Depression-Free, Naturally

Depression Free, Naturally lays out a program of change that can permanently improve your quality of life. The information acquired will be invaluable to you because you are going to be spending the rest of your life in your body. If you have always longed for total mental clarity, a sense of joy and resiliency in living, and boundless energy; and if you have had enough of up-and-down moods, anxiousness, tension, sadness, anger, irritability, muddled thinking, exhaustion, and feelings of powerlessness… this book is for you.”

Based On Worldwide Scientific Knowledge

You may doubt a book can change any of this. But you will soon see that today’s science has some new and powerful solutions for you. This program is not asking you to change your thinking or reprogram your emotions or talk yourself into wellness. I am proposing to fix that malfunctioning computer, your brain so that it will finally begin to serve you normally.”

Seekers of Truth: Many people who appear to have life under control are simply great actors. Underneath they live with inner tensions, anxiety, feelings of hopelessness, paranoia, racing thoughts, ongoing anger, and bone-weary fatigue. What is the best treatment for these problems? Psychotherapy? Prescription drugs? Joan Mathews-Larson, Ph.D., the brilliant nutritionist who founded Minnesota’s esteemed Health Recovery Center, believes that there is a better way to treat these mental conditions.

Her book, Depression Free, Naturally, offers revolutionary formulas for healing emotions biochemically. Developed and tested at Health Recovery Center, these natural formulas have been proven effective at eliminating Depression, Anxiety, Fatigue, and Anger. Says Larson, “Another way to say ‘personality disorder’ is brain dysfunction. If your brain’s biochemistry is unbalanced, it will send warning signals to you in the form of unstable emotions.

What causes this to happen? Genetics, ongoing stress, depletion of key brain chemicals from nutrition-poor diets, or absorption of a variety of toxins are some of the reasons.” She continues, “I can help you identify clues that point to chemistry, not personality, as the culprit that causes your emotional woes.”In her book, Dr. Larson explains how to gain emotional stability and well-being by feeding your imbalanced brain what it craves–the key essential fatty acids, natural mind-body hormones, and the right amino acids.

To purchase the book “Depression Free, Naturally,” call Health Recovery Center at 1-800-554-9155

To purchase the book Depression Free, Naturally - Call Health Recovery Center at 800-554-9155 or click button below to buy direct:

Excerpts from Joan’s best-selling books

It's Not All In Your Mind (Chapter 1 Excerpt)​

As far back as he could remember, Peter had felt fearful but he covered it up extremely well. Now married, he supported his family adequately, but felt shy and joyless most of the time. He drank beer occasionally to offset those feelings. Still, he seemed to become more of a loner with each passing year. Peter never considered himself a candidate to see a psychiatrist. He was simply living a life of quiet despair.

* * * * *

Meg was an excellent attorney with a very bright mind. Her facade was take-charge aggressive and few crossed her. Yet, at our first meeting she was in tears because of her angry erratic behavior. She had no idea why she seemed to exist in a state of high arousal … This trait was hurting those she loved the most. She wanted to mellow out but knew her career couldn’t afford the fog of prescription drugs.

* * * * *

An exceptional designer, musician and musical director, Eric didn’t have the emotional staying power to ignite his career into high gear. Despite his brilliance, his heart pounded with anxiety during his performances. He drank a lot of caffeine and smoked cigarettes heavily. His mood swings left him wiped out when he desperately needed extra energy. Ongoing psychological counseling did not change any of this. Now he was considering taking prescribed drugs for relief from his depression and anxiety. He summed it up the day we met, telling me, at age 42, ” Some days my life feels entirely hopeless.”

* * * * *

Donna usually felt scattered. Her thinking was foggy, and her usual concentration problems were affecting her job. Memories of her childhood were of a pale listless little girl who had never felt the world was a friendly place. She had frequent childhood illnesses such as earaches, strep throat, and colds. Now as an adult, she still felt fragile. She told me she needed help to overcome her muddled thinking and get some joy in her life. But her number one priority was relief from bone-tired fatigue. For Donna, life was an uphill battle and it appeared she was slowly losing the war!

* * * * *

I know it is the human condition to keep taking our own inventory and coming up short, but it becomes a lifetime calamity if these missing pieces continually prevent us from enjoying the fulfilling, stable life we deserve. If like Peter, Meg, Eric and Donna you are saying, “I wish I could feel better, track better, perform better” it is finally time to stop wishing and take heart! Depression Free, Naturally is meant to change your life.

Like the case studies I’ve just cited, you, too may be co-existing with an erratic nervous system or brain, and lack the energy, verve, joy and confidence that should have been your birthright. Speaking of “birthright”, you may even find when you ponder your genetic history, some strong clues that these physiological glitches were a likely gift from a close relative.

