Dear Friends:
In April 1997 I knew very little about nutrition, nutritional supplements, or any other alternative medical topic. I had been taking some vitamin and mineral supplements for almost a year. However, I really did not know much about what I was doing in this regard.
As a result of finding some information on the Internet, I began taking a 500 mg. capsule of the amino acid tyrosine in May 1997, along with the vitamins and minerals that I was taking prior.
I did not realize how powerful this tyrosine supplement was for me antidepressant-wise until the sixty capsule bottle of it ran out.
For about a week after I ran out of the bottle of tyrosine that I had I underwent a steady mood decline to the point where it was obvious (to me) that I was depressed.
I had no psychological reason whatsoever to be depressed at this time. Seven months prior I had bought a new minivan that I was quite happy with. A few months prior I had bought an older but very comfortable 14 X 70 single wide trailer in a mobile home park in Clark Mills, New York. (This mobile home had some beautiful trees on the lot, a long wooden porch with a roof over it, and a small creek in the back. I loved it.) I was involved in a longstanding process of extricating myself from a bad marriage, but this was not a major stressor, as I was GLAD that my marriage was finally ending. I had a girlfriend that I was quite happy with at this time. Money was not a problem. My life in general was more stable and content than it had been for decades. There was simply no reason for me to be depressed in July 1997 unless this depression was ONLY biochemical in nature.
In thinking things over on the evening of July 6, 1997 I realized that my taking tyrosine for the past two months MUST HAVE helped my mood substantially in some way. I wanted to go out and buy some more tyrosine, and immediately take some. However, it was Sunday and the local health food store where I could get some more was closed. (I would have to wait until Monday to buy another bottle of tyrosine.)
That Sunday night I also realized that I had another option in regard to getting more tyrosine into my system. I could take a multi amino acid supplement I had recently ordered through the mail, but had not opened the bottle yet. This new supplement did contain some tyrosine per tablet, along with a number of other free form amino acids. So I did the math (as per the ingredients listed on the bottle), taking enough tablets of this new supplement in order to take a little over 500 mg. of tyrosine. Soon after this I also took 2 mg. of Klonopin (a medication that I had been on for about fifteen months), and went to bed.
Eight hours later I woke up in a state of mania! I went from a serious state of depression to a serious state of mania simply by the oral ingestion of nine grams of an unbalanced free form amino acid preparation.
I was amazed at this experience; that I could switch mood states simply by taking a free form amino acid supplement. I repeated what I did a week later, and the same thing happened… I became manic simply by taking an unbalanced (too excitatory) free form amino acid preparation.
The above resulted in my becoming greatly interested in what nutrition, and what nutritional supplements, could do in regard to my curing myself of over three decades of manic depressive symptoms.
As I have been self-educated for my entire adult life, I sought out books that might help me in my quest for more knowledge at this time.
First I found the book "The Way Up From Down" by Dr. Priscilla Slagle. Despite its old copyright date (1987) and its simplicity, this book helped me enormously. (I read and reread this book perhaps a half dozen times over the next six months.) It educated me in regard to the fact that there are excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitters. It educated me in regard to the fact that neurotransmitters are primarily made out of amino acids, but that vitamins and minerals were important in this regard as well. It educated me in regard to the fact that taking individual free form amino acid supplements can increase whatever particular neurotransmitter these free form amino acids make. It educated me in regard to the fact that B vitamins are needed to make many neurotransmitters. It educated me in regard to the fact that our American diet is often substandard and that food allergies and other malabsorptive causes can play a role in causing depression. It educated me in regard to the fact that ALL of these obvious and irrefutable biochemical issues are summarily ignored when treating depression, as "drugs and only drugs" are modern medicine's ONLY answer to the same. And it educated in regard to the fact that modern medicine is criminally ignoring the biologically obvious, simply for the sake of the money it can make from doing so.
[The book "The Way Up From Down" is out of print. However, Dr. Slagle has generously made this book available free at her website, http://www.thewayup.com. The whole book can be downloaded in Adobe.]
