Depression-Free, Naturally: 7 Weeks to Eliminating Anxiety, Despair, Fatigue, and Anger from Your Life - Softcover

9780345435170: Depression-Free, Naturally: 7 Weeks to Eliminating Anxiety, Despair, Fatigue, and Anger from Your Life
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In this groundbreaking book, nutritionist Joan Mathews Larson, Ph.D., founder of Minnesota's esteemed Health Recovery Center, offers her revolutionary formulas for healing your emotions--biochemically. Through proven all-natural formulas, Seven Weeks to Emotional Healing will help you find the emotional well-being you've been missing your entire life. Inside you'll discover how to

- Screen yourself for emotional and behavioral symptoms
- Recognize the mental and physical clues that indicate biochemical imbalances
- Heal your depression and anxiety with the right vitamins and minerals
- Stabilize your mood swings and protect your well-being with essential fatty acids
- Choose the right foods for optimal mental fitness
- Rejuvenate your body with key natural hormones

Safe, fast, more long-lasting and cheaper than prescription drugs or psychotherapy, Seven Weeks to Emotional Healing will help you find balance and well-being.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:
Joan Mathews Larson, Ph.D., is the author of the national bestseller Seven Weeks to Sobriety. She holds a doctorate in nutrition and is the founder and executive director of the highly esteemed Health Recovery Center in Minneapolis. It was the loss of her seventeen-year-old son to suicide that fueled her search for more effective solutions to emotional healing. Her clinic has now successfully treated several thousand people over a twenty-year period. She lives in Minneapolis.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:
CHAPTER 1
It's Not All in Your Mind

As far back as he could remember, Peter had been fearful, but he covered
it up extremely well. Now married, he supported his family adequately but
felt shy and joyless most of the time. He drank beer occasionally to
offset those feelings. Still, he seemed to become more of a loner with
each passing year. Peter never considered himself a candidate to see a
psychiatrist. He was simply living out his life of quiet despair until we
met.

Meg was an excellent attorney with a very bright mind. Her facade was
take-charge aggressive, and few crossed her. Yet at our first meeting she
was in tears because of her angry, erratic behavior. She had no idea why
she seemed to exist in a state of such high arousal. . . . This trait was
hurting those she loved the most. She wanted to mellow out but knew her
career couldn't afford the fog prescription drugs created.

An exceptional designer, musician, and musical director, Eric didn't have
the emotional staying power to ignite his career into high gear. Despite
his brilliance, his heart pounded with anxiety during performances. He
drank a lot of caffeine and was a heavy smoker. His mood swings left him
exhausted when he desperately needed extra energy. Ongoing psychological
counseling did not change any of this. . . . Now he was considering taking
prescribed drugs to relieve his depression and anxiety. He summed it up
the day we met, telling me, at age forty-two, "Some days my life feels
entirely hopeless."

Donna usually felt scattered. Her thinking was foggy, and her problems
concentrating were affecting her job. Memories of her childhood were of a
pale, listless little girl who had never felt the world was a friendly
place. She had had frequent childhood illnesses--earaches, strep throats,
and colds. Now as an adult, she still felt fragile. She told me she needed
help to overcome her muddled thinking and get some joy in her life. But
her number-one priority was finding relief from her fatigue, which made
her tired right down to her bones. For Donna, life was an uphill
battle--and she was slowly losing the war.

It is part of the human condition that we keep taking our own inventory
and continually come up short, but it becomes a calamity if the missing
pieces prevent us from enjoying a fulfilling, stable life. If, like Peter,
Meg, Eric, and Donna, you are saying, "I wish I could feel better, think
better, perform better," it is time to stop wishing and take heart! This
book will change your life.

Like the case studies just cited, you, too, may be coexisting with an
erratic nervous system or brain, and lack the energy, verve, joy, and
confidence that are your birthright. Yet you may be hesitant about seeing
a therapist. And, in fact, the idea that a good therapist can solve these
problems by simply talking to you has been the great bane of the twentieth
century! Untold millions are filling the coffers of psychologists and
counselors who listen to the tales of misery that such lives produce but
aren't able to effect real, positive, lasting changes in their clients.

Fortunately, in the last few decades, biochemists and medical doctors have
begun to pinpoint scientific explanations for behavior that used to be
labeled "psychological." These researchers have noticed that:

* many "psychological" symptoms often cluster in families.

* certain physical changes in the brain (and body) can create mayhem
emotionally.

* an internal invasion of yeast parasites may create full-blown mental and
physical illness.

* food intolerances strongly affect our emotions.

* airborne chemicals can alter our brains.

* angry outbursts are predictable from a brain in a chemical state of high
arousal all the time.

* dozens of biochemical mistakes can result in bleak depression or anxiety.

All of these are fixable, if we can identify them!

