In
addition, over 60 diseases and illnesses may be caused by or associated with
neurotransmitter deficiency. Low
neurotransmitter levels is not only very common, it is epidemic.
“How do the levels of serotonin and
catecholamine neurotransmitters get to such critically low levels?” There are several explanations.
1.
The
first is that neurotransmitter depletion is nutritionally based. Neurotransmitters are made from amino acids
that must be obtained in the diet. In
addition, amino acids, vitamins and minerals eaten in food are required for the
creation of the neurotransmitters. If the diet is deficient, neurotransmitter
deficiency develops.
2.
There
are multiple medications that have shown to cause depletion of serotonin and/or
catecholamine in the urine. These are
the medications prescribed to increase the activity of serotonin in the brain
such as Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, etc.
Apparently as a result of increasing the brain level of serotonin, the
body increases the metabolism of serotonin and thus the levels slowly decline
because these medications do nothing to increase the level, they just
re-circulate the already low level.
3.
Caffeine,
ephedrine, ephedra and other stimulants including Ritalin, chocolate, etc. also
seem to reduce the effectiveness of neurotransmitters thereby creating a
resistance to neurotransmitters.
Phentermine (of the Phen-Fen diet) actually cause long-term damage to
the receptor so that in order to get the effect of serotonin, you have to have
an even higher level. This is why so
many people gain even more weight after stopping Phen-Fen.
4.
Sensory
overload. The brain is bombarded by
sounds, rapid visual effects from television, movies, electronic monitors
flickering faster than the eye can detect, radio waves, fluorescent artificial
light, etc. All of this requires the
brain to modulate this sensory bombardment so that you can stay focused on the
task in front of you. Brain overload
means that you have to literally calm yourself down.
5.
Rapid
lifestyle, stress, over work, etc. may also contribute.
6.
Since
the largest source of neurotransmitters is the gastrointestinal tract,
dysfunction as discussed above could be a major contributory component. This would include congestive bowel toxicity,
candidal/yeast overgrowth conditions, increased intestinal permeability (leaky
gut syndrome)
7.
It
has been suggested that several SSRI medications deplete 40-60% of the
serotonin receptors in the brain. It is
also reported that receptors in the liver, kidneys, and colon are also damaged
by SSRIs.
8.
John
A. Allocca, M.D. lists a variety of additional mechanisms by which
neurotransmitters are lost: ingestion of various food allergens or
sensitivities, inhalation or ingestion of various chemicals, chemical
sensitivities, rapid changes in hormone levels, rapid changes in barometric
pressure, head cold or sinus congestion, rapid changes in blood sugars,
dehydration, inadequate exposure to sunlight (hence the excessive conversion of
serotonin to melatonin), and hepatobiliary dysfunction. These remarks may be based on the
precipitation of migraines, which Dr. Allocca assumes to always be related to
serotonin imbalance.
MIXED NEUROTRANSMITTER DYSFUNCTION/DEPELETION
Providing the body
with ingredients to make just one neurotransmitter (either serotonin or
catecholamines) does not produce uniform results in all patients. It has been the experience of NeuroResearch
in treating a group of 100 patients for a given disease with just 5-HTP, only
about 10% to 15% will get "good relief". Overall 30% to 40% of
patients will get "some relief" and the majority (60% to 70%) will
get "no relief."
This observation led
Dr. Hinz to formulate “Mixed Neurotransmitter Dysfunction Theory.” Five percent of patients with a given
neurotransmitter dysfunction disease are purely a serotonin dysfunction, 5% of
patients are a purely catecholamine dysfunction, and the remaining 90% of
patients are a mixture of both serotonin/catecholamine dysfunction and lie
along a spectrum between the two extremes.
This implies for the
vast majority of patients with a neurotransmitter related condition, the
serotonin system and the catecholamine system (dopamine, norepinephrine, and
epinephrine) must both function
properly for the entire system to be healthy and free of neurotransmitter
disease. This appears to be reflected in
urine neurotransmitter testing by the fact that patients with dysfunction of
the catecholamine system tend to need higher serotonin levels to compensate and
obtain a clinical response.
NEUROTRANSMITTER DEFICIENCY
The treatment methods
of Marty Hinz, M.D. for neurotransmitter dysfunction have not only been helpful
for patients in whom other methods of treatment haven’t worked, but also for
patients with almost any one of the symptoms due to neurotransmitter deficiency.