In the summer of 1997, I also found (the current edition at this time) the book "Prescription For Nutritional Healing" by James Balch, M.D. and Phyllis Balch. This book did have a prescription for manic depression, but I found it sorely lacking and somewhat in error. I could relate far more to the prescription it had for either alcoholism or malabsorption, as both of these prescriptions made far more sense to me for manic depression that the prescription for manic depression itself. Despite its errors, I am deeply thankful to the authors of this book. They introduced me to a much wider range of nutritional supplements than Dr. Priscilla Slagle did, and I began to experiment with a great many of them (to see how I felt after taking them).
Luckily, I lived only fifty miles from Syracuse, New York. Syracuse NY was where Dr. Sherry Rogers practiced medicine in 1997. Dr. Rogers had recently self-published her book "Depression Cured At Last". I picked up a copy of it at a health food store in the Syracuse area called Natur-Tyme in September 1997. Dr. Sherry Rogers book "Depression Cured At Last" opened up a conceptual realm of alternative medicine that was enormously helpful to me. Dr. Rogers primary goal in all of her written work was to educate the patient to help his or her own self. Her biggest target in correcting depression was the GI tract (gastrointestinal tract), which I commonly refer to as the gut. (It would have taken me a lot longer to figure out the proper manner to correct bipolar disorder in myself if it was not for Sherry Rogers. In a very real way, I feel that I owe this woman my life.)
Sherry Rogers essentially taught me to "Forget about the brain when dealing with mania or depression in one's self. The brain is only a secondary target organ to primary gut events. Fix the gut, and correct dietary issues (to include avoidance of hidden food allergens), and the brain will automatically fix itself". Another thing that Dr. Rogers taught me is that orally supplementing with nutritional supplements, without addressing one's malabsorptive status at the same time, is "just not wise", as much of the nutritional value of such supplementation is lost (it is pooped into the toilet a day or two later). In my opinion, Sherry Rogers 8R program of gut correction, as first espoused in her book "Depression Cured At Last", and later upgraded in her book "No More Heartburn", is conceptually unparalleled. (All of Dr. Rogers books can be found on http://prestigepublishing.com/, and many of them can be found on http://amazon.com/ as well.)
[Dr. Rogers only major blind spot in healing is in regard to the use of free form amino acids. To cover this blind spot, I used knowledge from three sources. I used knowledge that Dr. Priscilla Slagle taught me in her book "The Way Up From Down". I used knowledge I learned from Robert Erdmann in his book "The Amino Revolution" which can be found on Amazon.com at http://www.amazon.com/Amino-Revolution-Robert-Erdmann/dp/0671673599/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1316801116&sr=1-1. And I used knowledge gained from my own self experimentation and self experience. I did not need amino acid knowledge from Julia Ross in her book "The Mood Cure", as I had sent her via email the prescription of tryptophan, taurine, GABA, and glycine for inhibition in February 1998, and I later amended my advice on the same to include histidine, as per Robert Erdmann's repeated suggestions in his book "The Amino Revolution".]
At Natur-Tyme in September 1997 I also bought a few books by William Crook, M.D. at this time; one on yeast (candida) and one on food allergies and yeast being causative of ADHD. I also bought a classic book on the gut (that is now out of print) called "Tissue Cleansing Through Bowel Management" by Bernard Jensen.
These books helped me enormously as well.
William Crook's written work, in conjunction with my own experience, made me realize that I had had an overgrowth of yeast from my childhood years onward, and that this yeast was a major causative factor in my being bipolar for over three decades. His written work, in conjunction with my own experience, made me also realize that I had multiple hidden food allergies from my childhood years onward, and that these food allergies were a major causative factor in my being bipolar for over three decades as well. [It is worthy to note that another doctor named Doris Rapp drew the same conclusions as William Crook in regard to hidden food allergies and yeast being the two primary causative factors underlying ADHD.]
Bernard Jensen's book "Tissue Cleansing Through Bowel Management" prompted me to undergo a series of colonics in September and October of 1997. A colonic is a cleansing of the large intestine with water that is under gentle pressure. Normally a 45 minute colonic will clean out the large intestine, which averages about five foot in length. My first colonic did not even clean out one foot. (I could actually feel how far it got.) My bowel was encrusted with "many years old" feces, just as John Wayne's bowel was when he died. (Some say John Wayne had 30 to 40 pounds of old fecal matter in his large intestine when he died.) The series of colonics that I got over a two month period of time removed a lot of old encrusted feces from me. One result was my mood lifted noticeably. Another result is that my skin cleared up in a manner that was quite noticeable to me as well. I felt a sense of peace and relief after this series of colonics was completed… a feeling that I never had felt before.
