Overcoming Poor Sleep Is Key To Reversing Fibromyalgia

Chronic poor sleep is the beginning of fibromyalgia. Sure chronic pain and even fatigue get all the press, but poor sleep is the real nail in the coffin for fibromyalgia.

Poor sleep leads to more pain, inflammation, brain fog, depression, fatigue, headaches, IBS, RLS, weight gain, and other health robbing symptoms.

Melatonin is the primary hormone of the pineal gland and acts to regulate the body’s circadian rhythm, especially the sleep/wake cycle.  When administered in pharmacological doses (1-3mgs), melatonin acts as a powerful sleep-regulating agent that controls the circadian rhythm. 

The same area of the brain that releases melatonin also regulates the happy hormone serotonin. Serotonin helps to produce melatonin. If you are deficient in serotonin, you’ll also be deficient in melatonin (can’t sleep). If you’re low in serotonin, I recommend you start taking 300mg 5HTP before beginning melatonin therapy.

Melatonin is affected by a person’s exposure to light. Melatonin levels start to rise as the sun goes down and drop off as the sun comes up. The retina (eyes) are extremely sensitive to changes in light. An increase in light that strikes the retina triggers a decrease in melatonin production. Conversely, limited exposure to light increases melatonin production. This explains why some individuals suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder.

What Can Decrease Melatonin Levels? 

Essential Therapeutics Melatonin  P.R.

Chronic stress and depletion of stress coping chemicals including serotonin, 5-hydroxytryptophan (5HTP)• exposure to bright lights at night
• exposure to electromagnetic fields
• NSAIDs (Celebrex, Vioxx, Mobic, Alleve, Bextra,etc.)
• SSRIs, yes the very same antidepressants that many take for FMS, including Prozac, Zoloft, Celexa, Paxil, and Lexapro.
• anxiety meds (benzodiazepines) like Klonopin, Ativan, Xanax, Restoril, etc.
• anti-hypertensive meds (beta-blockers, adrenergics, and calcium channel blockers) including, Inderal, Toprol, Tenormin, Lorpressor, etc.
• steroids
• over 3 mg. of vitamin B12 in a day.
• caffeine
• alcohol
• tobacco
• evening exercise (for up to three hours afterwards) 
• depression

Instead of addressing the cause, countless pharmaceuticals have been created to treat the symptoms of these conditions (many based on serotonin, the very hormone that is dependent upon producing your natural sleep hormone melatonin). Most patients are taking sleep drugs that don’t promote deep restorative sleep (benzodiazepines-Xanax, Ativan, Klonopin, Seroquel, etc.) and don’t ever feel rested.

Popular prescriptions for insomnia have recently made headlines due to “Risk of Death”. The following are only some that have been named:

• Ambien
• Restoril
• Sonata 
• Lunesta

A recent article on FOX News.com stated,

“People who took more than 132 pills a year were not only five times more likely to die, but were also at greater risk of developing several types of cancer, and 35 percent more likely to be diagnosed with any type of cancer, overall”

In the UK, the following was said in an eye opening article;

   ”Experts have warned that sleeping pills prescribed in the UK could increase the risk of death more than four-fold.”

also finding that…

“The benefits of hypnotics, as critically reviewed by groups without financial interest, would not justify substantial risks.“ Sleeping Pills ‘Quadruple Risk Of Death’

The list of drugs used for treating anxiety is almost endless, however some of the more popular include:

• Cymbalta
• Ativan
• Lexapro
• Paxil
• Valium
• Xanax 

Dr. Peter Bongiorno, naturopath, wrote an interesting article in Psychology Today. He states,

“These anti-anxiety and antidepressant medications are among the most prescribed in the United States – and possibly the most dangerous. According to a report in the 2010 Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, people who use anti-anxiety medication have a 36% increased mortality risk. That means persons using these drugs are almost 40% more likely to die than people who do not use them…”

Treat The Cause Not The Symptoms

Poor sleep can and must be corrected preferably with natural supplements which correct the cause, low serotonin and or melatonin. Sleep drugs potentially create more problems and often lead to other drugs. For an in-depth discussion on sleep, sleep meds, and natural remedies please see my book Treating and Beating Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. http://store.drmurphreestore.com/trandbefiand.html

You May Have A Stupid Doctor If ...

