In Honor of Good Friday:

A Prayer for the Mentally Ill

Be Father Lord, when I turn to run away from your embrace;
Catch me in your strong, sweet caress should I turn from the race,
And when I scream distress, shout not human reason in my face,
But talk me down, softly into a quiet, safe, intimate space.

Bring smiles to shine upon distorted ways, I simply pray,
Change my actions for the better with every passing of the day.
When electrons fire in double speed at a continuous pace,
Into a confined constricted place; capture me in your loving grace!

Quell the doubts kept hidden in garments of praise,
Whilst others whisper words of distaste in judgement’s haste.
Love’s fire flames – scream thoughts, once imprisoned and encased,
Out beyond lives wasted, into the heart’s fertile and limitless place.

Open me again as I stand at a distance, in disbelief and disease;
Soothe me in a quiet voice, as a father who knows and yet is well pleased.
Coax me gently back again as before, into your light of loving grace;
Recapture my tearful face, Daddy, in the palms of your embrace.

Show me love beyond the moon, even in the crevices of sin’s disgrace;
Help me forgive sounds of distrust, sitting in humanity’s disregarding face.
Lead me through shadows of tainted separation, to dance in unity with you,
Entering peace that surpasses all understanding: knowing you to be truth.

Anon ]]> http://mentalhealthusa.org/wordpress/activity/archives/275/feed 0 http://mentalhealthusa.org/wordpress/activity/archives/271 http://mentalhealthusa.org/wordpress/activity/archives/271#comments Wed, 27 Mar 2013 03:31:09 +0000 admin http://mentalhealthusa.org/wordpress/activity/?p=271 REMEMBER VITAMIN D IS IMPORTANT FOR MENTAL AND PHYSICAL  HEALTH
Exposure to sunlight causes vitamin D to be produced in your skin. But only a the UVB portion of the solar spectrum, i.e., ultraviolet B that has this effect. Other parts of the solar spectrum can have very different and even harmful effects .

Malignant melanoma has been increasing at an exponential rate in indoor workers since before 1940. The reason may be indoor exposure to UVA radiation. Unlike UVB, which is blocked by glass, UVA can pass through windows. That is, exposure to the wrong king of UV radiation increases if sunlight is obtained through glass, windows, etc.

UVA can cause cancerous mutations, and can also break down the vitamin D formed in your skin after outdoor UVB exposure. And vitamin D is a potent defense against melanoma — melanoma cells convert it to calcitriol, which causes growth inhibition and apoptotic cell death in vitro and in vivo. New research shows that increased UVA exposures and inadequately maintained cutaneous levels of vitamin D promote melanoma.

It is thus advised that sunshine be obtained through direct contact with the skin. Once skin contact is made, it can take up to 48 hours for Vitamin D to be formed and circulate through the blood stream. So, it is not advised to shower with soaps as they hamper process of producing Vitamin D. Shower with water and use soaps in localized areas such as underarms and genitals.

Finally, statin and other drugs can interfere with the production of vitamin D. Please keep this in mind when trying to increase your Vitamin D levels.
Reference: Dr. Mercola

But the vast majority who suffer from mental illness are more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators, according to experts in the field of mental health. Yet there’s still an extraordinary stigma in this country when it comes to mental illness. 

One in four American families are affected by a loved one with a mental health disorder. That’s according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. A courageous Virginia family is stepping forward to show another side of mental illness-one that is rarely seen or discussed. 

“This is my man cave,” said Elliott Kendro, showing off a room in the family home lined with books and videos. “This is where I watch my movies,” he said.

Elliott is a 23 year-old history and movie buff. Deep beneath his youthful exuberance is a mental illness.

“I like facts about history, religion, politics,” he added.

His father, Joe, explained, “You don’t love your child any less because they have a mental illness. You love them probably more. Sometimes I think Elliott was put here on earth for us, just to see if we could make it through with all this.”

“I’m a good person,”said Elliott. “Smart. Intelligent. Usually beat Dad on Jeopardy.” The close-knit father and son laugh uproariously. 

Misdiagnosed with ADD as a 1^st grader, it took years for Elliott to get the correct diagnoses: Asperger’s syndrome, a developmental disorder marked by difficulty with social interaction and often, repetitive behaviors. But he also had a mental illness: psychosis, a loss of contact with reality.