We’ll go into this later, so you can see how, despite determined psychological counseling, what we are often repeats the same snafus as Uncle Joe or Grandma Sarah. Unfortunately, marriage joins together many a biochemical mistake and the children live out their days wondering how close to certifiably crazy they might be. The idea that a good therapist can solve these mistakes by talking to you has been the great bane of the twentieth century! Untold millions are filling the coffers of psychologists and counselors who listen to the tales of misery that such lives produce.

Fortunately, in the last few decades, biochemists and medical doctors have begun to pinpoint scientific explanations for behavior that used to be labeled “psychological.”

These researchers have noticed:

  • that many “psychological” symptoms often cluster in families
  • that certain physical changes in the brain (and body) can create mayhem emotionally.
  • that an internal invasion of yeast parasites may create full blown mental and physical illness.
  • that food intolerances strongly affect our emotions.
  • that airborne chemicals can alter our brains.
  • that angry outbursts are predictable from a brain in a chemical state of high arousal all the time.
  • that dozens of biochemical mistakes can result in bleak depression or anxiety,
  • and that all of them are fixable, if only we can identify them …

Additional information on pre-screen tests, formulas, schedules, and optimal doses to achieve biochemical restoration/repair can be found in the book Depression Free, Naturally.

Recognizing the Clues to Biochemical Glitches (Chapter 2 excerpts)

Have you always longed for total mental clarity, a sense of joy, resiliency in living, and boundless energy? Have you had enough of up and down moods, anxiousness, tension, sadness, anger, irritability, muddled thinking, exhaustion and feeling powerless? You may doubt a book can change any of this. But you will soon see that today’s science has some new and powerful solutions for you. And the program you are about to begin will permanently impact your quality of life. This program is not asking you to change your thinking, or reprogram your emotions, or therapize yourself into wellness. I am proposing to fix that malfunctioning computer, your brain, so it will finally begin to serve you normally.

Your physical recovery, however, will depend on your strict adherence to the repair program that your body requires. You will find that you have to take many replacement nutrient supplements, based on the results of screening tests and lab work. You’ll be making big changes in your diet and lifestyle. So expect your friends to tease you about becoming a health nut. (Smile; they only wish they had your discipline and results!)

We all have our own specific emotional needs, but everyone should start with the basic repair program and diet. After that we can assess your specific needs, one by one, as they are presented, and add only the appropriate formulas for your recovery. 

As we begin, don’t be tempted to casually read only bits and parts of the Depression Free, Naturally chapters. To follow the program as it is laid out for you, read the entire book carefully first. Then, go back and begin with Step 1, and study each section that your “Bio-Types of Emotions” test red flags for you. 

I know you want answers to what your specific symptoms mean biochemically—proof that you indeed have underlying biochemical mistakes that are causing your grief. In the following section I will help you feel more comfortable with this concept. Each symptom listed is connected to a physical cause, even though it may feel emotional in origin. Once you have completed the screen and tallied your results, you will know what specific biochemical issues you need help with. The chapters ahead will provide you with specific answers. You will also come to know, through tracking your genetic history as well as your personal history, the conditions to which you are predisposed. Last, we’ll lay out a specific formula that you should start taking immediately to begin bringing you back to optimal function. Lets get started… 


Feeding the Famished Brain (Chapter 3 excerpt)

Peg enjoyed a six-pack of cola daily and loved ice cream. She didn’t correlate these dietary habits with her complaints of no energy and feeling weak, lightheaded, shaky, and anxious. But her five-hour test for hypoglycemia was spectacular. Starting with a normal fasting level, her blood sugar rose within half an hour to the diabetic range and then came plunging down one hundred seventy five points, putting her in a state of insulin shock. At the lowest point, she felt faint from weakness and dizziness and was overcome with confusion. All of her symptoms disappeared once she began a diet that corrected her acute response to refined sugars.

* * * * *

Paul was on Prozac with little relief from his moodiness and anxiety. He lived on coffee and cigarettes all day long, interspersed with cans of cola. His concentration was so poor; he could no longer read a book. Paul’s wife accompanied him to see me. Her concern was that his frequent mood swings and mental confusion was affecting his income as a salesman, as well as their family life. He loved sweets as snacks and ate his only meal of the day at suppertime. When he was tested for hypoglycemia, the fall in his blood sugar was spectacular. As his brain lost its fuel, (glucose) he began to experience all of the familiar symptoms, and especially anxiety and confusion. Paul knew he was faced with a major overhaul in lifestyle. He willingly gave up caffeine, refined sugars and nicotine and the tradeoff has proved well worth the effort. He loves having a stable brain and being on an even keel emotionally. He is thriving in his sales career and once more is a hero at home.

