Clinical Tip #3 - Gentle Detoxification and Its Importance in Medication Withdrawal

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, M.D.

The Simple Idea That Is Transforming Health Care (WSJ article, April 18, 2012)

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 - Critical Glandular Support During Psychiatric Treatment

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, M.D.

Clinical Tip #1 - Critical Supplements During Antipsychotic Medication Withdrawal

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, M.D.

Doctors Say Vitamins are Safe and Effective

(OMNS, March 13, 2012) The news media proclaim that taking vitamin supplements is of no value and, somehow, actually dangerous. You have heard an earful from reporters. Now let’s hear from doctors.

Michael Janson, M.D.:

The standard American diet does not provide even the RDA. Two-thirds of all meals are eaten outside the home, and nearly half of them are in fast food joints. You can’t expect this to provide all the necessary nutrients, and many studies show that it does not. A large number of people admitted to hospitals are found to have deficiencies, and the problems worsen in the hospital. Those given supplements have a lower rate of complications, faster discharge from the hospital and fewer deaths. Vitamin companies do not send doctors on expense paid vacations or “seminars,” as do the drug companies for prescribing their drugs, and vitamins are safe and cheap. But surely this does not influence pharmaceutical-advertising-paid-for media!

Vitamin E in high doses (800 IU) enhances immunity in healthy elderly subjects. Vitamin C in doses (2,000 mg) far above the RDA (90 mg) significantly reduces allergic rhinitis and asthma and speeds the recovery from airway constriction induced by histamine. Vitamin B1 (thiamine) was used successfully to treat trigeminal neuralgia, as described in an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association way back in 1940.

Many people are losing their faith in the medical profession because many doctors are unwilling to accept what is becoming common knowledge: nutrition and nutrient therapies are safer, cheaper and more effective than most other medical treatment. It is clear that most media reporters do not know the current nutrition literature, they do not know the old literature, and they do not know the middle-aged literature. If they do not know the literature, they should not be writing articles.

Martin Gallagher, M.D., D.C.:

I have been a practicing physician for 37 years. During that time, I have directly treated and supervised over 12,000 patient encounters per year. With each patient, I have prescribed a variety of vitamins, minerals, homeopathic medicines, and herbs. I have to date not encountered a single complication, anaphylactic reaction or death. The doses have been well above the RDA’s for vitamins and minerals. In fact, the IV treatments include doses of ascorbate (vitamin C) that vary from 10,000 to over 100,000 mg per treatment session.

At a time when the leading cause of death in the US is correctly prescribed medication, we need to embrace, not chastise, nutritional supplements.

Robert G. Smith, Ph.D.:

Most people in modern societies have vitamin and mineral deficiencies because these nutrients are removed by industrial food processing. Vitamin and mineral supplements are effective in preventing deficiencies that cause major illness such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis, dementia, and many others. Supplements of vitamins and minerals, when taken in proper doses large enough to work (For example: vitamin C for an adult at 3,000 – 6,000 mg/day, and much more when stressed or sick), are safe and effective — and far less expensive than taking prescribed drugs overblown by the medical profession and media.

Michael J. Gonzalez, Ph.D.:

Research in Europe has shown that long-term users of antioxidant vitamin supplements have a 48% reduced risk of cancer mortality and 42% lower all-cause mortality. [1] The media did not bother to mention it. There is in fact overwhelming clinical evidence to justify the use of nutritional supplements for the prevention of disease and the support of optimal health. The Lewin Group estimated a $24 billion savings over 5 years if a few basic nutritional supplements were used in the elderly. [2] On the other hand, prescription medication kills over 100,000 people a year. [3]

Thomas Levy, M.D.:

There are more politics in modern medicine than in modern politics itself. Today’s average physician deserves even less trust than today’s average politician, as doctors continue their refusal to allow the scientific data on the profound benefits of vitamins and other antioxidant supplements to reach their eyes and brains. And the staunch support of a press, which collectively no longer has a shred of journalistic or scientific integrity, completes the framing of today’s colossal medical fraud. Money always rules the day: properly-dosed vitamins would eliminate far too much of the profit of prescription-based medicine.

William B. Grant, Ph.D.:

Modern lifestyles including wearing clothes and sunscreen and working and living largely indoors have led to widespread vitamin D deficiencies. Numerous ecological and observational studies have found correlations between higher solar UVB doses and vitamin D concentrations and reduced risk of many types of cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, bacterial and viral infectious diseases, autoimmune diseases, falls and fractures, cognitive impairment, and many more types of disease. To compensate for lack of sun exposure, 1,000-5,000 IU per day of vitamin D3 should be taken to raise serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations to at least 30-40 ng/ml (75-100 nmol/L). These amounts are safe for all but those with granulomatous diseases, who can develop hypercalcemia. 1,000 to 5,000 IU/day of vitamin D is effective in reducing risk of many types of diseases, as shown in a number of randomized controlled trials, such as cancer, falls and fractures, type A influenza, and pneumonia.

W. Todd Penberthy, Ph.D.:

Niacin in particular has been shown to provide exceptional benefit in treating cardiovascular disease in clinical trial after clinical trial [4]. By comparison, the popular diabetes drug Avandia was recently found to cause a 43% increase in heart attacks in diabetics. [5] This came out only after Avandia had already become the most popular diabetes drug in the world! Never underestimate the power of market-driven forces to sell drugs, and books, such as The End of Illness by Dr. Agus, instead of proper information regarding what actually works best.

People are amazed how quickly simply taking supplemental niacin corrects high cholesterol, high triglycerides, low HDL (the good cholesterol) and VLDL. All of these parameters are pushed in the healthier direction because niacin ultimately functions inside the body in over 450 reactions. There is a reason niacin continues as a preferred therapy for doctors in the know, using niacin therapy for over 50 years now. Niacin works better than any drug to correct dyslipidemia.

One thing to always remember is this. You can “prove” that any drug or vitamin does not work if you are not using high enough doses to achieve the correct concentration of the molecule. Furthermore, all biochemical pathways rely on more than one molecule to function properly, so generally one drug/vitamin is not enough for optimal health. Our bodies rely on vitamins, not drugs, to routinely stave off illness by means we often take for granted. Sometimes we need much more of these essential molecules. This is common sense, and it is known as orthomolecular medicine.

James A. Jackson, Ph.D.:

For over twenty years, I was the laboratory director of a federally approved clinical reference laboratory. We accepted samples from all the United States and foreign countries. We measured all the fat soluble and water soluble vitamins in blood and urine. It was common to find vitamin deficiencies in both males and females, whether children or adults. The most common vitamin deficiencies were vitamin C and vitamin D3. The clinic’s physicians treated the patients with the appropriate vitamins and were monitored by our laboratory. Many were helped by the vitamin replacement treatment, including those with complaints such as headache, joint and muscle pain, chronic fatigue syndrome, and ADHD. We published many of these cases in the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine. (http://orthomolecular.org/library/jom/index.shtml)

Ian Brighthope, M.D.:

Over 70% of Australians consume vitamins on a regular basis. A search of the department of health’s database reveals no serious adverse reactions or deaths have occurred in the Australian population over the past ten years from the use of complementary medicines. There is an extreme bias against very low to extremely low risk products by government regulators and health professionals working within and outside the establishment institutions.

Robert Jenkins, D.C., M.S.:

I have been in practice for 52 years and have treated thousands of patients with diet and nutritional supplements for numerous health conditions ranging from hypertension, diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, metabolic syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome, and many others. I have yet to experience adverse patient reactions from taking nutritional supplements. I have lectured second year medical students at two medical schools in the Philadelphia, PA area. When I asked those students how much nutritional training they had received, they all held up their hands with the sign of zero. The pharmaceutical industry makes sure medical students are trained in how to prescribe their drugs, while no positive mention is made of nutritional supplements. Why would anyone think that our modern medical doctors are to be considered authorities on nutritional supplementation for health conditions when they are not trained to do so? When this lack of nutritional education is combined with the news media’s ignorance of supplements and their benefits, we have “the blind leading the blind.”

Gert Schuitemaker, Ph.D.:

In the Netherlands, a report of the Dutch Health Council states that less than 2% of the population is eating according to official dietary guidelines. [6] Moreover, the authorities state that, even if a person is eating according to the dietary guidelines, he is not getting enough vitamin A, D, folic acid, iron, selenium and zinc. [7] Research in a Dutch hospital showed that 40% of patients at the time of admission were malnourished.[8] So, dietary supplements are necessary. Usually, chronic diseases, developing with increasing age, are treated with medicines, inevitably accompanied with the risk of severe side effects and unnecessary deaths. While the basis of many chronic diseases is a metabolic disturbance and nutritional deficiencies, the best treatment approach is good nutrition, including the use of dietary supplements. The “danger” of vitamins and minerals lies in chronic deficiencies, not in alleged toxic effects. Following the scientific literature on a daily basis, in 30 years, I have not seen any harmful effect from supplements.

Damien Downing, M.D.:

The more toxins you are exposed to, the more nutrients you will use up in dealing with them. Every year, we are exposed to more and more toxins, and our DNA has had no time to adapt. Heavy metals such as lead, mercury, fluorine; pesticides including the newer ones like glyphosate (“Roundup”); flame retardants that are even contaminating the Arctic; and hundreds of thousands of other new-to-nature molecules that every human has to deal with. And like it or not, pharmaceutical medications are mostly toxins too.

At the same time, intensive farming, soil depletion and poor diets (often foisted on us for spurious reasons such as fear of cholesterol) mean that it’s normal to be deficient now. We are deficient in vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients as well.

What chance does a human have? A much better one if she doesn’t buy the hype from big companies, the dogma from pharma-paid scientists, and the bullying from governments. Take your vitamins.

Steve Hickey, Ph.D.:

Over the past three centuries, the frequency of deficiency and infectious diseases has been reduced, through improved nutrition and better hygiene. Throughout this time, however, the role of nutrition has been belittled by the authorities. These same authorities now reject the idea that nutritional supplements can prevent our current chronic diseases. Thus, as a result of such authoritarian medicine, we may have replaced the horrors of pellagra, scurvy, and rickets with those of dementia, heart disease, and cancer. If so, it is likely that people in the future will look back with similar dismay on the current and needless destruction of health. How will we answer them, when they ask how could we have allowed this to happen?

Dean Elledge, D.D.S., M.S.:

The high-carbohydrate, nutrient-poor diet is a primary contributing factor in dental diseases. [9] Vitamin D and vitamin C are safe to use in dentistry to help the patient recover from dental diseases. Vitamins in general help reduce inflammation, and antioxidant vitamins reduce the inflammation in periodontal disease. Vitamin supplements improve antioxidant reserves.

