Dan Stradford, Editor
Alan Graham, Assistant Editor
Gloria McTaggart, Assistant Editor
SafeHarborProj@aol.com
www.AlternativeMentalHealth.com

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Safe Harbor was founded in 1998 in the wake of growing public dissatisfaction with the unwanted effects of orthodox psychiatric treatments such as medication and shock therapy. Seeking to satisfy the desire for safer, more effective treatments, Safe Harbor is dedicated to educating the public, the medical profession, and government officials on research and treatments that, minimally, do no harm and, optimally, cure the causes of severe mental symptoms. Our primary thrust is education on the medical causes of severe mental symptoms and the use of nutritional and other natural treatments.

ALTERNATIVEMENTAL
HEALTH.COM IS THE WORLD'S LARGEST WEB SITE DEVOTED exclusively to alternative mental health treatments. It includes a directory of over 240 physicians, nutritionists, experts, organizations, and facilities around the U.S. that offer or promote safe, alternative treatments for severe mental symptoms. Many of the physicians listed do in-depth examinations to find the physical causes behind mental problems.

Also included on the site is an array of articles on topics ranging from the medical causes of schizophrenia to the effects of toxic metals on mental health.

Special AlternativeMentalHealth.com T-shirts and bumper stickers are available at our online store.

A bookstore page lists top books that cover many areas of alternative treatments with titles like Natural Healing for Schizophrenia and Other Common Mental Disorders and No More Ritalin.

AlternativeMentalHealth.com has been created to educate the public, practitioners, and government officials on the medical conditions that create "mental illness" and the many safe resources available for addressing and often curing severe mental symptoms.

Safe Harbor
1718 Colorado Boulevard
Los Angeles, California 90041
U.S.A.
Phone:  323-257-7338
Fax:  323-257-7014
SafeHarborProj@aol.com
www.AlternativeMentalHealth.com

It is with great delight that we make the historic announcement (see second item below) that Harvard Medical School will present a 3-day conference in April called Natural Remedies for Psychiatric Disorders.

The Harvard conference features presentations by nearly 20 Harvard faculty members, most from the Dept. of Psychiatry, plus several others.

To our knowledge, this is the first university to present such a conference. That it is from Harvard Medical School is all the better.

This event marks a dramatic shift in the medical establishment's position on non-drug mental health treatments. No longer will psychiatrists and other physicians have the excuse that these treatments are not recognized by mainstream medicine. If it is good enough to teach Harvard psychiatrists and physicians, it's good enough for their colleagues across the country and the world.

It has been our experience over the past several years that the field of alternative mental health, thanks to our work and the work of many others, is growing at an astonishing rate across the U.S. and the world. So this announcement does not come as a total surprise. But we want to publicly thank the Harvard School of Medicine for showing the fortitude and leadership and advocating these natural treatments, which are far superior to the "old" practice of drugging symptoms into oblivion.

We are immensely pleased to announce the opening of our Safe Harbor Boston office.

The email address for it is SafeHarborB@aol.com.

The phone number is:  617-964-5544

Heading the operation is Gary Shapiro, a local businessman who is passionate about getting the word out about non-drug approaches for mental health. He will be working with healthcare professionals in his area and setting up Safe Harbor talks and a support group in the Boston area. 

We are extremely pleased to be in Boston. It is the home of Harvard and other well-known institutions where some outstanding cutting-edge research is occurring these days with nutritional treatment of mental disorders. It is home to Dr. Joseph Glenmullen, author of Prozac Backlash; Dr. Andrew Stoll, who is continues outstanding research showing fish oil to be as effective as drugs in treating those diagnosed with depression and bipolar disorder; and Dr. Charles Popper, who has published on the 70% success rate he's has using the TrueHope supplements (www.truehope.com) on his patients diagnosed with bipolar disorder. All three are from Harvard.

Boston is also home to Courtenay Harding, Ph.D., of Boston University, who has done remarkable research showing that 2/3 of people diagnosed with schizophrenia recover or greatly improve on their own over time.

We look forward to helping improve the health of many in the Boston area.

Harvard Medical School, Department of Continuing Education, announced the presentation of a groundbreaking course to educate psychiatrists and other medical professionals on the subject of alternative medicine for mental health disorders.

The course, entitled Natural Remedies for Psychiatric Disorders: Considering the Alternatives, is being offered by Massachusetts General Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, on April 25 - 27, 2003 at the Westin Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts.