Afternoon urine
specimens have been shown to be a useful indicator of catecholamine and
serotonin levels but require proper timing and collection to be of value. According the Dr. Hinz, the urine levels seem
to reflect brain levels. Some interpretation
is required since high urine levels may indicate excessive loss of the
neurotransmitters due to medications, etc. Testing is not done before treatment
since it can be confusing and mis-leading.
Urine testing during therapy may be necessary for monitoring the proper
dosage of neurotransmitter repletion.
PHARMACEUTICAL
DRUGS: NOT THE ANSWER
If you have
neurotransmitter deficiency, most likely you have been given a medicine that
will reduce the symptoms but are not curative.
Although effective to some degree in reducing symptoms, in the long run
the medications can actually make the underlying neurotransmitter deficiency
worse. For example, if you have
depressive symptoms caused by low levels of serotonin, taking a “SSRI”
medication such as Prozac, Zoloft, Celexa, or Paxil is merely tricking the
brain into thinking that it has more serotonin. These medications merely
interfere with the body’s normal metabolism of serotonin and do nothing to
correct the real cause, which is not a neurotransmitter metabolism problem but
rather a deficiency of the neurotransmitter itself. These medications do not stimulate the
production of more neurotransmitters. In
fact there is solid scientific evidence that they accelerate the depletion of
the neurotransmitters over time. This is
why many of these medications only work for a short time and then stop being
effective. The Neurotransmitter
Repletion program pioneered by Dr. Hinz actually enables the body to make more
serotonin and other neurotransmitters that naturally corrects the cause of the
problem.
The SSRI medications
are designed to work just on a very specific part of the brain. While this may temporarily correct the
deficiency in that one location, what about the rest of the body’s need for
serotonin and catecholamines? There are
receptors for these important chemicals throughout the entire body. Medications don’t address the deficiency in
these areas, but the neurotransmitter repletion will give the entire body what
it needs.
WHAT NEUROTRANSMITTER
REPLETION CAN DO
From the Hinz, MD
experience in thousands of patients using the same products and program that we
have available, he reports…
§
For
most patients with migraines, we can get rid of them completely.
§
For
people taking medications for migraines, we can get most patients off the
medications completely.
§
For
patients with depression where the medication quit working, we can get most
feeling normal again.
§
For
patients with depression where no medications have seemed to work, we can help
most.
§
For
patients with depression who want to get off their medications, we can help
most.
§
Patients
with fibromyalgia and chronic pain benefit greatly. Most can stop some or all of their
medications soon after treatment starts.
§
In
patients with insomnia, most are sleeping 5 to 8 hours a night after the first
3 to 4 weeks of treatment.
§
Most
patients with panic attacks find their symptoms are gone in the first month.
§
Most
patients find PMS symptoms are much better or completely gone.
§
Chronic
anxiety resolves for most patients.
§
For
patients with “complex appetite”, we have the only known effective cure.
§
A
medical weight management program that is 75-90% successful in reaching the
goal weight in participants who also follow the dietary program.
With the exception of
treating weight problems, most patients should have their problems brought
under control and be free of symptoms in less than 4-6 weeks. Below are some notes from Dr. Hinz'
experience on specific symptoms related to neurotransmitter insufficiency.
Migraine
Headaches: In patients with true
migraine headaches who have suffered for years, treatment with the process
outlined in our patents is remarkable to say the least. Over 95% of patients have no more migraine
headaches within 1 to 2 days of starting treatment! Imitrex is a popular and effective medicine
for short term relief of migraine symptoms but does not cure the disease nor
can it be used to prevent the onset of a migraine. Imitrex is also very expensive. It is not uncommon to see patients taking $200
to $300 or more in Imitrex each month.
NeuroReplete programs completely resolves migraine headaches in the
first few days of treatment for most people and is less than 1/3rd
the cost. It also solves many other
conditions related to neurotransmitter insufficiency.
Depression: The evidence is very convincing that low
levels of brain serotonin and/or norepinephrine cause depression. Current medicines used by doctors to treat
depression work by redistributing serotonin and/or norepinephrine effectively tricking
the brain into thinking it has more neurotransmitters, but there is none. They do nothing to increase the amount of the
depleted neurotransmitters in the body and thus do nothing to actually correct
the underlying cause of the problem. In
fact in the long run, they can actually make the underlying problem of low
Serotonin and/or Norepinephrine levels lower and worse. For example, there are many stories told by
doctors of patients treated for depression with medicines where the medicine
worked well initially, but then one day the patient literally woke up and found
the medicines were no longer working but they had to stay on the medicine
anyway to keep from feeling even worse.