Michael Ellis, M.D.:

I see so many patients in conventional general practice who are deficient in vitamins. I had one patient who had ended up in a hospital neurosurgical unit only to be found to have severe B12 deficiency. The foods that most people eat are high in sugar, processed, and denatured of essential nutrients. All patients need, at the very least, daily multivitamins.

Ralph Campbell, M.D.:

We have had lots of talk of the alleged “toxicity” of vitamins over the decades I have been in pediatric practice. I remain leery of the validity of such accusations. Most are just uninformed regurgitation of poorly designed studies. If alert, a clinician can easily detect vitamin deficiencies, and with experience, quickly spot suboptimal vitamin levels. The medical establishment seems to be increasingly aware of vitamin D, B12 and folic acid deficiency. What is taking the media so long?

Karin Munsterhjelm-Ahumada, M.D.:

I have been a physician for 35 years. For the last 20 years, I have worked with combining general medicine with nutritional (orthomolecular) medicine, the practice of preventing and treating disease by providing the body with optimal amounts of substances which are natural to the body, principally vitamins and minerals. I have had good opportunity to compare the results of my work as a GP from the time before I got knowledge of vitamins and minerals as therapeutic substances with the time after I had learned to integrate them in my work with patients. I can today certify that I have seen a great number of very positive results after beginning to integrate vitamins in my clinical work. The results have been particularly fine in neurologic and psychiatric conditions, including schizophrenia, and in hormonal and infectious diseases. During these last 20 years I have not seen severe side effects of orthomolecular substances. On the contrary, I have often been able to decrease the dosage of strong pharmaceutical drugs that carry severe side effects. This has led to a completely new and better quality of life for my patients, and for myself as a doctor.

Conclusion:

The old saying remains true: the person who says it can’t be done should not interrupt the person successfully doing it. Progressive doctors prescribe vitamins because they work. If your doctor doesn’t “believe” in vitamins, maybe it is time for him or her to change such an antiquated belief system in favor of the true clinical evidence.

For further reading:

How to Learn More about Nutritional Medicine: Information Archive and Locating a Practitioner http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v06n09.shtml

How Doctors Use (Or Should Use) Vitamin Therapy http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v06n25.shtml

A Guide to Free, Peer-Reviewed Nutritional Medicine Information Online http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v07n08.shtml

Intravenous Vitamin C as Cancer Therapy: Free Access to Twenty-One Expert Video Lectures Online http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v07n03.shtml

Additional Resources on Nutritional Therapeutics http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v06n27.shtml

References:

1. Li K, Kaaks R, Linseisen J, Rohrmann S. Vitamin/mineral supplementation and cancer, cardiovascular, and all-cause mortality in a German prospective cohort (EPIC-Heidelberg). Eur J Nutr. 2011 Jul 22.

2. Suh DC , Woodall BS, Shin SK , Hermes-De Santis ER. Clinical and economic impact of adverse drug reactions in hospitalized patients. Ann Pharmacother . 2000;34(12):1373-9.

3. Lazarou J, Pomeranz BH, Corey PN. Incidence of adverse drug reactions in hospitalized patients: a meta-analysis of prospective studies. JAMA . 1998 15;279(15):1200-5.

4. Carlson LA: Nicotinic acid: the broad-spectrum lipid drug. A 50th anniversary review. J Intern Med, 2005; 258: 94-114.

5. Nissen SE, and Wolski K: Effect of rosiglitazone on the risk of myocardial infarction and death from cardiovascular causes. N Engl J Med, 2007; 356: 2457-2471.

6. Significant trends in food consumption in the Netherlands. The Hague: Health Council of the Netherlands, 2002; publication no. 2002/12.

7. Voedingscentrum. Richtlijnen goede voedselkeuze. [The Netherlands Nutrition Centre. Guidelines Good Nutritional Choice] 2011.

8. Naber TH, Schermer T, de Bree A et al. Prevalence of malnutrition in nonsurgical hospitalized patients and its association with disease complications. Am J Clin Nutr. 1997 Nov; 66(5):1232-9.

9. Elledge DA. Effective hemostasis and tissue management. Dentistry Today, Oct 2010, p150.

Nutritional Medicine is Orthomolecular Medicine

Orthomolecular medicine uses safe, effective nutritional therapy to fight illness. For more information: http://www.orthomolecular.org

Find a Doctor

To locate an orthomolecular physician near you: http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v06n09.shtml

The peer-reviewed Orthomolecular Medicine News Service is a non-profit and non-commercial informational resource.

Editorial Review Board:

Ian Brighthope, M.D. (Australia)
Ralph K. Campbell, M.D. (USA)
Carolyn Dean, M.D., N.D. (Canada)
Damien Downing, M.D. (United Kingdom)
Dean Elledge, D.D.S., M.S. (USA)
Michael Ellis, M.D. (Australia)
Martin P. Gallagher, M.D., D.C. (USA)
Michael Gonzalez, D.Sc., Ph.D. (Puerto Rico)
William B. Grant, Ph.D. (USA)
Steve Hickey, Ph.D. (United Kingdom)
James A. Jackson, Ph.D. (USA)
Michael Janson, M.D. (USA)
Robert E. Jenkins, D.C. (USA)
Bo H. Jonsson, M.D., Ph.D. (Sweden)
Thomas Levy, M.D., J.D. (USA)
Jorge R. Miranda-Massari, Pharm.D. (Puerto Rico)
Karin Munsterhjelm-Ahumada, M.D. (Finland)
Erik Paterson, M.D. (Canada)
W. Todd Penberthy, Ph.D. (USA)
Gert E. Schuitemaker, Ph.D. (Netherlands)
Robert G. Smith, Ph.D. (USA)
Jagan Nathan Vamanan, M.D. (India)

Andrew W. Saul, Ph.D. (USA), Editor and contact person. Email: omns@orthomolecular.org Readers may write in with their comments and questions for consideration for publication and as topic suggestions. However, OMNS is unable to respond to individual emails.

To Subscribe at no charge: http://www.orthomolecular.org/subscribe.html

The Simple ABC’s of Antidepressant Withdrawal

 

Antidepressant withdrawal is both complicated and simple. It was complicated when I first started in holistic psychiatry and didn’t know some of the nuances of antidepressant withdrawal, but now that I have gathered enough information to know the most important aspects of antidepressant withdrawal, it has become more straightforward. Well, as straightforward as a complicated process can be, that is. My learning curve, however, was a gradual one, and it stretched over many years. This article is not a comprehensive review of everything about antidepressant withdrawal. The purpose of this article is to alert individuals to key aspects of antidepressant withdrawal that everyone should know, before starting out on their journey. If you don’t, then withdrawal symptoms may become an ongoing source of suffering that can exact a large toll over many years. A successful withdrawal, defined by me, is one in which a person will be able to get off an antidepressant smoothly and stay off, even when under stress.

A. Content & Process

Antidepressant withdrawal can be divided into two aspects: content and process. The content of withdrawal includes what kinds of supplements, diet, or techniques are necessary to support or incorporate during withdrawal. The process, however, which has to do with the how, when, and what, is often poorly understood. In my practice, the process is facilitated by information and feedback learned through the field of energy medicine. In addition, it is supported by having years of clinical experience, working with complex patients and learning from them.

Lacking an overarching method for guiding the process of antidepressant withdrawal is often the main reason why people’s attempts at antidepressant withdrawal fail. Because of this, I would recommend antidepressant withdrawal only with the aid of someone who has had success in helping others through withdrawal. I have had patients who came to me after being taken off antidepressants, by those who lack experience with antidepressant withdrawal.  They were told to lower the medication dosages “slowly.” Without true healing, such an approach often lead to a relapse, within a few months of stopping the medication.

Having said that, however, it is important to withdraw slowly (occasionally, energy healing allows a more rapid reduction). Compounding pharmacies are often necessary to help create liquid suspensions of medications that allow for gradual dosage reductions that are much smaller than available dosage forms. Typically, the time for lowering the medication is when the “functional dosage”—the way the medication dosage supports mental function– is being experienced as being slightly higher than needed. This mental state is usually accompanied by early and mild side effects from the medication, i.e. increased vivid dreams, increased gastric activity, or apathy. Lowering the medication at such a point will lead to a normalization of function, rather than a state of deficiency. The faster the healing process, the faster the pace of antidepressant withdrawal that may be required.

B. Underlying Illness & Medication Dependency

Even the most successful medication withdrawal, however, will only treat half the problem: medication dependency. Quite often, the forgotten half of withdrawal is the underlying illness. Only treatment that simultaneously heals both the underlying illness that led to depression and anxiety, as well as medication dependency, will lead to stable mental health after cessation of medications. Therefore, even with successful medication withdrawal, one may be left with the initial condition that led to medication use, plus the intervening years of progressive worsening of unhealed underlying causes. In short, just tweaking a few neurotransmitters will not accomplish the job.

When addressing psychological traumas and negative mental habits that led to the initial symptoms of depression and anxiety, it is imperative that patients heal their psychological issues at the subconscious level. To do so, they first need to gain insight into what those issues were, and then apply energy medicine techniques to help heal those problems. Emotional Freedom Technique, (EFT www.EFTuniverse.com), and other acupressure techniques are a quick and effective way to heal traumas.

To heal the underlying physiological imbalances that had led to the initial symptoms, a general blend of supportive nutritional supplements are critical. The diet may need to be cleared of foods that cause hypersensitivity reactions. General nutritional areas that often need to be supported through orthomolecular means are: vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids, amino acids, antioxidants, gastrointestinal support, and detoxification. The higher the absorbability of the supplement, the less one will need to get the job done. So, absorption is the key to choosing high quality nutritional supplements, rather than dosage. If underlying infections such as Epstein Barr Virus, Staph or Strep, H. Pylori, viral hepatitis, Lyme or its co-infections are undermining one’s health, they need to be treated.

C. Antidepressant Psychopharmacology & Biochemical Support

To address medication dependency, the first thing to do is: know your medication. It is important to know how the medication helps and how it hurts the person, when trying to withdraw from it. Open up a PDR or look online to really know the medication’s psychopharmacology and its unique functions in the body. Two important areas to know for navigating withdrawal are: 1) which receptors are blocked or activated by this medication? And 2) which nutrients are affected by this medication?  When withdrawing from a medication, everything that the medication suppresses will become elevated, and everything that it elevates will become depressed—unless you do something to ameliorate that condition beforehand.

