Dear group:

I wrote the following email recently to a bipolar person that wrote
me asking about what amino acids I use to treat bipolar disorder in
myself. This is a question that I seem to get asked quite often.

I thought that some persons in this egroup might find the attached
of interest.

Also, I wish to apologize in advance for not being able to answer in
a timely fashion any questions that may be posed to me from my
posting to this egroup. I post to a number of egroups, as well as
have a full email inbox every single morning. I simply don't have
enough hours in the day.

All the very best,

Allen

Dear (xxx):

It sure seems to me that if you add the toxic effects
of intestinal dysbiosis to hidden food allergies, then
add enough environmental toxins such as mercury, lead,
etc., and then add a good dose of stress (stress is
ALWAYS biochemically depleting), and voila! you often
have bipolar.

To answer your question, yes, Pure Form 20 from Jomar
is a part of what I often use to boost my
biochemistry. However, I mix this Pure Form 20 blend
with their WAC blend, and I also add tryptophan to
these amino acid blends as well.

I STRONGLY urge you to define an effective inhibitory
amino acid regime for yourself BEFORE you start using
Pure Form 20 and WAC blend in combination. Even with
tryptophan (or tryptophan and taurine) added to these
two blends, this combination of amino acids can easily
directly cause or greatly contribute to a manic state
within hours of their ingestion (if you take too
much).

Pure Form 20 and WAC blend from www.jomarlabs.com,
when mixed together, sure seems like "rocket fuel" for
the brain to me. This stuff blows away the outdated
recommendation of using tryosine or a
tyrosine/phenylalanine combination, such as was first
recommended in 1987 by Priscilla Slagle in her book
"The Way Up From Down" or is currently recommended by
Julia Ross in "The Mood Cure". This I know from
experience, from having used these two individual
excitatory amino acids regularly for years prior to
finding Jomar's blends in order to achieve excitatory
results.

Tryptophan, an essential amino acid, is missing from
any "over the counter" blend of amino acids offered to
the public for sale, to the best of my knowledge.
Unfortunately, tryptophan is controlled by doctors,
doctors that rarely know how to use it and rarely
prescribe it. You can get "cheat the system"
tryptophan from either Joan Matthews Larson's website
www.healthrecovery.com or www.biochemicals.com, two
websites that offer it over the net.

When taking amino acids, taking vitamin and mineral
support is extremely wise, if not an absolute must.
Using amino acids with the Truehope supplement, or
"it's perhaps somewhat better copycat" from Equilib,
is not contraindicated, by any means. Nutrients act
in synergy with one another. This means that amino
acids need various vitamins and minerals to "get the
job done" (rebuild physical and mental health).

In general, I'm all for supplementing across the board
for bipolar, to include using all four classes of
essential nutrients (vitamins, minerals, essential
fatty acids, and amino acids). I am also for
considering some conditionally essential nutrients to
treat bipolar, such as carnitine and phosphatidyl
choline, which really helped me a great deal.

Dosage of amino acids needed to achieve positive
results is an individual issue. You need to work this
out for yourself, by dosing up slowly over a period of
time, and monitoring their effect on your well being.
This principle applies to both individual and blended
amino acid products.

Worthy of note is that sometimes just regular use of
enough of a powerful digestive enzyme preparation in
order to break down dietary protein into its
constituent amino acids may make the use of free form
amino acids almost unnecessary. Powerful digestive
enzymes such as Protenz and Digestenz by Ness are
always worth a solid trial when treating biolar, as
digestive inefficiency is so common in those that
suffer from this illness.

As much as I am known by many for extolling the use of
amino acids to effect mood change, to deal with
bipolar and not get the issues of hidden food
allergies and intestinal dysbiosis right is like
pissing in the wind. These two malabsorptive issues
are often crucial to resolve in order to recover from
manic depression. And other common malabsorptive
issues such as a lack of digestive enzymes, a lack of
enough stomach acid, and chronic underhydration may be
crucial to resolve when treating bipolar disorder
properly as well.

I will give you one VERY important clue here in regard
to intestinal dysbiosis. If you are not having at
least two large, easy bowel movements a day as a
result of (1) having removed enough yeasts, molds,
fungi, "bad bacteria" and/or parasites from your gut,
(2) taking adequate quantities of an effective
probiotic, (3) eating enough raw fruits and veggies
(and juicing really helps here, eating some of the
fiber generated from juicing as well), (4) avoiding
foods you are allergic to, and (5) adequate hydration,
then you have NOT gotten this issue of intestinal
dysbiosis right.

The ideal here is a bowel movement after every meal...
three meals, then three bowel movements, but I'd
settle for even two a day. This degree of frequency
of bowel movements as a result of having enough good
gut flora and a proper non-allergic diet is becoming
more and more recognized by a number of alternative
health care practitioners. I am NEVER optimally well
from bipolar unless I am pooping twice a day as a
result of getting the above right. And doing so makes
an absolutely HUGE! difference in my well being, when
I can afford to achieve such.

Thank God for Bernard Jensen, who pioneered much of
the crucial knowledge of proper gut function for all
of us in "Tissue Cleansing Through Bowel Management",
etc... and thank God for Jordan Rubin, of Garden of
Life, for carrying the torch on these issues at the
present time (with his "Guts and Glory" program,
Primal Defense, etc.).

To wrap this up, yes, vitamins, minerals, and
essential fatty acids are clearly crucial to the
proper treatment of bipolar. But amino acids are just
the gravy. They are not the the primary issue in
which to deal with to recover from bipolar disorder.
Nonetheless, free form amino acids, when used wisely,
can be incredibly effective intervention for both
depression and mania, depending on which ones are
taken (excitatory vs. inhibitory ones).

Sincerely,

Allen