Recalled Joe, “He actually went out to a dumpster, they were building a new home, and started banging his head on the dumpster. If that doesn’t break your heart, I don’t know what does. To see someone go through that. And now, to look at him…”

Said Elliott, “I was delusional.”

“You were delusional,” responded Joe, “but you’re doing so good now, right?”

His son smiled, and agreed.

Before now, there were years of heartbreak and struggle, including the night he head-butted his father and the family was forced to call 911.

“Elliott was thrown to the ground by a police officer, handcuffed and shackles put on his feet. That was very hard to see. In fact, I think I cried my eyeballs out that night,” said Joe.

“It’s hard on the whole family and on a marriage,” explained Lorry Kendro, Joe’s wife and Elliott’s mother. “We’ve had to struggle to work together, be on the same page and that was always hard, difficult. We’d have different ideas on how we should have handled things.”

Over the years, Elliott has been in and out of hospitals, some with conditions the Kendros call deplorable, at best.

Lorry remembered, “It was very scary. The lowest moment is when he was totally delusional and he thought he could fly.”

Treatment and medication have helped Elliott enormously. And now, his parents fear for his future–what will happen to their son when they’re gone. Options are extremely limited.

“I want him to live a normal life,” said Joe. “He’s probably 85-90% normal right now. Why should he be put in with a mixed population of people who have very, very bad anger management problems or severe illnesses? Would you want your son to go to a place like that?”

Added Elliott, “It’s tough. It’s tough. But you got to keep trying. Try your best.”

There’s little time for self-pity. Elliott and his family are looking forward, taking each day one step at a time.

“Elliott is just the sweetest person,” said Lorry. “He brings a lot of joy into our lives.”

“I’m very proud of him,” said Joe, beaming.

Said Elliott, “And I feel sorry for the really, really, really disabled kids who can’t dress themselves, who can’t get their own showers. I don’t know why God would do that to those people. Why would God make people so disabled?”

Elliott is among the lucky ones. He has loving parents who are his primary caregivers now and ensure that he eats well, takes his medicine and gets the help he needs.

- What are Oxalates?
- Oxalates and Autism
- Benefits using low oxalate diet
- How can high oxalates be treated?
- Oxalate Metabolism
- Great Plains Labaroatory test sample
- Oxalate Interconversions
- Insolubility is key factor in oxalate toxicity
- Testing for Oxalates
- High Oxalate Food List
- References

Oxalate and its acid form oxalic acid are organic acids that are primarily from three sources: the diet, from fungus such as Aspergillus and Penicillium and possibly Candida (1-9), and also from human metabolism (10).

Oxalic acid is the most acidic organic acid in body fluids and is used commercially to remove rust from car radiators. Antifreeze (ethylene glycol) is toxic primarily because it is converted to oxalate. Two different types of genetic diseases are known in which oxalates are high in the urine. The genetic types of hyperoxalurias (type I and type II) can be determined from the organic acid test done at The Great Plains Laboratory (page 4-5).  Foods especially high in oxalates include spinach, beets, chocolate, peanuts, wheat bran, tea, cashews, pecans, almonds, berries, and many others. Oxalates are not found in meat or fish at significant concentrations. Daily adult oxalate intake is usually 80-120 mg/d; it can range from 44-1000 mg/d in individuals who eat a typical Western diet.

High oxalate in the urine and plasma was first found in people who were susceptible to kidney stones. Many kidney stones are composed of calcium oxalate. Stones can range in size from the diameter of a grain of rice to the width of a golf ball. It is estimated that 10% of males may have kidney stones some time in their life. Because many kidney stones contain calcium, some people with kidney stones think they should avoid calcium supplements.

However, the opposite is true. When calcium is taken with foods that are high in oxalates, oxalic acid in the intestine combines with calcium to form insoluble calcium oxalate crystals that are eliminated in the stool. This form of oxalate cannot be absorbed into the body. When calcium is low in the diet, oxalic acid is soluble in the liquid portion of the contents of the intestine (called chyme) and is readily absorbed from the intestine into the bloodstream. If oxalic acid is very high in the blood being filtered by the kidney, it may combine with calcium to form crystals that may block urine flow and cause severe pain.

