A nutritional approach to psychiatry has been marginalized

Friday, November 26, 2010 by: Paul Fassa
Tags: psychiatry, nutrition, health news

(NewsTarget) A small branch of psychiatry called orthomolecular psychiatry, which uses natural remedies to balance brain chemistry, has been developed over the last few decades to wean mental patients off pharmaceuticals. Of course, the American Psychiatric Association Big Pharma shills have thoroughly denounced the orthomolecular approach as "snake oil".

This condemnation parallels the same propaganda package of lies and intentionally improper testings used by mainstream oncology regarding alternative cancer cures. Medical psychiatry`s cure rate is as pathetic as mainstream medicine`s cancer cure percentage. Both practices do more harm than good.

Orthomolecular Psychiatry Explained

Dr. Abraham Hoffer was the first psychiatrist to use natural remedies in the 1950s. His original focus was in treating schizophrenics with niacin and other nutrients. Dr. Humphrey Osmond was also involved with this early phase of natural treatments for the mentally disturbed. Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling endorsed this protocol and coined the term orthomolecular psychiatry over a decade later, around 1968.

Dr. Carl Pfeiffer was another pioneer who continued developing methods for determining causal factors of mental disorders ranging from ADHD and autism to bipolar conditions and schizophrenia. Pfeiffer created the Pfeiffer Treatment Center in Warrenville, Illinois. The center is a non-profit organization that practices Pfeiffer`s law: "For every drug that benefits a patient, there is a natural substance that can achieve the same effect". The clinic claims a cure rate of 85% without side effects.

This clinic also serves as an ongoing research center for orthomolecular psychiatry. To counteract mainstream psychiatry`s disdain and refusal to publish orthomolecular research findings, Abraham Hoffer created the The Journal for Orthomolecular Psychiatry. This is where current orthomolecular research papers are published.

Causes and Cures

Though emotional trauma is often a factor, heavy metal toxicity, especially from mercury and lead, is part of the mental disorder puzzle. The orthomolecular approach involves testing the patient`s biochemical composition to determine toxicity levels, extreme blood sugar and essential fatty acid imbalances, or antioxidant shortages. All of which contribute to mental health issues.

Methylation is a process that determines proper balance in the brain`s chemistry. Improper methylation manifests a toxic level of homocysteine in the blood. High dosing of B6, B12, and folate or folic acid added to the aforementioned nutritional approach has been used to remedy improper methylation.

Pyroluria is evidenced by a high volume of pyrroles or kryptopyrroles in the urine. This abundance of pyrroles is detected by simply adding Erhlich`s reagent to the urine. If the urine color turns mauve, there are excess kryptopyrroles present in the body. Over half the schizophrenics tested had high kryptopyrrole amounts. Almost half of other psychiatric patients tested were positive, while a quarter of disturbed children tested registered high amounts of pyrroles as well.

Dr. Pfeiffer and Dr. Arthur Sohleer of Princeton`s Brain Bio Center discovered that high doses of zinc with B6 remedied this problem. The pyrroles bind to the zinc and B6, become neutralized and are eliminated. It`s similar to chelating.

It has also been determined that allergies have a role in exacerbating mental problems. The usual culprits of wheat, especially gluten, pasteurized milk, eggs and some other foods have been discovered to be allergenic among some mentally ill patients. When taken off those allergens, their conditions improved drastically. They relapsed when they consumed the allergenic foods again.

Avoiding Conventional Approaches

Mainstream psychiatry`s approach resembles mainstream oncology: cut (surgery), burn (radiation), and poison (chemotherapy). With psychiatry it`s been lobotomy (cut), electric shock therapy (burn) and toxic pharmaceuticals (poison). As with alternative cancer cures, the basics of nutritional therapy or orthomolecular psychiatry for mental disorders are worth investigating further.

You can start with these sources for this article:

Food for the Brain (a very comprehensive source) http://www.foodforthebrain.org/content.asp?i...

Pfeiffer Treatment Center site http://www.hriptc.org/index.php

Pyroluria or Kryptpyrole site http://www.kryptopyrrole.com/

Nutritional Healing (Pyroluria) http://www.nutritional-healing.com.au/conten...

Wikipedia report (slanted somewhat pro-conventional)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthomolecular_...

The 55 minute fix http://www.55fix.com/

About the author

Paul Fassa is dedicated to warning others about the current corruption of food and medicine and guiding others toward a direction for better health with no restrictions on health freedom. You can visit his blog at http://healthmaven.blogspot.com