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Nutrient Power: Heal Your Biochemistry and Heal Your Brain
"Psychiatry has made great advances in the past fifty years but needs a new direction. Today's emphasis on psychiatric drugs will not stand the test of time. Recent advances in epigenetics and the molecular biology of the brain have provided a roadmap for the development of effective, natural, drug-free therapies that do not produce serious side effects. Psychiatric medications have served society well over the last fifty years, but the need for drug therapies will fade away as science advances.
Nutrient Power presents a science-based nutrient therapy system that can help millions of people diagnosed with mental disorders. This approach recognizes that nutrient imbalances can alter brain levels of key neurotransmitters, disrupt gene expression of proteins and enzymes, and cripple the body's protection against environmental toxins. The author's database containing millions of chemical factors in blood, urine, and tissues has identified brain-changing nutrient imbalances in patients diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism, behavior disorders, depression, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer's disease. This book describes individualized nutrient therapy treatments that have produced thousands of reports of recovery. Walsh's approach is more scientific than the trial-and-error use of psychiatric drugs and is aimed at a true normalization of the brain.
Depression, schizophrenia, and ADHD are umbrella terms that encompass disorders with widely differing brain chemistries and symptoms. Nutrient Power describes nutrient therapies tailored to specific types. Other book highlights include the Walsh Theory of Schizophrenia, a new way to look at autism, a promising new treatment for Alzheimer's, and recommendations for reducing crime and violence."
Nutrient Power presents a science-based nutrient therapy system that can help millions of people diagnosed with mental disorders. This approach recognizes that nutrient imbalances can alter brain levels of key neurotransmitters, disrupt gene expression of proteins and enzymes, and cripple the body's protection against environmental toxins. The author's database containing millions of chemical factors in blood, urine, and tissues has identified brain-changing nutrient imbalances in patients diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism, behavior disorders, depression, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer's disease. This book describes individualized nutrient therapy treatments that have produced thousands of reports of recovery. Walsh's approach is more scientific than the trial-and-error use of psychiatric drugs and is aimed at a true normalization of the brain.
Depression, schizophrenia, and ADHD are umbrella terms that encompass disorders with widely differing brain chemistries and symptoms. Nutrient Power describes nutrient therapies tailored to specific types. Other book highlights include the Walsh Theory of Schizophrenia, a new way to look at autism, a promising new treatment for Alzheimer's, and recommendations for reducing crime and violence."
225 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 76 reviews
September 20, 2014
Here is an intersting article about this book:
http://lewrockwell.com/sardi/sardi253...
"Environmental factors such as radiation, temperature, food or lack of food, can switch genes on or off. Certain molecules within foods (vitamins, minerals, amino acids, essential oils) can do this reliably. To the dismay of the pharmaceutical industry, Walsh says the future of behavior therapy with nutrition lies in epigenetics – the nutritionally modifiable aspect of our genes.
Dr. Walsh says even the most severe heritable mental disturbances will be reversible once we understand how to tap into epigenetics. Moreover, present nutrient therapies have already resulted in thousands of reports of recovery in persons diagnosed with violent behavior, ADHD, autism, anxiety, depression, and schizophrenia."
http://lewrockwell.com/sardi/sardi253...
"Environmental factors such as radiation, temperature, food or lack of food, can switch genes on or off. Certain molecules within foods (vitamins, minerals, amino acids, essential oils) can do this reliably. To the dismay of the pharmaceutical industry, Walsh says the future of behavior therapy with nutrition lies in epigenetics – the nutritionally modifiable aspect of our genes.
Dr. Walsh says even the most severe heritable mental disturbances will be reversible once we understand how to tap into epigenetics. Moreover, present nutrient therapies have already resulted in thousands of reports of recovery in persons diagnosed with violent behavior, ADHD, autism, anxiety, depression, and schizophrenia."
April 22, 2020
Nutrient Power is an eccentric book about nutritional problems and their effects on the brain. It's full of information that's somewhat at odds with conventional wisdom.
It's a short book, and I wasn't tempted to read all of it. I usually don't review books unless I'm willing to read the whole thing, yet this time I can't resist the temptation.
