Individualized treatment for Mental Health
This is essential information for anyone suffering with ADHD, behavioural disorders, learning disabilities, autism, anxiety, depression, and mental illness.
As many of you may well know the incidence of these conditions has absolutely skyrocketed over the past several years. There is no question that when it comes to “mental health” or should I say more accurately “brain chemistry imbalances” the current health care system does not have a good handle on it. Medications occasionally help some people but not the majority and it is a band aid solution at best. Even as a Naturopathic doctor and Osteopathic manual practitioner I often find myself frustrated at the lack of consistent results that I would see on many of my patients through traditional dietary changes, botanical medicines, supplementation, and lifestyle changes such as mindfulness, meditation and yoga…Why would some people do very well and others have little to no improvement?? SOMETHING was missing!! I have been trying to pull together the missing pieces in this whole mental health paradigm for several years now and believe I just recently found one of the major “missing links” that is absolutely necessary for long lasting improvement.
Last week I was fortunate enough to join 75 other doctor’s from fields such as psychiatry, integrative medicine, paediatrics, naturopathic medicine and more from all over the world in Chicago at the Walsh Research Institute for their “Mastering Brain Chemistry” workshop (www.walshinstitute.org). This experience was nothing short of enlightening. Dr. Walsh is an expert in the field of nutritional medicine and a key scientist paving the way for nutrient-based psychiatry and nutritional medicine. Over the past 30 years, he has developed individualized biochemical treatments for more than 30,000 patients diagnosed with behavioral disorders, attention deficit (hyperactivity) disorder, autism, clinical depression, anxiety, bipolar disorders, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer’s disease that are used by doctors throughout the world.
This “biochemical therapy” or as I like to call it, “molecular medicine” uses targeted nutrition to naturally correct imbalances in brain neurotransmitters. Imbalances in neurotransmitters such as serotonin, dopamine, GABA, adrenalin and noradrenalin are at the heart of all mental health problems. All imbalances leave footprints. If you understand the footprints you can figure out the imbalance. There are very specific sign and symptoms and laboratory results that accompany increases or decreases in these neurotransmitters. By combining ones specific symptoms and targeted labs it takes all the guess-work out of figuring what is actually going on.
For example, when we look at a diagnosis of anxiety or depression, there can actually be 5 different “biotypes” for this disorder…meaning that you can be depressed or anxious for 5 very different biochemical reason which are all related to completely unique changes in brain nutrients that govern your neurotransmitter levels. Each biotype needs to be treated differently, in fact, if it is treated incorrectly it can actually make the symptoms worse. This is why some people actually feel a bit better when they take an antidepressant, valerian, GABA, or 5-HTP and others feel nothing at all or it makes their symptoms even worse…it totally depends on the biotype.
When I was away in Chicago we saw many patients day in and day out with absolutely stunning results. It was a very logical and straight-forward approach…Identify the specific biochemical imbalances based on key symptoms and key labs (there are approximately 7 major offenders) then provide individualized natural treatment that normalizes blood and brain levels of these nutrients with rifle shot precision.
If you or someone you love has been suffering from any of these mental health conditions and wants to know what is actually going on with your brain chemistry. I implore you to find a doctor who has trained with the Walsh research institute and incorporates this approach into their practice. It is very precise and targeted and it has been one of the best therapies I have come across to help the growing number of adults and children suffering with brain chemistry imbalances.
I see patients in both my Whitby and Toronto offices and do health mentoring Skype consults for people outside of Toronto. For more information please contact me.