Nutrition and Mind

NUTRITION AND THE MIND

Get any book for free on: www.Abika.com1

Nutrition And The Mind:

Holistic Physicians Speak Out

By Gary NullGet any book for free on:www.Abika.com

NUTRITION AND THE MIND

Get any book for free on: www.Abika.com2The information is not a substitute for diagnosis and treatment by a qualified, licensedprofessional.

Nutrition and the Mind

INTRODUCTION

In 1995, it is estimated that our national sickness care system will account for more than 1.3trillion dollars of our money. That's more than we spend on defense, housing, food, andeducation combined. The problem is that we are not seeing major breakthroughs, cures, or evensuccessful prevention programs for any of the serious diseases. We hear a great deal aboutcancer, AIDS, heart disease, and arthritis. But the largest single disorder group in America ismental illness.It is estimated by the National Institute of Mental Health that more than 40 million Americansare affected by any one of a number of mental and emotional conditions that adversely affect thequality of their lives. These include depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, dementia, andautism, as well as other conditions, which, while they may not fall strictly under the rubric of "mental illness," have a mental component, e.g., fatigue, insomnia, learning disabilities, attentiondeficit disorder, eating disorders, PMS, alcoholism, and aggressive behavior. When you considerthat probably an additional 50 million people suffer from intermittent bouts of any number of these conditions, then you can see that close to one third of the entire American population ispersonally grappling with mental health concerns.Yet despite the extent of mental disorders, the American medical establishment has paid littleattention to causes, as opposed to symptomatic relief. Take alcoholism, for instance. There aredozens of studies showing that alcoholics are chronically deficient in certain essential nutrients.Other studies show that when these nutrients are given at optimal levels, the chemicalimbalances that precipitate the craving for alcohol are diminished or eliminated, thusbiochemically breaking the addictive response. One would think that we would pick up on theramifications of this in terms of treatment. But we're not. Currently, 185 billion dollars are beingspent yearly on drug and alcohol treatments, of which only 25 percent have been shown to besuccessful. We need to look at the fact that when biochemical imbalances are corrected andchemical sensitivities addressed, there is a success rate of nearly 85 percent, with a lack of relapse. This is the kind of cause- and prevention-oriented approach we should be encouraging,for alcoholism and other problems.It is in an attempt to help encourage such an approach that I put together this book. In it,numerous clinicians explore their experience in dealing with various mental conditions,and patients describe their experience as well. I've interviewed nearly 500 individuals in depth--psychiatrists, psychologists, behaviorists, neuropsychoimmunologists, and environmentalmedicine experts, among others. Some of these people have particular areas of specialization,such as autism, alcoholism, or fatigue. By the way, fatigue, or lack of energy, is a condition thatprobably affects more people and yet receives less attention than any other. Fatigue--not just

NUTRITION AND THE MIND

Get any book for free on: www.Abika.com3chronic fatigue syndrome, but simple fatigue--affects peoples' attitudes and behavior, and is acommon factor in depression, bipolar disorder, and insomnia.After interviewing the experts in a variety of fields, it was remarkable to see how many usedsimilar treatment modalities--treatment with vitamin C or the B complex vitamins, for example--and to see also that their therapeutic approaches had certain elements in common, such as thecleansing of the body of toxins through diet, and the rebalancing of the body through the use of herbs, botanicals, nutrients, and diet. It should be noted that all of the treatment modalitiesmentioned in the following material have been proven successful.In addition to interviewing hundreds of clinicians--and getting input from over 3000 patients--I've reviewed thousands of articles and abstracts in scientific peer-reviewed journals in preparingthis material. I've included summaries of some of these articles in an appendix to this book sothat interested readers can see that, yes, we do have a scientific basis when we claim thatnutritional deficiencies play a role in precipitating the biochemical imbalances that lead to avariety of conditions, and that, yes, nutritional treatment does have scientifically shown value inalleviating these conditions.Concerning the scientific literature, we have an interesting phenomenon in America today. Wehave tens of thousands of articles in peer-reviewed journals clearly demonstrating that nutritionwill affect either the cause or treatment--or the prevention--of different diseases. It is estimatedthat up to 90 percent of all diseases could be eliminated if we understood the role that nutritionplays. Now that we have the evidence, the question is, why have the medical community, theeducational community, and the media not advocated that we implement it?One of the problems is that once a physician has been trained in a particular area of specialization in a particular way, for that physician to relinquish his or her mindset and embracea new paradigm of knowledge is not an easy process. Even with the best of intentions for theirpatients' well-being, doctors will continue to use modalities that have been outmoded, or thathave been shown to be of no benefit, or that are actually harmful. Examples abound: radicalmastectomies, hysterectomies, cesarean operations, coronary bypass operations,electroconvulsive therapy, and Thorazine. All have been associated with devastating side effects,high mortality rates, and chronic abuses, and yet there are nontoxic, successful alternatives for allof these that are being ignored, even though the science is there to more than justify the changein treatment modality.We must also consider the power and influence of the pharmaceutical industry and of the variousmedical technology industries. These would stand to lose a substantial part of that trillion dollarsa year, year in and year out, if the public changed its perspective on the nature of acceptabletreatment and began demanding nontoxic therapies.Despite the forces tending toward the maintenance of the medical status quo, there are changeshappening. There are some physicians--albeit a relative handful out of the 600,000 in the U.S.--who are using the therapies referred to in this book. These physicians are in the vanguard of revolutionizing American health care. There is also a growing segment of the public becomingaware of these nontoxic therapies.

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