Another type of patient is depressed and medicines simply do not work. In both these circumstances, the patented
treatment approach has been highly effective in getting them to feel normal
once again without medications.
Depression
is generally divided into two categories. They are “Exogenous depression” and
"Endogenous depression”.
- Exogenous
Depression
develops as a reaction to events that happen in the environment around the
patient, a sort of situational condition.
Dr. Hinz describes the following as an example of exogenous
depression, "if your house burns down, your car blows up, and your
dog dies all in one day you may feel depressed for a time".
- Endogenous depression can appear to
start for no particular reason. In many cases, the patient literally wakes
up one day to find that he/she is not functioning normally due to
depression. Low levels of serotonin and/or norepinephrine in the body
causes endogenous depression.
Diagnosis of depression is made using the DSM
IV criteria. In diagnosing patients, proper laboratory work-up for thyroid and
anemia should be preformed. If 5 of the following 8 items are present for 2 or
more weeks, the diagnosis of depression can be made.
“Severe depression” is life-threatening
depression where the patient is contemplating suicide and this necessitates the
referral to a psychiatrist immediately. One study showed that virtually all
suicides had been seen by a physician within the previous 7 days. Refractory depression is defined as patients
treated with prescription drugs where there is no clinical response. The cause of this problem is simple - “Drugs
that work with neurotransmitters do not work if there is not enough
neurotransmitters to work with…” In the
abstract of a May 2000 Journal of Clinical Psychiatry article by Dr.
Delgado (The Role of Norepinephrine in Depression), “Norepinephrine-selective
antidepressant drugs appear to be primarily dependent on the availability of
norepinephrine for their effects.
Likewise, serotonin-selective antidepressants appear to be primarily
dependent”. In refractory depression
where the drugs quit working, the problem is that the level of
neurotransmitters has dropped below the critical level needed the patient to be
healthy and disease free and below the level for the drugs to work.
Fibromyalgia: Fibromyalgia is a descriptive term and not
really a disease itself. The hallmark of
fibromyalgia is chronic pain in muscle and fibrous tissue points throughout the
body. There has been no real cure identified
for fibromyalgia and treatment has centered on use of multiple medications for
partial symptom management and counseling such as support groups. Neurotransmitter Repletion has proven to be
extremely effective and economical, and in most cases patients gradually quit
taking all other medications for fibromyalgia.
One clinic in Kansas
using the same methods treated employees of the state of Kansas who had fibromyalgia. Results were so good that the program is
covered by insurance for State of Kansas
employees.
Insomnia: Using the definition of severe insomnia as
“sleeping less than 4 hours a night with frequent wake ups of 20 minutes or
more” and including those people who simply do not sleep well at night
encompasses a broad range of sleep disorders.
The issue of poor sleep is such a large problem that in larger cities
many hospitals have sleep clinics.
Medications used for sleep obtain marginal results at best and sleeping
pills on a chronic basis are not the answer.
Correction of sleep problems with Neurotransmitter Repletion usually
takes two to four weeks but results are spectacular in most. Patients sleeping only 2 to 3 hours a night
with frequent wakeups find they are sleeping five to eight hours a night
without waking up, and they report feeling better than they have in years.
Panic
Attacks: The hallmark of panic attacks is “an abrupt
onset of an impending sense of doom”; the sudden feeling that something bad is
going to happen even though there is nothing going on. Many times people with panic attacks will
also have agoraphobia, which is the fear of going into public or open places,
or other fears. In medicine, for years
these have been very hard things to treat effectively. Typically the patient is placed on multiple
medicines, which do nothing more than mask the symptoms. Neurotransmitter Repletion has proven to be
very effective in actually getting rid of the disease and the symptoms, and in
the process, getting patients off the medications.
Premenstrual
Syndrome: PMS are experienced by many women in the five
to seven days prior to the onset of menses.
In some women these monthly symptoms can be severe enough to be
disabling and include water weight gain and emotional changes. In one of the more severe cases of PMS we
have worked with, the patient would gain 17 pounds in fluid retention and went
through extreme changes in personality and emotions. Although some approach PMS with hormones
primarily, even hormones (as well as other medications) are merely masking the
problem and treating the symptoms without curing the underlying disease. Using methods outlined under the patents has
proven to be very effective.
Attention
Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder: Over the last several
years, Dr. Hinz has collected ample data that ADHD kids show a pattern of
hyperexcretion of neurotransmitters (the kidneys are literally dumping
neurotransmitters and depleting the system).
