ABOUT SAFE HARBOR
Safe Harbor was founded in 1998 in the wake of growing public dissatisfaction with the unwanted effects of orthodox psychiatric treatments such as medication and shock therapy. Seeking to satisfy the desire for safer, more effective treatments, Safe Harbor is dedicated to educating the public, the medical profession, and government officials on research and treatments that, minimally, do no harm and, optimally, cure the causes of severe mental symptoms. Our primary thrust is education on the medical causes of severe mental symptoms and the use of nutritional and other natural treatments.
Contact info:
Safe Harbor
1718 Colorado Blvd.
Los Angeles, California 90041
U.S.A.
(818) 890-1862
mail@alternativementalhealth.com
www.AlternativeMentalHealth.com
WE WELCOME YOUR DONATIONS. AS A NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION, SAFE HARBOR IS SUPPORTED SOLELY THROUGH THE GENEROSITY OF THE PUBLIC. DONATIONS CAN BE MADE ONLINE AT OUR WEB SITE OR MAILED TO THE ABOVE ADDRESS. WE ALSO ACCEPT VISA/MASTERCARD BY PHONE. THANK YOU.
EDITOR’S COMMENT
Recently we have had several e-mails from individuals asking why we concentrate so heavily on the physical causes behind mental illness and do not touch upon some of the other relatively non-intrusive treatments for mental problems.
For example, a head of the Dept. of Consumer Affairs from a Midwestern state has called us several times, telling us how he weaned off of medication for the first time in 30 years through the use of Transcendental Meditation.
Or clinician Christine Sutherland of the Lifeworks Group in Australia (http://www.lifeworks-group.com.au) has forwarded a paper on a study they did using “neuro-somatic” treatments for depression – treating the physical sensations connected with depression. These are numerous methods such as “tapping,” which, in its basic form, involves pressing acupressure points while the person thinks of what is disturbing him. Christine reports, “At the end of the 6-day trial 90% of the women and 75% of the men had no depression. Six months down the track, with no further contact, only 1 person still has depression, and his severity has reduced by over 30%.”
We also receive information about many other methods. If this tells us anything, it is that the standard approach of drugs and psychotherapy has left a lot to be desired, forcing many creative individuals to seek other options.
We fully recognize that the beautiful human mind is a complex web of the physical, the mental, and the spiritual. So complex, in fact, that healing any given aspect of the mind (the spiritual, for example) can result in health in the others. Thus a healed body can cure a sick mind and a rejuvenated spirit can cure an unwell body. There is more than one road to mental (or physical) wellness.
However, our mission at Safe Harbor is focused on the physical, because as you read this literally millions trudge through the day or sleep in pharmaceutical numbness because they have been wrongly told they are mentally ill when they have diagnosable physical illness causing their problems. It is a medical error of monolithic proportions – a holocaust.
Due to the magnitude of the problem, we stick to our one simple message: Please help these people. And God bless those who, like us, are seeking safer, saner and more effective roads to mental wellness.
WORTH QUOTING: From the hit movie “The Exorcist.” The doctor looked at the possessed girl’s erratic behavior and stated, “I know the temptation to leap to psychiatry. But any reasonable psychiatrist would exhaust the somatic possibilities first.”
EXERCISE HAS IMMEDIATE EFFECT ON DEPRESSED MOOD
According to the Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness, December 2001 issue, exercise can provide an immediate lift to people who are feeling depressed.
Researchers studied 80 young men and women who volunteered to take mood tests just before and after an hour-long aerobics class. 52 of the 80 volunteers were depressed before the exercise session. After an hour of aerobics, the depressed-mood group was significantly more likely to report a reduction in anger, fatigue and tension, as well as increased vigor.
The link between exercise and learning was recently the focus of a national conference for scientists and educators. John Ratey, MD, a clinical associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard University, reported at the conference that exercise also has a positive effect on brain chemistry that regulates mood. “Studies show that exercise may be a better approach for some than antidepressant drug therapy, and doctors are taking notice,” he told WebMD. “In fact, one study of cancer patients showed a 40% decrease in depression after exercise was prescribed.”