* * * * *

Mary’s complaints ranged from fatigue and anxiousness to crying and flying off the handle frequently. Lab testing showed her fasting glucose levels were low (not true for most hypoglycemics). After the sugar challenge, Mary lost even more brain fuel, which gradually increased her lightheadedness and disorientation. In her effort to supply her brain with glucose, Mary’s daily regimen had included eight Mountain Dews and a high carbohydrate diet. But it was a battle she couldn’t win until she gave up refined sugars. We were able to retest her nine months later. She had stayed on a strict hypoglycemic diet during that period. Remarkably, her fasting blood sugar had now risen to the normal range and after the sugar challenge her blood sugar dipped only slightly instead of falling precipitously. Most importantly, her “emotional” symptoms had all disappeared, along with twenty-five unneeded pounds of weight.

* * * * *

Tim came to Health Recovery Center at the request of his employer. He had been unable to work for six months due to anxiety, depression, dizziness, mental confusion and insomnia. He was currently taking two well-known anti-depressants to no avail. He also complained of trembling and feeling cold much of the time. Because his cholesterol was close to 300, Jim’s family doctor had given him a prescription, which he refused to touch. He informed me that he ate several candy bars and eight bananas every day. His grandmother was diabetic. A five hour glucose tolerance test for hypoglycemia proved revealing. His blood sugar rose to pre-diabetic levels and then plunged down 150 points leaving him anxious, shaking, lightheaded, and confused. That experience made him a believer. He was willing to switch to a whole foods diet and abandon all refined sugars and caffeine. He exchanged his anti-depressant drugs for thyroid medication, which he needed, and the essential fatty acids that lifted his depression. Within six weeks he was completely free of his symptoms. His high cholesterol also came down dramatically, despite never having filled his anti-cholesterol prescription.

How Likely Is It That You Are Hypoglycemic?

Hypoglycemia is a word many doctors hate. Some doctors call it a FAD disease and refuse to do the lab tests necessary to prove or disprove your suspicions.

I have never been able to figure out this block in their scientific thinking, especially because the American Medical Association awarded its “Distinguished Medal of Honor” for the discovery of hypoglycemia to Seale Harris M.D. in 1929. At that time the sugar intake in the United States was modest. Now we are averaging one hundred fifty pounds, per person, per year, and our carbohydrate sensitive (hypoglycemic) population is at an all time high. My own interest in this metabolic disorder is experiential. As a busy young wife and mother of three, I skipped meals and snacked on cookies and mugs of coffee all day long for energy. Eventually I began to get “spells” of light-headedness. I felt anxious and jumpy. By early evening, I hardly had enough go-power to make supper before collapsing. Finally, I saw several different physicians seeking answers. None asked me how I was eating. Instead I was given assorted prescriptions for tranquilizers and anti-anxiety drugs that only made me feel worse.

One internist told me I needed cortisone. His high dose prescription sent me to the medical section of the public library for more facts. I discovered I could expect cortisone to bestow a moon-face, a buffalo hump on my upper shoulders and very unstable mental state. As my original symptoms were still with me, I quickly discontinued the prescription. At that point, this same medical doctor called my husband to advise him that, if I would not continue his prescription, I should see a psychiatrist. Fortunately, by that time I had found a book on hypoglycemia by an endocrinologist, Dr. John Tintera. As he described the symptoms of unstable glucose metabolism, and its corresponding adrenal exhaustion, I felt like I was reading my own autobiography. His message was clear: no more cookies, sweet snacks, or caffeine. Clean up my act or the medical doctors would have me drugged up and miserable…


Shopping for Relief (Chapter 4 except)

It has taken mankind thousands of years to finally uncover important secrets about that most important organ, the brain. Folklore had long held that our brain’s functioning depends on what we eat, but it wasn’t until the last part of the twentieth century that we had any true grasp of how the brain really works.

We now know that our brain transmits thoughts and creates emotions and memory partly by means of neurotransmitters that load and fire and reload continually. Communication within the brain and between the brain and the rest of the central nervous system occurs by means of these chemical messages that are exchanged by way of neurotransmitters; their pre-cursors, the amino acids; and coenzyme vitamins and minerals. Eight amino acids are essential to life, and many others are conditionally essential, meaning their requirements are greatly increased by disease or by inborn disorders. The proper functioning of our brains and emotions depend on an adequate supply of these vital natural substances, which is why they are essential to an effective clinical depression treatment or anxiety cure. 