I expect that it's important reading if you're building your own model of how nutrition affects cognition, you're frustrated about how little you've found in peer-reviewed publications, and you're interested enough to treat this as something closer to a career than a hobby. If, like me, you're less ambitious than that, you should expect to find at least parts of the book frustrating. And if you just want easy-to-follow or rigorously proven advice, this is definitely not the book you want.
I'll guess that a bit more than half of the unusual ideas are correct and valuable, and that less than 10% of the others are harmful. Don't expect it to be easy to distinguish the good ideas from the bad.
Walsh's approach to science writing
Think of the book as more of a teaser than as a rigorous description of techniques. Walsh clearly did not devote much effort into overcoming readers' doubts. His message is somewhere in between "trust me" and "you'll want to investigate this further".
Walsh sounds like what a fair number of scientists sounded like a century ago. He expects his reputation as a scientist to be established by something other than publications. I'm not so clear on what that something is. Maybe his reputation among the people he works with? Or maybe among his patients?
Whatever he's doing, it's something very different from either the kind of writing that would get respect from the modern scientific establishment, or attract many consumers.
Is Walsh really one of those ideal scientists who we can trust to pursue the truth without biases? Maybe. I'm pretty sure he has avoided the standard medical biases, but I still suspect he's subtly trying to impress some non-obvious audience.
He's not making a serious enough attempt at earning enough money from book sales to justify the effort of writing the book. He doesn't mention in the book that his institute is seeking charitable donations, so it's hard to claim that's his main motive. He seems somewhat motivated by a desire to market his training programs, but that's awfully subdued marketing - the only reference I see to those programs is in the "about the author" paragraph.
Methylation
A number of Walsh's ideas involve the poorly explained terms undermethylation and overmethylation. These are influenced by nutrients such as folate and SAMe.
Walsh's description almost leads me to believe that he's talking about some general shortage or surplus of methyl groups. At other times, it sounds like he's talking more specifically about DNA methylation, which has important epigenetic effects.
Walsh divides depression into several subtypes, and gives long lists of symptoms for two most common subtypes: undermethylated depression, and low folate depression.
I've had mild depression at times, so I tried guessing which subtype described me. I seem to have slightly less than half the symptoms of both undermethylated depression, and low folate depression. In both cases, a few of the symptoms seem to be pretty clearly the opposite of what I have. And Walsh's other depression subtypes seem to describe me less well. So I'm confused. Are they bogus categories? I see a bunch of weak hints that Walsh would diagnose me as undermethylated. But I guess he'd want to discourage me from jumping to conclusions before I measure my whole-blood histamine and SAMe/SAH ratio.
My initial reaction was that under- and overmethylation were likely to be confused concepts. What research has been published on these ideas? His main citations for this topic are an unpublished(?) reference (Walsh WJ, Rehman F. (1997). Methylation syndromes in mental illness. Abstracts: Society for Neuroscience 27th Annual Meeting (pt 2)), and a book by an author whose credentials seem less clear than Walsh's hard-to-evaluate credentials.
For some strange reason, I took Walsh seriously enough to check for other publications about methylation.
It turns out there are a bunch of peer-reviewed papers (e.g. DNA Methylation and Psychiatric Disorders) about DNA methylation, mostly published more recently than the book, which describe correlations between various disorders and global hypo- or hypermethylation of DNA. Those tend to confirm some of Walsh's claims about how methylation levels influence specific disorders.
They even sort of confirm something resembling the hypothesis that a general shortage of methyl groups causes problems (from here):
Or, for a different, and more practical, take on methylation, see Chris Masterjohn (mainly in the cheat sheet that he sells there, and Why I Don't Believe in "Undermethylators" and "Overmethylators") (Masterjohn seems generally competent about nutrition, but I haven't put much effort into deciding whether he's right about methylation).
I changed my mind more than once while writing and researching this review, and I now believe that Walsh's methylation ideas are about half right, although I'm still fairly confused about the details.
Alzheimer's
Walsh includes a one-page explanation of how his patented autism treatment also improves memory in 70% of Alzheimer's patients, and that the improvement is maintained for several years. It seems kind of weird to treat almost as an afterthought something that would, if true, likely be one of the top 5 medical advances of the decade.
Instead of citing a peer reviewed study, Walsh cites his patent that covers the treatment.
