Pure Encapsulations - DopaPlus - Comprehensive Dopamine Support Supplement* - 18

It is a great solution in my experience, but note that we take it as part of a regime outlined below and it is the regime in total that is a very good solution. I've tried to include as much information as possible here in this review, but one should refer to actual medical advice. (Note also that I've updated this review throughout and added an update at the end; though I had earlier said this solution was "perfect," I've ended up concluding that medication is necessary and will (I hope) be helpful for my daughter and that these supplements, in combination with medication (if one can afford it, is ideal.) I learned about this supplement from James Greenblatt MD's book Finally Focused, a book I strongly recommend. I bought it for me because I have ADD (ADHD - inattentive) and am a bit dopamine deficient. My experience is that this works very well for this deficiency. I feel focused, energetic, and a touch more upbeat. I got it for the focus -- the energetic and upbeat aspects are gravy. I'm not convinced it would give everyone such noticeable results as it does me; I noticed some people commented that it doesn't help them tremendously for conditions such as depression, for instance. What I like about the product is it contains a variety of safe substances that do support dopamine levels in the body. The alternative for having similar effects for someone with ADHD-PI versus someone with a condition, say, like depression would be taking a medication such as an adderall or ritalin-type stimulant (which go under many names like Concerta, Vyanse, etc. as well as adderall and ritalin). For my daughter, who does have ADD too but is still growing, I haven't been willing to consider using a stimulant derived from adderall or ritalin as first resort. Stimulants suppress appetite and by connection apparently growth. I have come to trust Dr. Greenblatt's recommendations since they are grounded in a lot of clinical experience and since our experience has been pretty much just as he predicted. I wrote a long review of another supplement of Pure Encapsulations that he recommends (called Curcumasorb Mind -- and not the other one similarly named which is just called Curcumasorb). I would recommend finding this review under my reviewer name (at the time of my writing this review, it appears Amazon is out of Curcumasorb Mind, so it may be hard to find on the site since Amazon hides products that are out of stock). I think that Greenblatt, the author of Finally Focused, may profit from Pure Encapsulations' business. I am not sure. I know he helped formulate one of their other products, the one I mentioned above. Normally, I don't like to take recommendations for a supplement from someone who profits from selling that supplement. However, I think do think the product is good, and even though I started out thinking that this practice itself is sketchy I've come to be grateful that he has helped formulate something truly effective with the right ingredients. I think the product is a bit expensive, but it's not terribly out of line with similar products. My daughter seems to be much more focused to the point that I Now think her ADD issues are now nearly resolved. I notice this through small data points -- less procrastination, more follow through, more effort to be organized, apparent enhanced executive function. I was struck that she said that she feels more confident and upbeat. Having tried stimulants, I know that they can have the same effect on mood. But with stimulants, at least for me, when they wear off, there had been a bit of moodiness, lack of focus, and so on. I don't get that with Dopa Plus. The full regime we follow, essentially following Greenblatt's book (which again I recommend -- don't mess around with the dosages which are important): *****WHAT WE TAKE: In the morning, Vitamin B6 50 mg together with Magnesium Citrate/Carbonate/Glycinate 150 mg. In both the morning and evening, 1 capsule of Pure Encapsulations Curcumasorb Mind and 3 capsules of Pure Encapsulations Dopa Plus. Magnesium in the evening again (Magnesium Oxide doesn't work so don't bother with it). Also, my daughter takes high quality fish oil and some cod liver oil and a solid kids multivitamin that seems to be heavy on various vitamin b forms and importantly a high protein breakfast with some fiber and limited sugar.