Interviewed at an “ADD” conference in 1997, Dr. Ratey offered a theoretical explanation for the improvements: “Exercise acutely causes the release of both dopamine and serotonin. Chronic aerobic exercise leads to an increase in the enzymes that make dopamine, so exercise is not just a body issue. It’s a brain trainer.”
WILSON’S DISEASE: HIDDEN CAUSE OF PSYCHOSIS
When Mike Rupp’s wife was hospitalized for “bipolar disorder” some years ago, it wasn’t new news. She’d suffered from the symptoms for twenty years. But this time something different happened. She died. Fortunately, hospital personnel were able to resuscitate her, but her doctors were forced to take a closer look to find out why she’d taken a sudden turn for the worse.
“At first they accused me of poisoning her,” Rupp said, “because her copper levels were too high.” Then someone finally put the pieces together. The woman had Wilson’s Disease, a liver ailment that causes, among other things, elevated copper levels that can destroy nerve cells, causing trembling, peculiar movement, difficulty speaking, rigidity, dementia, and personality changes. It is commonly first diagnosed as schizophrenia or some other mental disorder.
An unusual characteristic of Wilson’s Disease is a grey-green or golden brown “sunflower” ring within the eyes’ corneas.
Thus Rupp, who resides in Redondo Beach, California, found his wife never had bipolar disorder at all, but had been suffering for years with a disease that is treatable with zinc supplements. The ensuing medical debacle cost over a half million dollars and left his wife considerably debilitated.
Commonly people become extremely upset when they find they or a loved one has needlessly suffered for years from an undiscovered physical disorder mislabeled as “mental illness.” Mike Rupp was no different. He began researching Wilson’s Disease and has compiled a mountain of information on it.
Rupp claims current medical thought is that Wilson’s occurs once in every 30,000 people. But he is convinced the ailment is far more common and that much of what passes for ADD, schizophrenia, and other mental disorders is actually copper overload due to Wilson’s Disease. Indeed, supporting Rupp’s views, a review of 100 patients by psychiatrist Richard Hall in 1980 showed 1 case of Wilson’s. In a recent email from Dr. William Walsh, senior scientist for the Pfeiffer Treatment Center (http://www.hriptc.org), which treats mental disorders nutritionally, he reported that they have tested for copper overload in 1000 recent cases and “are beginning to find undiagnosed cases of Wilson’s Disease.”
Rupp has now set off a movement within the Pennsylvania Correctional System to run a study on 800 behaviorally at-risk inmates to see how many may have Wilson’s Disease or other physical ailments underlying their behavior. He is also pushing to have similar tests run on “ADD,” and “learning disabled” children in the Los Angeles area, as well as requesting a review of the medical records of 17 student suicides in the Loa Angeles school district last year.
More information on Wilson’s Disease is at http://www.wilsonsdisease.org.
FEDERAL TAX BREAK PROPOSED FOR ALTERNATIVE HEALTH PRODUCTS
Tax relief may be on the horizon for consumers of alternative health products. Introduced to the U.S. Senate as SB1330 and to the House of Representatives as HR3475, the Dietary Supplement Tax Fairness Act of 2001 would amend IRS codes of 1986 to “provide that amounts paid for foods for special dietary use, dietary supplements, or medical foods shall be treated as medical expenses.”
The bill makes the following points:
1. The inclusion of foods for special dietary use, dietary supplements, and medical foods in the deduction for medical expenses does not subject such items to regulation as drugs,
2. The Internal Revenue Code of 1986 treats such items as allowable for the medical expense deduction, but only if such items are prescribed drugs,
3. Such items have been shown through research and historical use to be a valuable benefit to human health, in particular disease prevention and overall good health, and
4. Children with inborn errors of metabolism, metabolic disorders, and autism, and all individuals with diabetes, autoimmune disorders, and chronic inflammatory conditions, frequently require daily dietary interventions as well as medical interventions to manage their conditions and such dietary interventions often become a significant economic burden on such individuals.
The bill was referred to the House Ways and Mean Committee on 12/12/2001. Alternative Mental Health News will keep readers informed of its status.
PRESCRIPTION DRUG POLLUTION THREATENS FISH, HUMANS
According to the UK Sunday-Times, increasing quantities of prescription drugs that have passed intact through human digestive tracts and sewage treatment plants are being detected in European lakes and rivers.
