We have had experience with several antidepressive nutrients and drugs. Phenylalanine, an amino acid found in relatively large amounts in meat, milk, cheese, and some other high protein foods, is a very effective and quick remedy for a wide variety of depressions, including the depressive phase of manic-depressive illness and endogenous, schizophrenic, and post-amphetamine depression. […]
Death from helplessness has been widely observed in animals and people. In one study, wild rats forced to swim until exhaustion lasted for 60 hours before they drowned. Rats that were first held firmly in the investigator’ hand until they stopped struggling, and were then put in the water, swam frantically for about 30 minutes, […]
The drive to resist compulsion is more important to wild animals than sex, food, or water. He [J. L. Kavanau] found that captive white-footed mice spent inordinate time and energy just resisting experimental manipulation. If the experimenters turned the lights up, the mouse spent his time setting them down. If the experimenters turned the lights […]
Psychopharmacology, the science of drugs which affect psychological functions, offers other interesting materials. The amino acid tryptophan is a safe, nonaddictive sleeping aid which works because it is made into serotonin in the brain. Serotonin is the neurotransmitter which initiates sleep. Tryptophan is found in milk and bananas and can often be purchased in pill […]
The body has natural processes by which it removes lipofuscin from cells, involving detergent-like compounds. However, the rate of removal falls farther and farther behind the rate of accumulation. (Even a 3-month-old fetus may have some lipofuscin in some of its nerve cells!) The cholinergic drugs Deaner® and centrophenoxine have been experimentally shown in animals […]
Hydergine® can also be of value in hypoglycemia because it helps stabilize the brain’s response to energy supply—the brain is normally the part of the body most sensitive to low blood sugar. People who are unable to obtain adequate oxygen because of heavy smoking (the carbon monoxide destroys the oxygen-carrying hemoglobin in the blood and […]
Recently a new drug was added to the pharmacopoeia of memory-improving drugs: vasopressin. Vasopressin is a natural pituitary-gland hormone which is best known for its regulation of urine volume. It is approved by the FDA for treating diabetes insipidus, a condition of frequent urination (not related to insulin-sugar diabetes) caused by inadequate quantities of vasopressin. […]
As noted in the preceding chapter, choline bitartrate, the most common type of choline sold at health food stores, can cause diarrhea. If you do use it, you may be able to avoid diarrhea by beginning at a low dose and increasing the amount gradually. Choline chloride (also called choline hydrochloride) does not have this […]
For each neurochemical there is an optimal amount which differs for every individual. Above or below this amount, mental function will not improve markedly or will even decrease. Drug effects may be subtle at first, requiring a period of learning for full realization of its benefits. The schematic diagram here shows how neurotransmitters carry messages […]
The mind so strongly depends on temperament and the disposition of bodily organs, that if it is possible to find some means which will make men generally more wise and more clever than they have been till now, I believe that it is in medicine one should seek it. . . . It is true […]