Letter from the publisher

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients,  April, 2004  by Jonathan Collin

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In Seattle most of the alternative and chelating physicians did their real "internship" not in the hospital, but at a low-cost clinic set up by the Well Mind Association in an older Victorian home. The clinic was part charity work, part street advice, and part "orthomolecular medicine"--that strange "medical" practice based on the revolutionary psychiatric thinking of Abram Hoffer, Carl Pfeiffer, MD's as well as nutritionists Carlton Fredericks, Linus Pauling, and Adele Davis. The Well Mind Association in Seattle was itself a strange organization--mostly of parents, children and relatives looking to help their offspring and family with nutritional approaches to psychiatric disturbances. The group met in a church in north Seattle each month, featuring a lecture by Hoffer or another orthomolecular practitioner. The clinic was a low-budget office staffed by dedicated workers including one nurse whom I recall worked a daytime job to enable her to do the more fulfilling work of the Well Mind Association. Patients presented with a panoply of psychiatric conditions from stress, anxiety, depression, and personality disorders to schizophrenia, manic-depression, and learning disabilities. It was a heady experience to prescribe nutritional supplements, food allergy restrictive diets, B12 and vitamin injections, amino acid and fatty acid supplements, homeopathics, detoxification programs, and other approaches, steering away from Thorazine and Valium. What was most satisfying was the subtle and gradual changes parents noted in their children. There was no immediate improvement comparable to prescribing a drug; on the other hand, one would see the gradual changes that the patient would make in understanding his psychiatric condition, seeing the little changes that made life much more worthwhile living. Patients and family would comment that there would be a less "drugged" effect, less acting like a zombie, more living life with a clearer vision, a greater enjoyment of simple pleasures, and thinking more clearly. Even more horrible things, like sleep disturbances and nightmares, rigidity in facial and body musculature, a tendency to silence and aloofness, all the product of long-term, high dose drug use, changed, either disappearing or lessening. As a group, the physicians and workers and parents of the Well Mind Association in Seattle succeeded in implementing orthomolecular medicine in a psychiatric practice.

Other communities and physicians have set up orthomolecular practices, clinics and associations for psychiatric treatment. In New Jersey, Carl Pfeiffer's clinic has continued to employ many of the techniques and strategies that Pfeiffer established years earlier. Among the many observations Pfeiffer related to mental health were requirements to balance zinc and copper metabolically, determine histamine excess and deficiency, and measure abnormal urinary biochemical byproducts indicative of amino acid, vitamin and mineral imbalance. The orthomolecular group in Vancouver, British Columbia has hallmarked Hoffer's work and maintained a journal as well as an annual symposium on orthomolecular medicine. Similar associations have been established in England and Australia. The criminal justice system has embraced some of this work and a number of organizations are attempting to bring aspects of orthomolecular medicine into the prison and parole system. Years ago, journal editor and academic researcher, Alexander Schauss, discussed the possibility that consumption of milk and dairy products may exacerbate criminal behavior in those individuals determined to have a dairy product allergy. The consideration of hypoglycemic reactions being the cause of a criminal act has been the focus of a number of court cases. One of our columnists, Dr. Melvin Werbach, has authored a text outlining much of this orthomolecular medicine in The Nutritional Influences on Mental lllness.

In this issue of the Townsend Letter we consider some of the less serious but more bothersome aspects of mental health, to wit, mood and sleep disorders. It is a curious phenomenon in medicine, but mood disorders are generally improved with better sleep, and sleep disorders are generally improved with treatment of depression. Perhaps the key connection here lies in control of the neurotransmitters, especially serotonin, dopamine, epinephrine and norepinephrine. When these neurotransmitters are not in balance with one another, it is not uncommon for mood and sleep disorders to be prominent, and for there to be difficulty with weight management. While the drug industry looks for more pharmaceuticals to control serotonin and dopamine, we might find important support using tryptophan and tyrosine as well as Vitamin B12. One area we did not look at in this issue was the relationship between hormone therapy and mood disorders: unquestionably thyroid, adrenal and sex hormones play a major role in supporting mood. Please do give a read of Dr. Jonathan Wright's dissertation on unusual uses of lithium. Gary Null reminds us once again of the perils of antidepressant and psychiatric medications. While we do not offer any articles in this issue by Hoffer or Pfeiffer, we do recommend your reading these orthomolecular giants. Their books are available from most Well Mind association groups--why not try to find a group in your area and join in?