It’s been quite a while since I’ve done a Truehope/EMPowerplus update. I had planned on more of them, initially, but when nothing major happened, I didn’t have much to report. I have come to some conclusions about my Truehope/EMPowerplus (what is Truehope/EMPowerplus) experience at five weeks, however, so I’ll share them below.
Does Truehope EMPowerplus Do Anything?
It’s my opinion that the Truehope/EMPowerplus does do something. I’ve had enough of a reaction to the supplement to say that I believe it to be active, and not just a placebo. So I’d say if you’re going to use this stuff, you should be prepared for some reaction, even if it’s not the reaction that you want.
What Does Truehope/EMPowerplus Do?
Of course, this varies by person and this is only my experience. In my experience, according to my perception and my thorough mood tracking during this time:
- The supplement can cause hypomania and cycling (extremely rapidly for me)
- This supplement can increase anxiety
- This supplement can increases the perception of stress (goes along with anxiety)
- This supplement can destabilize mood in general possibly leading to a trend of more depression
- This supplement can increase energy
- This supplement can cause mid-night awakenings
As to what you might call physical side effects? Nothing that I noticed.
All of this is similar to what you would see with monotherapy with antidepressants (contraindicated) in bipolar disorder. Coincidence? I suspect not. Now, I can’t tell you why the Truehope/EMPowerplus supplement has caused these reactions in me, I can only say that it has.
This experience does go right along with what my psychiatrist has seen in other patients as well but his observed reactions were far more dramatic as the ones he has seen have been in people with bipolar I. (To remind you, he saw induction of bipolar mania and psychosis.) So, for me, mood stabilization isn’t necessarily a level 10 experience, but it certainly may be in others.
(No, I didn’t go off my drugs. In no way do I think you have to for a supplement to work. In fact, if there ever are studies on EMPowerplus, I can pretty much guarantee you, they won’t make people go off their psychotropic medications to take part.)
By the way, once I do go off of this, I’ll watch for a reversal in pattern, or a continuance in pattern and try to determine if the EMPowerplus was having any mood effect.
Do I Recommend Truehope/EMPowerplus?
I didn’t recommend this product when I started taking it and, for so many reasons, I still don’t (although, keep in mind, I’m not in the habit of recommending anything). Some things I hate about it:
- No double-blind, placebo controlled studies (evidence) of effectiveness
- They insist people get off their psychiatric medication
- I consider their documentation to be misleading, burgeoning on outright lying (I plan on another article on this)
- No one knows exactly knows the amounts of what’s in the stuff
- No Food and Drug Administration (or other) regulation or assurance of ingredients or quality
What I like about it? Very little. The lack of side effects is nice, but it’s probably not worth it for many considering the possibility of the destabilization of mood.
I actually consider this stuff and the company dangerous. I actually think that people who take the supplement and follow their advice to be in real danger of a very bad mood outbreak. That being said, that’s just my opinion, so take that for what you feel it’s worth.
In the long and short of it, it didn’t work for me. Your mileage may vary.
* In an aside that a few people may care about: initially I purchased the product off their website but after talking to the CEO, he refunded my purchase price. I didn’t request this but I didn’t refuse it either.
I made the mistake of falling for this nonesense in 2011. I went off my medication, started Empower Plus, and within 1 month, I became increasingly unstable, and began what I now think of as the “worst time in my life”. I had to take a leave from my job and suffered financially as a result. I regret the decision to stop my medication but that was pushed on me heavily. When I began to experience sleeplessness and panic, the support workers said I was experiencing an “adverse reaction” from a combination of the EP and my medication. The call centre staff honestly believe in what they are doing, and are probably decent, caring people. But that doesn’t mean they should be giving advice to seriously ill people. As my later pyschiatrist said about them: they offer false hope. Don’t be tricked like I was.
Started taking this stuff about 10 days ago, it was recommended by a friend. They said it could help alleviate stress. I had no depression or mood problems prior to that time, just feeling stressed.
Since I have been taking it I have had strange dreams, have been waking up in the middle of the night (which I almost never did before), and I have felt myself moving toward depression. I haven’t been depressed in years! So I decided to look around online and find out more about what this stuff actually is.
Maybe this product helps some people. But all I know is that I don’t like the reaction I am having to it. Not sure I am going to take it anymore.
