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We are intensely excited about Safe Harbor's upcoming June conference "Non-Pharmaceutical Approaches to Mental Disorders: Physiological Causes and Solutions" (see below for details). We have received considerable interest from government and private medical personnel on the need for this kind of training. Although it is designed for healthcare professionals, other public are also welcome.

We have gathered some outstanding speakers to present this rare subject in healthcare training: Understanding and treating the underlying physical causes of mental problems.

Psychiatrist R.D. Laing once said, "What do you do when you don't know what to do? No wonder psychiatrists commit suicide more than any other profession." Now you CAN find out what to do. Come to our conference!

On a personal note, I want to express my deepest appreciation to the multitudes of people who have written to me expressing condolences on the passing of my father, William Stradford, on March 23, 2002. As many know, he was the inspiration for the founding of Safe Harbor (see sixth article below). Please accept my heartfelt thanks for the wonderful support. 

AlternativeMentalHealth.com
Sponsored by Safe Harbor, a Nonprofit Corporation
presents

Continuing Medical Education - 15 Hours of CMEs for physicians

"Non-Pharmaceutical Approaches to Mental Disorders: Physiological Causes and Resolutions"

June 15 and 16, 2002
Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel ·Los Angeles, California

Presentations will include:

A Review of Basic Brain Science including:

Brain metabolism, Neuron structure, Neural connective cells
Neurotransmitters and their synthesis
Cell-wall/membrane characteristics
Blood-brain barrier, Gut-brain relationship

Mechanisms that can lead to severe mental symptoms:

Blood sugar problems
Imbalances of critical nutrients causing neurotransmitter synthesis problems
Deficiencies or excesses of critical nutrients affecting cellular functions
Hormonal imbalances, Other mechanisms.

Specific syndromes:

Celiac disease, Hypo- and hyperthyroidism.
Fear/anxiety and depression due to dietary patterns
Mineral deficiencies and excesses, The anemias,
Potential causes of schizophrenia and bipolar symptoms

Medical Conditions that Present as Psychiatric Symptoms

Hormonal Causes of Emotional Disturbances
Nutritional and Herbal Treatment of Anxiety and Depression
Lab Testing for Underlying Causes of Mental Symptoms
Case Histories, Successful Recoveries

PRESENTERS INCLUDE:

Hyla Cass, M.D.

An internationally-known author, lecturer and authority on nutritional and herbal treatments for depression and anxiety, Dr. Cass is an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at UCLA and president of The Healthy Foundation, a nonprofit group providing nutrients to children. Her book Natural Highs will be released in June 2002. Dr. Cass has authored four other books, including All About Herbs and All About St. John's Wort.

Stuart Shipko, M.D.

Board certified in psychiatry and neurology, Dr. Shipko specializes in psychosomatic medicine and treatment of panic disorder. He is founder and director of the Panic Disorder Institute in Pasadena, CA, an organization dedicated to education, research and treatment of panic disorder. Dr. Shipko is well-known for his expertise on the adverse effects of SSRIs.

Cynthia Watson, M.D.

Author of Love Potions, A Guide to Aphrodisiacs and Sexual Pleasure and All About Lipoic Acid, Dr. Watson is a family practitioner in Los Angeles specializing in integrative medicine. She is a graduate of USC and is on staff at Santa Monica-UCLA and St. John's Hospitals. Her in-depth knowledge of hormonal functions in sexuality and female physiology has brought her many national media appearances.

Professor James Croxton

Prof. Croxton of Santa Monica College may be the only professor in California who teaches a collegiate-level course on nutritional influences on mental disorders (and one of the few in the U.S.). He has been doing so for 23 years. Prof. Croxton is the former chair of the Dept. of Behavioral Studies at Santa Monica College, where he has taught extensively on physiological psychology.

Hotel Reservations and Information:

Located in Los Angeles, California, the historic Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel -- site of the first Academy Award presentations -- is accessible from Burbank or Los Angeles International Airports. The Roosevelt sits on Hollywood Boulevard, across the street from the world-famous Mann's Chinese Theater, home of the footprints and handprints of Hollywood's greats. Enjoy the glittering Walk of Fame -- star-lined sidewalks honoring a century of celebrities. See the stunning Kodak Theater complex and mall, new home to the Oscar celebrations.

