Cheryle Hart, M.D., and Mary Kay Grossman, RD
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 The participants filled out the symptom rating responses on a weekly basis. Each of twenty-three symptoms of neurotransmitter deficiencies was listed in a chart. The participants rated how strongly each symptom applied to them on a 0 (nonexistent) to 5 (strongest) point scale.
Symptoms of Deficiencies
Twenty-three common symptoms of deficiencies of either serotonin or dopamine were on the symptom rating sheet. |
| Study 1: Clinical symptom Improvement Study
Forty-two clients were followed over five weeks while using neurotransmitter supplement lozenges. Participants completed a fifty-one-point questionnaire relating to common signs and symptoms of serotonin and dopamine deficiencies. We were especially interested in symptoms relating to their appetite, cravings, snacking, energy, and mood. After four weeks, the average of all participants reported a decline of 76 percent of their initial symptoms. Ninety percent (90%) of all participants reported a decline in at least half of their initial symptoms. |
| By the end of the six-week study, a significant difference in symptom rating occurred in nineteen of the twenty-three symptoms, when comparing the two groups. The average improvement over all of the symptoms was 3.5 times greater (+350%) in the active than the placebo group. The top seven most affected symptoms were improved fifty-five times more (5,500%) in the active group than in the placebo group.
Purpose of the Study
The study was done to see if taking neurotransmitter precursor lozenges as directed could alleviate the known symptoms of neurotransmitter deficiencies. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 Because conventional docs think the symptom is the disease or the disorder. But naturopathic medicine sees the cancer tumor as only a symptom of a much deeper problem. Just like the water dripping into the home is only a symptom of a broken roof in need of repair, a cancer tumor is only a symptom of a serious underlying metabolic problem.
The naturopathic physician would fix the cause of the problem, but they wouldn't stop there. They would also realize that if the roof has one hole in it now, it seems likely that there could be other holes that are beginning to form, too. |
Benjamin H. Natelson, M.D.
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 Therefore, doctors find the "minimal exertion" symptom useful in separating fatigue in depression from fatigue in CFS.
The second difference between depression and CFS has to do with illness onset. In a telephone survey study conducted to identify CFS patients who don't necessarily go to the doctor, about 20 percent reported that they were fine one day and horribly sick the next, with something like the flu from which they never recovered. People who come to see me as patients report this sudden, flulike onset of illness at twice these rates. |
| Remember, even the best specialist won't reach a diagnosis or produce major symptom reduction on the first visit. But it's worthwhile to ask yourself whether your new specialist paid attention to you and gave you hope.
As I said in chapter 1, you're a consumer paying for a service— in this case, your specialist's advice. If he or she does not answer your questions or meet your needs, most health insurance carriers will allow you to look for another doctor who will. Physicians sometimes forget that you are paying them to help you. |
| In the early stage of RA and SLE, fatigue can be a primary symptom. If your primary physician suspects either of these autoimmune diseases, he or she is likely to refer you to a rheumatologist, an expert in joints and ailments involving the ligaments that attach the joints to your muscles.
The only other test I order in my initial evaluation of a patient with severe fatigue or widespread bodily pain is one that measures creatine phosphokinase (CPK). CPK is an enzyme involved in the normal functioning of your muscles, brain, and heart. |
| Prior to the development of brain magnetic resonance imaging (the well-known test usually called an MRI), MS was diagnosed only if a person had at least two episodes of totally different neurological dysfunction separated in time from each other. The symptom in one episode might be weakness or numbness on one side of the body, while the other episode might involve an experience of double vision due to weakness in the nerves of an eye. But brain MRI has made diagnosing MS simpler. Now a doctor looks at an image that shows the brain from front to back and side to side. |
| Finding a physician who can take an integrative approach to treating a specific symptom you exhibit—like fatigue or chronic pain—may still be a little difficult, unless you happen to live in one of those areas of the country where this approach is more widespread. To see if a doctor where you live follows this approach, type the word "integrative" or "biopsychosocial" into an Internet or National Library of Medicine search engine. You might also try the Web site of a medical university near you. If you get a hit, give that doctor a try. |
| Obviously, if you start out with constipation as a primary symptom, this diet is probably not for you.
I should say a bit more about beverages, because water—while unbeatable—can get pretty boring after a few days. Alternatives include homemade lemonade or a low-calorie version you can buy. Making your own lemonade isn't nearly as hard as you might imagine. Fill a glass with ice and seltzer water. (I prefer seltzer water to club soda because it is usually cheaper and has no added salt.) Hand-squeeze a quarter of a lemon or lime into the glass. |
Joan Liebmann-Smith, Ph. D., and Jacqueline Nardi Egan
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 WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A BODY SIGN AND A symptom?