It is intended that the course will give practitioners the information they need to advise their patients on alternatives, and will cover a wide range of diagnoses such as Depression, Anxiety and Sleep Disorders, Drug and Alcohol Dependence, and Dementia, and alternative treatments such as St. John's Wort, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, SAMe, Folate, B12, Melatonin, Inositol, Ginkgo Biloba, Galantamine, GH, and Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), and Glycine.

The course will be presented by a faculty of experts from Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School and other major institutions.

For more information, and registration, go to Natural Remedies for Psychiatric Disorders: Considering the Alternatives.  

Naturopathic physician Melissa Metcalfe (www.naturalsolutions.com), a graduate of Bastyr University with experience in treating mental disorders, will speak at the Safe Harbor office on natural mental health treatments.

We will have a support group meeting from 7 PM to 8 PM and the talk and a question-and-answer period will last from 8 PM to 9 PM. The talk is free and all are invited.

The lecture will be Wednesday, February 12, 2003, at the Safe Harbor office at 1718 Colorado Blvd. in the Eagle Rock section of Los Angeles.

Admission is free and all are invited. We ask that you call the Safe Harbor office or email to let us know you are coming: (323) 257-7338 or SafeHarborProj@aol.com.

Safe Harbor president Dan Stradford and holistic psychiatrist Nancy Mullan will speak to the psychology class of Prof. Marie Feuer at Mt. Sierra College, Room 161, in Monrovia, California, on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2003, from 1:30 PM to 3:30 PM.

The topic is "Natural Approaches for Mental Disorders."

The public is invited. There is no fee.

The address is: 101 E. Huntington Dr., Monrovia, California.  

 "TrueHope" nutritional supplements have been reported to have more than a 70% success rate with bipolar and other mental disorders. In a recent corporate change, the company has broken into two different firms which distribute the supplements. One of these is Evince International (www.evince.org).

David Gilbert, medical representative for Evince, will speak on two consecutive evenings in Southern California on recent published research in nutrient intervention for mental disorders, their ongoing open case study program of people using the nutrients, and support and monitoring systems used to assist study participants and their health care providers.

There is no charge.

Times and locations:

7:00 - 9:00 PM, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2003: Chino Hills, CA, office of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) at 6251 Schaefer Ave, Unit G, Chino Hills, CA. Phone: (909) 606-9959

7:00 - 9:00 PM, Friday, Feb. 28, 2003: Safe Harbor office, 1718 Colorado Blvd., Los Angeles, CA. Phone: (323) 257-7338

Seating is limited. Please call to reserve a seat.  

James Greenblatt, M.D., dually board-certified child and adult psychiatrist, offers both families and professionals a full day of education in the use of nutritional and herbal alternatives to psychiatric drugs.

The morning program, Nutrition and Mental Health Treatment - Sense or Nonsense?, will begin with an overview of nutritional influences on brain function and go on to cover:

The afternoon program, Practical Suggestions for Integrating Alternative Therapies into a Mental Health Practice, will cover specific herbal and nutritional supplements that have been used in the treatment of psychiatric disorders. Topics include Food Allergies, St. John's Wort, Kava Kava, SAMe, Inositol and NADH.

Dates and locations:

Friday, February 28, 2003, the Holiday Inn, Dedham, MA
Friday, March 14, 2003, the Danversport Yacht Club, Danvers, MA

Tuition: $77.00

Contact: Commonwealth Education Seminars, 800-376-3345, ces22@attbi.com.  

We are pleased to announce our first talk in Kansas was given on January 28, 2003 at the Community Mercantile in the city of Lawrence. Our representative Sue Westwind and Dr. Farhang Khosh spoke on Natural Approaches to Autism and AD(H)D.

They will be doing another presentation in Lawrence in April on Natural Approaches to Depression and Anxiety. If you would like to be notified of the exact time and place, email us at SafeHarborProj@aol.com and we will put you on the list.

Safe Harbor is launching its annual membership drive!

We are moving into our fifth year and going strong, changing lives every day. Every week thousands come to our Web site for help and information. 

Thanks to Safe Harbor's work, the field of alternative mental health is growing rapidly and gaining favor and understanding in the public consciousness. Our continued success depends a great deal on the donations of people like yourself, who want to see the field of mental health and the lives of those involved improved. By partnering with us through your membership fees, you help us deliver:

Please print out and provide the information requested below and mail to:
    Safe Harbor
    1718 Colorado Boulevard
    Los Angeles, CA 90041
    U.S.A.

You may also go to www.AlternativeMentalHealth.com and make your donation online, or call 323-257-7338 and we will take your information by phone.