However, such crystals may also form in the bones, joints, blood vessels, lungs, and even the brain (10-13). In addition, oxalate crystals in the bone may crowd out the bone marrow cells, leading to anemia and immunosuppression (13). In addition to autism and kidney disease, individuals with fibromyalgia and women with vulvar pain (vulvodynia) may suffer from the effects of excess oxalates (14,15).

Oxalate crystals may cause damage to various tissues. The sharp crystals may cause damage due to their physical structure and may also increase inflammation. Iron oxalate crystals may also cause significant oxidative damage and diminish iron stores needed for red blood cell formation (10). Oxalates may also function as chelating agents and may chelate many toxic metals such as mercury and lead. Unlike other chelating agents, oxalates trap heavy metals in the tissues.

Many parents who told me of adverse vaccine reactions of their children reported that their child was on antibiotics at the time of vaccination. Yeast overgrowth, commonly associated with antibiotic usage, might lead to increased oxalate production and increased combination with mercury, slowing mercury elimination if oxalates were so high that they deposited in the bones with attached mercury. It would be interesting to see if increased elimination of heavy metals occurs after oxalate elimination by antifungal therapy and low oxalate diet. In addition, oxalates from the diet or from yeast/fungus in the gastrointestinal tract bind calcium, magnesium, and zinc, perhaps leading to deficiencies even when dietary sources should be adequate.

A brand new diet is being extensively used to treat children with autism and other disorders. Oxalate and its chemically similar form oxalic acid are widely used in industry. A researcher named Susan Owens discovered that the use of a diet low in oxalates markedly reduced symptoms in children with autism and PDD. For example, a mother with a son with autism reported that he became more focused and calm, that he played better, that he walked better, and had a reduction in leg and feet pain after being on a low oxalate diet. Prior to the low oxalate diet, her child could hardly walk up the stairs. After the diet, he walked up the stairs very easily. Many hundreds of children with autism throughout the world are now being placed on this diet with good results.

Oxalates in the urine are much higher in individuals with autism than in normal children (Figure 1). As a matter of fact, 36% of the children on the autistic spectrum had values higher than 90 mmol/mol creatinine, the value consistent with a diagnosis of genetic hyperoxalurias while none of the normal children had values this high. 84% of the children on the autistic spectrum had oxalate values outside the normal range (mean ± 2 sd). None of the ± 2 sd).  None of the children on the autistic spectrum had elevations of the other organic acids associated with genetic diseases of oxalate metabolism, indicating that oxalates are high due to external sources.

As shown in the table, both mean and median values for urine oxalates are substantially higher in autism compared to the normal population. As a matter of fact the mean oxalate value of 90.1 mmol/mol creatinine is equal to the lower cutoff value for the genetic hyperoxalurias. The median value in autism is six times the normal median value and the mean value in autism is five times the normal mean value.

	Improvements in gross and fine motor skills
	Improvements in expressive speech
	Better counting ability
	Better receptive and expressive language
	Increased imitation skills
	Increased sociability
	Speaking in longer sentences
	Decreased rigidity
	Better sleep
	Reduced self-abusive behavior
	Increased imaginary play
	Improved cognition
	Loss of bed wetting
	Loss of frequent urination
	Improved handwriting
	Improved fine motor skills
	Improvement in anemia
… and many others

In the genetic disease hyperoxaluria type I and in vitamin B-6 deficiency, there is a deficiency in the enzyme activity of alanine glyoxylate amino transferase (AGT), leading to the accumulation of glyoxylic acid. The high glyoxylic acid can then be converted to glycolate by the enzyme GRHPR or to oxalate by the enzyme LDH. Thus, glycolate, glyoxylate, and oxalate are the metabolites that are then elevated in the organic acid test in hyperoxaluria type I and in vitamin B-6 deficiency.

In the genetic disease hyperoxaluria type II, there is a deficiency in an enzyme (GRHPR) that has two biochemical activities:  glyoxylate reductase and hydroxypyruvic reductase. This enzyme converts glyoxylate to glycolate and glycerate to hydroxypyruvate. When this enzyme is deficient, glycerate cannot be converted to hydroxypyruvate and glyoxylate cannot be converted to glycolate. In this disease, glyoxylate is increasingly converted to oxalate and glycerate is also very elevated.

