OT: remedy needed for dog

[Guest guest]

Would you keep an alligator in the yard? In my opinion dog bites

are not tolerable. Period.

Are you willing to put a muzzle on the dog,(now) and work with a

trainer to stop this behavour, or are you willing to continue to

play the odds until she bites someone seriously?

 

There is a very big difference in Goldens and the German

working/herding dogs, and you can't expect her to behave like your

older Goldens.

 

If you don't want to hire a trainer, you have to be committed to

rehabing this dog, retraining her, and even there are no guarantee

that she won't fall back into her old habits, many which do come to

her as instinct.

 

Checking for food allergies and parasites would be a good start

also, but this must be followed up with training, and behavour

modification, and you must be willing to train yourself as well as

the dog, keeping in mind that you may need to also hire a trainer.

 

This dog is a walking liability, not only to you, but to herself,

and I would bet that niether of you are enjoying a good human-dog

relationship at present.

This isn't Lady's fault, as she wasn't afforded the training she

needed as a puppy. But you do need to ask yourself the hard

questions, and decide if you are willing to take the steps to

protect Lady, yourself, and your neighbors.

 

Suggested reading: How to be Your Dogs Best Friend, The Monks of New

Skete.

All the best.

 

, " Marian & Roy Spitzer "

<spitzerfamily@v...> wrote:

>

>

>

>

> Hi,

>

> After over 20 years of using homeopathy and 16 years of owning

dogs (mostly

> Golden Retrievers), we need constructive suggestions for our dog

named Lady

> just over age two. Lady is a cross between German Shepherd and

Doberman

> (maybe Doberman Pincher). She is a large dog for a German

Shepherd/Doberman

[Guest guest]

Thank you for the suggestion. You mean literally the seasoning (herb)

oregano. I guess just a little as it is spicy.

 

Marian

 

On Behalf Of Zap Meister

Tuesday, April 26, 2005 1:25 PM

Re: [s-A] OT: remedy needed for dog

[Guest guest]

I would also try I have been researching B-3 and I am getting Inositol

hexaniacinate for panic anzity which is the safest form of niacin and does not

have the side effects of other niacin supplements at 300-500 mg 100 mg per 15lbs

apx

RESEARCH PROFILE

 

Natural Products in the Clinical Treatment

of Mental Illness

 

A Profile of Dr. James Greenblatt, MD

By Joe Leonard

 

Inositol

 

Inositol is a naturally occurring isomer of glucose and a key intermediate

molecule of second messenger signal transduction pathways used by serotonergic,

cholinergic, and noradrenergic neurons. Inositol is believed to play an

important role in the intracellular phosphatidyl inositol second messenger

system to which several key serotonin receptor subtypes are linked. As such,

compounds containing inositol may represent novel therapeutic agents in treating

some psychiatric disorders.

 

Dr. James Greenblatt of McLean Hospital, a Harvard Medical School teaching

hospital, is currently using inositol supplementation as part of the treatment

of patients with mental illnesses, particularly depression, panic disorder, and

obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

 

A considerable body of research is accumulating that inositol plays an important

role in treating these mental illnesses. Inositol is likely involved in signal

transduction pathways involving serotonin, a neurotransmitter that becomes out

of balance in several of these illnesses. Inositol’s efficacy in the absence of

side effects makes it an attractive addition to treatment plans for specific

mood disorders.

 

Depressive patients show decreased levels of inositol in their cerebrospinal

fluid (Levine et al., 1997) and inositol has a similar therapeutic profile to

pharmaceutical selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) often used to

treat depression (Mishori et al., 1999).

 

Serotonin plays a definitive role in OCD as well and Fux et al. (1996) brought

about significant improvement in OCD patients by administration of 18 grams/day

of inositol in a random, double-blind, placebo-controlled study (p=0.04 relative

to control).

 

Treatment with 12 grams of inositol per day (vs. placebo) has also been shown to

significantly reduce the severity and frequency of panic attacks in patients

with panic disorder (Benjamin et al., 1995) in a double-blind,

placebo-controlled, crossover experiment. The average number of panic attacks

per week fell from 10 to 3.5 in patients receiving inositol.

 

Recently, Palatnik et al. (2001) completed a double-blind, controlled, crossover

trial of inositol vs. fluvoxamine (Luvox®, Faverin®) in the treatment of panic

disorder that reinforces previous research that inositol is effective in

treating this serious illness. Fluvoxamine is an effective drug for treating

panic disorder in the short term, though its side effects of nausea and

tiredness often cause patients to stop taking it.

 

In this study, 20 patients taking inositol (up to 18 grams/day) showed

improvements on the Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety, agoraphobia scores, and

the Clinical Global Impressions scale, that were comparable with fluvoxamine. In

the first month of treatment, inositol reduced the number of panic attacks per

week by 4 compared with a reduction of 2.4 per week with fluvoxamine, a

significantly improved outcome (p=0.049). Side effects were considerably less

with inositol than with fluvoxamine. This is the first comparison of inositol

with an established drug for treatment of panic disorder and suggests inositol

may be just as effective as some drugs in the treatment of this disorder, with

fewer side effects.