Understanding the Biochemical Basis of Emotions

Past generations have believed that biochemistry and emotions are separate. Today we are learning that all human emotions have a biochemical basis. The body and mind are totally intertwined. In Expressions Of The Emotions In Man And Animals, Charles Darwin observed that all people share common emotional facial expressions (as do some animals). We all experience human emotions of sadness, fear, anger, joy, disgust, contentment, pleasure and pain. Our facial expressions for such emotions are the same whether we are Asian, African, or European. Because of this universal phenomenon Darwin concluded that mankind must have an inborn genetic mechanism that governs these emotional expressions—a universal chemistry for emotions. As far back as the 1920’s, Wilder Penfield M.D., at McGill University in Montreal, found that by stimulating certain areas in the brain, he could automatically produce different powerful emotional reactions such as weeping, laughing, and anger.

Dr. Candace Pert, former National Institute of Health researcher, explains in her book,
Molecules Of Emotions
how emotion-carrying peptides (made from aminos) continually circulate and communicate throughout our brains and bodies. Receptors for these peptides and neurotransmitters are present not only in our brains, but our endocrine systems, spinal cords, and even our immune systems. She says, “What we experience as an emotion or feeling is also a mechanism for activating a particular neuronal circuit SIMULTANEOUSLY THROUGHOUT THE BRAIN BODY—which generates a behavior- with all the necessary physiological changes that behavior would require.” (My emphasis.)

She relates how brain peptides and substances like the pituitary hormone ACTH are present in many other parts of the body. For most of us it is a strange idea that emotional and mental activity in our brains is actually present throughout our entire bodies.  But a network unites our endocrine, immune, and nervous systems connecting them through receptors called neuropeptides. Dr. Pert proved that virtually every peptide found in the brain has corresponding receptors throughout the body. Thanks to this work, it is clear that the brain is not the seat of our emotions. Our emotional network exists everywhere throughout our entire bodies.

Since our molecules of emotion originate as amino acids, we can now see the disadvantage of being denied adequate amounts of these precious substances. Amino acids alone, or by their transformation into neurotransmitters and peptides, supply us with the chemicals needed to generate pleasure, alleviate pain, protect against radiation and combat the aging process. These amino acids perform healing miracles in treating our depression, anxiety, memory loss, and many other seemingly “psychological” states.

As you begin to understand these remarkable substances, I’ll bet you’ll quickly tune in to the connection between their deficiencies and changes in your brains’ equilibrium. 

Serious depletion of course, will likely be labeled a “disease” or called a “mental Illness.”  Using today’s medical thinking, disease equals taking drugs to relieve symptoms. A safer approach is to measure and supply the right amounts of our brains’ natural chemicals, rather than using foreign, synthetic, and often toxic substances to try to imitate nature…


When You Just Want to Hide in the Closet: Soothing the Anxious Brain (Chapter 5 excerpt)

If you have battled anxiety all your life, you are not alone. In the 1980s, the National Institute of Mental Health conducted the largest study ever done on mental disorders. They found that anxiety disorders are the second most common mental health problem in the United States, second only to substance abuse. Surprisingly, medical intervention is rare, according to a second massive NIMH study. The results showed that over three quarters of these people never received any treatment for anxiety, despite frequent visits the their doctors.

As for those that do—these are some of the typical clients who arrive at the door of Health Recovery Center, acutely anxious and seeking relief. Each has first sought help from a psychiatrist or family physician.

* * * * *

Ben, age 24, came to Health Recovery Center, because of anxiety attacks. He complained of living with high inner tension since his teen years. Ben suffered from frequent bouts of nervous exhaustion. His eyes were sensitive to sunlight. He had acne and stretch marks on his skin. He said he tired easily but slept poorly and had little dream recall except for nightmares. A psychiatrist had given him Xanax for his anxiety, and later doubled his daily dose. Presently he felt he needed even more to get relief from his symptoms. Unfortunately, Xanax is highly addictive. Slowly it requires escalation of the daily dose needed to reduce anxiety. Ben could see he was on the road to addiction and didn’t want to add addiction to his other problems. This is when he called Health Recovery Center to get some answers. Lab testing pinpointed several underlying causes of his anxiety:

      • A genetically inherited but correctable biochemical mistake that causes anxiety, called Pyroluria. Pyroluria will be explained, in detail later in this section.
      • A heavy accumulation of copper that can create anxiety in the brain. (Ben is a welder by trade.)
      • A sudden drop on his glucose test, into a hypoglycemic state, accompanied by nervousness, anxious feelings, and worrying

All three of these biochemical errors would only grow worse over time. How much Xanax would he finally need to mask over his symptoms? If Ben continued to use drugs instead of fixing what’s broken, he would be a life long customer of his psychiatrist and a full-blown addict. As he observed, his symptoms were only partially disguised by the drug. Just beneath the surface, they were still as real as ever.