Walsh's Alzheimer's treatment sounds somewhat like the approach that Bredesen later developed. Did Bredesen get some ideas from Walsh? Maybe. But Walsh shows few signs of having studied Alzheimer's, and I expect that his understanding of the causes has more gaps than does Bredesen's. I'm guessing that Bredesen's approach is better than Walsh's, in ways that render Walsh's approach mostly obsolete.
Walsh's approach also overlaps a bit with ideas about Alzheimer's that Steve Fowkes developed around the same time (Fowkes is eccentric in ways that are similar to Walsh; I read Nutrient Power due to Fowkes' recommendation).
Miscellaneous
Walsh says elsewhere that he's cautious in order to minimize FDA objections:
Yet he comes close enough to claiming to cure diseases that I expect he'd still be at risk for book burning or something if the book contained much that resembled hype. But I expect few consumers will react to the book by doing anything more than asking more questions of doctors, which likely limits the extent to which regulators will care.
Walsh suggests that some of the more famous school shootings were caused by people reacting badly to SSRIs. Walsh believes he can identify, via a simple blood test, a specific type of person who will react nastily to SSRIs. He's a little vague about the specifics, but it includes a histamine test. Probably some experts can find enough evidence to evaluate such a claim, but it looks too hard for me to analyze.
Walsh has some complaints about mainstream medicine that sound like arguments against straw men. Here's the most conspicuous example:
See SlateStarCodex for arguments that Walsh is perpetuating a myth ("Further, anyone who said that depression was caused solely by serotonin deficiency wouldn’t just be failing as a scientist, but also failing as a drug company shill.")
How much risk of harm do Walsh's ideas pose? Some of his suggestions look pretty low risk. For others, it's somewhat hard to tell because he doesn't indicate what doses he uses. I got some dosage info from his patent, and I'm pretty concerned about using "from about 150 to about 750 mg of vitamin B6" unless he's doing frequent B6 testing, but the rest of his protocol looks fairly cautious.
The other place where I noticed advice that worries me is that he approves of treating autism with ABA. I checked Wikipedia, and saw that it portrayed ABA more favorably than I expected, albeit with decent references to explanations of why it's controversial. My impression is that ABA is designed to help parents of autistic kids, without adequate regard for whether the kids benefit. But Walsh doesn't claim much expertise in this kind of treatment, so I can't fault him much here.
In sum, the book is full of possibly valuable ideas, which somebody ought to subject to rigorous research, but which most people should feel confused about.
It's a short book, and I wasn't tempted to read all of it. I usually don't review books unless I'm willing to read the whole thing, yet this time I can't resist the temptation.
I expect that it's important reading if you're building your own model of how nutrition affects cognition, you're frustrated about how little you've found in peer-reviewed publications, and you're interested enough to treat this as something closer to a career than a hobby. If, like me, you're less ambitious than that, you should expect to find at least parts of the book frustrating. And if you just want easy-to-follow or rigorously proven advice, this is definitely not the book you want.
I'll guess that a bit more than half of the unusual ideas are correct and valuable, and that less than 10% of the others are harmful. Don't expect it to be easy to distinguish the good ideas from the bad.
Walsh's approach to science writing
Think of the book as more of a teaser than as a rigorous description of techniques. Walsh clearly did not devote much effort into overcoming readers' doubts. His message is somewhere in between "trust me" and "you'll want to investigate this further".
Walsh sounds like what a fair number of scientists sounded like a century ago. He expects his reputation as a scientist to be established by something other than publications. I'm not so clear on what that something is. Maybe his reputation among the people he works with? Or maybe among his patients?
Whatever he's doing, it's something very different from either the kind of writing that would get respect from the modern scientific establishment, or attract many consumers.
Is Walsh really one of those ideal scientists who we can trust to pursue the truth without biases? Maybe. I'm pretty sure he has avoided the standard medical biases, but I still suspect he's subtly trying to impress some non-obvious audience.
He's not making a serious enough attempt at earning enough money from book sales to justify the effort of writing the book. He doesn't mention in the book that his institute is seeking charitable donations, so it's hard to claim that's his main motive. He seems somewhat motivated by a desire to market his training programs, but that's awfully subdued marketing - the only reference I see to those programs is in the "about the author" paragraph.
Methylation
A number of Walsh's ideas involve the poorly explained terms undermethylation and overmethylation. These are influenced by nutrients such as folate and SAMe.
