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Also included on the site is an array of articles on topics ranging from the medical causes of schizophrenia to the effects of toxic metals on mental health.

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MentalHealth.com T-shirts and bumper stickers are available at our online store.

A bookstore page lists top books that cover many areas of alternative treatments with titles like Natural Healing for Schizophrenia and Other Common Mental Disorders and No More Ritalin.

AlternativeMentalHealth.com has been created to educate the public, practitioners, and government officials on the medical conditions that create "mental illness" and the many safe resources available for addressing and often curing severe mental symptoms.

We have finalized our speaker schedule for Safe Harbor's upcoming Non Pharma II conference and it is below. What a great array of subjects and tools for those in and out of the mental health professions!

In addition to speakers we have already profiled, psychiatrist James Lake will be discussing the role of Traditional Chinese Medicine in psychiatry. Dr. Lake, who is the co-author of Chinese Medical Psychiatry (www.chinesemedicalpsychiatry.com), recently spoke on this topic in China.

Chiropractor James Blumenthal will discuss a remarkable new therapy using a metronome, the tick-tock device musicians use to learn perfect timing. But this metronome is computerized and clients doing drills with it commonly make significant and permanent gains in focus, learning ability, and other mental abilities - gains that alleviate the symptoms of numerous disorders. Wait till you see what is did for the learning skills of over 400 high school students studied.

Kathleen Crowley, author of The Power of Procovery, will speak not only about her own amazing recovery but her outstanding recipe for recovery for anyone. Her "just start anywhere" formula has helped people across the U.S. start on the road to recovery, something most were told was impossible.

At Safe Harbor's 2003 Recovery Panel, you will hear the powerful stories of 6 people who have recovered. At least 3 of these will be children who were on medication and came back from serious psychiatric symptoms to a state of wellness.

Chiropractor and registered nurse Marla Scripter will speak at the Safe Harbor office on The Role of Diet and Chiropractic Treatment in Mental Health on Wednesday, May 14, 2003.

We will have a support group meeting from 7 PM to 8 PM and the talk and a question-and-answer period will last from 8 PM to 9 PM. The talk is free and all are invited.

The lecture will be at the Safe Harbor office at 1718 Colorado Blvd. in the Eagle Rock section of Los Angeles.

We are very pleased to announce that Safe Harbor Boston is presenting a talk by James Greenblatt, M.D., THE BENEFITS OF NUTRITIONAL THERAPY FOR THE TREATMENT OF MENTAL ILLNESS.

Time/Date:  7:30 pm, MAY 8, 2003
Location:  Waltham Hospital's DeVeber Conference Center, Hope Ave., Waltham, Massachusetts, USA

Admission:  Free

Dr. Greenblatt is a dually board-certified child and adult psychiatrist who combines his interest in alternative treatments for psychiatric disorders with a traditional background in medicine. He has lectured throughout the U.S. to professionals and families on the scientific evidence of complementary and alternative therapies for psychiatric disorders. Dr. Greenblatt is the Founder and Medical Director of Comprehensive Psychiatric Resources, Inc., and is a faculty member at Harvard Medical School, Department of Psychiatry.

Dr. Greenblatt's talk will be followed by a SUPPORT GROUP MEETING.

Safe Harbor Boston, a satellite office of Safe Harbor, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating the public and mental health professionals about the advantages of using nutritional and other natural therapies for the treatment of mental illness. We also provide support group venues for those diagnosed with a mental illness and those who care for the mentally ill.

Waltham Hospital's DeVeber Conference Center is Safe Harbor's weekly meeting place. We offer weekly support group meetings every Thursday, starting May 8, 2003, from 7:30 to 9:00 PM when there is no guest speaker. During Thursday evenings when we do have a guest speaker our support group will start immediately after the talk. All are welcome to join our support group to share experiences and learn from one another in an open and nonjudgmental environment.

The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI), consisting primarily of family members of psychiatric patients, is America's largest advocacy group for the mentally unwell.

