Disclaimer The content provided by this site is for informational purposes only and has not been approved by the U.S. FDA. This site is not intended to provide personal medical advice, which should be obtained from a medical professional.
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 Alice Lee-Bloem, MD, ABIHM is a holistic and integrative psychiatrist practicing in Rockville, Maryland, who combines nutritional medicine (orthomolecular psychiatry), energy medicine, and other alternative therapies in the holistic and integrative treatment of mental health conditions. Her training in child, adolescent & adult psychiatry and her clinical experience with prescription medications allow her to:
- Facilitate natural, rapid, and safe recovery from mental illness before resorting to the use of prescription medications.
- Reduce or eliminate the need for prescription medications.
- Tailor the treatment to the unique needs of each patient.
- Educate everyone about effective, safe, and natural healing approaches.
- Minimize withdrawal symptoms from medications.
- Allow for safe medication reduction prior to pregnancy.
- Reduce postpartum depression and anxiety.
- Provide young children with mental health issues a medication-free option.
Click here to learn about: Introduction to the Principles of Energy Medicine: The Effects of Consciousness on the Body (DVD).
Click here to learn about: Infinite Intention CD – A Groundbreaking Tool for Healing Body, Mind, and Spirit.
Click here to read Ten Practical Considerations During Medication Withdrawal.
Click here to read Holistic Psychiatry: Possibilities Beyond Conventional Psychiatry.
Radio Interviews with Dr. Alice W. Lee-Bloem
What is Holistic Psychiatry? – Interview with Dr. Rachael Sand (11/14/08)
Holistic Psychiatry – Interview on News for the Soul (2/5/05)
The content provided by this site is for informational purposes only and has not been approved by the U.S. FDA. This site is not intended to provide personal medical advice, which should be obtained from a medical professional.
Clinical Tip #3: Although I have known for many years that detoxification was critically important in helping to create a smooth medication withdrawal, I was faced with the problem of finding a detoxification approach that would be gentle enough for my patients. Many approaches were too strong and caused my patients to feel worse.
CLINICAL TIP:
Recently I have been excited about two new detoxifiers that I have been able to add to my arsenal. They are both made by a company called Zortho Research. The two products are called ZeSol and CandiClear5.
ZeSol is a gentle but highly effective remover of heavy metals. CandiClear5 helps to remove many different toxins and pathogens from the gut, especially candida, while enhancing the nutrient status of the patient. I began working with these supplements just recently and have been gratified with their strong clinical results. So much so that they have risen to my favorite list of supplements for my patients, and I am eager to share the good news with everyone.
Other favorite detoxification approaches have been Detox Foot Pads (Intention Health) and castor oil packs. Of course nutritional and glandular supplements enhance detoxification: Liver Extract (Ecological Formulas), CysNAC (Neuroscience), Pure Harvest Greens (Integrative Therapeutics, Inc.), and Liposomal Glutathione (Your Energy Systems).
It is important to remember that when detoxifying, medication levels will fall faster and be lower than when you do not take detoxifiers. So, be careful, when using medication, not to use detoxifying supplements without medical supervision.
Unfortunately, quite a few supplements that I use are only available to clinicians. But you may be able to find these supplements online, despite their exclusivity. The reason these supplements are only available to clinicians is probably because they have very specific clinical effects that require special monitoring and medical expertise for appropriate titration and use.
By using applied kinesiology, I can give a fairly good estimate of the dosages of supplements that patients will need on a daily basis. With lowering toxicity levels, I saw their daily need for supplements decrease significantly. Their nutritional regimens became less cumbersome, and their pocket books benefited as well. For me, this has demonstrated, in a concrete and measurable way, the correlation between toxicity and disease.
I am excited about finding gentle, helpful detoxification approaches for my patients, and I hope that you will also benefit from my growing clinical experiences.
Hope this helps,
Alice W. Lee-Bloem, M.D.
I was first prescribed anti-depressants in the early 90’s. In 1998 I had my first psychotic episode and was put on Lithium. The method of the psychiatrist I was seeing was to listen to me talk for an hour once a month with practically no input from him. After 10 years of this, I decided that it wasn’t doing me any good, so I started seeing a psychiatrist for a few minutes once a month who tracked my medication. I was hospitalized a number of times because I abruptly stopped taking the medication and became psychotic. I was taken off Lithium and switched to Abilify to avoid a similar fate to that of my husband, who died from kidney failure, which was the result of years of taking gout medication.
One of the possible side effects of Abilify is diabetes, and I was also distressed at the weight gain. I began to have an increasing interest in alternative medicine and searched the Internet to find out if there was anything that would allow me to get off prescription medications. I found the True Hope site and read a few books on the use of supplements to successfully treat bipolar disorder. This was exciting to me and I knew that I wanted to try it.
Fortunately, I discovered Dr. Lee-Bloem. She thought that I was a long shot at the age of 59, with a long history of being on antipsychotics, but she agreed to accept me for treatment. Energy medicine was a totally new concept to me and at first I was skeptical, but I decided to give it a try.
In contrast to my previous experiences, Dr, Lee-Bloem does a careful assessment of specific goals to work towards and issues which need to be addressed. She uses various techniques to deal with stressors and a supplement regimen tailored to the individual patient, proceeding at a safe pace of decreasing prescription medication while adding supplements with quantifiable results.
