The Natural Medicine Guide to Bipolar Disorder (The Healthy Mind Guides)

"This book really explains how your nutritionally deficient body contributes to your bipolar and maybe even be causing it."
~ Written on 2008-02-23

"Besides the author be a journalist, she have done a terrific work, collecting rich information about these disorders, that affect between 1% to 8% of world population, in different severity grades. She also collected important testimonies from many MD's, who do not agree with traditional medicine and drugs for treatment of these diseases, which in most cases creates several undesirable side effects. I have used these drugs for about 10 years, and know I'm looking for alternatives less agressives to my organism. I'm gifting copies of this book to known and friend doctors, one experienced psychiatrist, and one experienced endocrinologist. It's important to have their support to implement this change, considering the complexity of the disease."
~ Written on 2008-01-31

"this book had alot of information material that I was not aware of.
very pleased with it--"
~ Written on 2007-11-29

"Useful and easy to read information.
Chapter Six 'Amino Acids: Giving the Brain What It Needs'
has helped me treat depression/insomnia.
In fact I would pay $50 for chapter six alone."
~ Written on 2007-10-17

"Some good information. Some of which you can get off of the Internet. Some of which you can't. I waited a while before writing this review, because people were praising the book so highly I thought I had missed something during my initial reading. So I went back and read it again. I didn't miss anything. It's nice to know that there are alternative therapies, because I have been on every med out there that's use to treat mania, and I've had major problems with all of them. They either don't work at all (the anti-convulsants) or send me to the emergency room with outrageous blood sugar problems (the atypical antipsychotics) that only clear up when I go off of the meds. My doctor talked about trying natural remedies, but he was unfamiliar with them. So after deciding that I was not going to take insulin just so that I could take psych meds, I started researching natural remedies for myself. I also decided that since one med that I know of does cut my mania within hours of taking it, I do not need to be on meds 24/7/365. I think this 24/7/365 med taking is marketing hype by the pharmaceutical companies. Plus, my doctor told me that, outside of lithium, no other drug is actually known to forestall manic episodes. So unless a drug takes weeks to build up in your system before it'll work, there is no scientific reason to take the drug 24/7/365.

What I really need from this book is a clear and organized list of the names of the alternative meds and a description of each; for instance, a description of what each is supposed to treat, as well as comprehensive state by state lists of the clinics that practice natural medicine. My health insurance would never pay for me to go out of state for treatment. So the book is not helpful, unless I can use it to self-medicate. All I learned from it is that there are alternatives. However, for most of us, who have limited resources, the alternative resources are out of reach."
~ Written on 2007-06-27