A handful of chocolate covered espresso beans sounds delicious! However, that reply that the snack could cause the same effects you described seems, in my opinion, condescending and ignorant. . .That said,thank you for your insightful personal blog, it isn’t easy to put yourself out there for people to here. It exposes what many try to hide, it takes courage. Or mabey I’m a big chicken when it comes to my own mi and tbi and other peoples opinions and judgements. I admire your being so open and honest andwhere I prefer to hide under a table(literally) . I hope that I can build up to even a small measure of your ability to speak so succinctly,clearly and openly. Thank you for just being you.
Amy
Hi Natasha,
Out of curiosity, and to be fair in your commentary on this supplement, I’m just wondering if you could take a few minutes and list (or rather copy and paste) the symptoms of over-medication from the drugs you were taking while trying out the Empower plus supplement? You can easily find these on RX list.com. I think you may be surprised at what you find.
Thanks,
June
Was this ever examined?
Here’s my two cents and you can take it for what it is worth. When you want something not to work, negative reinforcement can bring it to fruition.
My granddaughter has massive mood swings (so did her father who fortunately is no longer in the picture since he refused to do anything about it). I put her on the powder form of empowerplus (she can’t swallow pills) and she did really well on it. Her concentration improved, her moods swings waned and she even got a most improved student award. But after a while she she hated the taste of her shake and started cheating by throwing it out without telling anyone. Her mother works a lot and just doesn’t have what it takes to have a daily fight (which I don’t blame her). Now she is back to the big mood swings. I found that if you take a juice and put powder from the capsules in a magic bullet, you can’t taste it and I have just started putting her on that formula.
It makes sense to me that these types of things are just chemical imbalances that can be addressed many times by supplements (based on what works and what you are trying to solve) rather than taking a bunch of meds. I have even read comment sections of people who take SAM-E and have big improvements. Personally, I let Drs. prescribe things for me that “research” supports and felt terrible. I started reading and now I am off all meds and use supplements appropriate for me and my health has improved massively, I feel great and just appear to be getting healthier and healthier.
Another thing people who have the problems you do might also look at the food you eat. All the pesticides, hormones, and antibiotics in our food sources could be part of your problem. Per Weston Price observations, many isolated societies have great health, on different diets, but the single thread is that all the food is clean.
This is obviously just one person’s opinion, but maybe the meds you take are stopping any progress. Having your doctor supporting your conclusions does not convince me since I do a lot better when I listen to my body rather than what my doctor thinks I should be doing.
Hi Natasha I’ve been reading your blog regularly and came across your empower experience after researching my next sreps… you see I was given a choice today to either continue ECT but at high current bilateral or try more pharma therapy.
I’ve had 30 treatments in total – 17 bilateral as an inpatient at Homewood Health Centre in Guelph, Ontario and another 13 unilateral treatments at a hospital in Newmarket.
I have to say that my experience has not been positive as I have permanent memory loss of about the last 5 years , attempted suicide a month after my first round of bilaterals, and now have major cognitive impairment as a result of the expensive (nearly $10,000) treatment at Homewood. Thankfully I was blessed with having health insurance…
I feel I’m out of options and am one of the desperate for change.
I’m just wondering how soon after taking this stuff did you notice anything?
There are so many of us, who cannot handle nor tolerate any further pharma meds… those of us who have tried, for what seems years on end.
Where is the information on “alternatives” to pharma meds OR even works well with pharma meds OR that compliments pharma meds.. that have some positive % of legitimacy? Surely, there is something out there that works somewhat, or equally to, or compliments when taken with.. pharma meds.
BTW: I am not anti-med, nor am I pro-supplement… that noted; there have been and still are, many pharma meds pushed out onto the trusting population… to be found, down the road and millions consumed, to be dangerous – life threatening.. meds. Those have to be re-called, re-labeled, or manufacturing ceased completely.
So while supplements are not regulated and tested as thoroughly.. the pharma chemical lab meds, are not a given, as well
You’ve done your readers a great service by documenting this process and issuing appropriate warnings and disclaimers throughout. The point you raise about the supplement industry being completely unregulated is a good one. Often those most dead-set against FDA-approved psych meds are the most enthusiastic proponents of supplements. Yet they really have no idea about what the ingredients are and what effects they might have.