We are pleased to offer seminar participants the special discounted room rate of $159.00 per night, single or double occupancy. You must mention Safe Harbor when making your room reservations.

FOR OTHER HOTELS IN THE AREA, SEE AlternativeMentalHealth.com/hotels.htm OR CALL US.

For hotel reservations at the Hollywood Roosevelt, contact:
  The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel
  7000 Hollywood Boulevard
  Hollywood, CA 90028
  Phone: 323-466-7000
  Fax: 323-462-8056
  reserve@hollywoodroosevelt.com
  www.hollywoodroosevelt.com

All seminar participants are responsible for their own travel, hotel and meal expenses, except continental breakfasts, and lunches on Friday and Saturday, which are included in the registration fee.

CAUSES OF PSYCHOSIS NEED TO BE FOUND AND TREATED
Dan Stradford, President and founder, AlternativeMentalHealth.com
March 20, 2002, Chicago Tribune

Los Angeles -- Few can find true sympathy for Andrea Yates. A Texas jury, perhaps understandably, could not forgive her.

The only thing more maddening than her act is the question of why she did it. And could it have been prevented?

The medical community clearly states it does not know what causes postpartum depression or psychosis. The treatment of choice is psychotropic drugs. Because such medication only masks symptoms, this means that the actual physical cause of this disturbed mental state nearly always remains untreated.

Whatever malfunction inside the body of Yates caused her insanity, a physical change she experienced long before the murders, it remained wrong with her right up to the final breath of the last drowned child and likely continued to wreak havoc with her as her guilty verdict was read.

Added to the unknown cause was the use of psychotropic drugs, which can have a side effect of violent impulses.

While a judicious use of psychotropics may certainly be necessary in some cases, to pretend that the patient has then been treated is simply false.

The undiscovered cause remains and continues to impact the drugged woman.

Any honest doctor knows this.

Postpartum women have been through a horrific time, exhausted from the birth, hormones out of whack, nutrients drained from the body, sleep deprivation, sometimes low thyroid conditions flare. Likely physical culprits abound.

Yet the physical cause of the problem is rarely found and commonly not even looked for with any real zeal. Nutritional abnormalities are hardly considered. Additionally, a number of tests and treatments exist that, often, only alternative doctors (and almost no psychiatrists) use.

Yates received standard treatment for postpartum depression. The results should raise public concern.

Is she responsible for killing her babies? The jury said yes; some experts think not. But for sure, if she would have been medically tested and prodded until the physical cause of her symptoms was found and really treated, besides drugging her, those babies could very well still be with us. 

A report published March 19, 2002, in the journal Molecular Psychiatry found that some antipsychotic medications linger in the brain longer than is indicated by blood samples.

The findings by a team of researchers affiliated with the University of Toronto raise questions about traditional prescribing procedures that are based on medication levels found in the blood.

"The drugs that were sometimes being prescribed twice a day, even three times a day, may be able to be given less frequently, based on these findings," said study co-author Dr. Gary Remington, director of the schizophrenia and continuing-care medication-assessment program at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

"It would mean that people could take their medication less frequently and still maintain the same response."

Using positron-emission tomography, or PET scans, the scientists tracked olanzapine and risperidone -- North America's most commonly used antipsychotic drugs -- in the brains of 10 healthy volunteers and five patients being treated for schizophrenia.

The researchers found that medication in a pill taken on a Monday could be detected in the brain on Friday, although there was no trace of the drug in the blood.

Beyond prescribing practices, the findings could have implications for drug development, with a focus on what's happening in the brain rather than in the blood, Dr. Remington said.

The implications are far-reaching but are being viewed skeptically by some physicians, the researchers said.

"Historically we wag our fingers and tell people to take their medication every day and don't forget it," Dr. Remington said. "This is a kind of reverse of what we've been saying for many years."

Through a bill sponsored by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Congressman Frank Pallone (D-NJ), The U.S. Congress has granted a half-million dollars to The Healthy Foundation of Murrieta, California to study the impact of multivitamins on children from low-income families.

The Healthy Foundation currently provides daily vitamins to over 5,000 children from low-income families at 87 sites in 33 states. Its national initiative, called Vitamin Relief USA-Children First, is a public private partnership that distributes daily children's chewable multivitamin/mineral supplements to children at-risk for malnutrition and nutrient deficiency.