The Chino Hills, California, office of NAMI, which is privately incorporated, has announced the creation of NAMI Natural, the first NAMI organization to offer support for those seeking safe, alternative approaches for treating mental disorders.

The office has been having speakers on alternative treatments for over a year at the Chino Hills location and interest has grown prompting the formation of NAMI Natural.

NAMI Natural plans a number of projects, including talks about six times a year, creation of an alternative mental health library, hosting an annual alternative mental health fair with booths and speakers, and the creation of a 12-week course to educate consumers and family members on alternative mental health options.

NAMI Chino Hills president Pam Greider said, "We get NAMI members who simply don't want to put or keep their family members on medications or maybe they want to reduce the medications. With NAMI Natural we will be able to provide options and resources for those people who may be seeking them."

Anyone interested in NAMI Natural or wishing to contact Pam Greider can do so at (909) 606-9959 or pq21@juno.com.

NAMI Natural is in need of donations and volunteers interested in helping in various capacities.

Impossible Cures, the informative one-hour documentary on Truehope and the research behind Empowerplus - the natural supplement which has been highly effective in treating mental disorders - is scheduled to air on the Discovery Health Channel (USA) on Saturday May 10, 2003, at 10:00 PM (EST) and again at 1:00 AM (EST).

The program tells the story of the all-natural supplement developed by the Synergy Group of Canada, also known as TrueHope.

An article by Charles Popper, M.D., of Harvard in the December 2001 issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, reported that he was able to get 11 of 15 of his bipolar patients off of medication using the TrueHope nutrients. Another article in the same journal by Bonnie Kaplan, Ph.D., reports on a study showing further success with the supplement. The March 2003 issue of the journal tells of similar success by another physician.

Synergy's founder, Tony Stephan, reports that the supplement was created in the mid-90s after Stephan's wife, diagnosed with bipolar disorder, committed suicide, leaving him with 10 children. Stephen, with two children also diagnosed with bipolar disorder, says he met with a friend, an animal feed expert, who pointed out that pigs also exhibit strange behavior which is treated with nutrients. 

Their product was developed and soon Stephan's two bipolar children were on the supplement and were free from the need to take psychiatric drugs. Thousands have now tried the nutrients, called Empowerplus.

Safe Harbor is proud to announce that the lyrics and audio of our official theme song I Wish You Safe Harbor, are now available online at www.alternativementalhealth.com/theme.htm.

We are extremely grateful to international folk artist James Durst (www.jamesdurst.com) for contributing this song to AlternativeMentalHealth.com.

The story of Mary [in the last issue of AMH News], who unsuccessfully sought effective psychiatric help for her mentally disturbed, occasionally violent, son, who ended up killing her is all too familiar. A major answer lies in the establishment of a trusting relationship between a competent, trusted psychiatrist and the patient which begins the first time the patient comes to psychiatric attention, usually in the hospital, until he/she is discharged from outpatient clinic or private office as no longer needing treatment. 

I saw a system thus based on "continuity of competent care" in Cambridge, England, in 1978, and when I returned I sought one state mental health Commissioner who would institute in his state such a much more effective and less costly system. I could not find any. Instead the current system, based on drugs rather than on understanding relationships, continues to harm patients far more than helping them.

How the system SHOULD be organized in order to help patients is described in my forthcoming article in Ethical Health and Human Services, The Rational Organization of Care for Disabling Psychosis - 'If I Were Commissioner.'

Copper deficiency is a problem, and I feel that most people should supplement small amounts of chelated copper after about 50 years - 3 mg daily.

Most of the people in this country have so badly depleted their immune/adrenal/thyroid capabilities (oxidation rate), they are unable to chelate copper with an amino acid. Rats with adrenal glands removed, develop copper toxicity in the liver. Poor adrenal function, rampant in this country, has caused much copper bio unavailability and thus toxicity. Patients then crave copper-containing foods, which make them worse, as they are unable to use that copper either. Chocolate cravings prior to a woman's period is a good example, as copper is required for estrogen use. Birth control pill or estrogen therapy raises copper. Copper has been linked to post-partum depression, as when estrogen levels and drop post parturition, copper should also. When it does not drop, emotional health suffers big time.

