Brief Overview of My Practice

      In 1977, while practicing as a successful conventional psychiatrist in Portsmouth, VA, I started noticing several reports of certain vitamin deficiencies causing depressive illnesses. Since then I have expanded my reading to articles dated way prior to 1977, as well as to articles about other vitamin deficiencies, about many different mineral imbalances, to the in-depth study of hypothyroidism and other hormone deficiencies, to the ways of diagnosing and treating systemic candidiasis (yeast overgrowth in the blood and body tissues), food-allergies, natural sex and growth hormone boosting, and the reversal of immune deficiencies. And of course I have continued to read the latest articles as they appeared, over the years, up to the present date. More and more conditions, both mental and physical, started responding to correction of these biochemical abnormalities, even when the patient and I were not targeting these other conditions with my treatment. Lately I have also started to suspect that we in the medical and health food communities have neglected the fact that we all need significant amounts of 'essential fatty acids' in order to survive and prosper (health wise).

      The articles that attracted my attention were not those that approached these issues in general, but were those that focused on the best kinds of blood analysis of these elements, and then on the best ways of correcting these imbalances and again monitoring the corrections with further blood tests, to see whether the deficiency or excess has in fact been optimally corrected or not. There are many factors regulating the success of these corrective supplementations, only one of which has to do with the route of administration and the dose of the element prescribed. Others include the quality of the product and even whether it contains the element it says it does (since no one is 'minding the store' in the case of non-pharmaceutical products) and also how correctly and regularly the patient has actually taken the prescribed element.

      The main point is that, while all these articles described the pathological effects of the deficiency under discussion at the time, there are none which document the effects of correcting several or all of the patient's deficiencies at the same time in the same individual. That seems to be when the power of nutritional hormonal optimization is manifested most dramatically. Unfortunately, that is also a circumstance that scientific medicine is unable or unwilling to address in treatment. It is, absolutely logically, argued that, in research, when one is altering several elements at the same time, it becomes impossible to know which one or more of these elements has been the one (or more) that has/ have effected the improvement or the cure in the patient. However, when you are the patient, and each element has already been proven effective when replacing a deficiency in numerous other, medically documented cases, it is probably more important to you to get well first and only later to find out which of the elements were the ones that made the most difference in your case. [One can then drop one element at a time and see whether any deterioration in one's condition occurs, if one really wants to know!]. Or, as the physician treating numerous patients, it often becomes clear which elements do what, because the patients have varying combinations of deficiencies and so one notices which single or combinations of elements have what effects.

      To carry out a scientific factor analysis of all these elements and conditions in my practice would take a tremendous amount of time and money. But I figure that sending out dozens or hundreds of case reports of successful outcomes will probably eventually stimulate researchers who have access to university facilities and grants to conduct the scientifically valid studies that will then prove the effectiveness of my treatments. Although, with even scientific articles being ignored as they are, I am not holding my breath that my little anecdotal reports (as such are often disparagingly known in the scientific community) are going to do that anytime soon. I am comforted by the fact that, sometimes, the weight of numerous anecdotal reports of similar successful outcomes will stimulate definitive research, which will then confirm these methods, which, so far, have largely been found to be successful by my patients and me.

      What is more, patients experience far less side effects on this kind of treatment; and even the side effects of antidepressant and other medications can be reduced with the use of certain nutrients.

      This approach, while initially seeming to be costly (approximately $500-1000 for the initial full battery of blood tests, depending on how many are done in each particular case and what route of payment is chosen), actually turns out to be very cost efficient in the long run, since the cause of each problem is usually uncovered and corrected, and several other benefits, which were not even being aimed for, usually also accrue. And you can save a lot in health food item costs by knowing which nutrients you really need, so you are not just paying for a guessing game.

       "This approach to medicine is a unique blend of Science and Art. The Science involves extensive use of blood tests to determine whether imbalances, deficiencies, or allergies exist, which prevent the body from functioning normally. These tests are complemented by explanatory input where appropriate. The Art involves analysis of the test data and, on the basis of years of successful experience, prescribing therapy (including diet, supplements and hormones) which will permit the patient to function at peak performance." --  Everett Opdahl, a Very Happy Recent Patient from Maryland