A New Direction

In 1896, Sigmund Freud predicted that "the future may teach us to exercise
a direct influence by means of chemical substances upon the amounts of
energy and their distribution in the apparatus of the mind." By 1927 he
had become "firmly convinced that one day all these mental disturbances we
are trying to understand will be treated by means of hormones or similar
substances." How right he was! Science now knows it can address such
"mental disturbances" biochemically. It is no longer believed that talk
therapy and good counseling advice can relieve the agony emanating from a
chemically disrupted brain.

In fact, science has now taken off at a gallop in the direction of
biochemical repair. One of the leaders in the field is a brilliant
Canadian named Abram Hoffer who is both a biochemist and a psychiatrist.
In the 1950s, he began to apply pellagra research to psychiatric patients.
Earlier, vitamin B3 (niacin) deficiency had been established as the cause
of pellagra, a disease that causes confusion, disorientation, and memory
disturbance. So here was a classic example of a natural substance that
prevents a psychotic state. In fact, the prolonged absence of niacin in
our bodies will ultimately result in death!

In 1962, Dr. Hoffer published the first double-blind study in the field of
psychiatry. He found that, of ninety-eight schizophrenic patients
receiving megadoses of niacin, the hospital readmission rate was 10
percent over three years with no suicides, while the placebo group had a
50 percent readmission with four suicides. Also in the 1960s, Dr. Hoffer
treated about twenty-five former prisoners of war who had been imprisoned
in Japanese concentration camps during World War II. He found that, in
order to be free of the many physical and psychiatric symptoms (i.e.,
fears, anxieties, insomnia, depression) they developed during their
internment, 90 percent of the former prisoners had developed a permanent
need for large doses of niacin.

The Canadian Department of Health and Welfare also conducted a study to
determine if the general chronic illnesses seen in the men held in
Japanese POW camps, who underwent starvation and excessive stress, were
present in their brothers who had served in Europe. The differences were
remarkable! The men incarcerated by the Japanese suffered from serious
ongoing psychiatric and neurological diseases throughout life, as well as
heart disease, premature blindness, arthritis, and a high death rate. None
of these symptoms was present in their brothers. Clearly, the starvation
and stress endured in the Japanese camps had created chronic illness.
Fortunately, Dr. Hoffer was able to treat some of these men, extending
their lives and saving their sanity with niacin (B3).

How Nutrient Deprivation Cripples Us Emotionally

You may not see a connection between starving prisoners and our own poorly
functioning health, but as you read on you will begin to understand how
physical deprivation can trigger uncontrollable emotional behavior, all
the way to madness. I expect many of you are protesting that you are not
starving, by any means! But because of your unique, individual biochemical
requirements or because of some glitches in how you absorb nutrients, or
the fact that you live on junk food and colas, your brain may never get
enough of what it needs. Then you are in the same boat as the young men I
am about to describe:

During World War II, scientists in the United States also pondered the
effects of starvation on captured GIs living in Japanese POW camps. To
provide some answers, a six-month study was launched at the University of
Minnesota using healthy young male conscientious objectors. This study
produced incredible results (although, of course, this kind of study would
not be conducted today).

The young men were deprived of more than half their normal food intake.
Over the course of six months, many suffered severe physical and
psychiatric changes, and most of these disturbances lingered long after
the experiment had ended.

In the beginning, the men showed a high degree of tolerance and
sociability with each other. But gradually they began to avoid group
activities. There were frequent outbursts of anger and irritability, and
many grew deeply depressed. Some finally required hospitalization in a
psychiatric ward. One chopped off three of his fingers in response to
stress; another became uncontrollably violent. Many expressed the fear
that they were going crazy; others talked of suicide. They all cried a lot
and displayed wild emotional disturbances. Because they felt increasingly
socially inadequate, they now preferred to isolate themselves.
Concentration and ability to comprehend became severely impaired even
though IQ tests showed no drop in their intellectual abilities.

After the study ended, the emotional symptoms continued. In fact,
researchers noted that some of the men grew even more negative, depressed,
and argumentative, directly after the conclusion of the project!

What both the U.S. and Canadian studies show is that "emotional" symptoms
develop as a direct result of the unavailability of brain and body
chemicals. These important chemicals create our stable emotions,
behaviors, thoughts, and sanity.

Of course, back in the mid-twentieth century, scientists were only
beginning to discover the many natural vitamins, minerals, amino acids,
essential fatty acids, enzymes, endorphins, and neurotransmitters needed
for sanity and well-being. Even today, many people do not seem to grasp
the concept that our emotional and physical health depends on having the
proper concentration of the natural substances the human body needs to
sustain life and normal emotional balance.

In fact, until only the last few decades, little was known about how brain
chemicals influence emotions. Only a few scientists were dedicated to
resolving chemically induced "emotional" problems by restoring adequate
levels of the needed natural chemicals.

The growing awareness that natural substances are needed to create optimum
brain functioning should have aroused tremendous interest in the
scientific community. Unfortunately, the concurrent worldwide development
of the drug industry, with its promise of far more lucrative rewards, lead
researchers in another direction. Drug companies give university
scientists generous grants to invent new, artificial, patentable
chemicals. There is no profit for them in developing promising
nonpatentable natural brain/body chemicals. And many of these artificial
drugs have toxic side effects, because our bodies regard them as foreign
invaders. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association,
prescribed drugs cause 140,000 deaths yearly, yet no drug has ever been
able to totally duplicate the role of natural body chemicals.

