Can eating organic foods help with bipolar disorder?

Yes

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by Jacquline Singer

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Eating organic foods will help with bipolar disorder, because you eliminate a large number of ingredients that aggravate your symptoms. I should know, I have been bipolar since I was 14, to the best of my knowledge, giving me 36 years of personal experience. As a small child, (if the classification had existed at that time) I would have been ADD, ADHD or some other class of hyperactivity disorder.

The easiest way to deal with any disease is by a change of diet. It has the fastest rate of improvement and comes with a host of benefits not common to the drug industry. I am not telling you to ignore your doctor if you have been diagnosed, I am telling you how to beat the odds and the statistics.

For twenty years, I was going through quarterly cycles, 3 months I hated myself, wanted to die, was filled with self-loathing and thought the whole world was out to get me, the next three months, I could design you a house and tell you to the last penny nail, what it would take to build it. I was never diagnosed as bipolar until 1991, I was 33 years old. For the next 13 years I was in and out of doctor's offices, I was given as many as 8 pills a day which took a minimum of 6 weeks to get into my system before I felt any benefits and I say benefits for lack of a better word. When I objected to some of the meds, I was told if I could diagnose and prescribe my own meds, I no longer needed the assistance of my physician.

If you want to know the benefits of changing your diet, here is the recipe. Get a notebook and set your start date. Keep notes because you will need them.

For three weeks, go on a bland diet. No sugar, caffeine, dairy, microwave, boxed dinners, lunchmeat, fruits or vegetables, no peanut butter, mayonaise, ketchup, mustard (condiments all have dyes which must be avoided at all cost) and no chocolate. Avoid all coffee, tea, cokes, fruit juices and energy drinks. No artificial sweeteners! Drink plenty of water.

You can have eggs and poultry, organic preferrably, free range hens, because they have no contact with insecticides or steroids. You can have rice and potatoes. You can also have homemade bread, homemade chicken broth, things like that, as long as there are no dyes or preservatives. This sounds hard, but if a five year old child can manage it for three weeks, you can too. On the third day, you will probably suffer from withdrawals similar to coming off heroine or hard alcohol. I tell you this just so you will be prepared. Don't quit!

After three weeks your body should have flushed most of the toxins out and you are ready to start fresh. This is basically a slow process, but the results are worth it. In your notebook make two columns, title them "Reaction" and "No Reaction". On day one, add one item, an apple for example. Within a matter of hours, you will know if you have a reaction. If you have a reaction, put the date you added the item and the name of the item in the reaction column. If you have no reaction within 24 hours, you are not affected by the food item. And I am serious about the apple. Continue adding a food item each day, making note of which foods cause a reaction. You can even note the reaction. Some will make you feel hyper and some will make you feel drowsey or sluggish.

Once you have your list, you are armed with knowledge. Now you can use it to your advantage. Since bipolar disorder causes cycles of hyperactivity followed by depressed cycles, you should learn to guage your cycles. If you have been dealing with this for any period of time, you can take an old calendar, go through and mark the months as either hyper or depressed. A pattern will begin to develop and it will give you a good indication of you cycles. When you know you are prone to have bouts of hyperactivity, manage your disease and use your list to your advantage. For example, when you are hyper, eat more turkey which is reported to have traces of melatonin in it. This must be fresh turkey, not processed lunchmeat, because the dyes and additives in processed lunchmeat aggravate hyperactivity. Also, drink more caffeine, don't go overboard, but you can have that second cup of coffee. Ritalin is little more than a heavy dose of caffeine and has the opposite effect on one who suffers from hyperactivity disorder. Instead of speeding us up, it slows us down.

In depressed cycles, have that large bowl of grapes and by all means an apple a day. The natural sugar will help to pick you up. Paint your toenails red, dress brightly, take bubble baths. Remind yourself that this is just a depressed cycle and you will be through it in no time. Notify a friend and let them know that you have a down cycle approaching and to be on guard.

Now your new diet has not only helped you to manage your disease, your skin probably looks younger, you have lost weight and you are probably feeling better in general. Natural is good, organic is best, and cutting dyes, additives and steroids in any way possible can only be good for you. The cost of eating organic is not cheap, but in the long run when you add up the cost of medical bills, time lost from work and perscription costs, you will come out ahead.

I was told I would be on meds the rest of my life and I would have to learn to live with it. Four years prescription free and loving it. It may not be the answer for you, but what have you got to lose. Just one last note of simple advice. Have your doctor run a thyroid test. In recent years, doctors have determined that a large number of mental diseases have been misdiagnosed thyroid conditions. The test cost about $180 and the meds run roughly $7 a month. But then, thyroid disease can be improved with change of diet also, so there you go.

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