The Medical Librarian’s Guide to Natural Mental Health: Anxiety, Bipolar, Depression, Schizophrenia, and Digital Addiction: Nutrition, and Complementary Therapies, 4th Edition

The Medical Librarian’s Guide to Natural Mental Health:

Anxiety, Bipolar, Depression, Schizophrenia, and Digital Addiction:

Nutrition, and Complementary Therapies, 4th Edition

By William Jiang, MLS

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2018 William Jiang, MLS

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Table of Contents

Preface to the 4th edition of the Medical Librarian’s Guide to Natural Mental Health

Foreword to the Third Edition

A Very Important Note about Drug-Drug and Drug-Nutraceutical Interactions

Getting a Medical Workup, Supplementing, and A Warning

Let Food Be Your Medicine and Medicine Be Your Food

Allergies, Sensitivities, and Paradoxical Reactions

Mental Health in General

●Grandma was Right

●Genetics and Mental Health

●Sleep and Mental Health

●Water, Air, and Home and Mental Health

●Why Is Mental Health Important Today?

●Why is Our Collective Mental Health Getting Worse?

About Digital Addiction

●A Definition of Digital Addiction

●Video Games and Depression: A Dangerous Mix

●Video Game Addiction

●Internet Addiction Can Physically Harm the Brain

●Facebook Addiction Correlates to Time Spent on Facebook, Severe Depression, Anxiety, and Insomnia and Other Problems

●Misuse of Light and Depression

●Internet Pornography Addiction

●Smartphone Addiction

●Texting Addiction

●To Combat Digital Addiction: One Possible Strategy

●A Hot New Technique to Sleep Better

●Selected Books about Digital Addiction

About Depression

●Definition of Depression by NIMH

●Fat, Sugar, and BDNF

●The Mediterranean Diet and Depression

●Omega-3s and Depression

●Prevention of Depression

●Vitamin D and Depression

●Antioxidants and Depression

●Contraception and Depression

●Saint John’s Wort and Depression

●SAM-e for depression Reviewed along with Omega-3s and St. John’s Wort

●Meditation and Yoga for Workplace Depression and Anxiety

●Yoga Breathing for Depression

●Prayer and Depression

●Prayer and a Stronger Brain

●Sleep and Depression

●Acupuncture and Depression

●Chronotherapeutics and Depression

●Exercise and General Mental Health

●Running as an Antidepressant

●The Air We Breathe and Depression

●Significant Others and Depression

●Laughter and Depression

●Pets and Depression

●Antacids and Depression

●Nuts and Berries and Depression

●Vegetables and Depression

●The Japanese Diet and Depression

●GABA and Depression

●Turkey and Depression

●Depression and Iron

●Marmite, GABA, and Depression

●Skim milk and Yogurt and Depression

●Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) and Depression

●NAD+ and Depression

●Glutathione and Depression

●NAMI & MDSG

●Selected Books about Depression

About Bipolar Disorder

●Definition of Bipolar Disorder by NIMH

●Bipolar and Magnesium

●Bipolar and Omega-3s

●Bipolar and Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM)

●Chronotherapeutics and Bipolar

●Meditation for Bipolar Anxiety

●Sleep Hygiene and Bipolar Disorder

●Selected Books about Bipolar Disorder

About Anxiety

●Definition of Anxiety Disorder by NIMH

●Omega-3s and Anxiety

●Exercise, Meditation, and Yoga for Anxiety

●Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) and Anxiety

●Earthing and Anxiety

●Aromatherapy and Anxiety

●Exercise for the Treatment of Anxiety

●Music and Anxiety

●Laughter and Anxiety

●Green Tea and Anxiety

●Avocados and Anxiety

●Vitamins, Iron, and Panic Attacks

●Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) and Anxiety

●Weighted Blankets and Anxiety

●Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) and Anxiety

●Selected Books about Anxiety

About Schizophrenia

●Definition of Schizophrenia by NIMH

●Omega-3s and Schizophrenia

●CAM and Tardive Dyskinesia

●B Vitamins and Schizophrenia

●Marijuana and Schizophrenia

●Magnesium and Myelination

●Illegal Drugs, DARPP-32, the Neuregulins, and Schizophrenia

●Glutathione and Psychiatric Medications

●Exercise and Schizophrenia

●Eating Right and Schizophrenia: Nuts

●The Asian Diet and Maintaining a Healthy Weight

●Brain Training and Schizophrenia

●Theanine and Schizophrenia

●Meditation and Schizophrenia

●Metformin and Weight Gain

●Inflammation and Schizophrenia

●Pets and Schizophrenia

●Socialization and Avoiding Isolation

●Work and Education

●Selected Books about Schizophrenia

Final Thoughts: Google Use and Mental Health

Appendix A: Food Sources for Magnesium, Potassium, and Vitamin K2

Appendix B: tDCS Head Map- 10–20 system (EEG)

Appendix C: Acupressure Points for Depression

About the Author, William Jiang, MLS

Connect with William Jiang, MLS

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The Medical Librarian’s Guide to Natural Mental Health:

Anxiety, Bipolar, Depression, Schizophrenia, and Digital Addiction:

Nutrition, and Complementary Therapies, 4th Edition

By William Jiang, MLS

Mens sana in corpore sano

A sound mind in a sound body

Juvenal, the Roman Poet, 2nd century A.D.