They also have problems with all minerals, e.g. calcium with a resultant draw down from the bone and osteoporosis. Calcium bio-unavailability and floating around unbound in the system has significantly less noxious symptoms than copper, iron, chromium, et. al.

Remember, copper must be carried through the blood stream via ceruloplasmin, akin to carrying money to the bank in an armored truck.

What is also important is that people who take C and zinc run a real risk of depleting their available copper and thus creating a deficiency. I wrote an article in the Original Internist about that problem, "Vitamin C, Is It Always Innocuous?"

Unbound copper can be a terrible toxin. Not enough causes death, just enough is great, too much and you wish you were dead. Emotional problems, neurological problems, suicide, obsessive compulsive disorders, Parkinson's, ADD, dyslexia, bulimia, anorexia, cardiac disorders, cancers and arthritis to name a few.

I can send a sheet on copper, with some other info, to anyone who sends their snail mail address and requests copper info.

Here's a good quote: "the predicted copper plague is upon us." Dr. Eck predicted it years ago, and when he found a high hair copper 20 years ago, he thought the instrument had malfunctioned.

In a dramatic year-long study by Karen M. Slimak, M.S., President, Applied Science and Technology International, Inc. (ASTi), reversal of autistic traits was accomplished in 49 of 49 subjects through dietary intervention and elimination of exposure to environmental substances. The study was reported in the Proceedings of the 2003 International Symposium on Indoor Air Quality and Health Hazards, National Institute of Environmental Health Science.)

The research program traces its origin back more than 20 years to an in-house study at ASTi involving dietary intervention food trials. In the study, although unexpected, strong symptoms were observed and repeatedly associated with non-food environmental exposures. This early study was broadened to include a study of the non-food symptoms resulting from environmental exposures. A second in-house research effort was also begun whose goal was to develop a dietary approach that would fully eliminate food-related symptoms so that symptoms associated with other environmental exposures could be isolated and observed for long periods of time. 

An effective rotation diet of unusual tropical root crops and other unusual foods was developed. This diet was found to quickly eliminate food-related symptoms of subjects while providing optimal nourishment. The diet has been used successfully to study the symptom changes associated with sequential removal of environmental exposures over long periods of time (3-12 months per person) in approximately 1000 individuals. The results reported herein were possible to obtain because symptoms caused by diet were consistently and completely eliminated from the symptom array in all subjects studied.

Forty-nine children, ages 2-17 with diagnoses ranging from severe autism to PDD ("Pervasive Developmental Disorder," autism-like behaviors not meeting all the diagnostic criteria for autism) were each studied for periods ranging from 3 to 12 months. Initial autistic and physical symptoms and complaints were rated (0-10) and again at weekly intervals after the subjects entered the program. Each subject was placed on the diet described above.

Three environmental avoidance approaches were employed to study the role of environmental chemicals in autistic children. In Group I (14 subjects) there was no initial environmental avoidance; in Group II (27 subjects) there was moderate initial environmental avoidance; and in Group III (8 subjects) there was complete environmental avoidance using a clean room.

After parents of subjects in Groups I and II began to observe and report symptoms associated with environmental exposures, the parents were directed to begin sequential removal of items associated with exposure during weeks 3-52 of the program. This provided the opportunity to observe the symptom fluctuations that occurred as environmental exposures were eliminated sequentially.

In Groups I and II, during sequential removal of items associated with environmental exposures, unanticipated actions were observed in the autistic children studied. These included: 1) autistic children were consistently observed hoarding or attempting to hide scented items, 2) many cycles of reduced symptoms (following object removal) and increased symptoms (following selection of a new item) were observed.

To study symptom fluctuations and obsessive behaviors further, parents of children in Groups I and II were instructed to 1) allow their children to continue obsessive interactions with objects without interference, and 2) change the object to prevent exposure to volatile organic compounds without the child's knowledge. For example, carbon filters were surreptitiously installed on tap water lines for obsessive toilet flushers; and sand was carefully cleaned for obsessive sifters.

