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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 7 of 7. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by JasonL on May 10, 2001, at 15:05:57
Friends,
I posted a few days ago relating my struggle with depression that has taken a turn for the better.
If you're read my posts in the past, you know that I have struggled with severe depression for several years. But something has changed my life.
Please read the book, The Metabolic Typing Diet. Please see my post on 5/7 or 5/6, "everyone please read."
I am enjoying the day today. Six weeks ago I was wanting to die. Oh, did I mention that I am not on any medicine either?
Contact me at jklohr@aol.com if you want to hear more.
You can also call me at 310.874.4893. I am willing to share all I know about how diet might be helpful to you!Warm Regards,
Jason Lohr
Posted by Michele on May 10, 2001, at 16:14:44
In reply to Everyone please read, posted by JasonL on May 10, 2001, at 15:05:57
>Jason,
Hi. I am so glad to hear your coming along. I'm not all that familiar with your posts, but I'll make it a point to go back and look at them. I too am suffering from depression... gave up all drugs about 2 months ago, and am doing well.
I have admit... you have freaked me out. My ex fiance.... who was killed last year in a motorcycle accident..... his name is Jason Ohr. Evertime I see that name I have to do a double take. Weird.
Anyway, hope things continue to improve. You sound great. Take case, Michele
Posted by SalArmy4me on May 10, 2001, at 23:37:55
In reply to Everyone please read, posted by JasonL on May 10, 2001, at 15:05:57
Maybe your diet has a lot of inositol or tryptophan in it, and that's why it seems to work. Take a look at this: http://www.med.nyu.edu/Psych/aug/sld040.html
> Friends,
>
> I posted a few days ago relating my struggle with depression that has taken a turn for the better.
>
> If you're read my posts in the past, you know that I have struggled with severe depression for several years. But something has changed my life.
>
> Please read the book, The Metabolic Typing Diet. Please see my post on 5/7 or 5/6, "everyone please read."
>
> I am enjoying the day today. Six weeks ago I was wanting to die. Oh, did I mention that I am not on any medicine either?
>
> Contact me at jklohr@aol.com if you want to hear more.
> You can also call me at 310.874.4893. I am willing to share all I know about how diet might be helpful to you!
>
> Warm Regards,
>
> Jason Lohr
Posted by JasonL on May 11, 2001, at 7:52:01
In reply to Re: Everyone please read, posted by SalArmy4me on May 10, 2001, at 23:37:55
I have taken H-HTP and inotisol suppliments in the past.It is true that our bodies require certain nutrients to function well. But getting nutrients from a suppliment can be very tricky.
The current western medicine paradigm of neurotransmission is just one peice of the biochemical puzzle. In truth, there are many many more neurotransmitters that exist besides serotonin, DA, and NE. The amine theroy of depression takes a look at human health and attempts to explain it in terms of a certain angle...i.e. people who are depressed show lowered levels of serotonin in cerebral spinal fluid, therfore, lets make drugs that increase serotonin, ect.
Taking a step back, one might ask, "How can I best fascilitate my bodies own natural system for serotonin fuction?
Anti depressents adress the symptoms of depression. They do not adress the cause.
Example: You bring your sick plant to the doctor. He examines the brown leaves, the spots on the leaves, the poor quality of leaf structure. The plant doctor gives this condition, this series of symptoms a name. "Sir your plant has depression."
"Let me give this pill to help," he says. "I'd also like to paint the brown leaves over with some green paint, this will help with the symptoms, help reduce them."
You stand back a bit perplexed. It seems that any good doctor would look at the condition of the soil. Would do a series of checks to make sure the plant was getting the propper nutrients, water, and sun...
This applies to human health. Doctors understand at some level that diet and nutrition effect the health of the body, including the brain. Its just been hard, up until now, to know exactly what a body really needs in terms of nutrients...
Metabolic Typing is a shift in ways of thinking about health. it puts yopu back in touch with your own self, with learning to listen to your own bodies demand for nutrients. Each person is unique, each persons nutritional needs are unique. But once you begin to ubderstand YOU...then you can feed yourself what you need.