 

The side effects of inositol are minimal. It is speculated that inositol’s

regulation of serotonin may enhance sleep and help patients with insomnia,

though there are not currently any valid clinical studies to back this up.

 

The action of inositol in treating psychological disorders is largely

theoretical. Inositol is known to act as a second messenger for a number of

neurotransmitters in the brain. Antidepressant medications, such as SSRIs,

increase the amount of neurotransmitter in neuronal synapses within 24 hours by

blocking the receptors that sequester them. However, Greenblatt points out that

the psychological effects of this inhibition can take 2-4 weeks to manifest,

suggesting that second messengers in the biochemical pathways of

neurotransmission, such as inositol, are likely to be involved.

 

Inositol is not considered an essential dietary nutrient, because it is made in

the body and is shuttled around to various tissues as needed. Overconsumption of

sugar, however, may disrupt the inositol shuttle system and associated second

messenger pathways, essentially leading to deficiency.

 

Often, the patients that Greenblatt treats are not able to make positive dietary

changes, but he has shown that supranutritional doses of inositol are effective

in treating illnesses even when the diet is lacking in some way. He has also

used inositol in conjunction with SSRIs, particularly where high doses of SSRIs

cause sleep disturbances. Inositol can be taken with the medication to alleviate

these disturbances.

 

Greenblatt has used inositol effectively in treating obsessive-compulsive

disorder in both children and adults. He has been able to use inositol to treat

children with OCD without requiring any other medical intervention. In adults he

has used it alone to treat sleep disturbances.

 

In most clinical research trials, 10-18 grams of inositol are used in treatment.

Greenblatt reports that he rarely uses more than 10 grams and in children he

successfully uses much lower amounts, approaching physiological doses (2 grams

or less per day).

 

Greenblatt is excited about current research on inositol for treating mental

illnesses in children because it seems it sometimes can be used alone without

the need for pharmaceutical drugs. He is anxious to get the word out to other

psychiatrists who are reluctant to use a new and purely nutritional product

without the research to back it up. The body of published literature on inositol

in treating mental illness is significant, but it still has not been

incorporated into mainstream clinical thinking because of the difficulty in

getting past the heavy drug company influence in mental health. A major academic

question Greenblatt asks is, why?

 

“There is scientific literature in peer reviewed psychiatric journals

demonstrating that inositol appears to work as effectively as SSRIs (Prozac,

Zoloft, and Paxil),” Greenblatt said. “Studies show consistent improvement in

symptoms, significantly better than placebo.”

 

Because inositol is a natural substance that is safe and effective, without

significant side effects, Greenblatt believes it may be particularly effective

for use in the treatment of geriatric and pediatric populations before

addressing their illnesses with pharmaceutical medications.

 

Greenblatt has been interested in nutritional medicine since the early 1980s in

medical school. He completed traditional training in adult psychiatry and child

psychiatry and believes medications play an important role in mental health.

However, he does not believe this role should be primary to effective

nutritional and dietary approaches to treating illness.

 

One of Greenblatt’s main goals is to educate mental health professionals in the

use of nutrition and dietary supplements as alternatives to pharmaceuticals.

Since the mid 1980s, he has treated thousands of children with both therapy and

medication, but during the past 10 years he has become primarily interested in

helping people find alternative therapies for treating psychiatric disorders.

 

“Patients are looking for alternatives,” he said. “They are going to alternative

practitioners and coming home with a list of perhaps 30 synthetic supplements to

take for depression. There is little scientific research to support the use of

many of these supplements, and more importantly, they are not getting better.”

 

Greenblatt did an internship with allergist Marshal Mandel in the 1970s. His

introduction to using alternative medicine in mental illness was observing the

behavioral responses of people to food allergies. “I saw tapes of very sick

patients, be it ADHD, schizophrenia, or depression, before and after eliminating

certain foods that they were allergic to,” Greenblatt said. “The differences

were dramatic!”

 

The future of inositol in mental health

 

In spite of the evidence that inositol is effective in treating mental illness,

the medical community is slow to adopt its use. In order to get the word out,

Greenblatt wants to examine inositol in a host of pediatric disorders that are

responsive to SSRIs: depression, panic disorder, and OCD. He intends to repeat

previous successful adult studies on children. Inositol in pediatric OCD will be

the first study he plans to conduct. It may take a year or more to complete and

two years before appearing in a peer-reviewed journal.

 

“It is important to wait for scientific research,” he said. “But it is also OK

to begin to utilize nutritional interventions that are not harmful and appear to

be therapeutic. Inositol is often a third line treatment for OCD. Medications

are used first, and it doesn’t make a lot of sense that inositol is not used

first, particularly in children and geriatric populations [on whom drugs may

have the most adverse effects].