Approximately 86% of the kids dump serotonin and 40% dump
norepinephrine. Dr. Hinz however has not
collected data about the clinical response in ADHD, i.e. "How many kids
get better?" "What is the average group dosing to get better?"
etc. Following Dr. Hinz lead, our
attitude is that "pharmaceutical grade amino acids are safe” under the
guidance of a knowledgeable health professional.” If your give kids with ADHD, a trial of
neurotransmitter repletion and they improve it suggests that neurotransmitters
are involved in that particular child’s case and you are not going to hurt
anyone or interfere with other medications.
E-mail correspondences from other medical doctors and patients often
talk about dramatic beneficial effects of neurotransmitter repletion in
ADHD. In fact, there are so many
compelling reports that we feel it is worthy of trying even before a formal
ADHD study is completed and reported.
For now, all we have to go on is anecdotal evidence that in the
treatment of ADHD, neurotransmitters are safe and often very effective.
Anxiety: Up until a few years ago, the intense and
inappropriate anxiety that interfered with day-to-day activities was treated
with tranquilizers. In medicine today,
most anxiety is treated with SSRI medications like Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil or
Celexa. As noted before, these drugs
merely trick the brain into thinking it has more neurotransmitters and does
nothing to actually correct the problem.
Anxiety, even if it has plagued you for a long time, methods used under
the patents may help.
Complex
Appetite: Most people have never heard of this problem,
but many people suffer from it.
Appetites can be categorized into one of two categories:
1. Regular
appetite, these are people who can go all day without eating and not
experience symptoms. A person with a
normal appetite will only consume (on the average) enough calories to maintain
their ideal body weight. This is about
10 calories for every pound (Ex: a 150 pound adult should consume on the
average 1500 calories/day). Any ongoing
intake above 10 calories/pound/day is excessive and suggests an imbalance in
the brain centers that control appetite.
2. Complex
appetite, these are people who when they do not eat every few hours during
the day experience many different symptoms.
In some, the label of
hypoglycemia has been applied. When
diagnostic tests such as the oral glucose tolerance test is performed, there is
in fact no hypoglycemia found. The
symptoms however are real and may be due to neurotransmitter deficiency. The following is a list of some of the
symptoms people with “complex appetite” experience. In general, most patients that we have seen
experience only 3 or 4 of the symptoms on the following list, but for many
people these symptoms can cause the patient to not only feel bad but they can
also interfere with daily activities:
Symptoms seen in complex
appetite (misnamed “hypoglycemia”)
|
Tremor
|
Headaches
|
Lightheadedness
|
|
Dizziness
|
Sweating
|
Irritability
|
|
Nausea
|
Anxiety
|
Disorientation
|
|
Goose
bump skin
|
Feeling
of uneasiness
|
Abdominal
pain
|
Patients with a “complex
appetite” are often mistakenly labeled by doctors as having hypoglycemia based
primarily on the fact that the symptoms got better when the patients ate
something. This is NOT hypoglycemia, it
is a neurotransmitter deficiency and while “complex appetite” can occur in
patients of any weight, patients who are overweight and suffer from “complex
appetite” are very much compromised.
Whenever they try and diet by eating less food, the complex appetite
symptoms get worse. Typical of complex
appetite patients is if they do not eat something every 3 to 4 hours they
experience symptoms such as headache and tremor. This was can be a very real problem,
especially during school, long business meetings, travel, etc. Many patients keep candy with them in case
they begin to experience symptoms. The
patented treatment method can be very effective in resolving “complex appetite”
symptoms.
Obesity
and Eating Disorders: Of all the neurotransmitter deficiency
diseases, obesity and eating disorders need the most intensive treatment. Treatment of obesity and weight problems is
something has not really been truly mastered, but the Hinz program does work
with remarkable success. At present,
there are over a 100 clinics around the United States using this weight management
program. Results of our weight
management program are impressive. The
average group weight loss the first month is 16.9 pounds and over 90% of
patients starting the program make their goal weight and stay there with our
long-term maintenance program.
REPLENISHING
NEUROTRANSMITTERS
Make no mistake
serotonin and catecholamines come from only one source. The amino acids,
vitamins, and mineral we eat are converted to neurotransmitters. Eat a diet
deficient in these things and you will have a neurotransmitter deficiency. The
following foods are serotonin-rich:
avocado, banana, red plum, tomatoes, pineapples, eggplants, walnuts, and
possibly coffee.