******* NOTE: Greenblatt suggests tapering up slowly over weeks to 6 capsules of DopaPlus a day (3 morning, 3 evening) for your kid. It would be easier, perhaps, if my daughter were willing to have all this stuff mixed up in, say apple juice. (DopaPlus should ideally be taken on an empty stomach 15-20 minutes before eating, but juice accompanying is okay, I imagine.) My daughter prefers to swallow all the capsules one by one. It takes time for her to get through the pile. She has gotten on board very well (after a lot of work) with the regime. She feels that it helps her a lot. I've now told her to view it like food; everyone needs to eat every day and some people just need this special added nutrition. For both my daughter and me, as I said: Finally Focused as part of the regime above has significantly, though not completely, resolved our ADHD-inattentive as an issue. It doesn't mean we are completely different people, but it has greatly reduced challenges; depending on how against taking stimulants a parent is, I believe the regime could serve as a nearly sufficient replacement for some ADHD sufferers.. If I had a child less than 11 years old with ADHD-inattentive type, I still would take the regime I mentioned above without the DopaPlus. We were helped by taking that regime without DopaPlus, though the help was a bit less. In the book, Greenblatt suggests DopaPlus is for kids 12+ years. I reached out to him and he said it would be okay for my 11 1/2 year old. I don’t know how young he would be willing to say is okay for kids taking DopaPlus. Good luck! If your child has a different kind of ADHD, get Greenblatt's book and work through the solutions for that instead. There is some overlap in solutions, but his book is, wonderfully, not one size fits all. ADHD of different types require different overall solutions. My review here is specifically based on his recommendations for ADHD-PI and shouldn't be applied to other forms. Additionally, in his book, Greenblatt is not anti-medication, but rather feels that medication should be a last resort and/or can help those taking medication in a variety of ways which leads me to this: LATEST UPDATE: There's no question that the regime above helps my daughter. She has said, "when I don't take my supplements, I just feel stupid." I take her words to mean, as she says other times, that she feels more in control and more focused. All this said, next school year, we will be trying out a low dose of stimulants in addition to the supplements. I put myself back on a low dose (Concerta) and I believe that the overall combination of the stimulant and the supplements puts me in about the best condition I can be in. Without being able to absolutely quantify the effects of things like this, I'd say the supplements get us to about 70-80% remedied. Stimulants take us most of the rest of the way there. I think the difficult choice for many people is whether they would take the supplements in addition to a medication, given their cost. I will say that for myself these supplements in combination with medication seem to be the best solution possible -- but there is no doubt that the overall treatment is expensive. As promised by Greenblatt in his book, the supplements do indeed reduce (in my own case pretty much fully eliminate) side effects as well as making the stimulants broadly more effective at lower doses. What happens with medication when I take these supplements is that I take the lowest dose necessary, my extended release med gently kicks in and gently phases out at the end of the day and I feel fine and am able to sleep well. I'm hoping they will do the same for my now 12 year old daughter and I'll try to report back findings. Good luck! UPDATE AFTER MANY MONTHS: My girl went on an extended release stimulant at a normal dosage and, sad to say, it seems necessary for her and has been really effective. I would prefer she continue with the full regime as well, but the problem is I can't get her to take all the pills and I can't get her to agree to put them in a smoothie. So I have to pick and choose the supplements that I add to her medication regime. It's just a lot easier to take 1, 2, 3 pills than to cover this whole regime.... I still recommend these supplements, but the anchor, now, is the medication with the other items being more of a nice to have..... UPDATE YEARS LATER: These are great if you can afford them (they are fairly priced) but prescribed stimulants have turned out to be what works and I wished I had started them earlier with my girl. These are a good back-up help.