"This grant is very exciting for us.", said Dr. Hyla Cass, noted author and president of the Foundation. "It gives us the opportunity to do further research on the benefit of multi-vitamins for at-risk children. The preliminary results have been very positive, with increased attendance and attention, better overall health, improved grades, and marked reduction in poor behavior and violence."

"Our mission is to improve the health status and quality of life of the at-risk children in our nation. By catching them early, we are very likely saving these children from a lifetime of underachievement - and worse. Vitamins not only help them perform better academically, but they also promote normal growth and development to their full mental and physical capabilities. With more public and private funding, this program, over time, will result in a safer, healthier and more productive America."

Commenting on the passage of this key appropriation, Senator Harkin said: "The foundation's program, Vitamin Relief USA-Children First, provides at-risk children with daily nutritional supplements to improve their health and academic success and then evaluates the impact it makes. We already know that sound child nutrition is linked with improved school performance and attendance. This new program just makes sense. We need this type of investment to help ensure a brighter future for every student." 

A year before the Columbine shootings, killer Eric Harris was developing the kind of compulsive thinking that led to the rampage, according to the head of a national psychiatric center.

Harris had been diagnosed with mild depression in February 1998. Two months later, when Harris was getting worse, thinking compulsively and becoming more depressed, he was prescribed an anti-depressant called Luvox, Dr. Peter Breggin said in federal court papers.

Breggin is director of the Maryland-based Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology. His findings were based on Harris' medical and psychiatric records.

His report is part of a lawsuit filed by the families of Columbine victims against Solvay Pharmaceuticals Inc. Solvay makes Luvox, and the families allege that the drug made Harris manic and psychotic, leading to his "homicidal and suicidal ideation."

Solvay denies the allegations and some physicians have said there is no evidence connecting drugs such as Luvox to violent behavior changes.

Harris apparently was taking Luvox at the time of the April 20, 1999, massacre, which left 15 people dead. An autopsy found traces of it in his system.

Five days before the massacre, the Marines Corps rejected Harris for medical reasons. While the Marines never provided details of the rejection, treatment with a psychiatric medication would have disqualified him.

Breggin said in his report that he believes Luvox triggered the rampage. "Absent persistent exposure to Luvox, Eric Harris would probably not have committed violence and suicide."

Breggin said that records show that Harris had his Luvox prescription filled 10 times between April 25, 1998, and March 13, 1999, and that three-and-a-half months before the rampage, the dose was increased.

[This article copyright 2002 The Denver Post or other copyright holders. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed for any commercial purpose.] 

In Memory of My Father
By Dan Stradford
President and founder, Safe Harbor and AlternativeMentalHealth.com

On March 23, 2002, my father, William Marshall Stradford, unexpectedly slumped in his chair and passed away. It was the end of an unfortunate life.

My dad, a St. Louis resident, was the old, toothless man you would see sitting in cheap coffee shops, unsmiling, lost in his thoughts, with food stains on his shirt.

He was the man who sold you pretzels in winter from a basket on a corner of Cherokee Street, accepting your change in his worn glove as he huddled against the wind in his ancient overcoat and stocking cap.

My father was the man who would slowly step on the bus and take too long to find change or pull out his bus pass as his face grimaced and twitched for reasons you did not understand. He was the man who made passengers feel uneasy at the thought that he might choose a seat next to them.

My father was the man I was embarrassed to have my friends see when I was younger. And now he is gone.

But before 1958 my dad was someone else. He was a stock clerk for nine years for 3M where he knew the location of 4000 different items. He was a World War II veteran who was awarded two bronze stars. He was a lively, good-humored man and a playful father. Then came the "nervous breakdown," shock treatments and heavy psychiatric drugs.

The breakdown he could have recovered from. But the shock treatments and drugs he could not. Dad returned home from the hospital a broken man, stuporous and lost in his anguished thoughts. His memory was devastated.

He could no longer work. Slowly my mother sold off the 3M stocks he had accumulated until, finally, we had nothing. My brother and two sisters were taken into children's homes. I survived at home, often staying with relatives and whoever else would take me in.

Dad was a moral man of the Pentecostal faith. His failure to care for his family ate at him deeply. He would take heart in finding the most mediocre minimum-wage, backbreaking job, as long as it gave him a chance to support his wife and kids.