* * * *

Marge a 35-year-old nurse complained of anxiety, depression, and exhaustion. She has seen her doctor who ordered some medical testing but failed to find an underlying physical reason. When I looked at Marge’s fingernails, I found numerous white flecks and dots. She told me she gets frequent colds and often has headaches. Although only 35, she said she is becoming more of a loner with each passing year. Her feelings of anxiousness and sadness go back to childhood. She has been on antibiotics frequently over the years for urinary tract infections. On her first visit with me, she confided that the stresses of life were simply too much for her. Lab results showed some major reasons for her struggle:

      • Marge was pyroluric, so we realized she had always suffered from anxiety and fearfulness, though she covered it up well.
      • The many rounds of antibiotics had altered her immune system and allowed heavy colonization of candida yeast. This alone could account for her exhaustion, anxiety and depression.
      • She had low levels of important minerals: potassium, calcium, magnesium, chromium, boron, iodine, and zinc. Such malabsorption often occurs as a result of candida yeast compromising the intestinal tract. Also her low magnesium levels are significant as this increases the lactate to pyruvate ratio in the body, which contributes to anxiety.
      • It was vital to address all of these imbalances. They are the real causes of the unstable moods that Marge endured. This entire picture gradually improved and normalized with treatment.

* * * *

Richard is a 45-year-old unmarried businessman who described himself as a loner who hasn’t dated in years. He isolated himself except for his work. He told me he felt uncomfortable with strangers, and that he refused to be seated in the middle of the room in a restaurant; he wanted his back to the wall. He noticed that sometimes his face seemed swollen when he became stressed. His feet were usually cold and he tired easily. Throughout his life he had gone to great lengths to hide his inner tension and fearfulness from others. A doctor recently put him on Prozac to lift his moods but instead it produced severe headaches in him. Richard is a vegetarian who believed protein doesn’t agree with him. Lab evidence showed:

      • Low thyroid functioning was keeping him tired and cold.
      • Pyroluria, which was driving him more into isolation with each passing year.
      • High candida antibodies indicating his immune system was at war with an over-colonization of candida albicans yeast. The candida yeast lined his intestinal tract causing poor absorption of many nutrients.
      • Adrenal exhaustion resulting in his having no buffer against stress.

Richard had lived with these conditions for many years. Fortunately, he finally decided to get some scientific answers. Within a month his mood and energy had greatly improved. By our last session, he had met a young woman whom he was dating seriously. Life finally started to brighten for him.

New Treatment For Anxiety

Anxiety that lingers is almost always caused by out of balance brain/body chemistry. Just because your doctor doesn’t uncover these biochemical mistakes is no reason you should be told you need a psychiatrist to drug you, or a psychologist to try to talk away your physical imbalances. As we approach the twenty first century, science has learned a lot about how our brain function. It is no longer necessary to limp through life knowing you feel unstable, but trapped in your own malfunctioning body…


That Sadness Inside You: Dissolving Biochemical Depression (Chapter 6 excerpt)

Who hasn’t felt depression?

The amazing thing is many of us ignore it, don’t recognize it, and just keep plodding forward with no inkling of the sadness within ourselves.

I have talked to thousands of clients who showed classic signs of depression. Yet many, (mostly male) denied any such problem. I can empathize with them. A few years after I buried my husband and my teenage son I was watching a TV show on the subject of depression. All of the panelists remarked they cried every day. The “expert” psychiatrist assured them that that was common to depression. I thought, “I cry everyday… does this mean I’m depressed?” Sometimes tears dripped from my eyes when I was relaxing and thinking of nothing. But I had refused to recognize my condition, feeling that it signified “weakness” in me at a time when I was my family’s sole provider as well as full time employee and student. 

Over the next ten years I grieved over even more losses: father and mother, best friend, fiancé, and my second husband. When I look back at these years I believe I would have retreated to a dark closet to live were it not for what I was learning about ortho-molecular medicine and how to restore the important brain chemicals that ongoing stress and sadness wipe out!

Many studies confirm that childhood abuse (physical, emotional, sexual) creates lifelong depression. Ongoing losses and heavy stresses are also a set up for depression. Such life events, if prolonged, profoundly affect our brain’s chemical balance. Remember the description of the Japanese POW concentration camp survivors in Chapter 1, and how they finally came out of their post-traumatic states with biochemical repair. Those “walking wounded” are not unlike many of us who have existed through long periods of unrelenting stress. Certainly therapy is a comforting release, but in these cases, talk alone is not enough to undo the damage.

