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Head-First Treatment
Doctors are constantly amazed when they discover that a drug developed and used to treat one condition proves just as effective for another. Symptoms and illnesses we experience can be categorized into Ôfamilies', related to one of the four lobe-specific chemical neurotransmitters that represent the four distinct brain functions: energy, calm, speed, and mood. Not surprisingly, effective treatments can also be grouped into families that are symptom-specific to address brain chemical imbalances.
Imbalances exist as either excesses or deficiencies of neurotransmitters. Excesses are rare, and they are responsible for severe psychiatric conditions such as paranoia, bipolar disorder, and somatoform disorder. These must be treated with psychotropic medications.
The majority of symptoms we experience that cause us to seek medical attention are related to deficiencies of brain chemicals. These deficiencies exhibit themselves initially as mild symptoms that can be treated first with diet and nutritional supplements. Why? Because each of the neurotransmitters has a natural nutrient precursor: the amino acids tyrosine and phenylalanine are the raw material for dopamine; GABA comes from glutamine, another amino acid; the B vitamin choline is necessary for the production of acetylcholine; and the amino acid tryptophan is metabolized into serotonin.
The precursor nutrients are available from various foods discussed below, but because the body will not absorb all of the available nutrition from food, or may not get enough of a particular precursor from it, proper balancing with supplements, also discussed below, is necessary.
More serious symptoms require a combination of hormones and medications. Two critical points about these more serious interventions:
Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT): Loss of libido, muscle mass, bone density, mood, and cognitive function do not have to be an inevitable consequence of age. Balancing hormones related to these aging symptoms balances health. But it is critical that the right formulations are used.
Recent studies showing the ill effects of estrogen replacement were widely reported. What was not reported, however, was that the adverse effects were attributable to a synthetic estrogen derived from horse urine. There are natural bio-identical formulations for all replacement hormones that duplicate the body's originals. These have been used in my practice for over ten years, with hundreds of patients, without serious sequelae.
Prescription Drugs: Pharmaceuticals are wonderful healing mechanisms — but they are not without their drawbacks. They can be totally ineffective, and finding the right dosages can be problematical.
Using non-invasive office diagnostic tools, such as the BEAM¢â, physicians now can make treatment recommendations with far more assurance. Doctors at UCLA have recently published the results of a study using BEAM¢â to assess the effectiveness of depression medications — after only 2 days of dosing. Standard protocol is assessment after 12 weeks! That's quite a long time for someone to be using a powerful drug in his or her body that may be totally useless! Simple, non-invasive testing can not only assess medication effectiveness, it can direct the physician to the right Ôfamily' of pharmaceuticals based on which brain lobe is primarily responsible for the patient's condition.
Ongoing symptoms and serious conditions require the intervention by an experienced physician. With the information presented in the next section, you can now use your brain to ask pointed questions about lobe-specific medications and hormones that will turn out to be most effective for particular patient complaints.
With the information about natural nutrient supplements, you can treat the earliest, milder, symptoms yourself. Let's take a closer look at how all of this knowledge can be put to good use for restoring and maintaining health. |