When I became an adult and raised my own family, the specter of my father's demise never left me. What would have happened had he not been shocked and drugged into oblivion?

In 1998, motivated by my father's struggle, I created a nonprofit organization called Safe Harbor, dedicated to educating the public, the medical field, and government agencies on non-drug, non-shock alternatives for mental health problems. Our web site -- AlternativeMentalHealth.com -- quickly became the world's largest on this subject, with thousands of weekly visitors. We hear from -- and help -- an endless number of people who are living the life my father led and are looking for a way out.

Growing up with my dad, suppressing my shame as I watched his drug-induced crying spells and facial contortions or avoided the looks from neighbors, I could not imagine ever learning anything from him or any good coming from his life.

How wrong I was. I love you, Dad. Peace be with you. 

Mitral valve prolapse ("MVP"), previously known as irritable heart, soldier's heart, the effort syndrome, Barlow's Syndrome or DaCosta's Syndrome, is a well recognized, clinical entity with a reported prevalence of 4% to 18%. This common heart disorder, little-understood until recently and still without a known cure, has sometimes been misdiagnosed as psychiatric in nature due to associated symptoms such as anxiety, mood swings and panic attacks.

Mitral valve prolapse is an abnormality of the mitral valve leaflets (flaps on the valve), or supporting cords, or both. These structures allow the leaflet(s) to prolapse -- to buckle back into the left atrium during the heart's contraction. Mitral valve prolapse is usually associated with structural changes whereby the valve can be described as floppy or the cords, i.e. supporting structure, are too thick, too thin, or too long.

According to The Framingham Heart Study, 7.6% of women and 2.5% of men have MVP. Others report an incidence as high as 18% in women and 12% in men. The wide range is due to gender, age, and ethnic background of the subjects, along with the use of different diagnostic criteria. The number of people with symptomatic mitral valve prolapse syndrome is unknown.

Skipped or extra beats are very common among MVPers and the general public. This phenomena is relatively common and no cause for alarm.

Several mechanisms can produce MVP. When the cause of the prolapse cannot be identified, it is classified as primary mitral valve prolapse. When MVP is a consequence of other known conditions, such as endocarditis (a bacterial infection of the valve), it is called secondary mitral valve prolapse.

SOME COMMON SYMPTOMS OF MITRAL VALVE PROLAPSE

• Chest pain
• Fatigue
• Palpitations, extra heart beat
• Lightheadedness, dizziness
• Shortness of breath
• Anxiety and/or panic attacks
• Headaches
• Low exercise tolerance
• Mood swings
• Chronically cold hands and feet
• Gastrointestinal disturbances
• Problems with memory or a feeling of fogginess
• Insomnia

MVPS (Mitral Valve Prolapse Syndrome) is not known to cause a heart attack. Heart attacks are generally caused by a severe narrowing and blockage of a coronary artery that supplies an area of heart muscle. MVPS neither narrows nor blocks coronary arteries, nor causes permanent damage to the heart muscle.

Data collected at the Mitral Valve Prolapse Program of Cincinnati (MVPPC), along with responses to a questionnaire in the first edition of the book Taking Control by K.A. Scordo, were tabulated as follows in the book's second edition:

Caffeine, alcohol, smoking, stimulant medicines, sweets, being in a hot, dry environment, lack of sleep, skipping meals, unaccustomed physical activity, and menopause are some factors that can aggravate MVPS. MVPS symptoms are typically first noted between the ages of 20 to 30, but "MVPers" who have been symptom-free often become symptomatic after an illness, injury, pregnancy, or emotional stress.

Research studies indicate that autonomic nervous system dysfunction, decreased intravascular blood volume, and rennin -aldosterone regulation abnormality (stress-responsive hormones that regulate fluid volume -- they may shrink the heart relative to the mitral valve leaflets) may be responsible for MVPS in many cases. Not everyone's symptoms, however, are explained by these physiological alterations.

Although methods of long-term treatment of MVPS await further research, recommendations for managing the symptoms are presented in TAKING CONTROL: LIVING WITH THE MITRAL VALVE PROLAPSE SYNDROME by Dr. Kristine A. Scordo, Associate Professor, Wright State University. Grateful acknowledgement is made to Dr. Scordo for the material used in this article.