To prevent the imbalance that will ensue upon lowering an antidepressant medication, one must anticipate what will happen during the taper process. There are different types of antidepressants. The most commonly used ones are SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors) such as Prozac, Zoloft, Celexa, Paxil, and Lexapro and SNRIs (Serotonin-Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitors) such as Effexor and Cymbalta. Tricyclics are seldom used nowadays. For those that elevate specific neurotransmitters, it is helpful to use supplements that facilitate the production of these neurotransmitters, before attempting to lower them. If the medication is first lowered and the person has low levels of the corresponding neurotransmitters, adding supplements after a taper has already taken place may not allow for normal levels to be restored quickly enough, and withdrawal will ensue upon lowering the medication. There are companies devoted to the nutritional support of creating neurotransmitters such as Sanesco and Neuroscience.  They have combined amino acids with other co-factors in a simple capsule to help patients build neurotransmitters naturally, which allows withdrawal to occur with much greater ease.

Beyond neurotransmitter support, there is a need for immune and hormone system support. For, antidepressants have an effect on hormones and the immune system. All medications are like two sided coins. They have a beneficial side and a toxic side. Antidepressant medications are beneficial, because they have, among their many side effects, some side effects that help lessen depression and anxiety. They are toxic, because they have been patented by a pharmaceutical company, which means they are unique molecules that are no longer a food item that the body will recognize. If the body does not recognize it as food, it is a foreign object, a xenobiotic and perceived by the body as foreign, treated as a toxin, and therefore, must be eliminated—both through detoxification pathways and through inflammatory pathways. (This is why, if a person’s body is already overwhelmed by too many foreign products, i.e. heavy metals, herbicides, or pesticides, the toxic aspect of medications will be poorly managed, and more side effects will ensue upon taking the medication. If a person has a healthy detoxification system, then the toxic aspects of a medication can be handled easily and effortlessly.

As medication levels get lower, its beneficial and helpful side effects diminish in a linear fashion, based on the dosage, but its allergenic effects–stress for the body–does not diminish proportionally. Compare this to what we know about vaccines. Vaccines contain small amounts of stimulus, antigens, but they can produce a powerful immune cascade. In a similar way, even a small amount of medication can cause a strong immune response—not the kind that causes hives, but like the kind that occurs with a kidney transplant. As withdrawal progresses, the imbalance between benefits and the inflammatory reaction will make the withdrawal gradually more difficult, unless you anticipate it and treat it. I have found Opsin II (Professional and Complementary Health Formulas) to be helpful in reducing the histamine response generated by medications, allowing for an easier withdrawal process.

With regard to hormonal support, I differ from other orthomolecular physicians in that I often use pineal gland support. My clinical experience has shown that pineal gland (Deseret Biologicals) eases withdrawal significantly. Patients tend to have better sleep, appetite, and lower stress levels when given this hormonal support.

Conclusion

At this point, you may have read more than you ever wished to know about antidepressant withdrawal, or you may feel like this article is more like an appetizer than the main course you had hoped it would be. You may also have the distinct impression that it may not be safe for you to attempt to do this on your own. However, by reading this article, you have the advantage of knowing more than I ever did, when I began my journey as a holistic psychiatrist. Through ten years of psychiatric training, the only useful piece of advice I remember receiving from my psychiatry mentors about medication withdrawal was to “do it slowly.” Three words on a topic that meant everything to my patients. Unfortunately, these three words may still encompass what many traditional psychiatrists know about antidepressant withdrawal, since their goal has not been to take patients off medications, but to put them on one. May these clinical pearls help you towards achieving a safe journey through your withdrawal process. 

Alice W. Lee, MD, ABIHM

The Nature of Healing

As a holistic psychiatrist, I have wondered over the years, “Which is more powerful in healing, orthomolecular/functional medicine or energy medicine?” It’s like asking whether the nature of man is good or evil.  My answer to that question has been, “Neither–the nature of man is self-centered.” Similarly, as I’ve reflected on the healing process, I’ve come to realize that neither orthomolecular/functional or energy medicine is more powerful than the other. Instead, they depend on each other. Energy medicine is like the blueprint for a house, or the hard drive in a computer. But orthomolecular/functional medicine is like the building materials for the house, or the software for a computer. Neither can be fully creative without the other.

Once I came to see healing as being cooperative, rather than hierarchical, I broadened my ideas about healing to include five levels of being: spiritual, mental, emotional, physical, and social.  I call them levels, because I think of them as being made of vibrational levels.  However, unlike Russian nesting dolls, separate and distinct, these levels of being are more like music, with the high notes interwoven with the low notes–the melody intermingling with the backdrop of harmonies.  The music of life is made of many parts, each part as important as another in producing the final masterpiece.

True healing happens when all levels are part of the transformational process. Let’s take for example a person who enters treatment feeling depressed and anxious, hoping to get off their psychotropic medications.

Orthomolecular/functional medicine would focus on providing the building blocks to the physical form and removing the toxins that block normal biological functioning. These building blocks would come from vitamins, minerals, amino acids, essential fatty acids, antioxidants, gastrointestinal support, and detoxification.

Energy medicine would focus on correcting inappropriate energy flow and function. This could be done with focused meditation, acupressure (EFT, TAT), acupuncture, or a myriad of other modalities (Reiki, Healing Touch, Yoga, Tai Chi).

Social healing begins within the therapeutic relationship with the clinician, where unconditional love, respect, and equality is experienced. The person begins to see and develop the healer within him or herself. Issues such as trauma, abuse, neglect, and other damaging exposures (video games, media, incidents overheard or seen) are explored and healed through psychotherapeutic and energetic interventions.

Mental and Emotional healing occurs as harmful events, traumas, and stressors that led to the initial state of depletion are healed at the conscious and subconscious levels. Harmful mental and emotional habits are discovered and overcome.  Forgiveness heals abuses and neglect from self and from others.

Spiritual healing focuses on one’s connection to a source of unconditional love, forgiveness, and God. It allows the person to feel deserving of being loved, happy, well, and successful.  It removes guilt and shame as it builds the person’s faith in a loving, accepting God.

The person’s first steps along the path of healing begins in a state of misery and desperation. One’s early goals are limited to getting off medications and a cessation of pain and suffering. Even that may seem at first a rather grandiose hope.  But true healing takes one more than out of the grave.  The nature of true healing lifts one up until one has arrived back home to Life–vibrant and whole again.  It is about transforming into a healer who has been healed.

Perfection and the Purpose of Life

Could happiness be captured only through perfection?  Could the reason for anguish:  ”__ was never perfect enough for __.” have the power to keep one from a fulfilling and joyful life?  The assumption is that the cause for one’s misery is due to an imperfect and flawed life, self, or person.  This paradigm leaves one feeling powerless, since one assumes that a negative cause directly results in a negative effect, and therefore, only a perfect cause can result in a perfect effect.

In psychiatry and psychotherapy also, there is often the assumption that damaged people come from childhood traumas. And to a certain extent that is true. But psychiatry cannot explain why the experience of trauma and suffering, for some, lead to a fulfilling and productive life, while for others, lead to dysfunction and suffering.

What is missing is the understanding that between cause and effect, there is choice. Experiences do not cause their effects.  It is one’s response to the experiences that determine the effect. And choosing to learn from both good and bad experiences has the potential to transform all experiences to a wealth of growth.

Within choice is held the essence and purpose of life.

Not only do people have the power for creative transformation, life is the very practice of it.  All problems, imperfections, and traumas are included in the very fabric and matter of our purpose in life: to create order out of chaos, to change negative to positive, and to bring light into darkness–in essence, to practice being the best human.  We are entrusted with this creative process and the world is our workbench.

What does this mean?  It means that life’s riches lay all around us in all guises and forms. We can learn and grow from anything and everything, as long as we are willing to learn.  As long as we recognize that trauma does not necessarily lead to a damaged life.  Trauma can lead to an empathic life, a connected life, and any positive description of life one chooses, depending on what one is willing to learn from it.

There are a million reasons for pulling away from being actively engaged in the creative transformation of life.  The human race is knit together in understanding of the tremendous difficulties inherent within day-to-day living.  The only proper response for human suffering is compassion and the desire to help, not judgment, and certainly not smug dismissal.

Being active in creative transformation is not an easy life, but it makes one alive.  Attempts to avoid the task is to try and avoid living.  Can one avoid life?  Not really–the lessons just need to be repeated . . . over and over again.

One lesson that has many permutations is the lesson on love.  Life challenges us to find the good aspects of love and then to love fully and completely, no matter what.  This lesson begins with finding the good aspects of love and learning how to love ourselves and others.  Perfection in life is found through love, for only through love can perfection be realized and perceived.

The need to be perfect is the need for love.  The anguish of never being good enough for someone is the anguish that comes from a lack of love, not because one is unlovable, but because so many do not know how to love.  For, who can see perfection except through love?

Life, in the end, is not a story about traumas and imperfections, it is a story about the person, and what that person did with it.

It is our reluctance to let go of the assumption that life should have been perfect, that keeps us from rolling up our sleeves and getting down to the business of  living life.

Life was never meant to be perfect. Life was meant to be perfected–through, within, and around us.

Intention, Time, and Healing in Energy Medicine

One way of improving the force, impact, and effectiveness of using intention in energy medicine is to prolong the period of time that one focuses the mind on setting a particular intention.  For example, focusing my mind on directing healing energy for a specific intention over 30 seconds will not be as powerful as focusing on the same healing intention over a period of 2 hours.  Knowing this, I recently experimented with focusing on a specific, helpful intention for a patient over a period of 20 minutes.  In contrast, in the past I had generally spent about one minute on setting specific intentions.  Each minute of the 20 minute exercise in focused intent went by at an agonizingly slow pace, and I found the exercise extremely boring and difficult, not having the training that others may have had in meditating for long periods of time.  However, I soon abandoned this laborious process and found a solution to this hurdle, by setting another intention that the FOCUS of my healing intention would continue to flow to the patient over a specified time as if I were focusing on the specific intention over that duration of time.

Having demonstrated to patients over the years the effects of time on enhancing subtle energy healing, I knew that I did not have to literally and physically focus on an intention over a prolonged period of time to take advantage of the effects of time for my patients.  I could get the same effect by directing subtle energy to flow to the patient over a period of time as if I were doing so, simply through intention.  That is the advantage of working with a tool that exists in the fourth dimension.

There are some important advantages to enhancing the power of our focus by intending that it occurs over a prolonged period of time.  For example, I noticed that patients did not need the support of minerals and essential oils as they had before this improvement in my energy medicine technique.  In addition, patients were showing less vulnerability to the toxic side effects of their prescription medications.  Finally, and most importantly, most patients were able to sense a more powerful healing process than they had ever experienced before.  As I continue to apply this concept to my energy work, I anticipate that medication withdrawal would become even easier for my patients.  My hope is that it will not only shorten the amount of time it takes to withdraw from medications, but that it will also save the patient a great deal of money in nutritional supplements.