Well being follows.
If you are ready to look beyond the amine theory of depression, read the book, "Metabolic Typing Diet."
It has givem me my life back.
Jason Lohr
Posted by Neal on May 13, 2001, at 0:48:17
In reply to Re: Everyone please read, posted by JasonL on May 11, 2001, at 7:52:01
Jason,
Of course we are all intrigued by what you say. But how about letting the cat out of the bag and paraphrasing a little of what the book says, so's we can judge a little better if we want to buy it. --Neal
Posted by JasonL on May 13, 2001, at 16:13:45
In reply to Re: Everyone please read, posted by Neal on May 13, 2001, at 0:48:17
> Jason,
> Of course we are all intrigued by what you say. But how about letting the cat out of the bag and paraphrasing a little of what the book says, so's we can judge a little better if we want to buy it. --NealNeal,
I was not trying to be ambiguous. My goal is to get people to read for themselves so that they would get first hand the crux of the ideas, without distortion.
With that said, I will do my best to explain.
The story begins with the adage, "What is one man's poison is another man's pleasure."
Consider this: How is that Eskimos can live on a diet of 80% animal proteins and fats and have very low incidence of heart disease and diabetes and obesity. Certainly such a diet would not fit the criteron for what the American Heart Association would consider "healthy".
A dentist named Weston Price was perplexed with the rapid tooth dacay of his patients. In the 1930s, Price left his practice to travel the world looking at diets. He found that all over the world, diets from one population to another varied considerably. Eskimos lived on animal meat and fats. Indigineous cultures of India, however, did well on diets primarily of rice and beans. Aborigonies of Australia included bugs as a staple of thier diets.
Price found that within various indiginous cultures scattered throughout the world, man existed and lived with great health into old age. He found such cultures to be without the various and widespread degenerative disease found in the west. He noted that within the United States alone, before the 1900s, there was relatively little incidence of heart disease, diabetes, ect.
What was going on?
Price also observed that if you took any one culture and introduced to them food that was outside their traditional diets, that people would begin to manifest degenerative disease. Thus, he found Eskimos who veered from their tradional diets to be manifesting degenerative disease, tootth decay, and poor health. The same was true for Indians who moved away from rice and beans to higher protein diets...
What emerged was the concept of biochemical individuality. Other researchers in the fifties were beginning to see similar results. Noteabley, was one man who took morphine and reacted in the exact opposite manner (went into mania) than was expected.
The man was intrigued. He later went on to propose this idea of biochmical individuality. Each person, depending on their own unique metabolic characteristics, will react and respond in their own unique manner to drugs, foods, ect.
It's not hard for one to understand this concept. Consider the varied response that each patient has to the same particular anti-depresent.
Could it be possible that while one food might bring robust health and vitality to one person might cause serious problems in another?
YES!
That's why nutrion has always been such an elusive, ambiguous field of science. Trully, there is no such thing as a universal "healthy diet." And yet, we in the west, in particular, have fallen into the belief trap that certain foods are "healthier" than others. It is interesting to note that the American Heart Association about 20 years ago picked up on the research of a doctor named Pritikin. Pritikin had gone to Africa and studied certain populations where the incididence of heart disease was very low. The group he studied happended to live primarily on grains and beans. Pritikin cam back and admonished his patients to follow low fat, low red meat diets to lower heart disease.
Unserstandably, this diet, the Pritikin Diet worked to lower cholesterol in some patients. But it certainly hasn't lowered heart disease. That's where we get the low fat, high carbo diet. But Americans are still getting fatter. And researchers in the past decade have begun to rethink the "low fat" diet, noting the importance of lipid metabilism in heart disease and depression...so the fad shifted towards omeaga fatty acids, the cave-man diet...ect.
All of this which is very very confusing to the average consumer. Who do you beieve? This also leaves most doctors confused. One research paper shows that low cholesterol diets are helpful, onether paper shows how they can be harmful.
Metabolic typing reconciles both seemining contradicting reports.
Consider suppliments.