In the absence of environmental exposures, no obsessive behavior continued in the subjects studied. It became apparent that effects associated with chemical exposure were much greater than initially anticipated. The study was expanded to include a study of a group of children in clean rooms (Group III).

After a few days in the clean room, the children's sense of smell appeared to become particularly acute. They were observed sniffing the air and following micro scent plumes to a source, such as a tiny point in the wall of the clean room, where the seal was not intact.

After the clean rooms were sealed and materials inside the rooms were sufficiently pristine, autistic children in the clean rooms became disinterested in objects (now pristine) and very interested in their bodies and body fluids.

Especially for children in Group III, the older, severely autistic group, after achieving the zero symptom level, a difference was observed between a) physical and behavioral recovery and b) emotional maturity and educational age. The subjects tended to quickly achieve age-appropriate physical skills, abilities and temperament coinciding with normal health. However, in terms of learned behaviors, the children have tended to behave as if the years they 'lost' to autism never happened. The subjects have been able to learn quickly, eagerly, and with apparent ease, beginning again from the place in time that they became autistic.

Clean rooms established in homes were an important tool for conducting long term studies that maintained full symptom relief for 12 months and longer through complete, sustained elimination of dietary symptoms and sustained elimination of environmental exposures.

The children in the program (universal diet and clean room) returned to normal physically, in temperament, in awareness of surroundings and others, in emotions and empathy, and in ability to learn. The children demonstrated ability to rapidly and enthusiastically learn new behaviors and skills. Children began progressing through the normal stages of learning and social development in their clean rooms.

Based on the results of the present study, a broad spectrum of severe and chronic autistic symptoms appear to be environmentally based, apparently caused by chronic exposure to volatile organic compounds, and appear to be fully reversible in the proper environment.

Dear Safe Harbor,

I have traveled a long and torturous journey before I discovered the light. I have been prescribed a variety of psychiatric medications for a mental illness that prevented me from holding down a job.

I reached the end of the road with than before. I found that in the long term, the medications made me worse. My psychiatrist was a hypocrite when he loaded me on antipsychotics, mood stabilizers and antidepressants and confided in me that he took B complex supplements every day without fail for mental health. Yet he would coerce me onto a med combo and get angry when I was not compliant.

When I walked into the pharmacy with a coca-cola in hand my pharmacist told me to quit taking coca-cola because it was high in sugar and bad for my health by depleting my body of nutrients and could cause diabetes. He said he never drank the stuff because it was toxic. And yet when I suggested that I replace nutritional supplements over psychiatric drugs he would advocate the use of Ritalin and Valium as being non-toxic and non-addictive to keep his profits up. How can he say coca-cola is a toxic chemical and Valium safe as lollies [candy]?

While highlighting the corruption and greed of medical professionals who put profits over the well-being of patients, I can only say that with a careful combination of vitamins and minerals I have conquered my mental illness and feel like a new person. It will take a while before my brain gets over the effects of the drugs I took.

Thanks for promoting awareness of natural therapies for mental illness.

We had our last review with Allison's teacher, L.D. [Learning Disabilities] teacher, and school psychologist. At the beginning of the review the psychologist stated that she has seen definite improvement in Allison's grades and her concentration level. Jennifer and I both were happy to hear this. Then she asked what kind of medication our pediatrician had prescribed for her, and I said Concerta (Ritalin) - to which she replied, "Well, I can see that it has definitely made a difference in Allison's school work.

In April, Johnson & Johnson announced that it would soon send letters to thousands of US physicians advising them of possible increased risk of stroke to elderly patients taking its antipsychotic drug Risperdal. The drug maker had sent a similar warning letter to Canadian doctors and pharmacists last October. The company also plans to change the package insert, which already mentions risk of stroke, to specify possible dangers to the elderly.

The company cited 37 reports of stroke or related events like blood clots or hemorrhages, including 16 deaths, among patients who have taken the drug, reports the Boston Globe (April 11). It also cited two clinical trials of elderly dementia patients in which "a higher proportion of patients taking Risperdal experienced strokes or related events than those who received placebo."

