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Nutritional Wisdom...

"The primary seat to insanity is found in the stomach and intestines and supposed that the disturbances of the mind originated from these centers..." ~ Dr. Phillipe Pinel (1745-1828) The Father of Psychology. (The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, 1920).  My favorite quote :)

Education:

The educational aspect of what we do is so vitally important to get into the hands of those who struggle with mental/emotional and addictions. One thing that we've learned through the course of our journey in finding healing for our loved one is the missing link of nutrition, which ALL psychiatric clinicians ignored its importance. Our neurotransmitters are made from nutrients, not Zoloft! We need nutrients in order to obtain an optimal balance throughout our physical and emotional body. It is the way we were designed! But, please do not misunderstand me here, the scope of what we believe and offer in our services go way beyond nutrition; we consider the many possible underlying root causes. We look at the person as an individual, therefore this individual person has his/her own unique bio-chemistry. Check out our  PROGRAM & SERVICES page to learn more. 

We do not feel the need to overload you here, therefore we have hand selected a few of our favorite educational videos and other various resources to help you began your journey in discovering the holistic method of healing. We do invite you to visit our blog to obtain more information. There you will find on-going and fresh new information we may come across during our never ending search for answers in the areas of concern we focus on here. You can register to receive updates through our blog.

Much of our content will be from third parties, because we feel it is imperative for someone who may be new to these theories to see that these ideas are not ones we made up. The first video is one that simply blew me away when I listened to it for the first time, even though through my own studies and research I already knew all of what Dr. Julia Rucklidege, a professor from the University of Canterbury shared in her talk. The thing I loved about her talk is the ease in which she speaks on this topic. Therefore, I believe this video would be of great benefit to all of our readers. To begin simply CLICK on each picture to be taken to the video presentations.

                                       What if.... Nutrition could treat mental illness?

One thing I think many of us can agree on is the high rate of disease and disorders which our children are being diagnosed with at an all time high. Mental health is no exception! There are children as young as two years old being diagnosed with various mental disorders and being prescribed psychiatric medications. I have chosen another video presentation by Dr. Julia Rucklidge, this is where she discusses the topic of children and mental health. But first, I would like to share a few statistics with you which I retrieved from the National Alliance on Mental Health (NAMI) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) websites.

"Four million children and adolescents in this country suffer from a serious mental disorder that causes  significant functional impairments at home, at school and with peers. Of children ages 9 to 17, twenty-one percent have a diagnosable mental or addictive disorder that causes at least minimal impairment.... Half of all lifetime cases of mental disorders begin by age 14, despite effective treatments" (NAMI).

I'm not sure why NAMI has chosen not to address or include younger children in the report above, but the CDC surveillance reports children from the ages of 2-17 have been diagnosed with various mental health disorders. You can obtain access to both reports by clicking NAMI and CDC. While on the CDC site please click on Mental Health Surveillance among Children - United states, 2005-2011, this is where you will see the age group starting at two years old. The initial information provided through the CDC link, again for what ever reason only states 3-17 years old. Additionally, on the CDC site they are quoted saying, "1 out of 5 children in the United States experience a mental disorder in any given year" (CDC), the age of these children range from 2-17.

The Surprisingly Dramatic Role of Nutrition in Mental Health

You may be asking, just what is functional medicine? First, allow me to give you a brief overview of the scope of mental health and functional medicine. Many of the mental/emotional symptoms people experience begin in the digestive system. This theory dates back to the late 1700s to early 1800s when Phillipe Pinel, the father of psychology stated, "the primary seat to insanity is found in the stomach and intestines and supposed that the disturbance of the mind originated from these centers..."(Boston Medical & Surgical Journal, 1920). Therefore, it's in the region of the gut where a functional medicine practitioner will begin their investigative work to uncover probable root causes for the individual client. There are microbes, collectively known as microbiomes that are living in the gut and studies have shown they may have a significant impact on brain function. We look at the health of the gut, but we take the whole person into consideration. We call this bio-chemical individuality. The whole person approach consist of symptoms, traits, family history and the use of specialized biomedical testing. After a thorough investigative search has been made we work with the individual to design a treatment protocol specifically for that individual.

Most all modern day psychotherapy is treated by observation, with the assumption that the patient has a brain chemical imbalance based on a set of symptoms, hence the reasons for some of the psychotropic drugs, such as the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRIs). Nevertheless, a functional medicine practitioner believes the gut holds a very critical piece to the underlying causes of symptoms related to mental health. Additionally, research suggest there are a variety of lifestyle, environmental and nutritional imbalances that may be the driving force behind the individual's symptoms. We are not so much what we eat, but we are more about what we do or do not absorb. We do not believe nutrition alone is the sole culprit behind mental health or any disease or disorder, but we do believe it is a very essential piece to the puzzle. Yes, we believe HAPPINESS begins in the gut! We also believe there are other possible causes to the development of mental health symptoms. Working with a functional medicine practitioner can help you navigate through the symptoms to find the possible root cause.

This final video will be on the topic of Functional Medicine. The presenter is Dr. Mark Hyman; he is a medical doctor, NY time's bestselling author, an internationally recognized leader in Functional Medicine. Dr. Hyman serves as Chairman of the Board for the Institute for Functional Medicine. Additionally, The Ultra Wellness Center is Dr. Hymans medical practice.

I chose this video because I believe Dr. Hyman does an excellent job at breaking down the thought process of a functional medicine practitioner in terms for us all to understand.

Dr. Mark Hyman - Functional Medicine Explained