The article stated that 95 percent or more of prescription drugs ingested by humans pass into groundwater after sewage treatment. European scientists are investigating the matter, concerned that the introduction of increasing amounts of toxic drugs may negatively affect aquatic life and expose unsuspecting people to “cocktails” of prescription drugs.
Some drugs, especially antidepressants, have been found to alter the sperm levels and spawning patterns in fish and other aquatic life.
Surprisingly little is known about the ultimate fate and transport of many chemicals after their intended use, particularly “emerging contaminants” such as human and veterinary pharmaceuticals, industrial and household wastewater products, and reproductive and steroidal hormones. One reason for this general lack of data is that, until recently, few analytical methods have been capable of detecting many of these compounds at environmentally relevant concentrations.
FDA MANDATES DEPENDENCY WARNING FOR SEROXAT (PAROXETINE, PAXIL)
On January 22, 2002, GlaxoSmithKline, the British drug company that makes Seroxat – a brand name for the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) Paroxetine, marketed elsewhere as Paxil and Aropax – was found in breach of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Associations’ code of practice for misleading the public regarding the drug’s withdrawal symptoms and its potential for addiction.
Last year one of the drug company’s executives stated on ABC television that dependency on the drug “happens very rarely.” The British watchdog Social Audit complained that the comment was misleading. The case went to appeal, and yesterday the federation ruled that GlaxoSmithKline was in violation of the code, and found that the comment constituted promotion of the drug.
The potential for addiction is not a new issue for Seroxat. The Los Angeles law firm Baum, Hedlund, Aristei, Guilford and Schiavo filed suit against GlaxoSmithKline in September 2001, and has since had more than 2,000 calls from people who claim to be addicted to the drug. They have reported various side effects when they try to stop taking the drug, including pains in the head, vertigo, loss of coordination, abdominal discomfort, agitation and confusion.
In December 2001, it was reported that two legal firms in Britain are exploring legal action against GlaxoSmithKline and have more than 60 people who claim addiction to the drug.
It was also reported in December 2001 that the US lawyers asked GlaxoSmithKline to set up treatment centers to help people attempting to withdraw from Seroxat. At that time, GlaxoSmithKline said there is no reliable scientific evidence that the drug causes addiction or dependency.
According to the FDA, as quoted in Guardian Unlimited, January 23, 2002, “recent trials for new uses of the drug — for instance, in cases of post-traumatic stress disorder — found that even with a gradual reduction in the dose, at least two in every 100 people suffered abnormal dreams or pains resembling electric shocks, and seven in every 100 experienced dizziness.” The FDA added that similar side effects had been reported for the other SSRIs, including Prozac.
The FDA has now demanded that Seroxat carry a new warning requiring doctors to monitor patients for any side effects that may indicate a physical dependency on the drug. “A gradual reduction in the dose rather than abrupt cessation is recommended whenever possible,” says the warning, adding that if “intolerable symptoms occur” the patient might have to go back on the full dose and be weaned off more gradually.
PULSE TEST HELPS DETECT SYMPTOM-CAUSING ALLERGIES
In a 1994 book entitled “The Pulse Test”, Dr. Arthur Coca outlined how individuals can determine whether they are allergic to a particular food or inhalant by taking their pulse. Dr. Coca, founder of The Journal of Immunology and its editor for 32 years, discovered that when people eat foods they are allergic to, there is an increase in heartbeat of 20 beats or more per minute.
The physical effects of allergies, such as migraine headaches, colitis, indigestion, chronic sinusitis, and weight problems are well known. But allergies have also been associated with mental health problems, including panic attacks, depression, and schizophrenia.
A recent case studied by Caroline Sakai, PhD, told the story of “a young adult professional male (who) sought treatment for recurrent panic attacks. The panic episodes awakened him at night, and were most prevalent in the early morning upon awakening. He also occasionally had them while driving to work.” By diligently applying the pulse test, he was able to find the substance he was allergic to, and completely eliminate the panic attacks.
If you would like to test for allergies, follow this procedure (taken from www.healthyhealing.com/ALR-PulseTest.html):
1) Take your resting pulse rate when you wake up in the morning by using a watch with a second hand and counting the number of beats in a 60-second period. (A normal pulse reading is 50 to 70 beats per minute.)