You May Have A Stupid Doctor If-

He or she tells you fibromyalgia doesn’t exist.

You May Have A Stupid Doctor If-

He or she dismisses your fibromyalgia symptoms as nothing more than you being a hypochondriac-someone wanting attention.

You May Have A Stupid Doctor If-

He or she tells you that more exercise, sleep or losing weight is all you need to do to for your fibromyalgia symptoms-you know the doctor who says “you just need to improve your sex life, take a vacation, lose some weight, your just depressed, it is just PMS…”Give me a break, this doctor doesn’t have a clue!

You May Have A Stupid Doctor If-

He or she tells you that all your blood work looks normal so you must be a “drug seeker.” It may not occur to this stupid doctor that you never mentioned you wanted pain medication, that in fact you have repeatedly declined to take pain meds in the past. What you are really seeking is to have a doctor listen, understand and help you feel better.

You May Have A Stupid Doctor If-

He or she fails to order the proper tests, especially but not limited to thyroid tests. Simply following the herd and only ordering routine tests, including “the normal” thyroid tests, stimulating hormone (TSH) and a T4 (Thyroxine) is similar to trying to critique The Sound of Music after only watching the first 20 minutes of the movie/play. Your synopsis is-Julie Andrews was a quirky nun. Ok, what about the Captain, his children, the Nazi party, the wedding, and the escape? My point is stupid doctors are happy to stay stupid. They don’t care to practice the art of doctoring, being a detective, investigating anything outside the routine.

They’re happy to follow the herd, not make any waves and dispatch the drugs the pharmaceutical rep asks them to based on “this is how we’ve always done it.”

Sorry but it burns me up that patients go to their doctor with all the symptoms of low thyroid-fatigue, depression, anxiety, elevated cholesterol, brain fog, weight gain, cold hands, cold feet, swelling, tingling pains, constipation, hair loss-only to be told their blood work looks fine.

They totally miss the diagnosis because they don’t go the extra mile (“this is how we’ve always done it”). They are then only too happy to promote life draining drugs to cover up the hypothyroid symptoms-Ritalin for low energy, Lipitor for elevated cholesterol, Zoloft for depression, Lyrica for tingling pain…it just goes on and on.

The patient’s symptoms and poor health continue to grow year after year when all the stupid doctor needed to do was run the right tests, or think outside the box and recommend prescription or over the counter thyroid hormone therapy. Correct the cause, low thyroid and all the symptoms go away!

You May Have A Stupid Doctor If-

He or she dismisses the very real condition known as adrenal fatigue. Adrenal fatigue occurs when your stress coping glands, the adrenals become to stressed to perform properly. Stress is definitely the catalyst for disease! They will tell you your symptoms associated with adrenal fatigue, low energy, brain fog, low immune function, depression, poor sleep, weight gain, etc. are from getting older or all in your head.

Why? Because doctors are evaluating blood work for disease not function. They don’t care that your adrenals aren’t functioning at optimal levels (to allow you to deal with and rebound from stress). They only care if you have TOTAL adrenal failure, Addison’s disease. Blood tests won’t show adrenal fatigue but a four-sample, 16-hour saliva test will.

Guess what else stupid doctors don’t believe in, saliva tests. This despite they’ve been proven valid and are recognized by insurance companies, accredited labs, Harvard Medical School, and other leading organizations.

You May Have A Stupid Doctor If-

He or she has you taking two different SSRI or SSNRI antidepressant medications. These drugs, including Savella, Cymbalta, Effexor, Celexa, Zoloft, Paxil, Pristiq, and Prozac are supposed to help your brain re-uptake the happy hormones serotonin and or norepinephrine. It makes no sense to be on more than one of these drugs at the same time-you only increase the risk of more side effects (including poor sleep, depression, anxiety, muscle pain, etc.).

If you stop to get gas why would you mix 89% with 91% unleaded fuel? You wouldn’t. If you need more fuel you simply increase the cars intake, you don’t mix them. Mixing these drugs is a sign of a lazy and stupid doctor!