Good stuff

I have been struggling with circumstantial depression for over a year now, worse in the last few months. One of the contributing factors has been hormonal changes in mid-life which is known to contribute to the onset of depression as a result of biochemical changes in the body and brain. It had gotten to the point where I was sleeping 12+ hours a day, couldn't focus, was constantly feeling despair and lethargy/fatigue and regularly craving sugar like a recovering drug addict (and I am not a "sweets" person and never have been). It was the constant sugar craving that told me this was a dopamine issue (drugs and sugar both stimulate increased release of dopamine which is why former addicts and alcoholics crave sugar more in recovery - their brain is broken and is trying to replaced the artificially elevated dopamine levels they had become accustomed to during their addiction). I found this by accident looking up dopamine supplements and I was concerned because serotonin and dopamine levels in the brain are sensitive and too much is equally as disastrous as not enough in circulation. This is why some pysch meds, specifically MAOI for example, have dietary restrictions so the food sources don't interfere with carefully measured levels of serotonin being released in the brain from the drugs. They can control the dosage but they can't control how much of something you eat so best to make it a no-fly zone for food instead for your protection) I am also type II diabetic and have high blood pressure so these things were also considerations about the safety or benefits of taking this. The last thing I needed was to have a stroke while being this depressed with my blood sugar being less than optimal. Recommended dosage is 3 capsules so I started with 2 to lower it as a matter of caution and also to try and lengthen the lifespan of this supply if I could. I could always go up to 3 if I felt it was needed and 1 seemed too low to address the state I was currently walking around in. I won't tell you this was magic and I DEFINITELY do not recommend this is you have been diagnosed with something that requires a doctor's supervision for medications or supplements or have been in the past. Brain chemistry is not a kitchen chemistry set that you can play around with at home. Don't be an arrogant dummy about it. Between you and your doctor, only one of you went to medical school. Don't kid yourself here. Here's what I experienced. Prior to taking this, I had transitioned into coming home from work at 5 pm, eating dinner and going to bed at 7 pm. Sometimes waking up at 3 am, but mostly sleeping through until I NEEDED to get up for work the next morning, 12+ hours later. The first day after taking this (the day before), I woke up on on time and didn't feel like a zombie laying in bed trying to organize my thoughts and get motivated to actually get dressed and make an attempt at life for reasons that had no value to me at the moment. I mean, same day, same grind, same results after all this time so what is the point, right? Okay, so far so good but maybe it was just because I slept well. I took it again that morning and the biggest telling sign that something was different was coming home from work. Typically, walking in the front door is like a magic wand that waves over me and sucks all the motivation to do anything out of my body which leaves me with just enough energy to eat and go to bed, even though mentally I know I have things I *should* be doing. This day, I came home, had dinner and didn't feel a wave of fatigue wash over me and send me straight to bed. I felt... normal? clear? It wasn't a huge feeling. It was subtle but what was obvious was the lack of apathetic fatigue. I didn't feel more motivated to do anything just alot less motivated to do nothing. The third day, it has been the same feeling of not being so ready to pretend the world doesn't exist and I can live in the safety of hiding under my bed covers. I have been more focused and clear, my productivity is going up, less overwhelmed by petty, stupid things (one small thing went wrong and I was ready to burst into tears from frustration and hopelessness because of other circumstances making everything seem insurmountable) and I don't walk out of work feeling defeated and exhausted. So far, this has been a pleasant surprise that it lived up to my hopes so quickly and in measurable ways for me. The thing that really made me choose this product are the effects some of the ingredients contributes to type II diabetes and BGL regulation (all positive). Obviously, this won't replace your medications, diet and exercise as primary control mechanisms but it helps and if i have to have a side effect or side benefit, I will take the side benefit every time. For folks who are NOT struggling with BPD, clinical depression or other chemical imbalances in the brain that are recommended for management with the assistance of a qualified psychiatric (not psychological) medical doctor, I recommend this product. I will be buying it again. This supplement hasn't changed my life but it is helping me to get out of bed and not feel so despairing that I can actually try to accomplish exactly that. I am going to try recommending this to a friend to discuss with his MD about some idiopathic tremors he is having in his hands that have gotten worse over the years. I suspect this might help him but we will see how that goes.

First night trying it and it seems to work well. I work graveyard shift and have peaks and valleys in energy. I split the dose up instead of taking 3 capsules at once. I took one at 10 pm another at 12 am and the last at 5 am. My energy was very noticeably better with no nausea or jitters. It is now 8 am and I am usually wiped by now.

I have Restless Leg Syndrome. I used to take Mirapex (a Parkinson's drug) in small doses, but it gave me cottonmouth in the morning, numbed my nerves completely for 12 hours, and needed to be taken at an exact time (which got earlier and earlier) before bed every night. I consulted with my doctor and tried an herbal supplement (Metagenic's Lumina [basically fish oil]) that was designed for dopamine support. Lumina took a couple months to build up but then worked pretty well for a couple years--not as well as Mirapex, but it was definitely better than the side effects and tolerance. Then it stopped working. And then Metagenics stopped producing it. (I reckon FDA intervention on the pill encapsulation is why.) So I gave DopaPlus a shot; I've been taking it for six months. Last I read, RLS is likely caused (or exacerbated) by a lack of dopamine *processing* in the brain, not necessarily by a lack of dopamine itself. DopaPlus is a cocktail of everything that supports dopamine production, so it worked a little to ease my RLS at first then tapered off in the following months (for any of many possible reasons). I often have difficulty swallowing large pills, and DopaPlus is a bit larger than I'd like (but still smaller than Lumina was). The recommended dose for DopaPlus is 3-6 pills a day (sheesh), but I only take one at bedtime. I'm working on reducing my esophagitis/difficulty swallowing, and then I'll try two or three DopaPlus capsules a day. I have faith it'll improve my sleep over time.