At Health Recovery Center we continually see clients whose presenting symptom is depression, despite their current use of one of the popular anti-depressant drugs. Often their doctors have tried them on more than one anti-depressant, but oddly enough have never assessed their patients for any of the underlying biochemical causes of depression before prescribing.

Prescription antidepressants assume the problem is too little serotonin or norepinephrine, or dopamine—but neurotransmitter depletion is just one problem on this list. Your antidepressant drug may well be inappropriate, even toxic, if your brain is forced to evaluate neurotransmitters it doesn’t need. 

A 1992 study published in the Achieves of General Psychiatry tracked depressed patients that were being treated over an eighteen month period. They found only a 20 to 30 percent recovery rate after this time, underscoring the surprisingly low benefits attained from drugs and therapy. Similar conclusions were reached by researchers Seymour Fisher Ph. D. and and Roger Greenberg Ph.D., who spent years of reviewing studies of drug treatment for depression. They state the standard of “substantial improvement” can only be applied to a meager 25 percent of the patients. They cite sixteen controlled studies of the newer antidepressants, which show that the majority of these drugs (62 percent) show no difference in the percentage of patients benefiting from an active drug as opposed to a placebo. 

In February 19990, the American Journal of Psychiatry described several cases of major depression resulting in suicidal behavior that followed the administration of antidepressants. Improvement occurred upon cessation of such drug use. 

And, on February 28, 1991, Phil Donahue’s TV talk show featured former Prozac users who had become completely self-destructive, and even murderous, after going on Prozac. Donahues telephone lies were flooded with calls across the nation reporting similar responses. 

Happily, orthomolecular responses have proven far more rewarding in treating depression. I’ve documented some of the experiences at Health Recovery Center in treating depression with orthomolecular techniques as part of my dissertation research (published in the International Journal of Medical and Biosocial Research). The data was collected …


When Your Living with Paranoia or Compulsive Perfectionism: Two Extremes of Histamine Imbalance (Chapter 7 excerpt)

There is a single substance in our brain that causes incredible chaos when it rises to abnormal highs, or falls dangerously low. Histamine causes our tears to flow, and determines our pain sensitivity and sexual libido. The paranoid soul who lives with sweaty palms, a racing mind, and a growing sense of grandiosity is existing on an ever-dwindling supply of brain histamine. On the other side of the spectrum is the compulsive and obsessive, sleep-deprived go-getter. He or she has a brain that is bathed in super-normal amounts of this neurotransmitter. How unfair that both are living out their days as prisoners of unbalanced chemistry! Today, solutions exist. But that wasn’t the case during my early years at Health Recovery Center, when I found myself completely frustrated by the high histamine levels of clients who swept into my office in high arousal about life in general. 

Being compulsive and obsessive people, these clients had come to Health Recovery Center for an instant fix. Many of them had extremely successful careers fueled by their remarkable drive and energy, but they were crumbling internally from continual tension and depression. Usually they were seriously depressed, and my have even had suicidal attempts in their own, or in their family history. They told me they didn’t sleep much, or well. They cried at the drop of a hat, or were terribly impulsive. Those of them that had tried drugs tended to get hooked on heroin or other narcotics, and sometimes alcohol. (That’s because all of these substances block histamine and improve symptoms only temporarily.) And a pattern repeated itself in these kinds of clients: Their enthusiasm ran unrealistically high the first few days, but there was no staying power. Often, before the first week was over, these clients lost interest and abandoned the program in order to return to drugs, or they found some new project to take them down another road. When I finally realized the similar characteristics of these dropouts, I realized their profiles fit perfectly with Dr. Carl Pfeiffer’s description of high histamine persons. I then know we must intervene immediately if we hoped to hold their attention. We began using Dr Pfeiffer’s instructions for lowering histamine (that appears later in this chapter). These natural histamine blockers turned the tide, and made enough difference early on to thwart the impulsiveness of them people. 

Now we rarely lose such clients, and once they are well they are some of the most vocal supporters of these methods.  

It will be invaluable for you to be able to identify your own signs of abnormal histamine levels, because they are 100 percent correctable. You will no longer be a life-long prisoner of your brain chemistry, and you will finally be feeling good for years to come. This chapter will alert you to the profiles of the paranoid, as well as the obsessive perfectionist, and point you to the natural corrective formulas that treat these histamine imbalances and help you to heal emotionally. 

How Histamine Works In The Brain

Inside the brain histamine plays an important role in all sorts of reactions. In the hypothalamus…


From Zero to Spontaneous Combustion In Seconds: Controlling Irritability, Anger and Sudden Violence  (Chapter 8 excerpt)

By now your repair program should be picking up speed. You’ve altered your diet to contain mostly fresh, whole foods, and tossed out sugary junk food and all that caffeine. You are remembering to feed yourself quality snacks that keep your blood sugar up. These changes are slowly paying off. We’ve looked at a number of problems, traditionally categorized as “psychological” (anxiety, depression, paranoia, compulsiveness) that may really be due to a depletion (or overabundance) of certain brain chemicals and you now have the insight to identify and correct these biochemical mistakes.