By pursuing these "patentable" avenues, the pharmaceutical industry today
comprises some of the most powerful and profitable businesses worldwide!

Mind and Body--Intertwined

Luckily, in every generation there are a few truly dedicated geniuses who
care more for science and humanity than for building their fortunes. Linus
Pauling will be remembered as one such giant. He had already won two Nobel
Prizes (in 1954 for chemistry, in 1962 for peace) when, in his sixties, he
began studying mental disorders, focusing on underlying biochemical
dysfunctions. This new interest grew out of his compassion for humankind:

I like human beings. I like to think about the possibilities of decreasing
the amount of their suffering. When I remember that 10 percent of the
American people spend some part of their lives in a mental hospital and
that half of all hospital beds in this country are occupied by mental
patients, I do believe that it will be possible to get an understanding of
the molecular and genetic basis of mental disease [and] therapeutic
methods that will lead to the effective control of a very large part of
mental disease.

Dr. Pauling's interest in disturbed mental function focused on physiology,
not psychotherapy. He was the first to call mental disorders "molecular
diseases," the result of a biochemical abnormality in the body. And he
said, "The mind is a manifestation of the structure of the brain itself."

His involvement in brain research led him to coin his famous definition of
orthomolecular therapy: "Orthomolecular psychiatric therapy is the
treatment of mental disease by the provision of the optimum molecular
environment for the mind, especially the optimum concentrations of
substances normally present in the human body."

With that statement, Dr. Pauling gave a scientific identity to the role of
nutrition in psychiatry. He challenged doctors to become aware of the
overwhelming amount of information that was pouring in from all over the
world, documenting the vital role natural chemicals play in brain function
and other medical disorders. This book is based on those principles.

I bet you think Pauling's advice to medical doctors is obvious. Yet a
recent study showed that while 74 percent of first-year medical students
believed that a knowledge of nutrition is important to their career, by
their third year of learning how to match drugs to symptoms, the number
drops to 13 percent!

What Pauling is telling us is that the human mind cannot operate in a
vacuum because it is totally dependent on the brain and its molecular
function to create your emotional health. In the world of science, where
two plus two always makes four, a sane and stable mind is possible only
with an organically healthy brain.

Balanced Brain Chemicals 5 Emotional and Mental Health

The reward of getting the right chemicals into the brain at "optimum
concentrations" is a joy to witness. Last year a friend complained to me
that his three-year-old autistic son, Seth, refused to welcome him when he
came home each evening. Instead, Seth sat there self-involved, shutting
out the world. A therapist visited them twice weekly, but progress was
poor.

I encouraged him to start Seth on B6 and magnesium, both of which have
been shown to work well for autistic children. Within two weeks I received
an excited call: Seth was waking up to the world around him and starting
to interact much more with his folks. Then, weeks later, his family
stopped giving him the supplements, thinking perhaps the therapist was
responsible for the breakthrough. It took very little time before Seth's
autistic behavior reappeared. His parents ran for his nutrients.

For this child, B6, which prevents the loss of dopamine from the brain, is
critical, as is the magnesium. This is true for most autistic children.
(It is speculated that the high upsurge of autism may be related to a
modern medical practice; see Chapter 8.)

A number of years ago, a group of neuroscientists meeting at a Johns
Hopkins symposium released a joint statement that I love: "Workings of the
mind become scrambled when brain chemistry goes awry." They noted that
specifically affected are:

* thoughts

* feelings

* self-awareness

* perception

* memory

How can we hope to act and feel normal if our "mental" balance is askew?

Another genius, the late Roger Williams, Ph.D., a University of Texas
biochemist, discovered that actual optimal levels of natural brain
chemicals c...

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  • PublisherWellspring/Ballantine
  • Publication date2001
  • ISBN 10 0345435176
  • ISBN 13 9780345435170
  • BindingPaperback
  • Number of pages384
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. In this groundbreaking book, nutritionist Joan Mathews Larson, Ph.D., founder of Minnesota's esteemed Health Recovery Center, offers her revolutionary formulas for healing your emotions--biochemically. Through proven all-natural formulas, Seven Weeks to Emotional Healing will help you find the emotional well-being you've been missing your entire life. Inside you'll discover how to - Screen yourself for emotional and behavioral symptoms- Recognize the mental and physical clues that indicate biochemical imbalances- Heal your depression and anxiety with the right vitamins and minerals- Stabilize your mood swings and protect your well-being with essential fatty acids- Choose the right foods for optimal mental fitness- Rejuvenate your body with key natural hormonesSafe, fast, more long-lasting and cheaper than prescription drugs or psychotherapy, Seven Weeks to Emotional Healing will help you find balance and well-being. Presents a seven-week plan for emotional healing focusing on natural remedies to correct biochemical imbalances. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780345435170

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