You May Have A Stupid Doctor If-

He or she has you taking a stimulant drug or drugs and a relaxant or tranquilizing drug. Examples include-taking Ritalin, Adderall, Strattera, Intuniv, Vyvanse, Wellbutren, Effexor, Cymbalta, Savella, or Pristiq and a benzodiazepine drug for anxiety including Ativan, Xanax, Seroquel, Klonpin, Valium or Busbar. One drug is revving you up the other is making you a zombie.

Lazy or stupid doctors are happy to over medicate you. They don’t take time to study how to naturally reduce your anxiety, which after the fact, you can and should use natural amino acids (which make the happy, calming and or stimulating brain hormones, serotonin and norepinephrine)-no one has a drug deficiency!

You May Have A Stupid Doctor If-

He or she has you taking a potentially stimulating drug while you are complaining of insomnia. It used to surprise me to see doctors recommending their patients take a SSRI or SSNRI at bedtime. Why? Because these drugs can, not only re-uptake the calming hormone serotonin, they can also re-uptake the stimulating hormone adrenaline. Now I may not be “a real doctor,” I’m only a little chiropractor nutritionist, but I know enough about biochemistry and physiology and after 17 years experience of treating fibro I know you don’t do anything to potentially sabotage deep restorative sleep.

Timed-release stimulant drugs including some antidepressants and Ritalin are notorious for causing sleep disorders. AND you should know that these drugs deplete your natural sleep hormone melatonin.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

But I’m sure the stupid doctor simply increased your sleep medication or added another potentially dangerous drug to knock you out at night.

Well I could go on and on about stupid doctors but I’ve got to finish up now so I can pack my clothes for my weekend seminar on Functional Medicine. I’ll be learning about more tests that stupid doctors don’t use or even know about. I’m happy not to follow the herd, and strive to be a smart doctor, even though I’m still learning how to work the new TV remote.

Most Common Thyroid Disease: Especially For Women With Fibromyalgia

A majority of my fibro and CFS patient's complain of low thyroid symptoms. They relate that they, and sometimes even their doctors, suspected a thyroid problem only to have their blood work come back "normal". Most physician's won't recommend thyroid replacement therapy if the blood tests come back "normal". Most don't know or choose not to accept the well-documented studies that show a low body temperature is indicative of low thyroid function and perhaps true hypothyroidism. 

And most doctors don’t realize that blood tests for low or hypothyroidism is notoriously inaccurate.

Do you have a number of these symptoms, associated with hypothyroidism- fatigue, headaches, dry skin, swelling, weight gain, cold hands and feet, poor memory, brain fog, hair loss, hoarseness, nervousness, low sex drive, brittle nails, constipation, poor immune function, chronic sinus infections, high cholesterol, high or low blood pressure, anxiety, depression, joint and or muscle pain, and burning or tingling sensations in the hands or feet? Reads like the symptoms of fibromyalgia and or CFS doesn’t it?

Ok, how many symptoms did you have? Several I imagine. So if you have most of the symptoms associated with hypothyroidism, why doesn’t your blood test show that you in fact do have hypothyroidism? Good question.

One major reason is that most doctors don’t do the complete tests to uncover hypothyroidism, especially when it comes to those with fibromyalgia and or CFS.

You may have a common autoimmune disease known as Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. It may be the most common thyroid disease, especially with women with fibromyalgia.

What is Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis - Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis is an autoimmune thyroid disease where the immune system immune system aggressively attacks your thyroid gland-attempting to destroy your gland as if it’s some dangerous enemy. It can cause nodules or lumps in the thyroid. However most of the time there is no physical change in the appearance of your thyroid.

It typically starts out silently, slowly, but soon enough inflammation, low thyroid function and gradual destruction of your thyroid gland begins-symptoms like fatigue, weight gain, or other symptoms associated with low thyroid function, become common. Unfortunately typical blood tests (TSH, T4 blood levels) won’t uncover this disease! Symptoms from thyroiditis can go on for years and years. Doctors may continue to suspect from all your symptoms you have hypothyroidism but since your blood work always comes back “normal,” you must just be depressed or lazy or….here take an antidepressant.