 

“What does it take for the medical community to accept inositol when the

research has been done? I don’t know of any other nutrient in the psychiatric

literature that has undergone the kind of scientific study that inositol has.

 

Many medications that we use in children are not approved for use in children.

Most have only been studied in adults, with not a single study on children. Yet,

we use them every day in children. We have no idea how they affect brain

development or if they even work when we use them in children. Yet professionals

are reluctant to use a safe herbal or nutritional supplement just because they

say, ‘There is no research on it.’

 

“Up until a few years ago, all the antidepressants and neuroleptics

(antipsychotics) had never been studied in children,” he said. “Now a few

studies are coming out like the use of Luvox for OCD in children. These studies

are funded by the drug companies. They are very short and they do show some

benefit, but we just don’t know what their effects are over time. In addition,

whenever you treat these disorders, particularly OCD, you always get a subset,

sometimes 30% or 40%, that does not respond to medication. That is a whole other

segment of the population that could benefit from nutritional intervention.”

 

Greenblatt recommends emphasizing nutrition with whole foods and whole food

concentrates with higher-dose supplementation in certain cases.

 

“The difficult concept is that what we want to recommend to our patients is to

stop eating sugar, junk food, and white flour, which is going to help a large

majority of our child patients,” Greenblatt said. “When you look at even the

adult mentally ill patients, they are just living on junk food. To address these

lifestyle issues is clearly the first goal. But, if they are not able to change

their diet right away, are there other alternatives that we can use? Clearly the

food we are feeding our children as a culture is destroying brain cells and

having an adverse effect on growth and development. The kids who are

biologically vulnerable to mental illnesses are going to develop them at much

earlier ages and I think in much more severe forms.”

 

OPC

 

Dr. Greenblatt is also interested in the use of oligoproanthocyanidins (OPCs) in

the treatment of mental disorders, particularly for Attention Deficit

Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). OPCs have been used for many years in Europe for

vascular complaints such as hemorrhoids and varicose veins. Greenblatt has seen

improvements in the electroencephalograms (EEGs) of patients with ADHD and

improved handwriting, attention, and behavior in children with ADHD, an effect

also observed with stimulant drugs used to treat ADHD.

 

“We have found that people respond to OPC whether or not they have a diagnosis

of ADHD,” Greenblatt said. “They are generally more focused and more attentive.

Depressed patients show an improvement of mood and energy level. PMS is a common

complaint for which we have used OPC with good success.”

 

In treating ADHD with OPC, Greenblatt sees about a 60% success rate in adults

and slightly less than that in children. “It is not that every patient gets

better,” Greenblatt said. “But for a non-medical intervention it has been quite

successful.”

 

As a consequence of administering OPC to treat psychiatric illnesses, Greenblatt

is also hearing qualitative reports from patients of very rapid improvements in

joint pain that are noticeable within a couple weeks of starting OPC. “Older

patients will often report that the joint pain they have had for 20 years is

better,” Greenblatt said. “Then they will suggest it to their relatives. Joint

pain has really been probably the most dramatic improvement I have seen with the

OPC.”

 

The effect on joint pain may be because OPC prevents the breakdown of collagen,

a structural molecule in joints and blood vessels. This may also explain why OPC

is reported to improve varicose veins.

 

Diet is a major component of Greenblatt’s supplement protocol. Adults and

children who can make positive dietary changes have a much higher likelihood of

success. “OPC sometimes can work without significant dietary interventions and

lifestyle changes, but clearly it works better with those changes.”

 

OPC is found in pine bark, grape seed, Ginkgo biloba, and other plant sources

and a question arises as to what is the best source of OPC to use

therapeutically. Clinically, Greenblatt has observed that some people respond to

one source of OPC better than another, but in general patients do better taking

a mixed source of OPC, such as OPC Synergy™ (Standard Process Inc.).

 

References

 

Benjamin, J. et al. 1995. Double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover trial of

inositol treatment of panic disorder. Am J Psychiatry 52: 1084-1086.

 

Fux, M. et al. 1996. Inositol treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Am J

Psychiatry 153(9): 1219-1221.

 

Levine, J et al. 1997. Controlled trials of inositol in psychiatry. Eur

Neuropsychopharmacol 7(2): 147-155.

 

Mishori, et al. 1999. Combination of inositol and serotonin reuptake inhibitors

in the treatment of depression. Biol Psychiatry 45: 270-273.

 

Palatnik, A. et al. 2001. Double-blind, controlled, crossover trial of inositol

versus fluvoxamine for the treatment of panic disorder. J Clin Psychopharmacol

21(3): 335-339.

 

 

Marian & Roy Spitzer <spitzerfamily wrote:Thank you for the

suggestion. You mean literally the seasoning (herb)

oregano. I guess just a little as it is spicy.

 

Marian

 

On Behalf Of Zap Meister

Tuesday, April 26, 2005 1:25 PM

Re: [s-A] OT: remedy needed for dog