External sources of oxalates include ethylene glycol, the main component of antifreeze. Antifreeze is toxic mainly because of the oxalates formed from it. In addition, some foods also contain small amounts of ethylene glycol. Vitamin C (ascorbic acid or ascorbate) can be coverted to oxalates but apparently the biochemical conversion system is saturated at low levels of vitamin C so that no additional oxalate is formed until very large doses (greater than 4 g per day) are consumed. It is interesting that fungi can also produce vitamin C which may explain why many children with autism have high vitamin  C even though they do not take supplements containing vitamin C. The high correlation between arabinose and oxalates indicate that intestinal yeast/fungal overgrowth is likely the main cause for elevated oxalates in the autistic spectrum population. The deposition of oxalates in critical tissues such as brain and blood vessels, the oxidative damage caused by oxalate salts, and the deposition of oxalate mercury complexes in the tissues may all be important factors in the core etiology of autism.

Oxalic acid undergoes many conversions depending on the acidity of the environment in which it is present. The acidity of a water solution is usually indicated by a value called the pH. A very low pH like 0 or 1 indicates a very acidic solution while a pH of 13 or 14 would represent a very alkaline solution. A pH of 7 indicates a condition of neutrality. Blood has a pH of 7.4 which is very slightly alkaline. The pH of urine varies between 4.5 to 8 with an average of 6. Oxalic acid can lose a positively charged hydrogen ion or proton at a very low pH. The first pK value for oxalic acid (1.27) indicates the pH in which there are equal amounts of oxalic acid and its form missing a proton called monobasic oxalate. At a higher pH, the monobasic oxalate converts to a dibasic oxalate form with 2 negative charges. The second pK value for oxalate (4.28) indicates the pH at which there are equal values of monobasic and dibasic oxalates.  At the pH of blood, which is extremely constant, virtually all oxalate is in the dibasic form. Because the pH of urine varies greatly, oxalate is mainly in the dibasic form in average urine while it is in both the monobasic and dibasic form in very acidic urine samples. When oxalates are tested, they are all converted to the same form before testing so they may be termed oxalates, oxalate, or oxalic acid.

Solubility of oxalate at body temperature is only approximately 5 mg/L at a pH of 7.0. The solubility of oxalic acid in water, in contrast, is approximately 106,000 mg/L. Thus, the oxalate form of oxalic acid is extremely insoluble. At most physiological pH values, oxalate salts are predominant. Oxalate has the ability to form salts with a wide variety of metals but each of these salts has a different solubility. A yardstick for measuring solubilities of different salts is called the solubility product constant or Ksp. The smaller the value of the Ksp, the greater the insolubility of a salt. Another way to express this is that the lower the Ksp, the greater the tendency of that salt to form insoluble crystals that may form in tissues. The table below lists the Ksp salts of oxalic acid in their order of solubility with the most insoluble salts listed at the top.

What is the importance of these solubility product numbers?

First, the Ksp for calcium oxalate indicates that whenever the product of the concentration of calcium and oxalate concentrations in blood exceeds the Ksp, calcium oxalate crystals may form and deposit in the tissues. Since the calcium concentration in blood hardly varies because of homeostatic mechanisms, it is the oxalate concentration in blood, that varies widely, that determines whether or not calcium oxalate crystals form and deposit in the tissues. Zinc oxalate also has a very small Ksp so that if oxalates are present in high quantities in the intestinal tract, most of the zinc oxalate formed will not be absorbed because it is highly insoluble.

Second, mercury oxalate had the lowest Ksp of any oxalate salt that I could find. If an individual is exposed to inorganic mercury and has high oxalates in the blood or tissues, insoluble mercury oxalates may form in the blood and tissues that are unable to be eliminated.

The mercury used in vaccines as a preservative is an organic form that is converted to inorganic mercury. If an individual who is vaccinated is on antibiotics or was on antibiotics in the past, they may have extensive yeast/fungal overgrowth of the intestinal tract. They would absorb significant amounts of oxalates from these organisms that would trap mercury in the tissues and prevent its elimination. Many parents who talked with me indicated that their children had bad vaccine reactions while on antibiotics at the time of vaccination.

Third, magnesium oxalates are much more soluble than calcium oxalates. Thus, if magnesium supplements are given by themselves, oxalates from food or yeast/fungal sources that combine with magnesium are much more likely to be absorbed than calcium oxalates. However, transdermal magnesium or magnesium from Epsom salts baths that enters the blood and tissues through the skin might help to dissolve calcium or mercury oxalate crystals that had already formed in the blood or tissues.