Year after year your doctor treats the symptoms of the uncovered Hashimoto’s disease with drug after drug-antidepressants for your depression, cholesterol medicine, high blood pressure medicine, stimulant drugs for your fatigue…it goes on and on. Why not treat the CAUSE of this symptoms-the Hashimoto’s?

What are the symptoms of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis? Again for most, the symptoms are silent–at least in the early stages. But eventually, you start to notice the same symptoms of hypothyroid, including poor stamina, easy fatigue, feeling cold, gaining weight, dry hair and skin, constipation, etc.

There are special blood tests to uncover Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, which I routinely perform on ALL my patients-why would you want to miss such a valuable piece of information? If your fortunate enough to get a doctor who isn’t blindly following the herd, and does actually have some “smarts” and runs special thyroid tests to uncover Hashimoto’s, they’ll typically take a wait and see approach to a positive test.

This ridiculous! “Miss Jones you have the beginnings of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis but since we can’t treat it affectively with prescription drugs, or at least not until your thyroid has been destroyed from the Hashimoto’s disease.”

“Doctor, how will you know when my thyroid has been destroyed.”

“Your thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) level will finally be elevated and we will then be able to prescribe a synthetic thyroid hormone like Synthroid or Levothyroxine, which you’ll need to stay on for the rest of your life.

Allowing the attack to continue on your thyroid until your TSH is elevated is crazy-not only last for years, but cause all sorts of problems along the way of its destruction, including years and years of poor health. Instead, why not just stop the attack and all the consequences?

Why because traditional medicine doesn’t have a drug to stop the attack. Fortunately there natural over the counter remedies and protocols that will in fact stop the destruction and correct the altered thyroid function.

Listen if you have symptoms similar to the ones discussed above do yourself a favor find a doctor who’ll do more than order the typical run of the mill tests. You know what I’m talking about, the same tests your doctors runs every year and then reports your labs look great it is just your fibromyalgia that is the problem.

The real problem is you’ve got a doctor or doctors who are content to do the same tests, ask the same questions, and prescribe the same recommendations, and you get worse every year. WHAT YOU NEED is a detective, a health professional who based on his or her experience knows that the only way to reverse a complicated illness like fibromyalgia is to order the uncommon tests (no one with fibromyalgia is common), ask the questions not asked, and pursue every health clue until you are know the TRUE cause of the symptoms-then start treating the CAUSE not the symptoms.

If you suspect you have Hashimoto’s thyroiditis or a low thyroid function and can’t get your doctor to help you then please consider taking the time to find a doctor who will listen to you and order the right tests.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have uncovered hundreds of missed Hashimoto’s thyroiditis cases and have helped spare these patients of years of misery. There are ways to correct Hashimoto’s thyroiditis short of letting your thyroid burn out and health become shattered.

I’ve helped thousands reverse their fibromyalgia and get their life back. Are you next?

Phone and in clinic new patient consults available 205-879-2383

Magnesium is Essential for Fibromyalgia

Magnesium is one of the most important minerals in the body-especially for those with fibromyalgia.

It is responsible for proper enzyme activity and transmission of muscle and nerve impulses, and it aids in maintaining a proper pH balance. It helps metabolize carbohydrates, proteins, and fats into energy. Magnesium also helps synthesize the genetic material in cells and helps to remove toxic substances, such as aluminum and ammonia, from the body. Magnesium and calcium help keep the heart beating; magnesium relaxes the heart, and calcium activates it. A deficiency of magnesium, then, may increase the risk of heart disease.

Magnesium also plays a significant role in regulating the neurotransmitters.

A deficiency can cause muscle pain, joint pain, headache, fatigue, depression, leg cramps, high blood pressure, heart disease and arrhythmia, constipation, irritable bowel syndrome, insomnia, hair loss, confusion, personality disorders, swollen gums, and loss of appetite. High intake of calcium may reduce magnesium absorption. Simple sugars and/or stress can deplete magnesium.

Magnesium is a natural sedative and can be used to treat muscle spasm, anxiety, depression, insomnia, and constipation. It is also a potent antidepressant. It helps with intermittent claudication, a condition caused by a restriction of blood flow to the legs. It’s effective in relieving some of the symptoms associated with PMS, and women suffering from PMS are usually deficient in it. New studies are validating what many nutrition-oriented physicians have known for years: a magnesium deficiency can trigger  migraine headaches. Magnesium also helps relax constricted bronchial

tubes associated with asthma. In fact, a combination of vitamin B6

and magnesium, along with avoidance of wheat and dairy products,

has cured many of my young asthmatic patients.

