Can there be a connection between your diet and your mental and emotional complaints? Can diet or hormonal elements alleviate mental illness?
During the Fifth century Hippocrates, known as the "father of medicine", believed that there could be a link between poor diet and mental illness. And no one less than Sigmund Freud, "the father of psychoanalysis", wrote in his later years: "I firmly believe that all these disorders that we are trying to understand one day will be treated with hormones or similar substances."
Use of hormones
In recent years, several patients with mental disorders have benefited from hormone therapy. Synthetic sex hormones have been shown to be more effective and "less traumatic than electric shocks and faster than traditional drugs." He used hormones to treat some male patients with depression and others improved.
Even more surprising are the results obtained by a team in Worcester, Massachusetts, from biochemists and psychiatrists using similar sex hormones. They improved 80% of their patients. And they achieved these results despite the fact that only women in the hospital had been selected as patients who had been "unsuccessfully treated" with a "variety" of conventional therapies, including shock therapy, other antidepressants, and psychotherapy.
nutrition
Pellagra has long known the role of diet in mental illness. It is a disease caused by a lack of vitamin B3 (niacin) and one of the symptoms is insanity.
Among those who insist on the nutritional method of mental health is George Watson, a former university professor who now devotes all his time to psychochemical research. In his book Nutrition and Your Mind, he explains that humans are slow or fast oxidants and therefore must organize their diet accordingly. Your attitude is: "What you eat determines your state of mind and in a way what kind of person you are." Watson continues: "The most irregular behavior is caused by a malnourished brain, an exhausted nervous system or one of many other physical problems that are directly related to an incomplete metabolism." He says he treated a patient with an extreme form of schizophrenia and gave her necessary or missing nutrients.
The more than 500 doctors and psychiatrists from the Hypoglycemia Foundation also treat mental illness. They claim that low blood sugar can lead to depression, anxiety, forgetfulness, tremors, nightmares and nervous breakdowns.
The nutritional strategy also emphasizes the importance of trace elements in the treatment of mental illness. For example, the lithium value is widely recognized. A Texas biochemist found that several Texas cities with higher levels of lithium in drinking water had a lower incidence of mental illness.
In addition to lithium, other trace elements can also play a role in certain foods, including zinc, calcium, manganese, magnesium, iron, copper, cobalt, chromium, selenium and molybdenum. an important role in mental illness. In fact, more and more psychiatrists are realizing its importance.
"Orthomolecular psychiatry"
The term "orthomolecular psychiatry" was coined by Nobel Prize winner Dr. Linus Pauling coined to refer to a treatment that emphasizes "the importance of getting the right substances in the right places." The term is derived from two basic words, which also mean that which is direct, correct, correct (as in the word "orthodox") and molecular, which is derived from the word "molecule".
Pauling explains, “The brain is known to function properly because it requires the presence of molecules of many different substances in the brain,” which reach the brain in the blood. He believes that with some mental illnesses the body does not use the vitamins and trace elements in food properly. To compensate for this genetic defect, he recommends administering high doses of vitamins to the patient and / or modifying his diet by other means. Emphasis is placed on the use of vitamins B1, B3, B6, B12, C and H.
There is, however, the most intense disagreement about the relative advantages of "orthomolecular psychiatry". For example, Professor Carlos A. León from Ecuador says that "there is still no conclusive evidence of its effectiveness". Likewise, the American Psychiatric Association has found that "proponents of megavitamin therapy have made surprising and often unsubstantiated claims about its effectiveness." And Dr. S. Kety, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, argues that this approach is "a premature application of incomplete knowledge."
On the other hand, Dr. David Hawkins of Manhasset, New York, has treated 5,000 schizophrenic patients this way and claims that over 4,000 improvements have been made. In fact, he found that adding vitamin therapy to regular psychotherapy and chemotherapy could almost double the cure rate, cut hospital stays in half, and completely eliminate suicides, which are very high. in the elderly. Schizophrenic.
Dr. Abram Hoffer, President of the Schizophrenia Foundation of Canada, and his American counterpart say, “My patients see me as a psychiatrist in need because they come to me with mental health issues and send them home to the hospital. diet. But in the end, they become convinced that it depends. ""
Currently, more than 300 American psychiatrists use this "orthomolecular" strategy in their practice, and their number continues to grow. They claim to have had up to 30,000 patients. And one thing that should not be overlooked is that this form of treatment costs only a fraction of what other forms of treatment cost patients and their families.
What should I do
Perhaps you or a loved one is struggling with a mental illness. In this case, as we can see, there are things that can be done to facilitate recovery.
Since excessive stress is often a trigger for mental illness, do your best to eliminate or reduce the source of stress that may be causing the problem. You may be concerned about a personal relationship, a situation affecting your marriage, or a decision related to your job or similar life issues. So resolve the indecision or do your best to think about it.
In severe mental disorders, drugs or even electric shocks can be used to control the situation. However, these treatments are only recommended under professional supervision and usually as a last resort. In recent years, success has been reported with the use of vitamins and hormones. It may be helpful to explore the options.
But fundamentally, the mentally ill need help controlling their thoughts. For help, many turn to psychotherapy, perhaps the most popular form of treatment.
