I have only recently discovered the work of Dr Kelly Brogan, Board Certified Psychiatrist (USA) who is using Functional Medicine Approach (diet, restoring gut function, sleep, green/naatural outlook, circadian rhythm regulation, movement etc) to get people’s lives back on the healing track and off medications. If a person comes to her who is not already on psychiatric medications already, she instigates a 30 day dietary intervention first. Here are a few key paragraphs, please click the link to her blog for more info. There are also some great teaching videos online.
Coming Off Psych MedsFirst, Reverse the CauseThe best way to promote resiliency is to bring back a signal of safety to the mind and body. The premise of “paleo-deficiency” is making its way into the literature, and the relevance of diet*, green exposure, light cycle throughout the day and night, as well as movement, are amassing a literature that supports the efficacy and relevance of lifestyle.
With my patients, we don’t touch medications until we have initiated 30 days of dietary change . This diet minimizes antigenic foods like gluten and diary, increases natural fats critical for blood sugar stability, and puts a premium on the sourcing of food eliminating GMOs and carcinogenic, endocrine-disrupting pesticides.
Dietary change is a powerful, if not the most powerful means of effecting the microbiome, and gut-brain signaling. In fact, in Reilly’s case, there is compelling evidence in support of the role of gluten intolerance in psychotic illness. Early elimination of gluten and cross-reactants like dairy might have, without exaggeration, changed the course of Reilly’s life.
I often fantasize about an inpatient psychiatric ward where organic ancestral foods are served, meditation and relaxation response are taught, sleep is supported, and exercise encouraged. I’d love a randomized trials of outcomes as a means of deconstructing the one ill – one pill model.
click link: via Stop the Madness: Coming off Psych Meds.