Unfortunately, dietary magnesium intake in this country is steadily declining. It has been consistently depleted in our soils and further depleted in plants by the use of potassium- and phosphorus containing fertilizers, which reduce a plant’s ability to uptake magnesium. Food processing also removes magnesium, while high-carbohydrate and high-fat diets increase the body’s need for it. Diuretic medications further deplete total body magnesium.

It is estimated that up to 80% of those with FMS/CFS are deficient in magnesium.

What are some risk factors for magnesium deficiency?

1) Excessive stress in your life whether from physical, emotional, or psychological stressors. Stressful conditions cause the body to use more magnesium and a lack of magnesium tends to make stress responses more severe. The hormones associated with stress, adrenaline and cortisol, were also associated with magnesium deficiency.

2) Eating or drinking highly sugary products including those with artificial sugar. Refined sugar has no magnesium and actually causes your body to excrete magnesium through the kidneys. In addition, these products also strip your body of many other highly essential nutrients and can leave you at risk for many health problems.

3) Drinking alcoholic beverages. Alcohol also increases kidney excretion of magnesium. Alcohol also tends to lower the efficiency of your digestive tract and lower Vitamin D levels, which can further lower magnesium levels. 

4) Drinking caffeinated beverages. Caffeine works similarly to refined sugar in that it causes the kidneys to excrete magnesium.

5) Taking diuretics, heart medications, asthma medication, birth control pills, or estrogen replacement therapy. These medications increase magnesium excretion through the kidneys and can lead to deficiency.

6) Drinking dark colored carbonated beverages. The phosphates contained in dark beverages bind with magnesium in the body to reduce your magnesium levels.

CFS/Fibromyalgia Formula

In the “old days,” when I used to own and oversee my medical practice we would have patients come into the clinic for high dose vitamin and mineral IV therapy. These IVs had large doses of magnesium, as well as other vitamins and minerals and patients usually felt tremendously better after receiving them each week. The IVs weren’t without fault-they were expensive, $75-$90 a treatment, required one and half hours to be administered and their results were short lived.

Realizing the shortcomings of these IVs, I set out to create a “pack” of easy to take high dose supplements that could be taken in a pill and capsule form. This is where my CFS/Fibromyalgia Formula was created.

The CFS/Fibro Formula is loaded with the high doses of the essential nutrients including all the vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids, amino acids, malic acid, and extra magnesium (680mg).

The Amino acids are what make our brain chemicals. They help restore normal brain function, increase mental clarity, reduce depression, anxiety, and fatigue.  The Essential Fatty Acids reduce pain, inflammation, depression, anxiety, allow brain cells to communicate with one another, increase mental clarity, and boosts energy.  The Formula contains all the high dose vitamins and minerals based on The Optimal Daily Allowance according to Orthomolecular Medicine.

For anyone with fibromyalgia I recommend taking an Optimal Daily HIGH DOSE MULTIVITAMIN WITH minimum of 600mg of magnesium, preferably magnesium citrate or chelate (has best absorption, won’t irritate the stomach). You can also add magnesium in 150mg doses-take until loose bowel movement then reduce dose until have normal bowel movement (remember magnesium is a natural muscle relaxant and will relax the colon as well-great for IBS and constipation as well as stiff achy muscles.

Treating and Beating Anxiety and Depression

In any given 1-year period, 9.5 percent of the population, or about 18.8 million American adults, suffer from depression. 1

The indirect and direct costs of mood disorder illnesses totals over 43 billion dollars a year. Depression and related mood disorders rank behind high blood pressure as the most common reason people visit their doctors.

Most individuals who consult their medical doctor for mood disorders are placed on prescription medications.