Membership:

From a veterinarian:

Yesterday a client returned to my office with her cats. I haven't seen her for over two years. She looks great and the cats are doing well. She smiles and tells me,

"Thanks."

I say, "For what?"

She proceeds to tell me that last time she came to our office she was on an antidepressant and was depressed severely and doing poorly. I told her to visit AlternativeMentalHealth.com and she did.

She looked up information on her condition and it made sense.

She put the information into action in her life and now she is no longer on disability and is off all drugs. She has a job and is happy and has income to take care of her cats which makes me happy, too!

Life is good when people care for one another and have correct information.

Thanks to you all for participating.

I'm smiling. Are you?

From Willam Walsh, Ph.D., senior scientist for the Pfeiffer Treatment Center (www.hriptc.org):

Severe wheat gluten (a protein complex in grains) intolerance can cause classic symptoms of schizophrenia, and amounts to about 4% of all schizophrenia diagnoses in the U.S. These persons usually become quite normal when placed on a gluten-free diet. Psychiatry continues to ignore the small, but significant, population, estimated at 100,000 to 300,000 Americans. These people are usually treated with atypical antipsychotic medications, but simply need a dietary change to become free of symptoms.

There are classic symptoms/markers of gluten intolerance which enable you to determine the small percentage that have symptoms consistent with this disorder. Examples are (1) compulsive, ritualistic behavior, (2) family history of malabsorption, (3) frequent, explosive bowel movements, (4) lethargy, (5) abdominal pain, and (6) Dermatitis Herpetiformis (skin disorder). One could screen a psychiatric hospital population for the presence of some of these markers of celiac disease & then perform diagnostic tests to nail it down.

In a few short weeks [from Dec. 2002], the results of the study measuring the prevalence of celiac disease in the United States will be published in a medical journal [Feb 10 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine]. The results are astounding: 1 in 179 healthy Americans produces antibiodies to gluten, the first step in a celiac disease diagnosis. We are proud to have contributed significant data to this important study.

For grandparents, grandchildren, aunts and uncles of people with celiac diseas, that number jumps to 1 in 40. For the parents, offspring and siblings of people with celiac disease, the prevalence of celiac disease is 1 in 20.

Dr. Guandalini's program offers free celiac testing at the university every fall. Contact info: 773-702 7593, www.celiacdisease.net  

A "Fast for Freedom in Mental Health" is being planned for this year as "a hunger strike to challenge international domination by biopsychiatry."

Support Coalition International, a collection of over 100 organizations supporting patients' rights, voted recently to make the fast a "self-governing project" of the Coalition.

Initial core groups of nine hunger strikers and seven scientific experts have been organized.

"The prospect of putting the mainstream mental health system on the defensive and pressuring the champions of biopsychiatry to back up their claims is really exciting," said Mickey Weinberg, a Support Coalition board member who is helping to organize the hunger strike.

Said Mickey, "People in emotional distress and their families deserve more than public relations sound bites and manipulative TV ads."

Excerpts of the Coalition's official statement follow:

For more information see www.MindFreedom.org. Prospective hunger strikers and all others willing to help in concrete ways should contact Mickey Weinberg at mickey37@earthlink.net.

Treatment with vitamin B-1, also known as thiamine or tetrahydrofurfuryl disulfide, may offer some clinical benefit to children with autism, leading to a measured improvement of symptoms, by helping to rid the body of toxic metals, especially arsenic. That's according to the results of a pilot study published in a recent issue of Neuroendocrinology Letters by Derrick Lonsdale, M.D., of the Preventive Medicine Group in Westlake, OH, and his colleagues. The researchers found elevated urinary arsenic levels in six out of 10 autistic children in a study sample, which decreased during 60-days of continuous treatment with thiamine.

The 10 children, who ranged from age three to eight, were diagnosed with autism through use of a computer-assessed symptom score. They received thiamine (TTFD) twice a day for two months in the form of a rectal suppository containing 50 mg. of the vitamin. This synthetic disulfide derivative of the vitamin is manufactured in Japan and has never been approved for use in the United States. Dr. Lonsdale was able to use the TTFD in the study because he holds an independent investigator license from the Food & Drug Administration.

As the study progressed, eight of the 10 children experienced improvement in their symptoms, as measured by the computer-assessed Autism Treatment Checklist (ATEC) forms The most severely affected patients showed the best symptomatic response. One patient showed worsening of symptoms during the study.