The most convenient way of testing oxalates is by the Organic Acids Test (OAT) of The Great Plains Laboratory, Inc.

The Organic Acids Test checks for the presence of:

Oxalic acid (oxalates) -Tests for all forms of oxalic acid and its salts or conjugate bases, oxalates

Arabinose - Important Candida indicator which strongly correlates with oxalates

Glycolic acid (glycolate) - Indicator of genetic disease of oxalate metabolism called Hyperoxaluria type I due to a deficiency in the enzyme activity of alanine glyoxylate amino transferase (AGT).

Glyceric acid (glycerate) – Indicator of genetic disease of oxalate metabolism called Hyperoxaluria type II due to a deficiency  in an enzyme (GRHPR) that has two biochemical activities:  glyoxylate reductase (GR) and hydroxypyruvic reductase (HPR).

Ascorbic acid (ascorbate, vitamin C) – Indicates nutritional intake of vitamin C and/or excessive destruction. Vitamin C can be excessively converted to oxalates when free copper is very high. Evaluate further with copper/zinc profile from The Great Plains Laboratory.

Pyridoxic acid – Indicator of vitamin B-6 intake. The enzyme activity alanine glyoxylate amino transferase (AGT) requires vitamin B-6 to eliminate glyoxylic acid or glyoxylate, a major source of excess oxalates.

Furandicarboxylic acid, hydroxy-methylfuroic acid – Markers for fungi such as Aspergillus infection, one of the proven sources of oxalates

Bacteria markers – A high amount of bacterial markers may indicate low values of beneficial bacteria such as Lactobacilli species that have the ability to destroy oxalates.

The foods below contain more than 7 mg oxalate per serving. Foods marked with a * have extremely high amounts of oxalates and should be completely eliminated. A complete list is available on the Internet at:  http://www.upmc.com/healthatoz/patienteducation/u/pages/lowoxalatediet.aspx

We also conduct in-depth and targeted research upon request on a fee basis.

Please contact us if you are interested.

Thank you.

EMF radiation may be a contributing factor, if not an actual cause of Autism, according to recent research. This is an important breakthrough. This disabling neuro-developmental disorder has increased almost 60-fold since the late 1970s and now affects one in 150 US children.

There’s no scientific consensus on the cause of Autism. The subject is highly controversial. While it’s possible to nail down the cause of Autism in certain cases, most are considered idiopathic or “without known cause.”

Research on the Cause of Autism

Research has spread in many different directions. Thankfully, in recent decades, the theory of Leo Kanner claiming that Autism was caused by bad parenting (specifically by “refrigerator mothers”) has been soundly debunked. Other theories concerning immune deficiency problems, food allergies and poor nutrition offer some evidence of proof. And differences in brain size and modes of operating have also been studied, offering some evidence of worth-while study.

Gaining the most attention recently and causing a great deal of controversy are studies of the effects of vaccines on children. Significant correlations are being made between the vaccines and Autism. There are two theories. One states that the MMR vaccine causes intestinal problems that may lead to the development of Autism. The other points to the mercury-based preservative, Thimersol, which appears to be associated with Autism.

EMF Radiation as a Cause of Autism

Two ground-breaking studies have introduced into the spotlight another possible contributing factor to Autism–one that might also be an actual cause–EMF radiation.

In 2007, Tamara Mariea and George Carlo conducted a study to assess the role of EMFs from wireless devices in the etiology and treatment of Autism. The findings of this study suggest a significant role of EMFs in both the etiology and the impeded efficacy of therapeutic interventions.

Researchers found that EMFs (specifically from wireless devices) trap heavy metals in cells, causing heavy metal toxicity. This accelerates the onset of autistic symptoms and also impedes therapeutic clearance of the metals. The findings also suggest that EMFs probably work in conjunction with other environmental factors (such as vaccines) and genetic factors to cause Autism.

The second study was conducted by Dietrich Klinghardt, Director of the Klinghardt Academy of Neurobiology in Seattle. The researchers measured the mothers’ body voltage and microwave exposure in their sleeping environment, and also those of their autistic children. The study strongly suggests that electromagnetic radiation in the sleeping area of the mother during pregnancy, as well as that in the sleeping environment of the children, may be contributing, if not causal, factors in Autism.

