Given my conviction that the vast majority of psychiatric conditions are caused by inflammation of the brain, most of the recommendations that I make to patients in my practice of holistic psychiatry are designed to support the immune system which decreases inflammation. Depression, anxiety, attentional difficulties, brain fog, and other cognitive changes are all mediated… [Continue reading]
Histamine Intolerance
Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS): A Common Cause of Brain Fog, Anxiety, Depression and Insomnia
Recently it has become increasingly clear that many patients who call requesting an initial psychiatric consultation are suffering from a common condition known as Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS). MCAS can present with extremely diverse fluctuating symptoms. Brain fog, anxiety, depression and insomnia are among the most common symptoms, and thus it is truly unfortunate… [Continue reading]
Use of Low Dose Naltrexone in Psychiatric Practice
I just returned from Florida where I attended the Annual International Conference 2018 sponsored by the Institute for Functional Medicine entitled, “Solving the Puzzle of Autoimmunity: the Interplay of Gut, Genes and the Environment. “ Though the conference was not officially about psychiatric disorders, I am convinced that most of what was discussed is directly relevant… [Continue reading]
No Excuse Chicken Broth 24/7
Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride taught me that mental health depends upon the health of our immune system, and the health of the immune system depends upon the health of the gut. All of the strategies she suggests in the GAPS Healing Protocol are designed to enhance immunity, which fundamentally is achieved by promoting gut health. One of… [Continue reading]
Histamine Intolerance, Ancestral Health and Courage
Healing and illness occur on multiple levels, the physical, emotional and spiritual. In our culture we focus on the physical as of primary importance, a distant second is the emotional, and the spiritual is typically hardly regarded as significant at all. Science views the body as a complex machine, an isolated separate material object located… [Continue reading]
