Researcher from Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine, Toronto, had said in a report presented at the 20th Annual Convention of the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians (AANP), that orthomolecular treatment could cure ailments like anxiety disorder.
While many individuals are treated for generalized anxiety disorder (the most prevalent psychiatric condition in North America) with benzodiazepines or selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs), many naturopathic physicians will use nutrition as a first line defense after reviewing a patient’s history and results of a physical exam.Orthomolecular naturopathic physicians rule out the existence of physical diseases, organic cause, or psychological problems as being responsible for all or part of a patient’s anxiety. Once these are ruled out, these naturopaths will identify whether the anxiety is caused by nutritional deficiencies (such as insufficient levels of B vitamins), nutritional dependencies (such as niacinamide), food allergies, and/or hypoglycemia (low blood sugar).
Instead of recommending drug therapy, practitioners will prescribe nutritional treatments, changes in diet, and even the elimination of substances that can affect or disturb brain function, such as caffeine, alcohol and products containing processed sugar.
Orthomolecular medicine does not simply take into account the mainstream organic causes of anxiety, but attempts to identify other causal factors of anxiety such as nutrient deficiencies, nutrient dependencies, food allergies, and hypoglycemia. Each of these causal factors, or a combination of them, can cause dysfunction to the brain, causing mood to be altered, and anxiety to be expressed.
This orthomolecular approach to anxiety treats the patient as a whole, rather than giving each anxiety patient the same drug or combination of drugs.
According to the researcher, due to the relative absence of negative side effects, and the wide availability of nutritional treatments, the orthomolecular approach should be the first one to be considered when patients are being treated for their anxiety disorders.
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