Researches also know this is true for vitamins and minerals. Vitamin C might be helpful for one body type, it might bring imbalance to another.
Metabolic Typing is the emerging science of understanding and identifying your own individual biochemical make-up and then using foods to specifially balance out your natural tendancies.
For fast buring metabolic types, a diet higher in red meats and fats are required to keep the various autonomic systems in check. For slower buring metablic types, lighter colored meats and grains and certain vegetable are required to keep balance.
So, how does all this relate to depression and mental illness? If you step back and consider mental illness to be just another manifestation of poor health, much like diabetes or heart disease, you can then ask the question, "How can I create health in my body?" Metabolic typing moves you a long way towards restoring the bodies own biochmical balance. As you restore biochmical balance, naturally, all the systems in your body, your mind and heart, all begin to function better.
This is what has happened to me. I've seen many many doctors and psychichatrists. I've seen chinese doctors, functional medicine doctors who measured ph levels in saliva and urine, did mineral analysis, ext. All of these doctors could see that I was not well. Psychiatrists saw me cry. They gave me drugs. Chinese doctors felt my rapid pulse, they gave me herbs. Functional medicine and environmental doctors measured and could show me how messed up my electrolyes were, how my unrine ph values were off the charts...
The Metabolic Typing Diet has given me results. Instead of focusing on the symptoms, metabolic typing is not concerned with symptoms. Symptoms are the end stage of deeper imbalance. Whether poor health shows up as arthritis, glocoma, depression, Chrown's Disease, diabetes, ect. metabolic typing focuses on restoring balance to the whole body...through diet.
Through questionnaires, the the book helps you identify your metabolic type. It then outlines foods to favor in your diet.
Six weeks ago I picked up the book. I was at my end. Ready to die. Today, I am glad to be alive. My body is healing itself. No antidepressent can ever replicate the power and innate beaity of our own bodies to heal and get the job done.
I hope you find this helpful. You can contact me and I will share with you as much as I know.
Because of the hell I have been through, it is my goal to share my success with as many people as I can. I believe that some day, doctors and psychiatrists will incorporate these ideas in their practice as more and more possitive results emerge.
Wishing you well,
Jason Lohr
Posted by vince on May 13, 2001, at 21:06:18
In reply to Re: Everyone please read » Neal, posted by JasonL on May 13, 2001, at 16:13:45
> Neal,
> < snip > ...
> Six weeks ago I picked up the book. I was at my end. Ready to die. Today, I am glad to be alive. My body is healing itself. No antidepressent can ever replicate the power and innate beaity of our own bodies to heal and get the job done.
>
> I hope you find this helpful. You can contact me and I will share with you as much as I know.
>
> Because of the hell I have been through, it is my goal to share my success with as many people as I can. I believe that some day, doctors and psychiatrists will incorporate these ideas in their practice as more and more possitive results emerge.
>
> Wishing you well,
>
> Jason LohrJason,
Thank you for sharing your experience with us. However, I have become very skeptical of natural cures for depression. I have tried many diets in my life for weight loss, ranging from the Pritikan diet to the Atkins diet, with the Zone diet in between. None of the diets I have tried have made a bit of difference in my mood. So I remain cynical of claims about diet or nutrition as a treatment for mood disorders. I've even tried the nutrition program called True Hope. I was assured it had a 90% success rate in curing CNS related disorders including BPD and major depression. It didn't help. It might have made my ruminations worse. I don't believe that I just happened to be one of the unlucky one in ten.But then again, I've been through many, many conventional treatments for depression, most of the drugs available in this country tca's, ssri's maoi's, atypicals, various combinations, augmentations, neuroleptics, antipsychotics, and as many of the foreign drugs that I could get my hands on. And even though none of these have offered any flicker of relief from the grayish, blackish hell of an existence, I keep looking and keep trying other medications as options come available. I don't even think of this in terms of skepticism nor hope only in terms of, 'what else is there to do?'.
So what the hell, maybe I'll read the book. I doubt that it will help, but what else is there to do?.
Vince
This is the end of the thread.
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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
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