One draw back with this improvement in my energy medicine technique was that I found myself feeling unusually hungry after doing energy healing work on my patients.  This had not happened to me before.  In fact, previous to this change in technique, I found that doing energy work seemed to get rid of hunger pangs during the day and gave me more energy to do work. I surmised that my increased need for food was associated with an exponential increase in energy work on my part, though it did not increase the actual time for the sessions.  That is, energy was continuing to flow to my patients, as directed by specific set intentions, after the patient and I had moved on to another phase of the appointment.  I cannot even begin to estimate how much more work is actually being done when using time to enhance the force of the focused intent.  As an optimist, I am hoping that I will get used to this new way of doing energy work and gradually be able to do the increased work with less strain and appetite.

Another thing I noticed with this change in technique was a greater awareness that not all intentions require the same amount of focused duration for each patient.  Some patients may need 10 minutes for one intention, but may need 220 minutes for another.  The pattern soon became evident that the higher duration was associated with a patient’s greater need for a specific healing intention.

Intention manipulates the effects of subtle energy during energy healing, and over the years, I have used intention in various ways, such as:

1. Specify the task to be done
2. Direct the period of time that it influences
3. Control the process of accomplishing the task
4. Direct it to the right place and person
5. Effect different levels of being

But now I’m adding one more important aspect of intention: enhancing the power of the focused intent.  Using time as a means to enhance force is asimple concept with a powerful punch.  Of all the progress that I have made as a holistic psychiatrist, the most profoundly revolutionary for me are those that involve the manipulation of time–using our minds not only to set a specific intent, but to guide the process of healing over a period of time.  As my old mentors in psychiatry stressed to me during my early years in residency training:  there’s CONTENT and there’s PROCESS.  Use time to change the process and reap the rewards that will only time could create.

Five Easy Tips on How to Withdraw from Antipsychotics Safely

More updated information on medication withdrawal is available under holistic updates. Please subscribe for holistic updates on creating mental health from the thought up!

_______________________________________________________________________

Is it possible to withdraw from antipsychotic medications safely and successfully, without the “chronic” psychotic condition recurring? YES! Although psychosis is one of the most difficult conditions to treat in psychiatry, it is definitely possible to safely and effectively taper off of antipsychotic medications.

When an individual becomes psychotic, typically an antipsychotic medication is used to ameliorate symptoms. However, there are many side effects associated with the use of antipsychotics, and no clear way to ever come off the medication once symptoms are under control. In addition, withdrawal from an antipsychotic medication, after taking it for several years, will often result in withdrawal symptoms that mimic the original psychotic illness.

Over the years, I have learned how to overcome the difficulties and dangers associated with antipsychotic medication withdrawal. In the beginning, I was under the misconception that because all these medications treated psychosis, that they will have the same level of difficulty when it came to withdrawal. Not so. Consider Zyprexa, it affects no less than 17 different subtypes of receptors, while Haldol affects only two dopamine receptor subtypes. In between, we have Abilify, which affects 10 different receptor subtypes, to Seroquel which affects seven different receptor subtypes. When these medications are lowered, the body has to adjust to the changes in how receptors are affected during the taper. Which medication do you think would be the easiest for the body to adjust to, the medication that affects 17 receptor subtypes, or the one that only affects two? For most individuals, this would be a rhetorical question.

In the process of learning about medication withdrawal in general and antipsychotic withdrawal in particular, I have discovered that in addition to supporting the body with plenty of supplements and energy medicine techniques, there are some certain aspects of the medication withdrawal process that are critical for a smooth and safe withdrawal process. They are as follows:

1. Carefully follow sleep patterns: Do not reduce antipsychotic medications until sleep has increased through nutritional and energy medicine support to at least 9 hours per day, sleeping 10 hours per day would be preferable. Lowering antipsychotic medication when sleeping 8 hours or less would generally create a problem with insomnia.

2. Use liquid antipsychotics whenever available: It is easier to taper down in small amounts when using liquid antipsychotics. Of course, this principle applies to antidepressants or anxiolytics as well. If liquid antipsychotics are not available, they can be specially compounded through certain compounding pharmacies, especially through pharmacies that also sell nutritional supplements.

3. Antioxidant support: typically I use a combination of whole food powders such as acai, goji, and maqui powder to lower oxidative stress.

4. Strengthen the GABA neurotransmitter system: I prefer to use GABA rice (about half a cup twice daily), GABA drops by Deseret Biologicals (typically 10 drops three times daily), and/or GABA 500mg capsules (2-3 capsules a day) to help support the GABA nervous system. Supporting the GABA neurotransmitter system allows individuals to avoid insomnia during antipsychotic withdrawal, but just as importantly, it helps to decrease the risk for mania associated with unblocking serotonin receptors during withdrawal from those antipsychotics that block these receptors. Of the three, it is my clinical experience that GABA rice is the winner when it comes to efficacy during withdrawal. Zojirushi makes GABA rice cookers and can make GABA rice from organic, brown rice. Organic, germinated brown rice cooked in a regular rice cooker will also make GABA rice.

5. Most importantly, the “step-down process of withdrawal”: when lowering an antipsychotic medication that affects many different neurotransmitter subtypes, such as Zyprexa, it is important to use a “step-down process,” tapering down the antipsychotic through the use of another antipsychotic that affects fewer receptor sites. For example, when tapering down on Zyprexa, gradually increase the dosage of Seroquel. Once the individual is only on Seroquel and has safely and completely weaned off of Zyprexa, then gradually taper the dosage of Seroquel while gradually increasing the use of liquid Haldol. Once the individual has transitioned to Haldol and has completely been weaned off Seroquel, then very gradually lower Haldol. All the while, the individual should be using supplements and energy medicine to facilitate the recovery process. Tapering off Haldol, the last step of the “step-down process” will be a lot easier to accomplish successfully than coming directly off of Zyprexa.

Healing from psychotic episodes and getting off antipsychotic medications is possible. But a healthy respect for the withdrawal process will reward you with a safe and successful outcome. Otherwise, it would be easy to blame an unsuccessful withdrawal process as just another indicator that the patient has a “chronic” and severe psychiatric condition. I have come to understand “chronic” as another term for “failure in treatment.” Don’t let our traditional attitude towards psychotic conditions and our limited understanding of antipsychotic withdrawal be conveniently blamed on the disease process! You can get well if you are careful and have the right professional supports.

New York Times Article: A Drug Maker’s Playbook Reveals a Marketing Strategy

The following article by the New York Times highlights one of the problems in medicine today that limits physicians from being open to alternative approaches to healing mental illness. With pharmaceutical companies paying doctors to laud their products, and doctors being seduced to believe that they are “experts” rather than “customers,” it is difficult for doctors to remain unbiased in their judgment of treatment efficacy.

As a psychiatrist, my last encounter with a drug representative occurred after he dropped by unannounced in my waiting room with lunch and a salad, along with other office supplies marked with the company logo. When I gently said to the young man that I cannot develop a relationship with him that would bias my judgment of the medication he is promoting, he blushed a bright red. I felt bad about embarrassing him, but it was clear that the drug company was not sending me a handsome young male salesrep instead of a beautiful young female salesrep by accident.

I feel the same way about nutraceutical (nutritional supplements sold only to practitioners) companies and their rising practice of sending their drug reps to holistic doctors’ offices. I do not want a sales pitch from either a drug company or a supplement company.

If I want information, I will go to a conference where the lecturers are not paid by a company to lecture. It’s pure naivete to believe that one can obtain any unbiased information on a product from a company sales rep.

Alice W. Lee-Bloem, M.D., ABIHM

A Drug Maker’s Playbook Reveals a Marketing Strategy

By GARDINER HARRIS

Published: September 1, 2009

The pharmaceutical industry has developed thousands of medicines that have saved millions of lives, but it has also used its marketing muscle to successfully peddle expensive pills that are no more effective than older drugs sold at a fraction of the cost.

No drug better demonstrates the industry’s salesmanship than Lexapro, an antidepressant sold by Forest Laboratories. And a document quietly made public recently by the Senate’s Special Committee on Aging demonstrates just how Forest managed to turn a medicinal afterthought into a best seller.

The document, ‘Lexapro Fiscal 2004 Marketing Plan,’ is an outline of the many steps Forest used to make Lexapro a success. Because of concerns from Forest, the Senate committee released only 88 pages of the document, which may have originally run longer than 270 pages. ‘Confidential’ is stamped on every page.

But those 88 pages make clear that one of the principal means by which Forest hoped to persuade psychiatrists, primary care doctors and other medical specialists to prescribe Lexapro was by finding many ways to put money into doctors’ pockets and food into their mouths. Continue reading New York Times Article: A Drug Maker’s Playbook Reveals a Marketing Strategy

After Getting Off Medications: Completing the Healing Journey

Why do some patients’ recovery last many years, even after stopping their medications, while others seem to sail right into robust health? My answer to this question has developed after years of carefully observing patterns of healing among my patients, and can best be explained through the following analogies:

Illness is like being in debt. Taking medications, with its additional toxicity load, can minimize signs and symptoms (like getting a loan), but it is simultaneously increasing the rate of debt accumulation (like interest on the loan). The bigger the loan, the heavier the burden of interest that must be paid in time, and the faster the rate of debt accumulation. Such is the price of taking a prescription medication and ignoring the need to heal the underlying physiological processes.

Stopping medications slows down the rate of accumulating debt, but unpaid debt that has accrued over time will still remain and must be paid in full in order to achieve robust health. Just because one is able to function without needing to be hospitalized, after appropriately withdrawing from medications, does not mean that healing is completed. Some may still owe $100.00, others, $1,000,000.00. Getting off medications is the first step. The next step is to have enough to meet one’s daily needs every day and have a little extra every day to gradually reduce the total accumulated health “debt”.

In my practice, the integration of nutritional supplements and energy medicine helps to speed up the healing process. It is like getting more cash every day to help one pay back one’s debts. In general, however, I have not seen it to act like a deceased relative leaving an inheritance of a million dollars. Energy medicine provides informational support for the healing process, and orthomolecular medicine provides the body with the raw materials to rebuild and detoxify. These processes work together to help an individual gradually withdraw from medications and hopefully stop them all together. But this is only half the journey for many.

Once a person is safely and gradually able to come off medications, the rate of healing will naturally increase. The amount of healing yet to be done, however, may remain like a looming mountain. Others, more fortunate, may only have a mole hill. It is like being able to pay more towards lowering your credit card debts, when you have paid off the car loan and mortgage. Now the money you earn every day (all the good healing from living a healthy lifestyle) can go towards fixing the roof that has a crack in it, repairing the plumbing that’s been leaking, and replacing the old windows that refuse to budge. These repairs are like the work of recovery that happens with your brain, cardiovascular, and pulmonary system respectively. You have your house now, but it still needs ongoing repairs. You will be able to sense it, because you may find that you fatigue easily, or notice that your sleep can be easily disturbed by stress.

