Mental Aberrations Should be the Exception, Not the Rule.

This percentage is alarming just as a fraction, but when you start to think of the volume of people that fraction represents, your head really starts to spin.

The author of the aforementioned piece expressed a sentiment that I think is important to note – is there really a problem with how we feel, or is there a problem with how we diagnose those feelings? The author advocated changing the standards by which we diagnose and prescribe drugs for depression.

I certainly agree with the author, to a point. When the blues set in, it easy for most people to run to their doctor’s office and get a chemical fix for the problem. Doctors are often under pressure to prescribe something when a patient comes in, because they come in expecting relief. And as sad as it is to admit, depression is a boon for pharmaceutical industries. With a quarter of all women (and I’m sure nearly as many men and young people, as well) filling prescriptions month after month, their bank accounts must be looking pretty good. When you are drowning in money, how much incentive do you have to encourage people to fight depression with means other than your pills?

Depression is very real problem with very serious implications. And while I agree with the author’s position – that the criteria that must be met to merit an anti-depressant prescription is too low – I think something else is at work here, too.

I wrote in my final blog of the year last year that I don’t believe we are born to be sick. Like any rule, there are exceptions, but I believe that lifestyle has more to do with the health we experience over the course of our lives than it gets credit for. And I don’t think mental health is any different. What you eat, how much you exercise, and how much you rest have a great deal to do with your general feeling of well being.

Even more than that, I think there is a deeper, more insidious culprit that can affect our mood. Fungi and mycotoxins are never implicated in any sort of mental aberrations. But the fact remains, if you eat a diet like most Americans, consume alcohol, or take antibiotics, you are exposed to mycotoxins. Even the most careful people are subject to exposure via inhalation, and these mycotoxins have documented mental side effects.

Any approach to combating depression or any sort of mental aberration that doesn’t include a Kaufmann 1 diet is, in my opinion, incomplete. Circumstances can get you down, it is true. But is it the best thing to rely on a pill to make you feel ok? Try the Kaufmann 1 diet for a couple weeks, and see if you don’t feel much better.

*No one at KTC would ever suggest going off your prescription medications, and any health plan needs to be discussed in great detail with your licensed health care providers.