On the following pages I’ll discuss ongoing irritability, angry outbursts and aggressive behavior that can lead to violence. The debate still rages as to whether the basic causes of violence are psychological, sociological or biological, but new research on this subject may surprise you. Can these emotional states have a physical basis? Yes. There is mounting research indicating that people who act out in this way are not just the product of too much poverty, too little nurturing, and other social/psychological problems. There are biochemical triggers in some of us that make outbursts of anger and violence predictable. Let’s take a look at the evidence.

* * * * *


What’s Causing Our Anger and Violence?

Matt had a hard time keeping a job because of his short fuse and aggressive behavior. He had been an attention deficit kid who grew up on Ritalin. His psychiatrist had him on three different antidepressants simultaneously in an attempt to calm him down. When I met him, he was feeling miserable because his wife had recently filed divorce papers. That day, he seemed not be hearing most of what I said to him. He was restless and made several double entendre sexual remarks that irked me. That first week he became so angry he put his hands tightly around one female staff person’s neck as though to choke her. I hoped we could tolerate his behavior until his lab work came back. When the results were in, it was a relief to see that Matt was loaded with high levels of copper, cadmium and lead; and to add to his distress, his histamine was severely elevated. He was also hypoglycemic. All of these physical abnormalities made him appear emotionally out-of-control.

The toxic metals had to go and his histamine levels had to come down before the sudden anger and wild outbursts quieted down. Gradually, his aggressiveness faded and I became quite fond of him. After almost a year, we recently heard from Matt again. He says he is doing well and taking college courses with the intent of working with attention deficit kids. (With his experiential knowledge, he should prove invaluable in his new chosen field.)

* * * * *

Tom, another client with a hair-trigger temper, came to us from New Mexico. He was severely hypoglycemic. During his glucose tolerance test, he released an extremely high amount of adrenaline to raise his blood sugar. That outpouring of adrenalin, when the brain is too low on fuel to function normally, often triggers aggressive behavior. (We were able to control Tom’s wild outpouring of adrenalin by correcting his hypoglycemia. But his story gets a lot more complicated.)

Tom had built his house in an area of the country that is high in uranium. The water that he drank was coming through granite that was carcinogenic. The body’s uranium levels should be under .2 … Tom’s was 819! He was radioactive! His copper levels, too, were elevated, probably because of his occupation as a plumber. The cumulative effects of all these toxins were expressed as depression, fatigue and severe irritability. We used zinc to chelated out his excess copper, but no one was able to advise us how to remove uranium. We were told that calcium chelation might be of some value. The eventual improvement in Tom’s energy and temperament probably has come about because of his strict diet and regimen of chelating nutrients. (Note: Certain states are at risk for uranium radioactivity … they are Vermont, Colorado, New Mexico and parts of California.)

Today anger and violence are all around us, from drive-by and freeway shootings to the explosive tempers and hostile drop-dead expressions on the faces of sales people, office workers, neighbors and even children. What is making America so angry?

The last half century has produced a cascade of changes in the lifestyles of most of us. We cal it progress, but our bodies are not yet 21st century conditioned. The brain, central nervous system, and immune system can’t adapt fast enough to the abrupt rise in the intake of substances that alter us:

  1. Poor diets: The foods and drinks we consume are laden with additives and dyes, and they are highly sugared; many are processed and refined until all nutrition is gone. Such diets create hypoglycemia and diabetes. 
  2. Chemical sensitivities: We live with daily exposures to synthetic chemicals in the air we breathe, the sprayed produce we eat, and the drugs we ingest. 
  3. Toxicity of trace metals: Increasing stores of toxic metals and toxic trace elements slowly accumulate and alter our brain chemistry. 
  4. Vaccinations: We inject dozens of viruses and harmful chemicals into our children, over and over for immunization purposes. 

These are the most common reasons for Americans living in high arousal most of the time. We are unable to feel and act normally because of the toxic condition of our brains and bodies, and so we explode into anger , irritability, and even violence.

But there are things we can choose to do to reduce the risk of these conditions. Let’s find out what they are…


Just Prop Me Up, I’m Too Tired To Care: The Answers to What’s Keeping You Fatigued  (Chapter 9 excerpt)

If you have faithfully changed your diet and applied the principals of the bio-repair program outlined so far, yet you know something is still missing, take heart. This chapter will alert you to several huge troublemakers that are notorious for wiping out your energy and mental clarity.


