General Discussion

I spent many hours searching in the research journals for natural products/plant medicine to help with mood and cognitive impairment for my elderly mom. Had noticeable success with her, but of course YMMV. Happy to share here if it may be something you want to look into and try out:

*Saffron made a difference. The dosage I'd seen used with success in the research was about 30mg of "Affron" which is an extract, but you can see if regular saffron works, too. Here are a couple of overviews of the research:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9781906/

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12103703/

*Pycnogenol (pine bark extract) also seemed positive in research, and helped her as well.

Her mood and social engagement lifted after taking *ashwagandha. Gummies called "WonderCalm" worked great for her. You can find them online or at Whole Foods. Look for the little sample pack. She was petite so I sometimes just gave her 1/3 or 1/2 of a gummy and saw results. My mom actually asked for it a few times when she was agitated.

*Lemon balm is also calming. Had great success with an instant tea powder I found at Whole Foods called Mood (by Four Sigmatic), just needed the tiniest bit to shift her into pleasantness, less than 1/64th of a teaspoon for her... yes I bought a set of tiny measuring spoons online to keep the dosage standardized.

Wish I'd known about these products years ago. As far as I could find, they were all fine to take without side effects or interactions with her cardiac and thyroid meds, and I ran them by her doctors first just to be sure. I'm sure you'd do the same! They will not have any clue about the beneficial aspects of these if they're like most doctors but at least see if they or your dad's pharmacist might have any concerns.

I would start with the ashwagandha or lemon balm for mood and the saffron for cognitive (plus it helps some with depression).

So many of us have been in the same boat... it takes everything we have and then some, right? not giving medical advice, just offering some things to check out. I hope this helps!