Symptoms—such as pain, fever, and bleeding—come in loud and clear. But body signs tend to be more subtle and difficult to interpret; we may find them dull and banal, embarrassing and bizarre, or anything in between. As John Brown, a 19th-century Scottish physician, put it, "Symptoms are the body's mother tongue; signs are in a foreign language." And while only patients can describe their symptoms, many body signs can be detected by patients, physicians, partners, and even passersby. |
Cheryle Hart, M.D., and Mary Kay Grossman, RD
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| The participants rated how strongly each symptom applied to them on a 0 (nonexistent) to 5 (strongest) point scale.
Symptoms of Deficiencies
Twenty-three common symptoms of deficiencies of either serotonin or dopamine were on the symptom rating sheet. |
by Michael Murray, N.D. and Joseph Pizzorno, N.D.
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| Do not expect immediate relief in most instances when using natural substances for cold symptom relief, since most natural therapies for colds involve assisting the body rather than the familiar drug action of suppressing the symptoms. In fact, the symptoms of the cold can ternporarily worsen when using natural remedies. How can this be? Many of the symptoms of the cold are a result of our body's defense mechanisms. For example, the potent immune-stimulating compound interferon, released by our blood cells and other tissues during infections, is responsible for many flulike symptoms. |
Richard Bartlett
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 Every treatment in medicine, including most so-called natural alternatives, is in reaction to a symptom or condition. This symptom/ treatment duality means that you have this condition (symptom), and 1 am going to prescribe treatment for that condition. It is a stimulus-response or behaviorist model at its core, largely extrapolated from laboratory studies on rats. But how many of you reading this think rat physiology and biochemistry are close enough to those of human beings that our medical healthcare should be based on them? |
Peter h. Fraser and Harry Massey
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 Otherwise, you simply trade one symptom for another and never reach the root cause of the problem. In allopathic medicine, masking may be why one person benefits from a drug or therapy while another does not, and why when one symptom or disease is taken care of, the person finds that soon they have an entirely different set of symptoms or health problems. There is no getting around masking, but you can learn to work with it. |
David Winston, RH(AHG), and Steven Maimes
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 Unlike classic homeopathy, in which a single remedy is matched to the multitude of symptoms that a patient has, most herbalists create formulas that attempt to match a patient's complex symptom pattern. Some herbs may treat the major symptoms while others enhance absorption or improve circulation, digestion, or the quality of sleep.
One important consideration when using herbal formulas is the complementary and synergistic effects of combining certain herbs. For example, two different herbs may have shown beneficial effects for inhibiting cancer. Both herbs, as single agents, have limitations. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 It seems to me, from your explanations here, that naturopaths will always go at least one step further and say, what is the cause of this symptom? Does that mean that they have different names for diseases, or a different philosophy in naming them?
Dr. Pizzorno: Well, that actually is asking a fantastic question, and it gets into an issue that I address in an editorial I wrote for Integrated Medicine, a clinician's journal. This is a journal that I'm the editor of, and about a year ago I wrote an editorial which was a bit controversial, and I said on the editorial, is disease real? |
H. Winter Griffith, M.D.
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 It may be a side effect or adverse reaction to the drug, or it may be an additional symptom of the illness. If you are unsure, call your doctor.
18—Frequency
This is an estimation of how often symptoms occur in persons who take the drug. The four most common categories of frequency can be found under the SYMPTOMS heading and are as follows. Life-threatening means exactly what it says; seek emergency treatment immediately. Common means these symptoms are expected and sometimes inevitable. Infrequent means the symptoms occur in approximately 1% to 10% of patients. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 Enzymatic Therapy has their incredible AM/PM PeriMenopause Formula that's a very effective, safe, natural symptom relief because it's important for women, I think, to be comfortable while we're detoxifying, while we're supporting the adrenals, while we're supporting the whole endocrine system and restoring function. The EstroBalance with DIM, diindolylmethane. |
Bill Sardi
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 In one study the mean time from first symptom to first medical exam was about 83 days. [Age Ageing 22: 260-64, 1993]
However, many patients undergo screening exams by colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy (introduction of tubes into the colon or rectum to visualize the presence of abnormal growths, called adenomas or polyps) before they experience symptoms. Most polyps are benign. Among average-risk patients who report no symptoms, adenoma (polyp) prevalence averages approximately 10% when sigmoidoscopy (rectal exam) is performed and more than 25% when colonoscopy is performed. |
H. Winter Griffith, M.D.
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| You may experience a symptom that is not listed. It may be a side effect or adverse reaction to the drug, or it may be an additional symptom of the illness. If you are unsure, call your doctor.