However, it is not a simple as eating the
right foods. From our database we know that prolonged dietary deficiency
requires amino acid intake higher than normal food levels can give. Dr. Hinz reports that neurotransmitter repletion excels
in patients in whom medications do not work, “the refractory patient” and it is
safe to use with prescription medications.
In most cases patients with refractory depression finds that their
depression lifts in 3 to 4 weeks. It is
his recommendation that 4-6 weeks after the patient begins to experience
relief; any medications the patient takes should gradually be tapered by every
2 to 4 weeks.
Since all neurotransmitters are made up of
proteins, the diet must contain adequate amounts of protein. Because tryptophan is the amino acid from
which serotonin is produced, patients who have mixed neurotransmitter
dysfunction probably do not get enough of tryptophan in their diet. Because tryptophan has other uses besides
formation of neurotransmitters, using Dr. Hinz’ NeuroRepletion program alone is
not enough to regain mental and physical health. Note in the diagram below that only 2-10% of
the tryptophan is metabolized into serotonin, the majority is needed for other
proteins and vitamin synthesis. Also
note that the vast majority of serotonin is produced in the gut. Thus, a healthy gastrointestinal tract is
also required for mental health. Your
success with any condition related to neurotransmitters requires more than just
taking the NeuroReplete products; you must eat and digest enough high quality
protein and have a healthy gastrointestinal tract!
Side Effects of
Neurotransmitter Repletion
The undesirable effects of neurotransmitter
substrate use include GI upset and on rare occasions drowsiness. Other undesirable effects as reported by Dr.
Hinz include:
All other reported undesirable effects
occurred at visits a rate less than 0.2%.
GI
Upset: By far the most come side effect is GI
upset. GI upset is divided into two
groups “start up” and “carbohydrate intolerance”.
1.
Start-up GI upset occurs at the rate of about 1 in every 150
patients and occurs with the first dose and gets worse with every dose until
about the third day. At this point the
patient can tolerate it no more and stops the program. Apparently the patients who experience this
problem in general are the most serotonin depleted. All patients need to be warned about this
problem at initiation of therapy to avoid drop out. The problem is best managed
by restarting the patient on only one capsule at bed time and increasing the
dosing after 3 to 4 days of no symptoms, with subsequent increases in until the
normal dosing is achieved in 3-4 weeks.
2.
Carbohydrate intolerance. GI upset that
develops after the patient has been on neurotransmitter substrates was very
difficult to pin down. Up to 70% of patients report periodic GI upset. Although
they tended to blame this GI upset on the capsules, it was unrelated to the
supplements. What appears to occur is a
carbohydrate intolerance that had is uncovered with treatment. Once this is
understood and patients are properly educated, the incidence in the database
went from 70% to 0.6%. If a patient, who is one or more weeks into treatment,
begins to experience GI upset 2 to 3 hours after eating, they should be
instructed to remember what they just ate. Usually it is easy to identify the
carbohydrate causing the problem. In many cases, it is a favorite food that has
been eaten for years.
Repletion
Pass-throughs: For some patients, a certain level of
neurotransmitters provokes certain symptoms.
For example - let’s say at a level of 10 you experience panic-like
symptoms, at a level of 20 you have anxiety, at 30 perhaps depression, at 40
migraines for example, and normal function between 50-75. If you start out at 15 with anxiety and near
panic like symptoms as you take the NeuroReplete, etc. your level will increase
to 30 and you may have depression or whatever your unique metabolism expresses
at this level. As you continue to the
repletion program, the level of neurotransmitter will increase and the
depression should resolve. You may have
no other symptoms or you may develop TEMPORARY symptoms at another
sub-therapeutic level. The important
thing to remember is that with continued or increased doses the symptoms will
resolve on your way to normal neurotransmitter levels and health.
Dosage: The mainstays of therapy are three supplement
groups
1.
NeuroReplete
and NeuroReplete Extra (to balance catecholamines and increase serotonin)
2.
CysReplete
or L-Cysteine (to increase catecholamine synthesis or when using Mucuna)
3.
D5
and Mucuna (to balance neurotransmitters and increase dopamine)
Although it was originally recommended for
these to be taken on an empty stomach, they can be taken with or without
food. Best results are seen when the
products are taken throughout the day (breakfast, lunch, dinner, and bedtime if
you go to sleep late). Start off slowly
and increase the dosage. In general the
maximum dosage of NeuroReplete and D5 is 16 capsules a day.