Walsh's description almost leads me to believe that he's talking about some general shortage or surplus of methyl groups. At other times, it sounds like he's talking more specifically about DNA methylation, which has important epigenetic effects.
Walsh divides depression into several subtypes, and gives long lists of symptoms for two most common subtypes: undermethylated depression, and low folate depression.
I've had mild depression at times, so I tried guessing which subtype described me. I seem to have slightly less than half the symptoms of both undermethylated depression, and low folate depression. In both cases, a few of the symptoms seem to be pretty clearly the opposite of what I have. And Walsh's other depression subtypes seem to describe me less well. So I'm confused. Are they bogus categories? I see a bunch of weak hints that Walsh would diagnose me as undermethylated. But I guess he'd want to discourage me from jumping to conclusions before I measure my whole-blood histamine and SAMe/SAH ratio.
My initial reaction was that under- and overmethylation were likely to be confused concepts. What research has been published on these ideas? His main citations for this topic are an unpublished(?) reference (Walsh WJ, Rehman F. (1997). Methylation syndromes in mental illness. Abstracts: Society for Neuroscience 27th Annual Meeting (pt 2)), and a book by an author whose credentials seem less clear than Walsh's hard-to-evaluate credentials.
For some strange reason, I took Walsh seriously enough to check for other publications about methylation.
It turns out there are a bunch of peer-reviewed papers (e.g. DNA Methylation and Psychiatric Disorders) about DNA methylation, mostly published more recently than the book, which describe correlations between various disorders and global hypo- or hypermethylation of DNA. Those tend to confirm some of Walsh's claims about how methylation levels influence specific disorders.
They even sort of confirm something resembling the hypothesis that a general shortage of methyl groups causes problems (from here):
This study suggests that maternal dietary and supplemental intake of methyl-group donors, especially in the periconception period, can influence infant's buccal DNA methylation in genes related to metabolism, growth, appetite regulation, and maintenance of DNA methylation reactions.
Or, for a different, and more practical, take on methylation, see Chris Masterjohn (mainly in the cheat sheet that he sells there, and Why I Don't Believe in "Undermethylators" and "Overmethylators") (Masterjohn seems generally competent about nutrition, but I haven't put much effort into deciding whether he's right about methylation).
I changed my mind more than once while writing and researching this review, and I now believe that Walsh's methylation ideas are about half right, although I'm still fairly confused about the details.
Alzheimer's
Walsh includes a one-page explanation of how his patented autism treatment also improves memory in 70% of Alzheimer's patients, and that the improvement is maintained for several years. It seems kind of weird to treat almost as an afterthought something that would, if true, likely be one of the top 5 medical advances of the decade.
Instead of citing a peer reviewed study, Walsh cites his patent that covers the treatment.
Walsh's Alzheimer's treatment sounds somewhat like the approach that Bredesen later developed. Did Bredesen get some ideas from Walsh? Maybe. But Walsh shows few signs of having studied Alzheimer's, and I expect that his understanding of the causes has more gaps than does Bredesen's. I'm guessing that Bredesen's approach is better than Walsh's, in ways that render Walsh's approach mostly obsolete.
Walsh's approach also overlaps a bit with ideas about Alzheimer's that Steve Fowkes developed around the same time (Fowkes is eccentric in ways that are similar to Walsh; I read Nutrient Power due to Fowkes' recommendation).
Miscellaneous
Walsh says elsewhere that he's cautious in order to minimize FDA objections:
Well, we have learned a way to get around it. What we do is be very careful to say, "We don't treat depression. We don't treat anxiety. We don't treat violent behavior. We treat chemical imbalances."
Yet he comes close enough to claiming to cure diseases that I expect he'd still be at risk for book burning or something if the book contained much that resembled hype. But I expect few consumers will react to the book by doing anything more than asking more questions of doctors, which likely limits the extent to which regulators will care.
Walsh suggests that some of the more famous school shootings were caused by people reacting badly to SSRIs. Walsh believes he can identify, via a simple blood test, a specific type of person who will react nastily to SSRIs. He's a little vague about the specifics, but it includes a histamine test. Probably some experts can find enough evidence to evaluate such a claim, but it looks too hard for me to analyze.