I have been making tremendous progress with these products. I was asked by each rep if my goal was to get off all medication. I said no and moved on from there. In 3 months I have never had any one push, insist, etc with regards to stopping my one medication. They all asked in case I changed my mind. Not one rep ignored or try to get me to stop my Geodon.
Given the reality of human epigenetics, it’s really hard to find one cure all formulation that will work on all bipolars. Everybody is different. That said, I would not rule out St John’s Wort.
When I was in my mid-20s, taking Wort induced pretty bad hypomania. Nowadays I take a lower dose along with saffron and 5htp at 39 and together they work wonders. The trick is to engender a balance of serotonin and dopamine, understanding that serotonin modulates dopamine, particularly the latter’s ability to induce manias.
Wort uniquely also refurbishes burned out neurotransmitter receptors. Saffron and Wort both preserve their respective target receptor types and spare one from having to switch meds to target alternate serotonin classes because one got burned out so your doc prescribes meds that targets and burns out another class leaving a brief respite for the original targeted class to recover.
Over time, the recovery stops. If more bp folks would only spend time to tailor their supplement regime with as much effort as they do their meds that would be time well spent.
Personally,I’m rather skeptical of all those supplements and have even heard than for us that St Johns Wort is
dangerous…..
I think if your eating well,getting some excercising in here and there more there w winter…sun natural Vit D….
I never go further than a cuppa herbal tea w organic honey.
Thanks but no thanks.
What I don’t know CAN HURT me.
Keep to my meds on time,my coping skills & case manager,my GP.
Anyway,the old one size does NOT fit ALL,TRUE ONCE MORE. :-)
did you throw it away after 5 weeks? it isn’t, by any means, quick fix or miracle drug. it takes time for your body to heal, via support from minerals and vitamins. some people start benefitting only in 3 months or so.
My own experience – I’ve taken the same supplement (by different name, Daily Essential Nutrients) for 9 months now. I’m in so much better condition than I was when I started. but the healing has come very slowly and withdrawing from meds has blurred a picture a lot. But I feel I’m finally getting better for sure, and I just can’t wait for even better health.
but of course, people have the right to believe what they want and you seem to be very negative about this. I don’t think it’s possible to use this with such attitude, because any rough time can be taken as evidence that the stuff doesn’t work or it works in a bad way.
“In my experience, according to my perception and my thorough mood tracking during this time:
The supplement can cause hypomania and cycling (extremely rapidly for me)
This supplement can increase anxiety
This supplement can increases the perception of stress (goes along with anxiety)
This supplement can destabilize mood in general possibly leading to a trend of more depression
This supplement can increase energy
As to what you might call physical side effects? Nothing that I noticed.”
Natasha you didn’t say whether or not you had ceased or changed other psych meds at the same time (or if there were other variables . If you did then it would directly impact on the results you described above.
OMG I just looked at their website. “22 research papers” my a$$. Not a randomised control trial in sight. So angry. A multivitamin is just that – a multivitamin. Multivitamins are good when you aren’t eating a proper diet, or for certain times in life when you want to make sure you have that particular nutrient – like folate. Most of the vitamins come out in your urine. Those that don’t, are in danger of reaching toxic levels in the body. What is this ‘special’ production method supposed to do? It can’t be smarter than our own body’s selective uptake and reuptake systems. I say go down to the local fish market and get an oily fish, eat with a side of green vegies. Do you a world of good. And stay on the meds – you know the ones that are ‘proven’ (by rigorous scientific research) to actually stop someone going off the deep end.
Hi Sarah,
I didn’t change any other medications during the five weeks and I know of no other variables.
– Natasha Tracy
Thanks. Just a niggling concern, now put to rest. :)
Natasha, have you stopped taking Truehope at 5 weeks? It’s not clear in your blog, I don’t feel. If you have, why? For me, most antidepressants (and possibly other meds . . . I’ve forgotten now) take a minimum of 6 weeks to show if they’re effective on my mood.
I’m curious about this.
Hi Paul,
I think 5 weeks is enough time to see a trend and considering the trend in the mood is _downward_, I see no reason to continue.
– Natasha Tracy
Thanks for the update. Would it be out of line to suspect that a handful of chocolate covered espresso beans would give you the same reaction?
Hi Mark,
Well, I wouldn’t say that. I don’t think you’d see the same effect.
– Natasha Tracy