Jack, a frail forty-five year old carpenter came to see me shortly after he had an attempted suicide. He told me “As a young man, I was friendly, outgoing and full of anticipation for living. My problems began in Vietnam where I was exposed to Agent Orange and subjected to the trauma of ‘kill or be killed’ over many months. When I returned to the States I felt depressed and rudderless. I have never been able to overcome my fatigue and emptiness. I’ve spent twenty years going in and out of VA hospitals to no avail. I’m just too tired to stay alive.”

Jack made it plain that the lab tests I proposed would be his last stab at recovering his health. As expected, this testing revealed that he had very little immune system strength, most of which had probably been knocked out long ago by his exposure to Agent Orange. We found severe food allergies and chemical sensitivities. His Candida score was extremely high. His CMV (Cytomegalovirus—a herpes organism that creates fever, malaise, and joint muscle pains) and Epstein Barr (another herpes-like virus causing a mononucleosis-like infection), antibody levels were positive. Other tests showed he was severely malnourished. Unfortunately we were unable to get information from the federal government on how to detoxify any residue of Agent Orange. The official position is “It didn’t happen.” As Viet Nam veterans can’t prove their symptoms are caused by agent orange, the government refuses to assist with solutions for this contamination. 

Jack needed to rebuild his immune system from scratch by reducing the total load that was causing the breakdown (more on this later in this section). We used IV infusions containing high amounts of Vitamin C to detoxify him. It was a slow process, but gradually through correcting his many biochemical problems, Jack’s long-lost stamina returned.

There are a number of reasons you might feel chronically fatigued. Like Jack, you may be reaping the effects of an unhealthy diet, or your symptoms may be caused by a mixed infection, meaning you are co-existing with bacterial or viral infections, parasites, and/or toxins that are weakening your immune system and your stamina, triggering a chronic fatigue syndrome in you. You may have severe food allergies, or an overgrowth of Candida Albicans, a fungal yeast that debilitates its many victims systematically. You may even be experiencing intense feelings of weakness and fatigue from daily exposures to strong electromagnetic fields. 

I’ll discuss each of these complex causes of chronic fatigue. We’ll determine if you are affected, and if you are, how to overcome these debilitating disorders. I have seen some dramatic recoveries among clients afflicted with such problems, so don’t give up…


Feeling Good and Living Long: The Lazarus Effect” of Natural Hormone Restoration (Chapter 10 excerpt):

By now you are reaping major rewards form making smart changes in your diet and reloading the missing nutrients that your brain and central nervous system depend on for top performance. You feel good, so may think your hardest work is behind you. If only Mother Nature played fair! Problem is our bodies have been genetically programed.  We peak sexual early on, we reproduce, and then our bodies start to self-destruct as the aging clock accelerates. 

In the Melatonin Miracle, Dr. Walter Pierpaoli, M.D., defines aging and how it occurs. 

Aging is actually the loss of the body’s ability to adapt to its environment. Our bodies are constantly forced to respond to various stresses and stimuli such as adjusting to temperature change, fighting off a virus, or even just knowing when it’s time to sleep or wake.  This of your body as a rubber band. When we are young and strong, our bodies can easily bounce back from the force of these stresses, but as we age, we increasingly loss our our ability to adapt to new situations—in short, we loss our resiliency. Like an old worn out rubber band, it takes longer to bounce back. 

Up until a few years ago scientists could only speculate on how to interrupt and slow down this aging process. Today the field of anti-aging medicine offers cutting edge scientific answers. In a sentence: The declining substances that signify the occurrence of the aging process in our bodies are our hormone levels. Thousands of studies now record this downward spiral in hormone production, which usually starts in our twenties or thirties. These hormones are the source of our youth, vigor, stamina, sexual interest and performance, energy, memory, immune system, and mental sharpness. 

This chapter is for those who want to maintain their emotional, mental, and physical health throughout their lives, and are willing to do what it takes to grow younger with hormones, and add decades to their lifespan. To those who are willing to just let Nature take her course, let me remind you (while there is still time) that you are agreeing to becoming frail and weak, loss your mental capacity, and finally become dependent on others. To me, that is a fate far worse than death. And I am speaking not from the role of researcher, but from my own life experience.Next year (as of this writing) I wi;; be seventy years old. I continue to work full time, directing the Health Recovery Center, writing books and articles, and lecturing. I take most of the eight hormones I will discuss in this chapter, and I love the benefits they give me. Truthfully, I can think of no better insurance against an unknown future than to stay vigorous and mentally alert with hormonal rejuvenation, taken in consultation with your doctor first. But let me convince you with facts…



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