Mental Health in an Integrative Approach

I take a deeper dive into your mental health issues to come up with a plan to turn your brain around. First, I am a physician, and if medications are needed to manage a crisis, medication will come to the battle. However, some of our previous understanding about serotonin, dopamine, GABA, glutamate, and acetylcholine neurotransmitters may not be sufficient to explain our brain health. This handful of neurotransmitters as the targets of most medication, may also explain why medication falls short time and time again. There is more to our brain and mental health than these neurotransmitters, and why a bigger approach is needed to fix an ever-growing problem in America.

Einstein and the great scientists of our time certainly believe that our mental health is not just what is structured in our brain. It is “above” the brain in the realm of a yet-to-be-measured consciousness. Your brain is part of your mental health, but the entities driving your brain live in the big iCloud in the sky. The matrix. The global consciousness. The soul. The light. And if you think this sounds ethereal, it is! One sliver of the mental health healing pie is to find purpose or meaning. There is no section in the brain that we could see under the microscope for purpose or meaning, but the impact this has on mood and motivation is invaluable. While we may be able to measure waves of brain activity demonstrating coherence, theta creativity, and harmony when someone is working their purposeful existence, the meaning of life and purpose is unique to each person. Therefore, we will address your purpose for living in our private discussions regarding your psychological welfare.

The energetic make-up and function of the brain is crucial for its survival. Traditional psychiatry focuses on chemistry, but clearly this falls short, as many of you may attest. The brain needs abundant mitochondria (battery packs in the cells), and each of the mitochondria needs its energy to resonate the biophotons in the DNA. The brain has a pineal gland to discern light. The various speeds of waveforms in the synapses do different tasks throughout the day, and sunlight and sound and surrounding electromagnetic frequencies (EMF) all impact the health and transmission of data in that brain. In my approach to your mental health, we will clearly make plans for energy work to optimize your performance.   We might be feeding your mitochondria better with red light or near infrared light. We may need to work on neurofeedback techniques. We may need to find transcranial magnetic therapies. Sound therapy and restorative dance and breathing sessions are exceedingly therapeutic. Energy practitioners with advanced energetic technology (amp coils, NES, photon wave, Tesla Bio healing ) belong in the mental health healing wheel. Some of that work may also include protecting the brain from the wrong type of energy (Wi-Fi bombardment, EMF blocking, 405 nm light blockade, as examples). Simple meditative strategies and exercise have shown to boost levels of dopamine and serotonin, so it is time to add in energetic habits to impact your mental health. A bonus would be to find your tribe and do it together.

Since we need to use our brain as an antenna for receiving and sending information, it needs proper conditions to do so, and this is where we may need to clean up the water that you are drinking, the food you are consuming, or the environment you are living in. So much of the toxins that are in and around us are lipid soluble, and the brain is one of the fattiest structures we have, which makes it an ideal storage bin for these toxins. This toxicity can serve as rust or clutter in and around the cells that make it difficult for the cells and neurotransmitters to function. Identifying these pesky and damaging toxins may require me to be a medical detective and figure out what our target is. Don’t forget that molds, parasites, tick-borne illnesses, and chemical treatments to our food and water can create such havoc in the brain that not only mental health, but cognition, “brain fog,” and headaches may be your first clue to needing a spring cleaning or detoxification to fix this.

Back to our neurochemistry. Since proposed mechanisms of actions with medications may try to preserve chemistry in the synapse or be utilized at a receptor level, you need to manufacture this chemistry in the first place so it can be utilized at the synapse. Eating nutritious foods is imperative to good brain chemistry. Not only is sugar and dense grain-based carbohydrate foods devoid of any vitamins or cofactors, but they are also lacking amino acids such as tyrosine or l-tryptophan to build our brain chemistry. Sugar is also one heck of an addictive toxin that we cannot find too many good reasons to consume it. There is a reason why Alzheimer’s Disease is now nicknamed “Type 3 Diabetes.” Surely when I consult with my younger clients, changing the food consumption may be all that is necessary to quiet down a brain on fire. Loosely creating a “low-inflammatory” diet, I’d have a patient remove sugar, synthetic sugar substitutes, processed and deep-fried foods, dairy, gluten, soy, seed oils, and alcohol. This sounds depressing of itself, but the replacement foods are everything else!!! Conversion of hydration to good, filtered water rather than sodas, juices, and milks enhances the conductivity of our brain’s electro currents.

Supplements may also be an integral part of a comprehensive plan to round out your complete management. As I give this information, I also cautiously say that this is not individual advice. Medical grade supplements are as potent as medications sometimes, so this part of your care should really be under a physician’s care. Optimizing mitochondrial health with micronutrients will include vitamins such as: B-complex, zinc, magnesium, selenium, and vitamin D. In fact, eighty percent of bipolar patients have an element of B deficiencies. To optimize the myelin sheathing, which enhances transmission and fatty acid environment, omega-3 fish, or vegan oils add on if there is little fish in the diet. Whether or not methylation is in question will determine if methylated nutrients shall be added. Amino acids that manufacture neurotransmitters can also play a beneficial role. These include l-tryptophan, tyrosine, glycine, glutamate, and GABA as the most common. I’d venture to say that the herbal arena has been in existence for thousands of years and has underpinnings in the pharmaceutical world. The early days of being a physician also meant that one was an herbalist/chemist/compounding pharmacist. It is no stretch that natural compounds harvested from the earth and the rainforests are blended in some formulations that not only help with mood, but also with brain capacity, mental sharpness, and memory. I give caution again, to avoid dabbling in this world if you do not understand it. Please seek professional advice, because these compounds may compete with medications and/or be as strong as medications and could cause more harm than good if used inappropriately or at too high of a dose. Just because something is natural, does not mean it is safe or right for your condition.

Find your purpose. Find your tribe. Find me, your comprehensive physician and medical detective!