Nutritional Treatments of Mental and Behavioural Disorders

A holistic approach to mental health is very important in order to identify the cause of any neuroendocrine imbalances. The critical interplay of various hormones, the digestive, immune and nervous systems, certain metabolic reactions, heavy metals, amino acids, etc all contribute significantly to the overall balance of neurotransmitters and therefore mental health.

The balance of neurotransmitters in the brain is influenced by: sex, adrenal and thyroid hormones; gut function, the immune system, heavy metals, allergies, inflammation, the methylation reaction, pyrrole disorder, insulin resistance, oxidative damage, stress, poor nutrition, etc. Unfortunately orthodox medicine does not address any of these issues and never questions why these imbalances occur and thus only treats the symptoms using a variety of drugs. The problem with this approach is that it does not deal with the underlying cause of these imbalances.

Ideally the treatment of these conditions should involve investigating the possibility that hormone imbalances, digestive disorders, food allergies, heavy metals, biochemical imbalances, etc, etc may be present. If found to be the case each factor should be treated in order to achieve a normal balanced neuroendocrine system. This approach addresses the underlying cause of any imbalance rather than simply treating the symptoms.

Many tests are available to access all these functions and help determine a more holistic approach to treating mental illness.