[Although "Tissue Cleansing Through Bowel Management" is out of print, a newer book by Bernard Jensen essentially replaces it. This book is titled "Dr. Jensen's Guide to Better Bowel Care: A Complete Program for Tissue Cleansing through Bowel Management" and it can be found on Amazon.com at http://www.amazon.com/Jensens-Guide-Better-Bowel-Care/dp/0895295849/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1316800744&sr=1-1.]
As a result of taking vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids, amino acids, probiotics, and other helpful supplements in September and October of 1997, I realized that most of them were substantially helping me. I could quite literally "feel the help" that these supplements provided me; no book had to convince me. (Incidentally, whenever I took certain free form amino acids along with vitamin and mineral nutrient cofactors this "help" was both fairly immediate and quite obvious.)
In the fall of 1997 I wondered why so many different supplements were clearly helping me. And I wondered why I was deficient in so many essential nutrients (such that my condition of manic depression was the end result).
I knew that many of the foods that I ate in my life came from depleted topsoil. I knew that many of the foods that I ate in my life were processed. And I knew that many of the foods that I ate in my life were cooked as well. From the reading that I did in the fall of 1997, and from reading Adelle Davis decades prior, I knew that (1) mineral depleted topsoils, (2) the modern processing of foodstuffs, and (3) cooking all contribute to essential nutrient depletion in one way or another.
However, it became clear to me that mineral depleted topsoil, processed food, and cooked food were not the only three reasons I was broadly essential nutrient deficient.
In the fall of 1997 it became clear to me that the largest reason that I was broadly nutrient deficient was that I was MALABSORPTIVE. I was clearly not absorbing ALL essential nutrients as well as most other persons were, going all the way back to my childhood years.
Orally taking free form amino acids over a period of time can teach someone a great deal about malabsorption in one's self. This I know for a fact as a result of taking about 150,000 capsules of individual or blended free form amino acids since 1997. Amino acid supplementation, done properly and with adequate cofactors, can definitely be felt, as long as one is absorbing adequately.
[It is worthy to note that one's absorptive ability can change from one day to the next, or even one meal to the next, depending on what foods one is exposed to. Even a single exposure to a food allergen can temporarily AND substantially shut down the gut from an absorptive standpoint. Free form amino acid supplementation (taken along with vitamin and mineral cofactors) over time, taught me this.]
Conclusion
Malabsorption clearly underlies mental illness, not only my particular case of mental illness, but that of millions of others.
Sadly, the two free form amino acid blends that I mixed together (in a two to one ratio) and heavily relied on for wellness for over a decade will most probably be taken off the market (or go way up in price) via current Big Pharma subterfuge in getting the FDA to change the law.
Sadly, a number of powerfully therapeutic vitamin and mineral supplements that help me and many others such as those found at http://www.truehope.com/default.aspx or http://www.equilib.us/ will probably be taken off the market or go way up in price as well.
And sadly, my son Willy Darman's simple yet profound discovery to take a wide range of nutritional supplements all at once is BY FAR the best way to correct depressive, ADHD, bipolar, and schizophrenic symptoms is soon going to be suppressed.
What kind of world do we live in? such that soon after real answers to mental illness are actually found, the FDA repeatedly acts to take these answers away from us, simply to protect Big Pharma and the hoax of drug oriented medicine.
Allen Darman
Two Related Blogs:
FDA Trying To Control All Nutritional Supplements By Labeling Them "Drugs" (2007)
http://nutrientscure.wordpress.com/2009/07/09/fda-trying-to-control-all-nutritional-supplements-by-labeling-them-drugs-2007/
The FDA Will Mandate That Mental Illness Cannot Be Cured (9/19/2011)
http://nutrientscure.wordpress.com/2011/09/19/the-fda-will-soon-mandate-that-no-cure-for-mental-illness-will-ever-be-recognized-9192011/
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