How Medical Nutrition Is Curing Mental Illness

By Author: William Pollard
Total Articles: 156
Comment this article

Medical nutrition is leading the way in coming up with new solutions to solving mental health problems with more than just the conventional anti-psychotic or anti-depressant drugs. The term for curing by nutrition is orthomolecular. This term was coined by Linus Pauling, who was a Nobel Prize winner. The term describes how giving the right nutrients to cells and all the nutrients they need are essential to good health. There may be a chemical imbalance in the body because of a disease. Putting in the right nutrients instead of eating junk food with large amounts of amino acids or polyunsaturated fats could help to address the chemical imbalance that may be partly causing the disease.

Factors in Modern Lifestyles

There are many factors in our modern lifestyles today that can cause health difficulties without us even realizing it. For example, high blood pressure and hardening of the arteries can be caused by cadmium-polluted air. Fluorescent lighting can cause hyperactivity. Drinking water that is rich in aluminium can cause problems like poisoning with symptoms related to senility. Even copper plumbing can cause ...
... high levels of copper in the body producing hypertension. Hypoglycaemia, heart disease and diabetes are often the result of a sustained high sugar intake. Furthermore, food additives can cause allergies.

How to Overcome these Factors

The modern field of nutrition attempts to help people get over these problems. Nutritional supplements and a nutritional diet can help patients get over harmful effects of lead, mercury and calcium. The particular field of orthomolecular medicine is most often used in relation to mental health disorders. The biochemical individuality of each patient is considered by assessment, which means that some patients will need different amounts of nutrients compared with other patients. A diet of mega nutrients and strict exercise is often effective in the long term while drugs are more effective in the shorter ter. Mega nutrients like vitamin C and vitamin B3 can calm an overactive mind and give greater levels of mental concentration. Zinc, manganese and vitamin B6 will relieve symptoms of high blood sugar levels. Of course, the other positive thing about vitamin nutrients is that they do not cause long term side effects that other drugs cause, like tardive dyskinesia or tremors.

Medical nutrition can be used effectively in patients suffering from COPD, stroke, PKU and cancer.