR; Iwamoto; Aoki; Tanaka; Tajima; Yamahara; Takaishi; Yoshida et al. (1991). "Anti-5-hydroxytryptamine3 effect of galanolactone, diterpenoid isolated from ginger". Chemical & pharmaceutical bulletin 39 (2): 397–9. 

5-HT3 antagonism reduces dopamine release.
Differential inhibitory effects of a 5-HT₃ antagonist on drug-induced stimulation of dopamine release. European Journal of Pharmacology
Volume 164, Issue 3, 30 May 1989, Pages 515-519