Preface to the 4th edition of the Medical Librarian’s Guide to Natural Mental Health

By William Jiang, MLS

This is the fourth edition of The Medical Librarian’s Guide to Natural Mental Health. It turns out in this modern age of fewer jobs, more fast foods, and overdosing on electronic technologies en masse, as well as drug use and abuse; we have lost much in terms of our mental and physical health. Indeed, due to our continuous environmental stressors, we are not only more isolated while damaging our own health but the also the health of our progeny, through insults to the epigenome, and epitranscriptome and eventually to the genome and our very evolution as a species.

Change takes time. James Hutton (1726-1797) was the geologist who posited plate tectonics, a theory that states over aeons continents drift over the surface of the Earth. Charles Darwin (1809-1882) stood on Hutton’s shoulders, in that, Mr. Darwin said that over long periods of time there is a natural selection caused by the environment that creates biological evolution. Due to today’s modern lifestyle, there is no doubt that the incidence of clinical depression is skyrocketing, in less than one generation. This is the environment changing our evolution. Usually changes of this magnitude in a species take hundreds, if not thousands of years. We are becoming less healthy at an alarming rate due to not our genomes, but the methylation of our DNA and RNA, or how the genes are being turned on or off by our environment, our epigenome (DNA) and epitranscriptome (RNA). The good news is that, what can be done can be undone, in this scenario. If we as a society lead healthier lives, the damage can be undone to our individual lives as well as our evolution as a species.

This book presents some ideas about how to lead a healthier mental life. The Medical Librarian's Guide to Natural Mental Health, 4th edition, is an introduction to complementary and alternative medical techniques to lead a healthier life: to stay well and to alleviate mental disease. Everything in this book is backed up by the medical literature through articles on the gold standard of medical research MEDLINE and is the result of the work of more than 500 researchers, scientists, and doctors. If only one technique is embraced and used throughout the lifespan, all else being equal, that person’s mental health should be better. If multiple techniques are used, the better for the individual, as no technique detracts from any other technique.

This Guide is written to be informative and accessible. When in some American hospital systems, the rate of suicidal ideation or attempt has doubled among children up to age 18 in the last 10 years, when about 1 in 5 children have a diagnosable mental illness, and when 1 in 2 Americans will either have a problem with drug abuse or mental health in their lifetimes, the question becomes, Who is going to take care of everybody?

Increasingly, people fall between the cracks and the penology system is dealing with the deepening ranks of the mentally ill more and more. This is not ideal. According to prisonpolicy.org in 2017, The American criminal justice system holds more than 2.3 million people in 1,719 state prisons, 102 federal prisons, 901 juvenile correctional facilities, 3,163 local jails, and 76 Indian Country jails as well as in military prisons, immigration detention facilities, civil commitment centers, and prisons in the U.S. territories. and An estimated 56 percent of state prisoners, 45 percent of federal prisoners, and 64 percent of jail inmates have a mental health problem.

In New York City, Mayor de Blasio and Chirlane McCray are attacking this problem head-on with know-how and millions of dollars. In 2015 Crain’s reported that mental health problems cost New York City 14 billion dollars annually. To fight this titanic mental health problem, De Blasio created the ThriveNYC program with over 500 million dollars earmarked to help New Yorkers. It is a big first step. Chirlane McCray is also taking action: "Led by NYC’s first lady, U.S. mayors unite around mental-health care in absence of Washington action." says a Washington Post article in 2017 that credits her with rallying 153 mayors from 50 states to see what they can do to better mental health in their communities. Also the UK is the first national government to offer free psychological care to all citizens. Especially for mood disorders like depression and anxiety, talking to a therapist can be very helpful. Treatment with medicine and psychological therapy together are always more powerful together than either alone. Combining talk therapy with medication therapy can help one learn for oneself how to be stronger, think better, and develop techniques for oneself to live a better and healthier life, using a trusted professional as a guide.

As was stated in the foreword of the third edition of Guide to Natural Mental Health: The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that by the year 2020, depression will be the second most common cause of disability and premature death worldwide. It seems political, economic, social, and technological forces are involved in a perfect storm to worsen the collective mental health of Americans. Sugar and unhealthy fast foods are less expensive to buy in the short term: but in the long term, they are detrimental to mental and physical health. There are barriers to eating healthily, as healthy foods are more expensive and more scarce than junk foods. Politics generally supports industry, so as of yet there is no federal mandate to stop this economic engine of Coke and Big Macs from destroying our collective mental health. Technology is making us sit more and more in front of our computers and makes us play more and more with our smartphones. The modern social life revolves around videogames and computer work, increasing isolation and depression, a never-ending Charybdis, or whirlpool, feeding upon itself to drastically increase rates of depression and social isolation.