Dr. Lonsdale and his cohorts examined the children's urine at the outset of the study, and then at 30- and 60-day intervals. They found a number of urinary metals, especially arsenic, exceeding those of healthy controls. These elevated arsenic levels decreased over the course of the treatment. (Dr. Lonsdale and his associates note that a statistical analysis was impossible due to the small number of children studied and the wide variation of urinary arsenic concentrations.)

Four children also had increased arsenic levels in their hair at the study's outset and six more children at the study's conclusion, representing secretion of arsenic into the hair. Following administration of TTFD, two children showed an increase in cadmium in their urine, one child, lead, and another, nickel. However, sulfur metabolites in the urine of the children with autism did not differ from those measured in healthy controls.

The pilot study thus suggests that TTFD may help remove toxic metals from the children's body. According to a press statement issued by Neuroendocrinology Letters, William Walsh, Ph.D., of the Pfeiffer Treatment Center in Illinois found that more than 90 percent of over 300 tested children with autistic spectrum disorder had evidence of a missing sulfur-containing protein called metallothionein. This is known to provide protection from the toxic effects of toxic metals, which attack sulfur metabolism. Further study will be required to confirm the beneficial role of thiamine as a treatment for autism.

The study was reported in the August, 2002, issue of Neuroendocrinology Letters (Vol. 23, No. 4, 2002) at www.nel.edu.)  

I received a message from a doctor. A very interesting message. Here are excerpts:

"I'm an MD, an internist, board-certified. In no way am I what is called an alternative practitioner.

"I never gave much thought to the whole raft of mental disorders which are being diagnosed these days. Until my ten-year-old son received a diagnosis of clinical depression...

"He had been sent, without my knowledge, from his school, to a psychiatrist. That's how the diagnosis occurred...

"Frankly, at first I thought it was a joke or a mistake. How could anyone offer a professional opinion that a ten-year old is suffering from clinical depression?

"I spoke with the psychiatrist, who was a little taken aback by the fact that I am a doctor. He was nervous. But he maintained that his diagnosis was correct...

"I asked him about his prescription for Paxil. That was what my son was supposed to take. I told the psychiatrist that I had done a little research, and Paxil is a very powerful drug.

"The psychiatrist didn't have much to say about that. I told him the drug is heavily addicting, and the withdrawal symptoms can be severe. That alarmed me...

"The psychiatrist maintained that it was a good drug for depression...

"I asked him if he was prepared to take full legal responsibility for any possible effects of the drug on my son. I said I was ready to do tests...continuing tests to see what effects Paxil was having. I said I was ready to have other medical people and mental-health people interview my boy at regular intervals to see what the drug might be doing to do his mental and emotional state, and I hoped he [the school-connected psychiatrist] might suggest a few of these people as well, so we could have an objective panel of experts. Of course, this was all sheer nonsense. I had no intention of subjecting my son to interviews or regular blood tests or brain scans --- and I wasn't about to put him on the drug. But I wanted to see what this psychiatrist would say. I also told him that it was too bad other children's parents did not have the resources to undertake such careful medical and psychological follow-up on their children who were being put on Ritalin and the SSRIs.

"He [the school psychiatrist] began to bend. He said he needed to speak with people at the school --- by which I assume he meant lawyers. I said I couldn't imagine what they would tell him. They weren't medical experts...

"Finally he said --- and I thought this was very interesting---'You know, Doctor, if you want to make trouble here, and cause everyone a lot of grief, then I think you should take responsibility for your child. I'll rescind my prescription.'...

"I told him I WAS taking responsibility for my child. He said he thought that was matter of opinion...

"The upshot is, my son is not taking any drugs. He is fine. I spoke with him, and I found out he was lagging behind in math because he was being taught in an ineffective way. We got him a tutor who knew what she was doing, and now he's all caught up. He is no longer 'depressed.'"

I like them apples. I like them very much.

Popular British nutritionist Patrick Holford, author of the best-selling Optimum Nutrition Bible, recently published Optimum Nutrition for the Mind, the finest book we have seen to date on natural treatment of mental disorders.

This is a must-read for clinicians and lay persons who want to know the underlying physical factors in poor mental health, ranging from depression to schizophrenia to Alzheimer's.

Covering more than just nutrition, it delves into hormonal function, allergies, toxins, and many of the other hidden influences that so bedevil the "mentally ill" and result in their being misdiagnosed with psychiatric disorders. Virtually all forms of mental misfunction are reviewed, from sleep problems to poor memory to full-blown psychosis.

Chapter titles include: Overcoming Depression, Schizophrenia Can Be Cured, The Dangers of Drugs and How to Get off Them, The Way Up from Down's Syndrome, and Answers for Autism.

The subject Holford covers is a vast one