On 2001-08-16 15:05:50 I posted this, but I have not received an answer. Could someone answer this for me?
To anyone, I purchase a brand of Vitex (for PMS) from the store and it had 20mg standardized. Is this potent enough? should I take two tablets instead of one. I have just start taking it two days ago an I haven’t noticed anything but an increase in appetite for food. Is 40 mg standardized to much?
One really can’t compare different brands
of Vitex even given “standardization”
numbers. I’ve learned from Tim that what’s
being standardized for, is actually not
one of the active ingredients anyway but
just a marker.
So, although we could do (and are involved
in) doing analyses to come up with
standardization of the actual active
ingredients, right now you can’t really
compare different brands.
Now as to the question of too much… I had
been concerned that too much could possibly
lower prolactin too much, and that would
be a bad thing. This however does not
seem to be an actual problem. Doses higher
than the 400 mg/day Solaray level give
the same results as 400 mg/day, rather
than adverse results as I had hypothesized
might happen. Apparently Vitex just isn’t
able to reduce prolactin to a degree
that’s detrimental, even if you take more
than needed.
At least, that’s what we’re thinking now
in this ongoing matter.
All of the good studies utilized a total daily dose of 480mg Vitex to effect a change in prolactin and other hormone levels.