For more information on MVP and its treatment, see www.algy.com/pdi/FAQ//MVP.html 

In earlier issues of this newsletter, we have discussed the role of hormones in mental health. In Issue 3 we discussed estrogen, testosterone in Issue 6, and thyroid hormones in Issues 8 and 16. Other hormones which can cause or exacerbate mental symptoms when taken alone or in combination with other medications include progesterone, DHEA and HGH. 

Many women are reluctant to take estrogen, due to the well-publicized risks of breast and ovarian cancer. Estrogen, in the form which is currently prescribed, is extracted from the urine of pregnant mares. These products contain a dozen different types of estrogen compounds, only one of which is an exact replica of the estrogen compound found in the human female body. The others are foreign. There have been no studies done to determine the safety of these foreign components for humans. 

However, the body does need estrogen, and more and more women are turning to natural hormone therapy for the answer. And they are being helped, not only with estrogen, but with other natural hormones. 

Among the proponents of natural hormone therapy is Dr. Uzzi Reiss, an ob/gyn practicing in Los Angeles. In his book, Natural Hormone Balance for Women, (published in 2001 by Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.) Dr. Reiss describes some hormonal deficiency symptoms as follows:

There are also, of course, many other symptoms which are recognized as strictly physical. 

Per Dr. Reiss, many women are prescribed Prozac, Zoloft, Ativan, Xanax, Valium, and sleeping pills for problems which could be successfully treated by balancing hormones. 

In one of the many cases cited in his book, Dr. Reiss summarizes the case of a woman with postpartum depression. She was prescribed an SSRI as treatment by her psychiatrist. She did not want to take the drug, so looked for alternatives. One injection of natural progesterone completely turned her around. One is left to wonder if the Yates family tragedy have been avoided using this treatment instead of psychotropic drugs for Andrea Yates' postpartum depression? 

The book is available through the normal channels. If you would like to find out more about possible treatment, contact a compounding pharmacy that supplies natural hormones. These pharmacies supply custom-made products for thousands of doctors who are treating their patients with natural hormones. Two such pharmacies in the U.S. are Kronos Compounding Pharmacy in Las Vegas, NV, and Women's International Pharmacy in Madison, WI, and Sun City West, AZ -- also accessible online. They can give you the names of doctors who practice natural hormonal therapy in your area. 

No one knows what the long-term effects of antidepressants are since there are few scientific studies to go on. Antidepressants work by artificially boosting the levels of certain "feel-good" stress hormones in the brain, called neurotransmitters that allow us to cope better with pain and stress. 

The general process experienced by most patients entails a psychiatric interview (often performed by a primary care provider), a diagnosis based on symptoms and little in the way of diagnostic studies to search for the actual underlying causes of depression. The better clinicians will at least do a general chemistry panel to rule out liver or kidney disease as the cause, a thyroid panel and a complete blood count to rule out anemia as the cause. 

There are at least 15 other causes that I routinely test for, including various hormone imbalances, mineral deficiencies, amino acid deficiencies, food allergies, heavy metal toxicities and essential fatty acid deficiencies to list a few. Because conventionally trained doctors are not educated about molecular medicine, few doctors look for the underlying causes of depression and seem content to treat the symptoms rather find a cure. 

Therefore they are left with the next best thing -- to guess which drug will work and give it a try, which is OK for a short term effect. But doctors should then test for the underlying imbalances and gradually wean the patient from the antidepressant as they correct the fundamental causes of depression. Since doctors do not generally know how to find the underlying causes, they are left with having to keep prescribing the drug for long periods not knowing what the long term consequences will be. 

I personally believe that this is risky and is not good medicine. If you have a chronic cough, the doctor should find out the cause and cure it, not seal the symptoms over with a cough medicine month after month, year after year. Recognizing that millions of people are now faced with this dilemma of risking long term consequences of antidepressant dependence (they may be hard to stop once you have taken them for a while), Dr. Lewis and I wrote the book "End Your Addiction Now" that offers advice about correcting the imbalances in brain chemistry naturally and also about finding a doctor who will actually do the scientific lab testing to find the causes so that the underlying imbalances can be corrected and patients don't have to risk the unknown consequences of long term antidepressant use.