It is important to be patient with the process and not get discouraged if one’s health still has a way to go after getting off medications. It takes time and perseverance to get all the repairs done and the debt paid back in full. It is important at this point of the healing process to continue to support the healing process by taking the appropriate nutritional supports and doing the necessary energy work. Of course, if withdrawal symptoms are prominent, the medications may have been reduced prematurely and inappropriately, and it may be imperative to get back on some medication to avoid a crisis or mental collapse.

The amount of time it requires after you have gone off medications to the time you enjoy robust health often depends on the following factors:

1. The severity of the illness
2. How long you have been ill
3. The level of toxicity of the medications and how long you have been taking them
4. How old you are at the time of treatment with medications and when you choose to begin holistic healing.
5. How well you have been taking care of yourself mentally and physically while ill.

These factors determine, to a great extent, one’s ability to be well without medications and how long after stopping medications, the healing process will need to continue with close supervision by a professional. It would be a mistake to assume that stopping medications is the same as being completely well. It is not. For some, it is only the beginning of years of gradual, but true, healing.

“The Doctor Who Lived”: Holistic Psychiatrist Defeats the Maryland Board (July 16, 2009)

Alice W. Lee, M.D., a holistic psychiatrist practicing in Olney, Maryland, has successfully defeated the Maryland Board of Physicians and protected her legal right to continue practicing orthomolecular psychiatry and energy medicine.

After a raging, two-year battle in the Maryland courts and at the administrative level, Dr. Lee delivered a crushing legal defeat to the Board in three ways. First, the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ), Geraldine A. Klauber, of the Maryland Office of Administrative Hearings, dismissed most of the charges by the Maryland Board against Dr. Lee, stating that as a matter of law, the Board of Physicians could not prosecute the practice of alternative medicine and energy medicine through the peer review process. To keep the prosecution alive, the Board grasped at straws and charged Dr. Lee with violating the ‘standard of care’ of one patient only. Second, after a three-day trial, the ALJ wrote a 50-page decision, stating that the Board had no legal grounds to prosecute Dr. Lee in the first place, having failed to define what the ‘standard of care’ was, let alone convince her of any violations of the same. And third, as of February 5, 2009, the Board issued its final decision to dismiss all charges against Dr. Lee without any conditions or probation. This complete dismissal of a case by the Maryland Board has set a new precedent and is the first decision of its kind in the history of the State of Maryland for a holistic physician.

Mr. Jacques Simon, the lead attorney in this case, brilliantly executed the legal defense and assault against the Board on behalf of Dr. Lee through the proceedings in the state courts and at the administrative level. With national legal expertise in protecting integrative medicine and physicians who practice cutting edge medicine, he defeated the Maryland Board in its efforts to quash alternative medicine, which efforts were marred by legal and constitutional deficiencies. Mr. Alan Dumoff, an attorney practicing in Maryland, added many years of additional experience, acumen, and skill in defending alternative medicine as he supported Mr. Simon and Dr. Lee on this case as the local counsel.

Also supporting Dr. Lee during the administrative proceedings as expert witnesses were Hyla Cass, M.D., a renowned holistic psychiatrist and author, and Michael Spodak, M.D., Chairman of the Peer Review Committee, with twenty years of experience on the statewide peer review committee. Both were instrumental in the successful defeat of the Board’s intent to punish Dr. Lee for practicing ‘outside the standard of care’ , or, in other words, using nutritional supplements and energy medicine to help a patient to successfully reduce prescription medication use.

The Maryland Board began the peer review proceedings against Dr. Lee after receiving a letter of complaint from a patient’s ex-partner (April, 2005), who had never been involved in the patient’s treatment. The ex-partner had had a hostile relationship with the patient and objected to the patient’s preference for integrative medicine. The patient immediately wrote a letter to the Board to ask them to drop all proceedings against Dr. Lee, clarifying all misrepresentations in the ex-partner’s letter of complaint. However, the Maryland Board chose to ignore the patient’s request and moved forward with the peer review proceedings in August, 2006. Significantly, in an apparent attempt to block access to important information from the patient and to minimize the importance of the patient’s satisfaction with Dr. Lee’s medical care, the Board prohibited the state peer reviewers from interviewing the patient. It decided to do so under the pretense that interviewing the patient might trigger additional medical complications. That position was dismissed and laughed at outright by the lead peer reviewer in the case, Michael Spodak, M.D. He stated that the Board’s position was insulting to the peer reviewers, who routinely treated such conditions and knew how to interview psychiatric patients without causing further medical complications.

Because the first two peer reviewers differed in their opinions about the case, a third peer reviewer was called in to break the tie. This third peer reviewer revealed during the administrative hearings that he had a significant conflict of interest in this case, as he had been the last treating physician before Dr. Lee took over treatment. In fact, he was the attending physician who provided treatment during the patient’s last hospitalization: the very treatment that the patient rejected in favor of orthomolecular psychiatry. He expressed in court that he personally felt that he did not have a conflict of interest in this case and thus he did not feel compelled to disclose this information to the Board. This peer reviewer kept his involvement in the patient’s treatment a secret, until questioning during the cross examination forced him to reveal this embarrassing fact. None of the peer reviewers had any training or clinical experience in orthomolecular psychiatry or energy medicine. However, this did not prevent two of them from believing that they could judge a holistic psychiatrist’s treatment decisions, and they proceeded to do so without any consideration for or understanding of the role of nutrition in mental health.

The Board’s efforts to marshal a legally flawed case against Dr. Lee included, but were not limited to: (1) not interviewing the patient, (2) deliberately and repeatedly misrepresenting the patient’s psychiatric condition under Dr. Lee’s care in its own papers and documents given to the peer reviewers and subsequently made available during the discovery process, (3) lying about agreement among its own peer reviewers when none existed, and (4) trying to prevent Dr. Spodak from testifying. Despite these various manipulations, the Board failed in its attempt to support any of its charges, and the ALJ was clearly unconvinced by the Board as demonstrated by her complete dismissal of all charges on September 11, 2008.

The Maryland Board, however, had a history of ignoring the ALJ’s decisions regarding alternative medicine practices if they conflicted with the Board’s agenda. In addition, over the years, the Maryland Board had developed a reputation of being hostile towards holistic medicine and was notorious for removing licenses from clinicians practicing integrative medicine in Maryland despite dismissal of the charges by the ALJ. In this case, the Board was fully prepared to eliminate Dr. Lee’s practice as was its habit and routine. During the administrative hearing, the Board presented to the ALJ a multi-page document, outlining a list of punitive measures intended for her. In this case, however, Dr. Lee was also suing them in civil court for violation of her due process rights. With the involvement of the civil courts, the Maryland Board, for the first time, had to answer to judges and laws outside of the administrative setting. Although the courts initially allowed the administrative process to unfold before hearing the due process violations complaints, the Board knew very well that Dr. Lee was determined to continue her fight against the Board in the civil courts based upon the legal grounds which she had won as a result of the ALJ’s decision. Without any evidence to support their charges before the civil courts, and lacking any legal grounds for charges according to the ALJ, the Maryland Board had little choice but to finally, and very begrudgingly, dismiss all charges on February 5, 2009,

In light of all the challenges that had to be faced in order to win this case, it is truly a victory to be celebrated. As in the fictional Harry Potter’s win against overwhelming odds, Dr. Lee defended integrative medicine against a state organization that had every advantage, and yet won, hands down. It is hoped that announcing this victory will give further encouragement to all those interested in the progress of integrative medicine.

Dr. Lee is grateful for all the help and support from family, friends, and other integrative clinicians and doctors who have helped through advice, time, money, and emotional support throughout the years.

February 23, 2009

Olney, Maryland.

When There are Too Many to Count

If I were to learn one more thing my brain would be so heavy, I wouldn’t have the strength to carry it around, unless I went on crutches. (loosely paraphrased from Life on the Mississippi).

That describes what it’s been like this month. Just when I thought I understood the five nutritional groups–vitamins, minerals, amino acids, essential fatty acids, and antioxidants–I found another–glycoproteins. And just when I thought I’ve made energy healing about as easy as it could get with my Infinite Intention CD, I learned about the role of magnets in healing. Then there were adrenal fatigue, Lyme disease, hypoglycemia . . . the list goes on.

The life of an orthomolecular psychiatrist is not easy. One can’t get too settled into the comfort of habits and familiar territory. New information will soon be along to kick one out into the unknown once again . . . .is there no rest to be had?

As John MacEnulty wrote:

Discipline and letting go, the two paths as one, guide me always.
Work and trust, another way of saying it.
Knowing takes us to its limit, its edge. We go beyond.
We learn, come to understanding, let go of our understanding and pass into
the unknowable, the highest knowledge.
Without discipline we increase our ignorance.
Without letting go we build a prison of information.
The two paths merge as one, breathing in, breathing out.

Hyperventilation more like. . . .

As I explore the many uses of glycoproteins and magnets, and see their clinical outcomes in the lives of my patients, the process of learning and growing is once again repeating itself. The pattern has become familiar:

First, I hear about something new, and I ignore it.

Second, I hear about it again, and this time I listen.

Third, I resist and battle against the new data.

Fourth, I am very skeptical, but I grudgingly try it anyway.

Fifth, I accept the new approach and am thrown into unknown waters.

Sixth, I gradually master the approach and become familiar with its strengths and weaknesses.

Seventh, I teach others how to use the now familiar approach.

Eighth, I encounter new information and repeat the process . . . .

Sometimes, when the amount of information gets overwhelming, it’s important to remember that it’s not what one is learning, but that one keeps learning that is important. Improvements in care could not happen without the discomfort of change and stepping into the unknown, or making mistakes and figuring out why. As physicians, it’s important to be humble and not put oneself up on a pedestal–the fall is harder the higher one sits.

Though it’s tempting to play the role of savior or authority figure, it is far better that we not play any roles at all, and be content to be ourselves, with all our laughable flaws. For the greatest improvement in care, after all, is the ability to have compassion for ourselves and in turn, have true compassion for others.

On Teachers and Students

In school, we understand that good teachers are invaluable for facilitating understanding. Students who truly want to learn will go to great lengths to learn from these teachers. For wisdom is priceless and more valuable than knowledge, and good teachers are a well of wisdom.

In life, we have good teachers that are invaluable for facilitating understanding. Students who truly want to learn will go to great lengths to learn from the best teachers. For wisdom is priceless and more valuable than knowledge, and good teachers are a well of wisdom.