Cell Phone Radiation—A Specific Cause of Autism

Dr. Joseph Mercola, well-known natural health doctor, is “absolutely convinced that the explosion of cell phone usage around the world is one of the primary contributors to the autism epidemic.” He believes that the information-carrying radio waves from cell phone base stations and cell phones make children’s exposure to vaccines and heavy metals much more dangerous than they typically are.

He strongly encourages parents not to allow children to use cell phones and not to use one themselves, if carrying a child. Children’s brains are far more susceptible to cell radiation, due to the fact that their skulls are both smaller and thinner than those of adults.

Multiple Causes of Autism

There are likely many different causes of Autism. And it’s probable that different factors work in conjunction with each other. One factor that definitely warrants more study is that of EMF radiation—and how it works in conjunction with heavy metals toxicity caused by vaccines and other environmental and genetic factors to cause Autism. Read more on Autism and EMF radiation.

By: Mike Adams

We are living in an age of upside-downs, where right is wrong, fiction is truth and war is peace. Those who fight the wars are subjected to their own house of mirrors via pharmaceutical “treatments.” Instead of providing U.S. soldiers and veterans with actual health care, the government throws pills at them and calls it …”therapy.”

Stimulants, antidepressants, anti-psychotics, sedatives and pain meds are the new “fuel” for America’s front-line forces. While the idea of sending medicated soldiers into battle was unthinkable just three decades ago, today it’s the status quo. And the cost in human lives has never been more tragic.

Here are 25 disturbing facts about psych drugs, soldiers and suicides. They are disturbing because everybody seems to be pretending there is no link between psychiatric drugs and soldier suicides. So soldiers and veterans keep dying while the Pentagon (and the VA) keep pretending they don’t know why. (Sources are listed at the bottom of this article.)

1) 33% of the U.S. Army is on prescription medications, and nearly a quarter of those are on psychotropic drugs

2) In 2010, the Pentagon spent $280 million on psychiatric drugs. That number has since risen.

3) There are now over 8,000 suicides each year by U.S. soldiers and veterans; that’s over 22 a day

4) 33% of those suicides are attributed to medication side effects

5) That means medications are killing more U.S. soldiers and veterans than Al-Qaeda

6) 500% more soldiers abuse prescription drugs than illegal street drugs

7) Under the Obama administration, the number of veterans waiting for VA care has risen from 11,000 in 2009 to 245,000 today

More active duty soldiers die from suicide than from combat: 349 dead last year

9) The number of prescriptions for Ritalin and Adderall written for active-duty soldiers has increased 1,000% in the last five years

10) For every active-duty service member who dies in battle, 25 veterans die by suicide

11) Only 1 percent of Americans have served in the Middle East, but veterans of combat there make up 20% of all suicides in the United States

12) The suicide rate of active-duty soldiers in the Civil War was only 9 – 15 per 100,000 soldiers. The suicide rate of active-duty U.S. soldiers in the Middle East is 23 per 100,000. And casualty rates were far higher in the Civil War, meaning the Civil War was more psychologically traumatic.

13) In the Korean War, the suicide rate among active-duty military soldiers was only 11 per 100,000

14) To date, the Pentagon has spent more than a billion dollars on psychiatric drugs, making it one of the largest customers of Big Pharma

15) In 2010, over 213,000 active-duty military personnel were taking medications considered “high risk” by the Pentagon

16) In the years since the Iraq War began, twice as many soldiers of the Texas Army National Guard have died of suicide than in combat

17) Defense Secretary Leon Panetta calls military suicides an “epidemic”

18) Of all the branches of the military, the Army has the highest number of suicides each year, almost 400% more than the Marines

19) Most active-duty soldiers who take psychiatric medications consume a combination of three to five prescriptions

20) The use of prescription medications by active-duty soldiers is largely unregulated. Soldiers are given a bottle of meds and sent into combat. If they run out of meds, they are given a refill, no questions asked.

21) The mainstream media says the answer to lowing suicides of veterans is to take away their guns so that they cannot shoot themselves. This is the logical equivalent to trying to fix your car’s engine by removing the “check engine” light.

22) The Pentagon is initiating new research (in 2013) to try to figure out why psychiatric medications cause soldiers to commit suicide. The research involves tracking brain activity by attaching electrodes to the skull.