And in fact as many as 10% of the U.S. population has taken one of these medications. Prescription antidepressants sales reached a total of 37 billion in sales in 2003, which came out to $9 million more than was spent on treatments for the heart, arteries and blood pressure. 2

The largest growth spurt in antidepressant use has been among preschoolers, ages 2-4. 3

In 2003 over one million American children were taking an antidepressant medication. 4

However, several studies show that between 19-70% of those taking antidepressant medications do just as well by taking a placebo or sugar pill. 5

And while patients are attempting to correct their mood disorders with prescription dugs that may or may not be more effective than a sugar pill, all of these drugs have potential, sometimes serious, side effects.

Prozac has been associated with over 1,734 suicide deaths and over 28,000 adverse reactions.6

Prescription antidepressants can cause depression, anxiety, addiction, suicidal tendencies, tremors or involuntary muscle spasms, and senility. Yes, prescription antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs can and do cause depression and anxiety.7

The most popular antidepressant drugs are known as selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRI’s). SSRI’s including the drugs Lexapro, Prozac, Paxil, Celexa, and Zoloft are supposed to help the brain re-uptake the brain chemical or neurotransmitter known as serotonin. Effexor and Cymbalta, are designed to re-uptake the neurotransmitters, serotonin and norepinephrine. Using these drugs is analogous to using a gasoline additive to help your car get more mileage out of the gasoline in the tank.

Unfortunately, many of the individuals who suffer from mood disorders, don’t have any serotonin in their brains to re-uptake. A gasoline additive poured into an empty gasoline tank doesn’t help much, if at all. They may explain why patients often switch from one antidpressant drug to another in hopes of feeling better.

Those suffering from anxiety are commonly prescribed one of the benzodiazepine (tranquilizer) medications including Ativan, Xanax or Klonopin.

National surveys show that 5.6 million adults over the age of 65 are now taking tranquilizers. 8

These medications are associated with numerous unwanted side effects including poor sleep, seizures, mania, depression, suicide, ringing in the ears, amnesia, dizziness, anxiety, disorientation, low blood pressure, nausea, fluid retention, tremors, sexual dysfunction (decreased desire and performance), weakness, somnolence (prolonged drowsiness or a trance-like condition that may continue for a number of days), and headaches.9

Over 73,000 older adults experience drug-induced tardive dyskinesia (tremors or uncontrollable shakes). For many, these tremors are permanent. 10

Orthomolecular Medicine

Fortunately for those looking for a safer, often times more effective way to beat mood disorders, a group of progressive minded physicians helped pioneer a new way of treating mental disorders, known as orthomolecular medicine.

In 1968, two-time Nobel Prize-winner Linus Pauling, Ph.D., originated the term "orthomolecular" to describe an approach to medicine that uses naturally occurring substances normally present in the body. "Ortho" means correct or normal, and orthomolecular physicians recognize that in many cases of physiological and psychological disorders health can be reestablished by properly correcting, or normalizing, the balance of vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and other similar substances within the body. And unlike drug therapy, which attempts to cover-up the symptoms associated with a mood disorder, orthomolecular medicine seeks to find and correct the cause of the illness.

Amino Acid Therapy

Medical science has now determined that how we feel is largely controlled by the foods we eat and how well these building blocks are converted into brain transmitting chemicals called neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are brain chemicals that control our moods. You may remember that chains of essential and non-essential amino acids make up proteins. Many of these amino acids are converted into neurotransmitters. The brain needs adequate amounts of protein and their amino acids for the production of neurotransmitters.

Neurotransmitters are produced from the amino acids in the foods we eat. Certain amino acids along with B vitamins, and minerals, produce the neurotransmitters. The neurotransmitters that cause excitatory reactions are known as catecholamines. Catecholamines, epinephrine and norepinephrine (adrenaline) are derived from the amino acid phenylalanine and tyrosine.

Inhibitory or relaxing neurotransmitters including serotonin, is produced from the amino acid tryptophan.

Supplementing with 5-hydroxytrryptophan (5HTP), a form of tryptophan helps raise serotonin levels. 5HTP is available over-the-counter and works extremely well for most patients.