Risperdal is Johnson & Johnson's second-biggest-selling medicine, with annual global sales of $2.1 billion. Although only approved for schizophrenia, it is being widely used to control behavior in elderly patients with dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

Larry Sasich, a pharmacist and research analyst for consumer watchdog group Public Citizen, said worrisome safety trends have cropped up in various clinical trials that tested Risperdal in Alzheimer's patients. He said 29 cases of stroke and stroke-related events were seen among 764 patients tested in four specific trials, or in about 4 percent of patients, compared with only 2 percent of those who received placebos.

"And there were four deaths among patients taking Risperdal, compared with only one death in those taking placebos," Sasich said. "The Risperdal label clearly states that there is no evidence this drug is safe or effective in treating dementia, and it looks like doctors are hurting people by prescribing it for this condition."

Sasich said the incidence of stroke among elderly Alzheimer's patients should spur US regulators to further examine whether younger schizophrenia patients are also unacceptably prone to them.

Dr. Norman Sussman, a professor of psychiatry at New York University Medical Center, said doctors routinely use Risperdal and similar schizophrenia drugs like Eli Lilly and Co.'s Zyprexa to treat dementia symptoms, even though they are not approved for that use.

A team of researchers, led by Elizabeth Koller, a former FDA official, and Dr. P. Murali Doraiswamy of Duke, catalogued the number of diabetes-related complications reported to the FDA in patients taking Zyprexa and Risperdal. The researchers reported the possible Zyprexa side-effect cases last July in the journal Pharmacotherapy: Over an eight-year period, 288 diabetes cases, of which 75 resulted in severe illness and 23 in death.

Research at the La Jolla, California-based Salk Institute for Biological Studies has identified a gene that may link organophosphates to a number of neurological disorders.

The finding, published in the March 17 online version of Nature Genetics, is the first to demonstrate a clear genetic link between neurological disorders and exposure to organophosphate chemicals, which include household pesticides as well as deadly nerve gases like sarin.

Dr. Carrolee Barlow, who led the work at the Salk Institute and is now at Merck and Co., Inc., and her team, headed by Christopher Winrow, found in mice that organophosphate exposure inhibited the activity of a gene called neuropathy target esterase, or NTE. This inhibition either killed the mice before birth, or over time led to a range of hyperactive behaviors. Some of the neurological problems also echoed many of the symptoms seen in Gulf War syndrome.

"There have been anecdotal links made between rises in ADHD, Parkinson's disease and other disorders and exposure to pesticides," said Barlow, an adjunct faculty member at the Salk. "There also has been suspicion of a link to Gulf War syndrome. But scientists have been focusing on enzymes that act on acetylcholine neurotransmitters. This study shows that there may indeed be a genetic connection that explains how organophosphates can cause these reactions; it's just not what we assumed it would be."

Barlow's group had originally been looking at how environmental factors immediately affect the nervous system. They found that mice bred to lack the NTE gene died before birth. But the group also found that mice with only one copy of the NTE gene, when exposed to experimental organophosphates and examined over a prolonged period, exhibited behavior similar to ADHD.

The mice with only one NTE copy had a 40 percent decrease in the NTE enzyme produced by the NTE gene. The mice with normal NTE genes also showed ADHD-like behavior, though to a lesser degree, when exposed to organophosphates. The gene is active in parts of the brain controlling movement, including the hippocampus, the cerebellum and the spinal cord.

"NTE is a large gene," said Barlow. "It's possible that we all have slightly different forms of the NTE enzyme, which may explain why some may get ADHD when they're exposed at young ages, and why some may get Gulf War syndrome at a later age, or why some of us have no symptoms at all. It appears to be a case of delayed toxicity, inhibiting the function of NTE."

At the Salk, researcher Matthew Hemming in Professor Stephen Heinemann's laboratory is continuing to work on unlocking the secrets of NTE's activity. The Salk team is working to detail how losing NTE function results in behavioral and neurological changes, as well as focusing on what happens when the gene for NTE is turned off in one part of the brain, but working in other areas.

