Alternative to Meds Editorial Team
Written by Diane Ridaeus
Medically Reviewed by Dr Samuel Lee MD
Holistic Psychiatry
Derived from cutting-edge, scientific specialties, our alternative and holistic modalities help generate a positive and clean environmental footprint for the body, mind and spirit. Strangely, our society quickly deems anything other than medication for the treatment of mental health issues as alternative. Conversely, we believe that medications are the detrimental alternative to avoid doing the necessary actions needed to find the source for personal imbalance.
Redefining Holistic … Naturally
Other centers fall far short on many key levels, due to lack of organic diet, inability to safely taper medications, or not providing top shelf, non-toxic modalities, discussed below. The term holistic is often misused, a mere buzz word within the healthcare industry. More than limited intravenous nutrients, a yoga class, or a once a week acupuncture, true holistic practices are best delivered by those who understand its science, deeper teachings, and believe and continue to witness its benefits daily.
Holistic Detoxification
It can be said that our industrialized society is amidst a full blown assault on human physiology.
With constant exposure to environmental poisons that our bodies and minds were not designed to handle, there are very real impacts to our mental health. Consider the poly-aromatic hydrocarbons in exhaust fumes, chemical additives to food, mercury accumulating in our fish, flame retardants in our clothes and beds, benzene accumulation from plastics in our cars, neurotoxic pesticides, electromagnetic influences, medications, hormone mimickers and parabens in our hygiene products, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) leaking into our groundwater. Our holistic detox treatment program utilizes advanced methods to help alleviate the harm to the body and the brain to restore balance and optimize overall health.
Environmental Medicine
Environmental medicine studies the impact of chemicals in our environment and an individual’s physical, mental and emotional responses to them.
Each person has a unique genetic profile, genetic polymorphisms, that allows the processing of toxins. Where there are handicaps, accumulations of poisons can occur, including heavy metals, pesticides and medication waste develop in the body. These toxins are harmful and can lead to DNA damage, hormonal impairments, compromised neurotransmitter expression, and immune deficiencies. We use extraction techniques to relieve the body of these stressors, clinically shown to vastly improve mental health.
Neurotoxin Removal
Neurotoxins are defined as poisons that directly impair the nervous system.
Some over-excite nerve cells to death, while others debilitate the expression of neurotransmitters that directly affect mood. Heavy metals, pesticides, additives to food and hygiene products are common culprits. We use chelation, a process to remove toxic heavy metals such as mercury, lead, arsenic, and aluminum. Other organic poisons must be transformed based upon unique, genetically determined mechanisms. We design a neurotoxin removal program to fit the individual, allowing the nervous system to re-regulate itself in the way that it was designed.
Neurotransmitter Rehabilitation
The body is naturally designed to manufacture neurotransmitters, important in mood balance.
Drugs do not manufacture neurotransmitters. Serotonin, dopamine, endorphins, oxytocin, and others have amino acid precursors that configure these highly important chemical messengers of emotion. By administering these nontoxic amino acid precursors, we help direct the body to replace potential deficiencies and balance what could be over-expressed.
Orthomolecular Medicine
The term orthomolecular was coined by the late Dr. Linus Pauling, a double-Nobel prize laureate.
Orthomolecular medicine is the practice of preventing and treating disease by providing the body with optimal amounts of naturally occurring substances that exist in the body. It has gained specific popularity in the treatment of mental health. As far back 1952, Abram Hoffer, M.D, Ph.D., led the first double-blind, placebo-controlled study in the history of psychiatry, demonstrating niacin as a curative for schizophrenia.¹ Today, orthomolecular medicine is highly regarded and a respite for those seeking options to medications.
1. MEGAVITAMIN B-3 THERAPY FOR SCHIZOPHRENIA CANADIAN PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATION JOURNAL Vol. 16, No.6 A. HOFFER, M.D. [1971 Dec]