2) Take your pulse reading after eating a food you suspect is causing your allergy.
3) Wait 15 minutes and take your pulse again. If your pulse rate has increased more than 10 beats per minute, you are probably allergic to the food.
4) Eliminate it from your diet for at least two weeks to see if your symptoms subside.
MELATONIN CYCLE LINKED TO “WINTER BLUES”
Melatonin, a hormone produced by the pineal gland in response to the darkness of nighttime, promotes sleep and helps regulate the body clock. The long nights of winter trigger hibernation in certain mammals through increased melatonin production. Evidently some humans respond the same way, requiring more sleep during winter months and experiencing the depressed mood sometimes characterized as “seasonal affective disorder” (SAD).
According to a report in the December issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, researchers led by Dr. Thomas A. Wehr of the National Institute of Mental Health compared melatonin levels in 55 “SAD” patients and a control group of 55 healthy volunteers. All of the study participants were placed in a dimly lit room for 24 hours and the amount of melatonin in their blood was measured every half hour, first in winter and again in summer.
The duration of active melatonin secretion for the control group was unvarying at about 9 hours. In the “SAD” group, active melatonin secretion was 9 hours in winter and 8.4 hours in summer.
Full-spectrum fluorescent lighting is inexpensive and provides many of the health benefits of natural sunshine, according to Dr. Joseph Mercola (http://www.mercola.com). Going to bed at sundown can help but is not always practical.
Melatonin is sometimes used as an antidote to jet lag or sleep loss, but Dr. Mercola more frequently recommends L-tryptophan, an amino acid precursor to melatonin, which facilitates the body’s manufacture of its own melatonin.
“Light is the major time cue in humans,” says Debra Skene of the University of Surrey in Guildford. In sighted people with normal body clocks, levels of melatonin in the blood peak at around 4 am. In totally blind people, melatonin peaks at a different time each day. Their sleep suffers, so they often nap during the day to compensate for their disturbed nights.
Skene wondered if the body clock of completely blind people could be reset with daily doses of melatonin. In an experiment on seven totally blind volunteers with severe sleep disruption, she found that the melatonin treatment gave most a better night’s sleep, with fewer daytime naps. “Melatonin can work, but we need to know the status of the [body] clock,” which varies from patient to patient.
BOOK REVIEW: END YOUR ADDICTION NOW BY DR. CHARLES GANT
Charles Gant, M.D., Ph.D., has put together a top-notch book on natural treatment of addiction with his new publication End Your Addiction Now, published by Warner Books. Gant, who also authored ADD and ADHD, Complementary Medicine Solutions, has explained in detail the tools that have given him a more than 80% recovery rate with over 7500 patients.
These principles apply not only to street drugs, but to smoking, alcohol, Ritalin, antidepressants, painkillers, amphetamines and other substances. Drugs fulfill cravings that are actually a need for nutrients. Gant educates the reader on natural supplements that will kill the cravings in the first few days, then detox the body and rebalance the individual’s biochemistry to permanently get rid of the need for drugs.
Gant’s common-sense approach to addiction problems offer tremendous hope to the many who have been plagued by the problems of drug or substance addiction.
ABOUT AlternativeMentalHealth.com
ALTERNATIVEMENTALHEALTH.COM IS THE WORLD’S LARGEST WEB SITE DEVOTED exclusively to alternative mental health treatments. It includes a directory of over 200 physicians, nutritionists, experts, organizations, and facilities around the U.S. that offer or promote safe, alternative treatments for severe mental symptoms. Many of the physicians listed do in-depth examinations to find the physical causes behind mental problems.
Also included on the site is an array of articles on topics ranging from the medical causes of schizophrenia to the effects of toxic metals on mental health.
Special AlternativeMentalHealth.com T-shirts and bumper stickers are available at our online store, as well as a Montel Williams video on alternative treatment for children labeled with ADD.
A bookstore page lists top books that cover many areas of alternative treatments with titles like Natural Healing for Schizophrenia and Other Common Mental Disorders and No More Ritalin.
AlternativeMentalHealth.com has been created to educate the public, practitioners, and government officials on the medical conditions that create “mental illness” and the many safe resources available for addressing and often curing severe mental symptoms.