The mystery of Life’s Teachers is that these teachers are both invisible and visible, seemingly haphazard yet simultaneously precise and calculated. One does not go up to a good teacher in life, tap the teacher on the shoulder, and request to be enrolled. Life’s Teachers come to you and in the fog of your forgetfulness, and you fail to recognize their presence.

I learn from one of life’s best teachers: mental illness. My patients and I are students who learn from this teacher day in and day out. I believe that to be a student of this teacher, you must be among the elite.

But even among the elite, there are those who will succeed in learning and those who will not. The lessons that this teacher teaches are beyond difficult, they make the challenges of Olympians look like child’s play–for there is no greater fear than losing one’s self, and no greater challenge than finding one’s Self–for the self of the body and the Self of the soul are not the same. It is the difference between being lost and being found.

Being a successful student of life requires something both insubstantial and substantial. It’s hard to say when a person enters life’s classroom whether he or she would be able to master the challenges or not. With mental illness as one’s teacher, the price is even more demanding. Will one have to pay with an arm or a leg? Will one need to surrender one’s job or one’s honor? What will be required to win wisdom from mental illness?

Over the years, I have come to see how patients and doctors succeed or fail in their lessons. I am moved by the magnificence of my patients as they master lesson after lesson, gathering wisdom as they learn and not knowing how truly breathtakingly brave they are. Mental illness asks that students master the following basics of life’s lessons:

1. Understanding that one’s Self is more than physical matter. The mind is understood as something like a radio, a receiver and translator, but not the whole Being. Sometimes this radio stops working or receives the wrong messages, but it does not mean that the essence of one’s Self has changed or disappeared. To value and even love one’s life as a state of being beyond physical matter is an opportunity given to each student of mental illness.

2. Humility. Mental illness and the stigma associated with such an experience allow for an opportunity to grow in humility. The acceptance of humility not as a mantle that one takes on and off, but rather as an essential quality of self is the greatest and hardest of lessons to master. Humility is an essential quality to development and growth. For before one reaches out for greater wisdom, there is an awareness of one’s own ignorance. Before the awareness of one’s own ignorance, there is humility.

3. Fortitude. Disappointment, suffering, and loss allow for the practice of courage and strength to gather oneself up from the ashes and to rebuild a life shattered by illness. Fortitude is a quality in every one of my successful patients who overcome their illness and maintain wellness. They overcome through sheer persistence and dogged work. They do not give up.

4. Compassion. It is natural to be self-absorbed and judgmental of others. Without being challenged, there is no motivation to change from this state of being. Under the intense challenges given to all who suffer from mental illness, there is the opportunity to find relief through forgetting self, connecting with others, and developing tolerance. To have mental illness, even in these modern times, is like having leprosy in times of old. The shame and stigma associated with having this condition still prevails throughout society, even among the professionals who treat this condition. When one is a pariah within society, one can finally and clearly see how necessary compassion is, how compassion may be lacking, and how one can be more compassionate towards others.

There is more to life than our birth and death. There is also the before-we-were-born and the after-we-die. Take a moment to consider mental illness as an invitation and a means toward rapid growth and enlightenment that has eternal value and infinite worth. Mental illness can be transformed by our will for growth into a blessing. It is not an accident or punishment, but an opportunity.

I want to honor all those who have bravely shouldered the challenges of mental illness. In my practice, my patients are also my teachers. Through my patients I am taught great lessons on each one of the qualities listed above. The patients who have taught me the most are sometimes the ones who have suffered the longest. I have seen them during their most difficult trials, and I have watched them get up and move forward with their lives, quietly and unassumingly. Their humility and perseverance remind me of poignant music that stirs the heart and makes me want to weep, but I don’t know why.

I tell them, “You should write about your life,” but I know that their lives are indescribable, because there are no words to capture their valor, their private victories. It would be like trying to capture the beauty and fragrance of a rose . . . blossoming on the top of a snow capped mountain in the Himalayas.

Ten Practical Considerations During Medication Withdrawal

While there will never be an end to improving my knowledge about medication withdrawal (unfortunately), there are a few things here and there that I have picked up over the past few years, which have far surpassed my “training” on this topic during my psychiatric residency. In fact, I believe that in all my years of training, I have never heard anyone ask about medication withdrawal except me. It was over a decade ago, but I recall the Attending physician mentioning two things: first, go slowly, and second, do it after the patient had been on the medication (antidepressant) for at least three years. The three years rule was due to some research study that showed improved outcome in patients who waited that long before withdrawing from antidepressants.

So, I was not well prepared to deal with this important aspect of psychiatric care upon graduating from a decade of psychiatric training. The sorry thing was, I didn’t even realize I had a black hole in my training, nor do many other physicians, given our total concentration on putting patients ON medications and the assumption that going off would more than likely result in a relapse of the illness.

The truth of the matter is that there are ways to get off medications safely and comfortably. But it does require stepping out of the box, changing our paradigms about healing, and learning new material. Because to do so is not easy. However, to refuse to do so, when the information is available, is negligent of our duty as physicians.

There are many important considerations when undertaking medication withdrawal, and the following list provides only a few of these considerations. It would be helpful to consider this list as simply informal, clinical notes on this broad and complicated topic, but even so, I believe it can be of help to those who are interested in this topic. It is not meant to replace competent medical supervision and care, but to heighten awareness of the common pitfalls and problems associated with withdrawal.

When helping a patient through medication withdrawal . . . .

1. Realize that there are at least THREE areas that need to be healed and supported: a) withdrawal symptoms, b) underlying health problems, which led to the patient’s need for medications, and c) damage done to the patient from using a xenobiotic (medication) over time. The naive assumption that, if patients are stable, all there is to do is help them lower their medication(s) will result in some surprising outcomes. Being aware of three areas and not just one when tackling withdrawal allows a better assessment of what will happen during the withdrawal process. For example, if a patient had a difficult to treat underlying problem that began in utero or from early childhood, had been taking medications for decades, many of which were highly damaging to the body, then, even if the patient comes in looking sweet as a rose before medication withdrawal, you will be opening a Pandora’s box when you do so. How a patient presents (symptoms and complaints) does not determine how difficult the withdrawal will be. A patient who comes in after taking a medication for just a few weeks, complaining of a great many symptoms after taking the medication, may be able to withdraw from the medication very easily, especially if the underlying illness has all but healed.

Medications do have varying abilities to damage the body, some being harsher than others. As patients use these medications over time, this damage will accrue over time. This damage is in addition to the emotional and psychological dependence to psychotropic medications, which generally increases over time. Being aware that the amount of time a patient has been on medications will allow a more accurate estimate of how difficult the withdrawal process will be.

2. The rate of withdrawal depends on a lot of factors. So, “slowly” is quite relative to: a) what the patient is taking with respect to orthomolecular and energy medicine support, b) the person’s state of health and diet, c) the toxicity and addictive nature of the medication, d) the psychosocial stressors during withdrawal, e) how long the patient has been on the medication(s), f) whether or not nutritional support is the best way to ameliorate the effects of the medication or heal the underlying illness, and g) how many receptors are being affected simultaneously by the medication. The better the support, the more quickly patients can withdraw from their medications. So, slowly is not a hard and fast rule in medication withdrawal. However, if patients without any knowledge about the intricacies of medication withdrawal were told by an ignorant physician to do it on their own (slowly), not knowing that nutritional support would be critical, it may be impossible for them to go slowly enough to avoid the pitfalls of withdrawal, and they may end up with chronic health problems despite their best efforts.

My clinical experience has been that medications which affect multiple receptors will be more difficult to withdraw than medications that only affect one receptor. My assumption is that one taper of such a multi-receptor medication would be the equivalent of simultaneously lowering multiple single-receptor medications. It would be more demanding on the body and more difficult to support both nutritionally and enzymatically.

3. “Protracted Withdrawal” happens when something hasn’t healed during the withdrawal process. It could be the immune system, the gall bladder, the hormones, the liver, or some other part of the body. During withdrawal, if all three areas are not healing well, some aspect of the patient’s illness will become evident as the medication, which had suppressed the expression of clinical symptoms, is tapered. As a consequence, the less one knows about how to help a patient heal the three areas of health, the more the patient will suffer from “protracted withdrawal.” Sometimes, patients end up with “protracted withdrawal” that is very debilitating for years when they try to withdraw on their own, not knowing that their “psychotropic” medications not only had a profound impact on their nervous system, but also their hormones, immune system, liver, etc. “Protracted withdrawal” should not be used to place blame on the medication’s mysterious and nefarious machinations, for clinicians who handle withdrawal very well will struggle less with protracted withdrawal.

4. Supplements can only do so much. Although the patient may be taking highly absorbable, comprehensive, and highly supportive supplements during withdrawal, there are still limits to what supplements can do. A supplement cannot eliminate a patient’s hypersensitivity and allergic responses to the supplements, nor can it work when the basic enzymes and structures for handling supplements are no longer operable, nor will it change the curvature of a patient’s cervical spine. Sometimes, despite the patient’s desparate need for nutritional support, the first line of action may be detoxification, elimination of wheat and dairy, or a chiropractor. Sometimes, the patient needs energy medicine to heal a problem with “massive reversals,” a condition that is suggested by the patient’s repeated patterns of self-destructive choices and relationships, despite best laid plans for well-being. The best analogy would be that of a house in the process of being repaired. If the house is just suffering from old wall paper and out-of-date furniture, then one can go in and spruce up the place with a few well chosen touch-ups. If , however, the house in question lacks electricity and plumbing, the roof is caving in, and the foundation is sagging half off the cliff, then a few rolls of wallpaper and a new sofa just won’t do the job. When approaching a patient who wants to withdraw from medication(s), consider what is really underneath the superficial layer of medication induced function. Be open to other tools to help with withdrawal in addition to nutritional supplements.

5. Don’t put the cart before the horse. In the rush to get off medications, patients will often taper first and ask questions later. That is not wise. As the knight would say in the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, “He chose . . . poorly.” In just about all cases of medication withdrawal, it is important to take time to heal the body, strengthen its systems, and increase resilience before one attempts to lower a medication. If, however, a person chooses to lower a medication before healing occurs, at the very least, the person will return to the original state of illness prior to starting medication(s). For many patients, the effect of lowering a medication after taking it for several years follows the following formula:

(original illness + underlying, undetected, untreated, and evolving illness + worsened health due to damage done by the medications used + withdrawal effects) x years of medication use and health neglect = degree of abysmal misery.