Studies show that 5HTP can be as effective as antidepressant drug therapy including SSRI medications.11-12

S –adenosylmethionine (SAMe) is a potent fast-acting natural antidepressant that is synthesized in the body from the amino acid methionine. SAMe has been proven through over one hundred-plus studies to be an effective over the counter supplement for reversing depression.13-14 Meta-analysis studies showed that 92 percent of those on SAMe improved compared to 85 percent on Elavil or other tricyclic antidepressant drug.15-16

Amino acid replacement therapy offers far less risk and far more long-term benefit than prescription antidepressant drugs alone. With the ever-growing list of mind-altering drugs growing each year, isn’t it time to consider whether the patient has a nutritional insufficiency instead of SSRI deficiency?

1. Robins LN, Regier DA (Eds). Psychiatric Disorders in America, The Epidemiologic Catchment Area Study, 1990; New York: The Free Press.

2. Beth Hawkins, A Pill is not Enough, City Pages.com

Vol 25 issue 1225 Minneapolis MN.

3. JAMA February 23, 2000;283:1025-1030,1059-1060

4. Drug report barred by FDA

Scientist links antidepressants to suicide in kids

Rob Waters, Special to The Chronicle

Sunday, February 1, 2004

5. Joan-Ramone Laporte and Albert Figueras,“Placebo Effects in Psychiatry,”Lancet 334 (1993):1206-8.

6. Death and near death attributed to Prozac, Citizens Commission on Human Rights.

7. Whittle TJ, Wiland Richard, The story behind Prozac the killer drug,

Freedom Magazine, 6331 Hollywood BLVD., suite 1200 Los Angeles, CA 90028.

7. Monthly Prescribing Reference Haymarket Media Publication Nov 2005, New York NY.

8. Sidney Wolfe, Larry Sasich, and   Rose-Ellen Hope, Worst Pills Best Pills.

Pocket Books New York, NY 1999 pg179.

9. Sidney Wolfe, Larry Sasich, and   Rose-Ellen Hope, Worst Pills Best Pills.

Pocket Books New York, NY 1999 pg11.

10. Sidney Wolfe, Larry Sasich, and   Rose-Ellen Hope, Worst Pills Best Pills.

11. Birdsall T., “5-Hydroxytryptophan: A Clinically Effective Serotonin Precursor” Alt Med Rev

1998;3(4):271-280.

12. W. Poldinger, B. Calancini, W. Schwartz, “A functional-dimensional approach to depression: Serotonin deficiency as a target syndrome in comparison of 5HTP and fluvoxamine,” Psychopathology 24 (1991):53-81.

13. Mischoulon D, Fva M. “Role of S-adenosyl-L-methionine in treatment of depression: a review of the evidence.” Am J Clin Nutr 2002 Nov;76(5):11585-615.

14. Bressa, GM. “S-Adenosyl-l-methionine (SAMe) as an antidepressant: meta-analysis of clinical studies.” Acta Neurol. Scand. Suppl. 1994; 154:7-14.

15. Berlanga, C., Ortega-Soto, H.A., Ontiveros M., Senties, H. “Efficacy of S-adenosyl-L-methionine in speeding the onset of action of imipramine. Psychiatry Res. 1992 Dec;44(3):257-62.

16. Meyers, S. “Use of neurotransmitter precursors for treatment of depression.”

Altern. Med. Rev. 2000 Feb; 5(1): 64-71

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About Dr. Murphree

Dr. Murphree is a board certified nutritional specialist and chiropractic physician who has been in private practice since 1990. He is the founder and past clinic director for a large integrated medical practice located on the campus of Brookwood Hospital in Birmingham Alabama. The clinic was staffed with medical doctors, chiropractors, acupuncturists, nutritionists, and massage therapists. The clinic combined prescription and natural medicines for acute and chronic illnesses. He is the author of 5 books, "Treating and Beating Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome," "The Patient's Self-Help Manual for Treating and Beating Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome," "Treating and Beating Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue The Manual for Non-Allopathic Doctors," "Heart Disease What Your Doctor Won’t Tell You," and "Treating and Beating Anxiety and Depression with Orthomolecular Medicine."

In 2003, Dr. Murphree sold his integrative medical practice. He now maintains a busy solo private practice and conducts one and two day doctor continuing education seminars. He can be reached at his clinic in Birmingham, Alabama, by phone 205-879-2383. His website is www.treatingandbeating.com