Since it takes the optimal functioning of both mind and body to achieve a successful outcome, indices of this are monitored and recorded during each visit. Avoiding allergens, wheat, refined white sugar and dairy products is necessary as is eliminating toxins and keeping hydrated. Regular exercise is also helpful.
Dr. Lee-Bloem stays abreast of the latest research findings, and articles of interest and shares this information with her patients. She has an encyclopedic knowledge of body systems and the efficacy of hundreds of nutritional supplements and vitamins. I had a brief bout of insomnia near the end of the withdrawal process, which resolved quickly with a more graduated taper of the medication and some added supplements and energy work. I have been drug free for many months, am doing well, and much happier. In addition, even though I have been eating a lot more, I have not returned to my previous weight.
R. M.
The Wall Street Journal wrote an article called “The Simple Idea That is Transforming Health Care. I like simple ideas, so I read the article. The simple idea is about clinicians asking patients how their health is affecting their quality of life. Imagine that.
One patient in the article had severe asthma for over 25 years, with repeated hospitalizations, and she had never been asked questions concerning her quality of life, during the course of her medical treatment.
This question is especially relevant in the field of psychiatry, where medications often create more problems than they solve. I remember that my first “orthomolecular” patient in 2002 was a young woman in her twenties who came to me loaded on medications. Due to the side effects of her medications, she wore a diaper and had to sit on her hands to keep them from trembling. In addition, her eyes constantly moved around and were unable to stay still. Needless to say, she couldn’t date either. She told me that the side effects from her medications were worse than her original illness. I was desperate to help her in any way that I could, so I turned to nutritional supplements, and she got remarkably better.
Patients in my practice have significantly improved their quality of life since I’ve added alternative approaches to mental health. I like that. It’s fun and rewarding to see patients smile (or cry) in happiness. Please see the original article by clicking on the link below:
The Simple Idea That Is Transforming Health Care
Clinical Tip #2: Glandular support is very important during psychiatric recovery. Adrenal fatigue is well documented, but in my clinical experience, there are actually five glands that are fatigued and challenged during medication withdrawal and psychiatric recovery. They are: pineal gland, parotid, liver, spleen, and adrenals.
CLINICAL TIP:
From clinical experience, and from information obtained through applied kinesiology, I have found the following glands to be exhausted, or challenged, during medication withdrawal and psychiatric recovery: pineal, parotid, liver, spleen, and adrenals. There are at least three ways to support them: 1) through energy medicine, 2) through nutritional supplements/detoxification, and 3) by taking glandular supplements.
I get Pineal Glandular supplement from Deseret Biologicals, Liver Extract from Ecological Formulas/Cardiovascular Research, Adrenal Complex from Integrative Therapeutics Inc., and Parotid gland from Standard Process.
When a patient is taking medications, Liver Extract should not be given to the patient until medication levels are slightly elevated for the patient’s needs. By adding Liver Extract, liver function will be enhanced, and therefore the ability to detoxify and rid the body of medications will also be accelerated, resulting in lower functional blood levels of medications. I find that liver support will generally result in improved spleen function, so I have not needed to give spleen glandular supplements.
In general, my patients respond to adrenal glandular support with increased anxiety, so I do not use this approach very often. Instead, I try to support the adrenals by decreasing histamine, which is a neuromodulator of the adrenals. By decreasing histamine, I can lessen the work load on the adrenals. I can decrease histamine by doing energy work, taking out foods that the patient is hypersensitive to, and adding quercetin or Opsin II (by Deseret Biologicals).
I often need to support the pineal gland, during medication withdrawal, through glandular supplementation. In particular, it seems to support the patient’s ability to sleep and maintain a healthy appetite, which often falter during medication withdrawal without it.
Often, I will address parotid gland stress by recommending a biological dentist to remove metal fillings appropriately, encourage the use of a good toothpaste (Dentarome Ultra by Young Living Essential Oils) that is flouride-free, and a good biological (holistic) dentist who avoids the use of toxic chemicals in dentistry. I have not used parotid gland much, but will be doing so soon.
Of course the glands involved in reproductive hormones are also important, but this article is meant to provide clinical tips rather than a clinical treatise, so I will leave these glands for another day.
Hope this helps,
Alice W. Lee-Bloem, M.D.
Starting today, I’ve decided to leave short clinical tips on medication withdrawal that I hope will be helpful for people to know. Some will be on the process of withdrawal and some will be on the content of withdrawal. I hope that you will return to my website often to look for the latest clinical tip!
CLINICAL TIP:
From clinical experience, I’ve found that individuals with a history of psychosis, coming off of antipsychotics, need a lot of vitamin C (powdered buffered vitamin C is easy and cheaper to use), niacinamide (B3 without the flushing), antioxidants (organic, freeze-dried Goji powder, organic freeze-dried Acai powder, or sometimes organic freeze-dried maqui powder), Co-Enzyme Q 10, and GABA supplement support. They often need to follow a strict wheat-free, dairy-free, refined sugar-free diet. The four types of GABA supplement support that I have used with patients are: GABA Calm by Source Naturals, GABA 500 mg capsules, GABA homeopathic drops, and GABA rice (germinated brown rice). Sometimes I recommend that individuals take both GABA Calm (passes the blood-brain barrier) and GABA caps (act more peripherally), and it results in much better sleep function. Also, stress, especially emotional stress, can make it difficult for the individual to succeed with withdrawal. So, it’s important to keep stress levels down during withdrawal.
Hope this helps,
Alice W. Lee-Bloem, M.D.
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