As this formula begins to unfold in all its amazing enormity, the patient then calls the orthomolecular physician for assistance. At this point, the withdrawal may have resulted in gastrointestinal dysfunction, hormone imbalance, and insomnia. The healing process will be quite difficult at this point in the patient’s treatment. However, physicians who take the time to help such patients may still be able to remedy the situation. But it would be helpful to explain to the patient the reason why their recovery may be more difficult to manage and a collaborative effort could be established between the physician and patient.

6. Keep a close watch on how healing progresses after the medication(s) have been stopped. Withdrawal and the need for vigilance will last beyond the last pill taken. The longer the patient has been taking medications, the higher the dosage of the medication taken daily, and the more pervasive the effect of the medication, the longer the withdrawal process required before the task is done. This needs to be explained to the patient beforehand, so that they don’t stop treatment prematurely, thinking that they are all done with their recovery when they may still have 20% of the journey left to go.

7. Never underestimate the power of energy medicine. If you happen to be a supplement kind of person, then this may come to you as a surprise. But of all the tools in my arsenal for helping patients with withdrawal, the one I value most is energy medicine–yes, even above the wonderful effects of nutritional supplements and herbal remedies. I call energy medicine, “the quantum physics of healing.” The reason I find energy medicine so valuable is because it helps with the formation, information, and transformation of health at the subatomic level. Here is where little things (energy, vibration, and thoughts) result in moving mountains, not slowly even, but miraculously. As many of the testimonials in my newsletters mention, almost casually, energy medicine is very helpful during the withdrawal process. Patients like it. An eleven-year-old can learn to do it. I taught EFT to a six-year-old once, and he was able to learn it without difficulty. And as one of the follow up testimonial attests, at least one of my patients remained well with just using energy medicine despite having a diagnosis of bipolar disorder with psychotic symptoms–even when she stopped all orthomolecular nutritional supplements (believe me, she did it while my back was turned).

Energy medicine is a vast and burgeoning field. To go from orthomolecular medicine to energy medicine requires a mental leap, just as physicists had to make that leap years ago when they went from Newtonian physics to quantum physics. Consider this: if all matter is made of energy, and we are made of matter, than we are also fundamentally made of energy. The laws of quantum physics are not simply applicable to technology. They hold just as many helpful truths about the matter between our ears.

8. Supplements and detoxification have different levels of immediacy in different patients. Some patients are so toxic that they can’t handle the work of healing in addition to detoxification. It is like a river that is completely plugged up with boulders, adding more water to the river will not help it to flow. The boulders must be removed first. Detoxification must be done in a way that would not cause the patient additional stress. It is far easier to detox through the skin (epsom salt baths) or lymph system (detox foot pads), than taking supplements that cause toxins to be dumped into the blood, causing the exhausted liver and adrenals more grief.

9. Supplements need to be carefully selected for absorbability and comprehensive coverage of physiological needs. I tell patients that at a minimum, they need support in the following areas: vitamines, minerals (macro and micro), essential fatty acids, amino acids, glycoproteins, antioxidants, gastrointestinal support with probiotics and digestive enzymes, and detoxification. Once these basic areas are covered, additional supplements will generally be necessary to help specifically with the type of withdrawal being done. For example, amino acids that calm (L-theanine, taurine, and tryptophan) will likely be needed when withdrawing from a calming, sedating medication such as an antipsychotic. These amino acids along with vitamins and minerals will be converted by the body to neurotransmitters that will support the medication taper. Supplements that are highly absorbable give themselves away by appearing as liquids or powders. Whole food supplements may seem to lack the amount of nutrients found in fractionated supplements, but because of their high rate of absorbability (urine doesn’t turn bright yellow for example), their effect may be a hundred times more potent. Sometimes, glandular supplements or protomorphogens may be helpful in supporting the liver, pineal gland, or adrenals. A healthy diet is important for the recovery process. Unfortunately, this often means that the patient will need to abstain from wheat, dairy, and white, refined sugar. Sometimes, when the burden of supplements exceeds what the patient can do (due to age, level of debility, vegetarian/Kosher habits, and/or sensitivities), I have used energy medicine techniques to help the patient nutritionally and to support withdrawal.

10. A person is more than biology. When all is said and done, repairing the body is like repairing a radio. Just because the radio is repaired, doesn’t stop it from playing bad music. Healing our neurotransmitters and hormones, liver and adrenals is all very good, but they only ALLOW the person to be happy. They do not MAKE the person happy. Nothing does, short of real growth in wisdom, love, forgiveness, and compassion. I have had patients who suffered from severe abuse or childhood neglect who were able to heal their bodies long before they are able to feel a consistent state of well-being. There is a learned aspect of being that has to be reconfigured. A person has to learn to heal from real traumas and heartaches. The road to well-being is paved with lessons. Skipping lessons does not lead to well-being. Some of those lessons lead to self-mastery, some to spiritual strength, and some to forgiveness. Unfortunately, happiness cannot be bought in a bottle, but is a side effect of living life masterfully.

Holistic Psychiatry: Possibilities Beyond Conventional Psychiatry

Like Columbus who sailed to the “end of the earth” and showed that the earth was neither flat nor empty beyond those limits, holistic psychiatrists have journeyed beyond the continent of conventional psychiatry and found another realm of possibilities-amazingly rich and promising-in replenishing and restoring the mental health of patients. While the field of psychiatry is still a small, flat world to most conventional psychiatrists, predominantly consisting of psychotropic medications and psychotherapy, the additional tools available to holistic psychiatrists allow healing to go beyond what had been possible to unimaginable possibilities.

What is holistic psychiatry? It is integrative medicine done by a physician, knowledgeable about psychotropic medications, who chooses to integrate additional tools for healing such as orthomolecular/functional medicine and energy medicine. Orthomolecular/functional medicine uses nutritional supplements and detoxification to optimally assist the body’s healing process. It is the “biochemistry of healing” and requires a great deal of training in understanding the biochemistry of nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids, and proteins. Energy medicine, on the other hand, is the “quantum physics of healing.” Its goal is to support the healthy flow of energy throughout the body. Examples of energy medicine are acupuncture, acupressure, Emotional Freedom Technique, Tapas Acupressure Technique, meditation, and creative visualization.

As a holistic psychiatrist, integrating orthomolecular and energy medicine into my practice, I have successfully treated patients with depression, postpartum depression, anxiety, OCD, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder without the need for medications. In some patients, the horrifying symptoms of these formidable, “chronic” conditions melted away in one week without the need for any medications. For those who had already been placed on medications, or had been ill over many years, the recovery period required more time, but could still lead to complete recovery. Despite all that I have learned, however, there is yet more that needs to be learned-until that day when mental illness is nothing but a memory within society and all will know how to prevent it from happening.

Healing with the least amount of harm is the goal of every doctor. But not all doctors are willing to put this goal above their allegiance to the traditional tenets of psychiatry. The first being: psychotropic medication as the first line treatment for mental illness. My incentive for taking my first tentative steps in integrative medicine was a patient with bipolar illness in her late 20’s, who came to me on heavy dosages of medications and yet remained unstable and unwell. Because of her medications, she required diapers. Her medications made her emotionless, and left her with darting eyes, severe tremors, and a deep pain in her muscles. For her orthomolecular treatment, I was guided by a nutritional company who manufactured supplements designed to heal bipolar illness. The treatment helped-a lot. Not only did the patient heal quickly and dramatically, it changed my fundamental understanding of mental illness and treatment entirely. Although I was left with more questions than answers as I observed her rapid clinical progress, I could see that nutritional supplements not only had merit in her case, but were superior to medications in her healing.

A year later, I added energy medicine to my tool kit. With energy medicine, healing could occur without a pill. To understand energy medicine, one must begin by building a bridge from our current understanding of how energy functions in our body (e.g., biochemical, electrical, magnetic, and mental) to an appreciation of how energy can be manipulated to serve healing purposes (e.g., acupressure, intention, visualization). I build that bridge in my first session for my patients, as I demonstrate to them the connection between their mind and their body, showing them the effects of their thoughts on their muscle strength and endurance. Energy medicine is extremely powerful. It is the only approach that I know of that could get rid of a person’s phobia in 20 minutes. Even with nutritional supplements, the process would require at least a few days to a few weeks.

Just within the past month, I got an e-mail from a patient that stated:

“In the twelve short days during which I’ve been using EFT (specifically the “power tapping” method), the changes in my life have been nothing short of miraculous. After having slept only one to four hours a night for the past two years, I now sleep over eight hours a night, an improvement that began the first day I utilized EFT. Psychological issues and trauma are quickly melting, and I’m simply in awe of these changes (not to mention being completely shocked by them!)” J.B.

My patient went on to thank me for all that I had done, and added that she was feeling so well and so empowered by her ability to use energy healing techniques at home that she no longer needed to continue to meet with me regularly. Hmmm . . .

You see, this 34 year old patient who began working with me on July 25, 2008 had been literally “bed-bound 99.9% of the time,” was dependent on phenobarbital, couldn’t take any nutritional supplements without a bad reaction, and had a list of symptoms over a page long. She had been tried on just about every medication, but she could not tolerate any of them anymore except for phenobarbital. But in approximately four months, she was off her phenobarbital, sleeping well, and feeling much better-all without needing orthomolecular interventions. Her recovery truly exceeded my expectations.

Stretching our imaginations to embrace new possibilities-that is the first step for all of us, as we make our first tentative voyages like Columbus to see if there is anything beyond the edge, into the unknown. There is. There is life beyond the edge-more life than we had ever imagined possible, or thought we deserved.

Alice W. Lee, M.D.

Too Easy: Teaching the Realities of Energy Medicine

For years I racked my brains for a solution. How can I teach patients about the reality of something that cannot be touched or seen and is beyond the range of sensory perception? Energy medicine: how do I prove to my patients that it exists and that it works–in their first session with me?

The answer that finally came to me was just too easy.

I was sitting across from a patient, and I was explaining to her about energy medicine, or as I put it “the quantum physics of healing,” and how our bodies are run by various forms of energy: biochemical (nutrients), electrical (nervous system and cardiovascular system), electromagnetic (automatically comes from electrical currents), and solar (creation of vitamin D from sunshine). Then I explained that our thoughts also affect our physical health, strength, and functioning. This can be easily demonstrated by how muscle strength shifts (basic muscle testing technique) when we entertain positive vs. negative thoughts, emotions, and words. See below for how muscle testing is done. I demonstrated this process to the patient, and sure enough, her arm was strong when she held a positive thought, emotion, or word and became weak when she held a negative thought, emotion, or word.