Gulf War Syndrome is a loosely defined collection of symptoms, ranging from headache and fever to severe forgetfulness and movement disorders. It was first noted after Operations Desert Storm and Desert Shield in 1991, when U.S., Canadian and British military veterans reported more symptoms than soldiers who were not deployed. Its cause is unknown.

A new study of mercury in childhood vaccines demonstrates that the doses are in excess of the Federal Safety Guidelines, and shows alarming evidence for a link between these excessive doses of mercury from thimerosal-containing vaccines and neurodevelopment disorders such as autism and speech disorders, as well as heart disease. 

Those are the findings of the study published in the current issue of the peer-reviewed Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons (JP&S), authored by Mark Geier, M.D., Ph.D, President of The Genetic Centers of America, and David Geier.

The authors also conclude that the U.S. should ban the use of thimerosal in all vaccines. It is hoped that complete removal of thimerosal from all childhood vaccines will help stem the tragic, apparently iatrogenic epidemic of autism and speech disorders that the United States is now facing, write the authors.

The authors point to exploding rates of autism since the introduction of thimerosal in vaccines. In less than 20 years, the rate increased by more than 800 percent, from one in about 2,500 children in the mid-1980s to one in about 300 children in 1996.

In 2001, the Institute of Medicine concluded that exposure to mercury in vaccines and neurodevelopment disorders could not be linked because of indirect and incomplete information, but that the link was biologically possible.

This study now confirms that, showing that there was a 2 to 6-fold increased incidence of neurodevelopment disorders following an additional 75-100 microgram dosage of mercury from thimerosal-containing vaccines compared to thimerosal-free vaccines.

METHODOLOGY: The study consists of two parts. In the first, the authors evaluated the doses of mercury that children received from thimerosal-containing vaccines, as part of routine US childhood immunization schedule. Those doses were compared to the US Federal Safety Guidelines for the oral ingestion of methylmercury.

Secondly, in order to analyze the effects of thimerosal in vaccine recipients, they analyzed the incidence of neurodevelopment disorders and heart disease reported following thimerosal-containing vaccines in comparison to thimerosal-free vaccines. The data used was from the governments Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS).

Also, the authors analyzed data from the US Department of Education on the number of children of various ages in US schools who were reported with various types of disabilities in comparison to the mercury dose that children received from thimerosal in their childhood vaccines.

For a reason not yet known, the simple EEG biofeedback unit known as the Easy Brain Trainer seems to give depressives of all types a "lift" that lasts from 12 to 24 hours depending on individuals. Insofar as is known, this inexpensive unit is the only one that shows this particular effect. It is somewhat different in both construction and software than general EEG biofeedback units.

Out of over 40 depressives tested, only 2 showed no discernible lift after playing the 3 simple games used by this unit for at least 15 minutes. Three others, who were not in a depressed state when tested felt "amused" when tested.

Two professional clinicians (a psychiatrist and a psychologist) were supplied with prototypes of the unit last summer, and both refused to return the loaned units, but paid for them. Neither could report on patients status for privacy reasons (that was reason given at least), but the fact that they kept the units is some proof of efficacy.

In several of these cases, and in a few others, symptoms of ADD/ADHD was present as well as depression. In all these cases ADD symptoms and depression symptoms gradually decreased with 60 or so half-hour sessions. This corresponds to overall EEG biofeedback training.

The inventor, David Terek, was diagnosed some 11 years ago as a paranoid schizophrenic with severe depression. Terek is an electronic engineer, and he read about EEG biofeedback being useful. He then designed and built a breadboard EEG biofeedback unit. Using this unit, he actually "cured" his own schizophrenia and depression. In tests with other schizophrenics, those with "tremors" lost that particular symptom with only a few half hour sessions, and most have improved considerably in losing other schizophrenic symptoms.

The Easy Brain Trainer is now in limited production, and can be leased or purchased from Biofeedback Home Training Inc. Further details can be found at the website www.adhd-biofeedback.com.