Does a Holistic, Natural Psychiatric Approach to Wellness Exist?
The natural substitute for conventional psychiatry’s pharmaceuticals drug therapy with their usual Big Pharma atrocities has been around for a half-century. It’s called Orthomolecular Psychiatry, which relies mostly on mega-dose supplement and dietary approaches for mental disorders. It is much more effective than mainstream psychiatry’s pharmaceutical approaches and without adverse side effects, but it’s hardly talked about.
Orthomolecular Psychiatry History and Centers
Dr. Abraham Hoffer was the first psychiatrist to use natural remedies in the 1950s. His original focus was in treating schizophrenics with mega-dose 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.
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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 which is now part of the Journal for Orthomolecular Medicine. This is where current orthomolecular research papers are published.
Toxic Causes and Natural Solutions
Though emotional trauma is often a factor,
Methylation is a process that determines proper balance in the brain’s biochemistry. 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 the Princeton 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.
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It has also been determined that allergies play a role in exacerbating mental problems. The usual culprits of wheat, especially gluten, pasteurized milk, factory farm eggs, and some other foods have been discovered to be allergenic among some mentally ill patients. When taken off those allergens, their conditions improved dramatically. 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 solutions, the basics of nutritional therapy or orthomolecular psychiatry for mental disorders are worth investigating further.
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