Then the idea struck me that we could use her muscle strength as an indicator of her whole body’s strength, stamina, and energy state. We would eliminate any affect that positive or negative thoughts, emotions, or words may have on her muscle tone by simply asking her to remain neutral, clearing her mind of any thoughts, emotions, or words that might confound the results. Then, while she was doing certain mental maneuvers and healing techniques, I asked her to extend her arm so that we could test her muscle strength during these mental maneuvers and healing techniques. The results were so striking and convincing that every patient since this approach have come away after the first intake appointment completely convinced of the power of thoughts on physical strength, stamina, and health.

Here are the list of activities that I run the patient through and the consistent results I obtained:

1) I tell the patient that I will be mentally sending him/her positive life energy — energy that exists all around us that supports a healthy, perfect, and wonderful life — and all the patient does is set an intention to be receptive. Then while I am sending him/her life energy, I test the patient for muscle strength and stamina.

Result: the strength of the patient increases tremendously. I tell them it is 20 times stronger, and the patients never disagree with me, because they can feel their own strength, and the difference is so incredibly remarkable and obvious.

2) I tell the patient that I will send them life energy, but this time they will pretend that they are skeptical scientists who don’t believe life energy exists, because they refuse to accept anything that can’t be measured or be sensed. While I am sending them life energy, I test their muscle strength again.

Result: the strength of the patient decreases from baseline. Again the difference is remarkable and cannot be disputed.

3) I teach the patient how to do “Energy Breaths” and test the patient while he/she is doing this energy technique. Energy Breaths, simply summarized, is visualizing positive life energy flowing in with each inhalation and releasing negative energy and blockages with each exhalation, directing the negative energy towards the center of the earth where it can be eliminated. I test the patient’s muscle strength during Energy Breaths.

Result: the strength of the patient increases tremendously.

4) Now I tell the patient to set an intention during the Energy Breaths that the effect of this technique will last throughout the rest of the day even when the patient is not actively and consciously engaged in doing Energy Breaths. This time I ask the patient to stop doing any energy work before I do the muscle testing.

Result: the strength of the patient is still tremendously increased even when not consciously doing Energy Breaths.

In addition, I also teach the patient to set an intention for the duration to last “their entire life, from the time of conception to the end of their life” to help them extend the power of their intentions.

5) I now get a baseline again of the patient’s strength when I apply pressure on his/her arm. Then I ask the patient to think of a negative thought while I retest the muscle strength. The patient’s muscle strength dramatically weakens. I tell the patient to do the Energy Breaths with the intention that life energy will be a shield and protection against any negative effects from negative thoughts and emotions. Duration is set for the person’s entire life.

Result: the strength increases noticeably, but the patient may not be completely successful the first time. If not completely successful the first time, I simply ask the patient to do it again. I do not assist them. Usually by the second time, the muscle strength remains perfectly unperturbed when the same negative thought is held in mind.

By the end of our little energy medicine demonstration, the patient’s muscle strength is much stronger than when they first stepped through the door. The difference is so remarkable that it leaves no room for doubt after the demonstration.

Thoughts do have an immediate, dramatic, and undeniable impact on physical health and strength. Any patient with an intact, rational thought process can now know it without a doubt within the first session. Not only can the principles of energy medicine be demonstrated, but the patient leaves the session feeling completely empowered and ready to heal themselves.

It’s just too easy to prove.

Now why did it take me almost five years to figure this out?

* To do muscle testing, have the patient extend his/her arm and hold/resist while you push down on the arm a few inches above the wrist with your fingers, using gradually increasing pressure. Repeat this until both of you can reproduce the effect consistently each time. Get a baseline reading of how strong the patient is, then see how the patient’s thoughts, emotions, and words affect the muscle strength, or in other words, the ability of the patient to resist and hold, when you apply increasing pressure on the arm. A change in the strength on the patient’s arm is an indicator of the patient’s overall energy state. This process is ultimately under the control of the patient’s intention. Think of intention as the control knob and the energy state as the setting of the thermostat.

A Breakthrough in Medication Withdrawal

The clues came in small bits over the years–patterns seen in patients that at first seemed disconnected, began to have a temporal pattern associated with certain types of medication being withdrawn, and later pointed to possible underlying causes. Following these clues over the years has been a feat worthy of Sherlock Holmes. But eventually, I made my deductions, intervened with caution, and caught the culprit!

The clues have been the following:

1) It is a pattern so commonly seen that it has been taken for granted as part of the withdrawal process. For those doctors courageous enough to make it a habit to withdraw patients off their medications, it is known that the “last few milligrams of medication is always the hardest to lower.” Why is that? I have wondered. What has happened between those first lowerings and the last lowerings to make the process so much more difficult later in the withdrawal process? Could it be that something in the body has been deteriorating or changing gradually and insidiously to make it increasingly difficult to lower medications?

2) Patients withdrawing from antidepressants complained of increased problems with acne. This would happen usually after most of the withdrawal process had almost been completed, i.e., towards the very end of the withdrawal process. It didn’t make sense for the acne problem to be due to increasing liver toxicity issues, since the lowering of the medication should actually lower the body’s toxicity load over time and presumably help lessen the toxicity load in the liver. The acne was not a problem with post-menopausal women. It was sometimes associated with changes in the timing and quality of the menses.

3) Patients coming off of antipsychotics almost routinely experience a decrease in appetite and an increase in insomnia if appropriate interventions are not put into place. The decreased appetite does not seem to be due to decreased gastrointestinal functioning, since antipsychotic withdrawal routinely results in better, more regular bowel movements. The patients simply lost their appetite. What is the underlying cause for their appetite dysregulation and does insomnia have the same underlying cause?

4) A few patients on antipsychotic medications will develop problems with increased prolactin and begin to lactate. Antipsychotics are noted in the Physicians Desk Reference to have the ability to increase prolactin. Therefore, antipsychotics affect the pituitary gland where prolactin is made.

5) Research has shown that serotonin has the ability to decrease milk production, which is just opposite to the effect from antipsychotics. In addition, the pineal gland is the richest site of serotonin in the brain. In the pineal gland serotonin converts to melatonin. Melatonin not only regulates sleep but it also helps to put the brakes on excessive secretion of hormones.

With these clues, I turned my attention to the pineal and pituitary glands during medication withdrawal.

During a recent conference called, “Natural Treatments for Balancing Female Hormones” I learned a useful piece of information that adding pineal or pituitary glandular extracts helps to regulate these glands, i.e., if the activity is too high, it will help to bring it down, and if the activity is too low, it will help to bring it up. So I bought a few bottles of pineal/pituitary glandular extracts from Deseret Biologicals, a homeopathic company in Utah that also sells glandular extracts.

What I have found from clinical experience when I added pineal and pituitary glandular extracts to ameliorate withdrawal side effects from lowering antidepressants and antipsychotics are the following:

1) Patients once again can lower their medications easily, just like at the start of their withdrawal process.

2) Acne problems improve.

3) Insomnia decreases.

4) Menses are better regulated.

5) Anxiety, stress, and irritability decrease.

The effects of antidepressants and antipsychotics on the pineal and pituitary glands have been marginalized compared to the extensive focus and research on these medications’ effects on serotonin and dopamine receptors. However, when working on withdrawal from these medications, it is imperative that the clinician be aware of how withdrawal affects these glands over time. If the clinician neglects to address this aspect of withdrawal, the patient may ultimately not be able to tolerate withdrawal from these medications, or the process may become so slow and drawn out that the patient can’t afford to pay for the whole withdrawal process before becoming bankrupt in the process.

To date, I believe that supporting the pineal and pituitary glands during withdrawal is such an important breakthrough, that it is the equivalent of discovering that 5-HTP supports the gastrointestinal system when withdrawing patients from SSRIs. The clinical benefits are simply invaluable.

In looking for some information on the connection between the pineal gland and antidepressants, I found a very useful review by Charly Groenendijk from the Netherlands updated on March 11, 2003 called “Serotonin and the Pineal Gland.” You can find it on http://www.antidepressantsfacts.com/pinealstory.htm.

On Rooms and Roaming

“Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart
and try to love the questions themselves
as if they were locked rooms . . .
the point is, to live everything.
Live the questions now.
Perhaps then, someday far in the future,
you will gradually, without even noticing it,
live your way into the answer.”
From Letters to a Young Poet

---

Leaning back in his chair, he smiled knowingly and said, “One thing I’ve noticed: no one has ever gone back once they chose this.”

Was he talking about abandoning the dark side of the force? Or was it leaving Voldemort to fight against the Death Eaters?

Well, no . . . he was talking about physicians who chose to practice orthomolecular medicine never going back to their old ways of treating patients. Despite persecution. Despite losing their licenses. Despite being unfairly targeted by state medical boards and insurance companies. Never turning back to what they had been conditioned to do through years of medical training . . . .

I was sitting with two veteran physicians in the field of orthomolecular medicine, talking over dinner in a Japanese restaurant. I had just joined them after spending a day at an orthomolecular medicine conference. They were in their sixties, sitting there with their healthy Sushi–one would never have thought of them as courageous warriors, but that was what they were. They, like other physicians, never turned back once they made the choice to use orthomolecular interventions. No matter what they had to face for making such a choice. They had been tested for decades, while I was just stepping into the maelstrom of conflict between traditional medicine and alternative medicine–a war involving information–information that could cause the collapse of traditional medicine and all the industries that depend on its continued survival.

Once information has been shared, applied, found practical and powerful, and then taught to others–there is no turning back. It’s impossible once a key has turned, opened a door to a new room, and allowed a glimpse into broad vistas, to insist that the world consists of one’s studio apartment.

Like the Room of Requirement at Hogwarts, these rooms can be a place of refuge, a place of hidden treasures, and a place to congregate:

The Room of Restoration

Mental health can be rapidly restored through the appropriate use of orthomolecular interventions, i.e. through nutrition, detoxification, and the facilitation of natural healing processes.

The Room of Safety

In addition to being astoundingly powerful healing tools, nutritional supplements have a large range of safety when it comes to dosage.

The Room of Enlightenment

Just because a patient “relapses” when a medications is stopped does not mean that the patient was ill. It could be due to withdrawal symptoms from lowering medications. Not everything can be blamed on the patient’s illness.

The Room of Freedom

Withdrawal symptoms from lowering medications, like the underlying causes for the illness, can be ameliorated with the appropriate application of orthomolecular principles.

The Room of Cooperation

Everything in the body is interdependent. There are no hierarchies within the body when it comes to function. For the orthomolecular physician, the same appreciation for cooperation and interdependence exists in the healing process at all levels.

The Room of Hope

Most chronic diseases stop being chronic when the physician uses the right combination of nutrition, detoxification, and energy medicine.

Is it possible to return to the cramped quarters of traditional medicine after experiencing the spacious roominess of alternative medicine?

As possible as it is to say the world is flat after having traveled around its equator.