23) One-third of military suicides are committed by soldiers who have never seen combat

24) In the last year, the military wrote over 54,000 prescriptions for Seroquel to soldiers, and all those prescriptions were “off label,” meaning the intended use has never been approved by the FDA as safe or effective.

25) Dr. Bart Billings, a retired Army Colonel and former military psychologist, refers to psychiatric drugs as a “chemical lobotomy” for soldiers.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/039473_psychiatric_drugs_soldiers_suicides.html#ixzz2NvnTYEsb

Learn more:  http://www.naturalnews.com/034699_mental_health_sleep_problems_schizophrenia.html#ixzz2Nr2qxvPL

The autism group had significantly higher levels of lead in their red blood cells (+41 percent) and significantly higher urinary levels of lead (+74 percent), thallium (+77 percent), tin (+115 percent), and tungsten (+44 percent). Lead, thallium, tin, and tungsten are toxic metals that can impair brain development and function, and also interfere with the normal functioning of other body organs and systems.

A statistical analysis was conducted to determine if the levels of toxic metals were associated with autism severity, using three different scales of autism severity. It was found that 38-47 percent of the variation of autism severity was associated with the level of several toxic metals, with cadmium and mercury being the most strongly associated.

In the paper about the study, the authors state “We hypothesize that reducing early exposure to toxic metals may help ameliorate symptoms of autism, and treatment to remove toxic metals may reduce symptoms of autism; these hypotheses need further exploration, as there is a growing body of research to support it.”

The study was led by James Adams, a President’s Professor in the School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy, one of ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering. He directs the ASU Autism/Asperger’s Research Program.

Adams previously published a study on the use of DMSA, an FDA-approved medication for removing toxic metals. The open-label study found that DMSA was generally safe and effective at removing some toxic metals. It also found that DMSA therapy improved some symptoms of autism. The biggest improvement was for children with the highest levels of toxic metals in their urine.

Overall, children with autism have higher average levels of several toxic metals, and levels of several toxic metals are strongly associated with variations in the severity of autism for all three of the autism severity scales investigated.

The study was funded by the Autism Research Institute and the Legacy Foundation.

For natural ways to reduce metal toxicity, please visit our recent post on this subject or reply by commenting on this article and we will guide you to this information.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/02/130225162231.htm

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) is a nonprofit mental health watchdog, responsible for helping to enact more than 150 laws protecting individuals from abusive or coercive practices. CCHR has long fought to restore basic inalienable human rights to the field of mental health, including, but not limited to, full informed consent regarding the medical legitimacy of psychiatric diagnosis, the risks of psychiatric treatments, the right to all available medical alternatives and the right to refuse any treatment considered harmful.

CCHR was co-founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus Dr. Thomas Szasz at a time when patients were being warehoused in institutions and stripped of all constitutional, civil and human rights.

CCHR functions solely as a mental health watchdog, working alongside many medical professionals including doctors, scientists, nurses and those few psychiatrists who have taken a stance against the biological/drug model of “disease” that is continually promoted by the psychiatric/pharmaceutical industry as a way to sell drugs. It is a nonpolitical, nonreligious, nonprofit organization dedicated solely to eradicating mental health abuse and enacting patient and consumer protections. CCHR’s Board of Advisers, called Commissioners, include doctors, scientists, psychologists, lawyers, legislators, educators, business professionals, artists and civil and human rights representatives.

People frequently ask if CCHR is of the opinion that no one should ever take psychiatric drugs, but this website is not dedicated to opinion. It is dedicated to providing information that a multi-billion dollar psycho/pharmaceutical industry does not want people to see or to know. The real question therefore is this: Do people have a right to have all the information about (A) the known risks of the drugs and/or treatment from unbiased, non-conflicted medical review, (B) the medical validity of the diagnosis for which drugs are being prescribed, (C) all non-drug options (essentially informed consent) and (D) the right to refuse any treatment they consider harmful.

CCHR has worked for more than forty years for full informed consent in the field of mental health, and the right to all the information regarding psychiatric diagnoses and treatment, not just the information coming from those with a vested interest in keeping the public in the dark.

It is in this spirit that CCHR presents you with videos, blogs, news, medical experts and information designed to arm you with facts.

As a nonprofit organization, it is through public donations that CCHR are able to continue our educational campaigns.

http://www.cchr.org/about-us/what-is-cchr.html