So, the mental health problems are growing for many reasons; but luckily something can be done about it. There is a way to improve the mental health of Americans and the world. Thankfully, former American Psychiatric Association President, Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman is writing the foreword to this edition of the Guide. This means a lot to me personally, also it means a lot as to what can be done with the power of a healthy lifestyle and diet. The time has come for the book in your hands. May we hope that we, as a world, start living healthier more fulfilling lives, lessening the scourge of mental illness wherever the knowledge within these pages finds itself.

Foreword to the Third Edition

By William Jiang, MLS

Mental illness is still a widespread and serious problem. Currently, the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH) estimates about 26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older meet the criteria for at least one serious mental disorder, more than one in four Americans. According to another source as of 2014, the incidence of mental illness has doubled for children since the nineties. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that by the year 2020, depression will be the second most common cause of disability and premature death worldwide.

The statistics are grim, and the problem is real and growing. What can we do? This book tackles that very question for those who are currently suffering and for those who may wish to avoid serious mental problems in the future. The good news is there is hope for many to better live with, and for some, to completely avoid mental problems. The book is not meant to be seen as a panacea; rather, it offers strategies to cope with and possibly prevent mental diseases that are backed up by current medical and scientific knowledge.

Although renamed, like the first edition, this book is what librarians call an annotated bibliography. This annotated bibliography picks the best information from the medical literature, includes commentary as well as the source, title, and abstract of the article from MEDLINE. In this case, the strength of this particular annotated bibliography is the concentration of the knowledge of world-class experts from many medical disciplines, all in one small volume, with FREE FULLTEXT for further exploration often available for more in-depth reading and learning.

This third edition includes the new topic of Digital Addiction. Complementary and alternative treatments for Digital Addiction are not included as they would most likely resemble a mixture of treatments for depression and anxiety. Digital Addiction is included to raise awareness of the relatively new and increasingly problematic constellation of electronic addictions ranging from out-of-control texting via cellular telephone to Facebook addiction to video game addiction and beyond.

To your health!

William Jiang, MLS

Disclaimer: This information is not intended to be used as a replacement for a medical doctor’s advice. All information has been acquired from reputable sources, and I will personally assume no liability from any use or misuse of this information.

I was the Chief Librarian of the New York State Psychiatric Institute Patient and Family Library, affiliated with Columbia University, for seven years. This book focuses on the knowledge about Complementary and Alternative Health treatments for select mental issues that I gleaned over seven years of following the mental health literature during that time. The thrust of the book is mental health, nutrition, and complementary therapies.

I’d like to start you off with four of the resources I used most frequently for general patient reference queries:

●For an educational overview of mental disabilities of all types, I used the NIMH (National Institute of Mental Health) publications. I went to Google and typed NIMH and then chose "publications’. NIMH has really great overviews and authoritatively-written pamphlets on everything from ADHD to schizophrenia. Many pamphlets can be sent via post for free. This is a great resource for mental health programs in need of good information for their clients. NIMH is located here: http://www.nimh.nih.gov

●For patient information in English and Spanish about medical disorders or for patient drug information, I used http://medlineplus.gov

●For detailed drug information; I used the electronic equivalent of the traditional medical reference book, The Physician's Desk Reference (PDR). The information in this large to me is now brought back free of charge for users in this Internet age as DAILYMED found at http://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/about.cfm

●For the same powerful and authoritative information doctors use when researching a topic, I used MEDLINE which is a great database run by the National Library of Medicine. MEDLINE is available to anybody who has an internet connection to use for free at http://pubmed.gov. Many of the articles are provided full text at no cost.

●See my author blog at http://www.mentalhealthbooks.net for the things I’m currently writing about.

A Very Important Note about Drug-Drug and Drug-Nutraceutical Interactions

Important! It is always a good idea to double check if there is a drug-drug interaction with the psychotropic drugs you are taking and the other drugs that other doctors may give you. Sometimes doctors will prescribe medicines even though there are minor interactions, usually doctors avoid major interactions. Interactions can happen all over the body’s different systems. Nutraceuticals, which are vitamins and other natural supplements, and drugs can interact as well, usually in the liver. How so? The interactions which happen in the liver occur with one of the CYP liver enzymes that will either increase or decrease the concentration of your medications. This is something to be avoided, and this happens more often than one may think. In terms of antipsychotics and antidepressants such as Navane, Zyprexa, Saphris, Wellbutrin, and Clozaril among others, the major