18—Frequency
This is an estimation of how often symptoms occur in persons who take the drug. The four most common categories of frequency can be found under the SYMPTOMS heading and are as follows. Life-threatening means exactly what it says; seek emergency treatment immediately. Common means these symptoms are expected and sometimes inevitable. |
J. Douglas Bremner
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 Finasteride resulted in a statistically significant reduction in symptom scores: Compared to placebo, with a baseline score of 15.8, the difference between finasteride and placebo was only 0.4, not a very big difference in symptoms. There was about a 10% increase in the rates of urinary flow. Over twice as many (15.8%) finasteride patients as patients on placebo (6.3%) developed impotence. In a study comparing finasteride to the alpha-blocker terazosin and placebo, 1,229 men were randomized to blinded treatment for one year. Change in symptom scores were 2.6 for placebo, 3.2 for finasteride, 6. |
| Exercise training was associated with better symptom improvement in terms of anxiety and general symptoms but not in depression.
Other studies have shown the impressive results of exercise in fighting or reducing symptoms of depression. For example, researchers at Freie University in Berlin also found that thirty minutes of exercise a day significantly improved the moods of patients who had been suffering from depression for nine months. |
Cheryle Hart, M.D., and Mary Kay Grossman, RD
See book keywords and concepts |
| Symptoms of Deficiencies
Twenty-three common symptoms of deficiencies of either serotonin or dopamine were on the symptom rating sheet. These were depressed mood, fatigue, low motivation, poor focus, poor muscle strength or feeling weak, anxiety or worry, fearfulness, PMS-related moodiness, irritability, anger, chronic pain, achy muscles, sleep problems, cravings in the afternoon or evening, eating large food portions, feeling not satisfied after eating, thinking about food often, and craving chocolate, caffeine, nicotine, starchy foods, sweets, or alcohol. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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| But naturopathic medicine sees the cancer tumor as only a symptom of a much deeper problem. Just like the water dripping into the home is only a symptom of a broken roof in need of repair, a cancer tumor is only a symptom of a serious underlying metabolic problem.
The naturopathic physician would fix the cause of the problem, but they wouldn't stop there. They would also realize that if the roof has one hole in it now, it seems likely that there could be other holes that are beginning to form, too. |
Dr. Jonathan Prousky, BPHE, BSc, ND, FRSH
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 HTP was also effective and demonstrated a moderate reduction in terms of symptom reduction on a 90-item symptoms checklist and anxiety inventory. Unlike the clomipramine, 5-HTP did not reduce any symptoms of depression. The authors of this study concluded that serotonergic pathways are involved in the pathogenesis of anxiety disorders due to the positive results of these two treatments.
Prescribing L-trypophan and 5-hydroxy try tophan
L-tryptophan
The optimal dose of L-tryptophan appears to be 2 g daily in conjunction with vitamin B-6. |
Pam Montgomery
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 We are always striving to address the source of disease rather than merely treating a symptom. Symptoms are signposts to be used as guidelines but they are not the disease. There may be many manifestations of illness in a person but they all come from the same source—a disruption in one's energy body. Acupuncturist and author Diane Connelly says "all sickness is home sickness," meaning that when we are not at home with ourselves or not living according to our own true nature, the energy becomes contradictory causing misalignment or vulnerability. |
Jack Challem
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 The Carnitine-Vitamin C-Energy Connection
Researchers have long known that fatigue is a symptom of scurvy, the most severe stage of vitamin C deficiency, preceding death. But a study by Dr. Mark Levine of the National Institutes of Health found that the first two symptoms of short-term vitamin C deprivation (without scurvy) were fatigue and irritability, two symptoms common among North Americans.
Vitamin C is needed for the body's own production of carnitine, and low levels of the vitamin ultimately interfere with the burning of fats for energy. Carol Johnston, Ph.D. |
Hyla Cass
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 The book includes convenient symptom lists and graphs that you can fill out during your withdrawal process. I have given these to my own patients to track their progress.
Withdrawal symptoms include agitation, anxiety, hostility, impulsivi-ty, and even suicidal tendencies. I have found that cushioning the withdrawal with specific supplements can ease and shorten the process.
BIPOLAR ILLNESS AND MOOD STABILIZERS
Bipolar disorder is a mood disorder affecting two million Americans. It's not nearly as common as other types of depression. |
Gary Null and Amy McDonald
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 Premenstrual and Menstrual symptom Clusters and Response to Calcium Treatment. Alvir JM; Thys-Jacobs S. Psychopharmacology Bulletin, 1991, 27(2): 145-148.
Calcium supplementation was shown to alleviate three premenstrual symptoms—mood changes, water retention, and pain—and to relieve menstrual pain.
Schizophrenia_
Membrane Phospholipid Composition, Alterations in Neurotransmitter Systems and Schizophrenia, du Bois TM; Deng C; et al. Progress in Neuro-Psy-chopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry, 2005 July, 29(6):878-888. |
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