Walsh has some complaints about mainstream medicine that sound like arguments against straw men. Here's the most conspicuous example:
Despite brilliant advances in brain science, mainstream medicine continues to regard clinical depression as a single entity rather than a collection of different disorders. Dysthymia, postpartum depression, seasonal affective disorder, and other types of depression are believed to be variations within a central theme: low serotonin neurotransmission kinetics.
See SlateStarCodex for arguments that Walsh is perpetuating a myth ("Further, anyone who said that depression was caused solely by serotonin deficiency wouldn’t just be failing as a scientist, but also failing as a drug company shill.")
How much risk of harm do Walsh's ideas pose? Some of his suggestions look pretty low risk. For others, it's somewhat hard to tell because he doesn't indicate what doses he uses. I got some dosage info from his patent, and I'm pretty concerned about using "from about 150 to about 750 mg of vitamin B6" unless he's doing frequent B6 testing, but the rest of his protocol looks fairly cautious.
The other place where I noticed advice that worries me is that he approves of treating autism with ABA. I checked Wikipedia, and saw that it portrayed ABA more favorably than I expected, albeit with decent references to explanations of why it's controversial. My impression is that ABA is designed to help parents of autistic kids, without adequate regard for whether the kids benefit. But Walsh doesn't claim much expertise in this kind of treatment, so I can't fault him much here.
In sum, the book is full of possibly valuable ideas, which somebody ought to subject to rigorous research, but which most people should feel confused about.
July 31, 2015
Nutrient therapy was founded on the discovery of distinct biochemical differences between those who suffer from a mental illness, and those who do not. It is a science which depends on the measurement of minerals, vitamins, and other naturally occurring substances in blood and urine. William J Walsh has been doing this for over thirty-five years, and has collected a database from over 30,000 patients. He, and others working in this field, have been able to relate biochemical changes to symptoms of illness, and to prescribe nutrients to remedy deficiencies and excesses.
He does not deny the usefulness of antidepressant, and antipsychotic drugs, but explains why they are not beneficial to all, why they can be harmful, even dangerous for some. He identifies five major types of depression, and three of schizophrenia, each with its own biochemical signature. Underneath each lies a genetic vulnerability. Whether this gives rise to illness depends on the quantity and nature of the biochemicals which become attached to DNA, and to the proteins which accompany it. Methyl groups generally make genes unavailable for transcription into the proteins involved in nerve cell function. Acetyl groups have the opposite effect. An important part of nutrient therapy involves determining, and correcting the methylation status of the patient.
Many people have found their lives transformed when they undertook nutrient therapy. It has not, however, been accepted by mainstream medicine because randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials have not been carried out. Bill Walsh makes several suggestions for clinical trials in this book.
In the meantime, the work goes on. A US patent for an MT-Promotion formulation has been granted for the treatment of autism, and a patent is pending for the same formulation for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. MTs, or metallothioneins, are proteins which require zinc, and sometimes copper, for their action, and which play a crucial role in maintaining mental health.
'Nutrient Power' is not a self-help book, but it is a book about a therapy which has the potential to change the way mental illness is treated. For those opting for the treatment described, an appendix provides a partial list of doctors and clinics, that are experienced in diagnosing and treating biochemical conditions which have a detrimental effect on brain function.
This book provided me with information about a therapy of which I was completely unaware until very recently. As I read it, I was also conscious of the spirit of the writer shining through his work – honest and generous, dedicated and compassionate. However, I do have a couple of reservations. The first is about supplementation with antioxidants, in light of the role free radicals seem to play in signalling within a cell. The second is about the reliance on pills, whose purity can not be assumed.
He does not deny the usefulness of antidepressant, and antipsychotic drugs, but explains why they are not beneficial to all, why they can be harmful, even dangerous for some. He identifies five major types of depression, and three of schizophrenia, each with its own biochemical signature. Underneath each lies a genetic vulnerability. Whether this gives rise to illness depends on the quantity and nature of the biochemicals which become attached to DNA, and to the proteins which accompany it. Methyl groups generally make genes unavailable for transcription into the proteins involved in nerve cell function. Acetyl groups have the opposite effect. An important part of nutrient therapy involves determining, and correcting the methylation status of the patient.
Many people have found their lives transformed when they undertook nutrient therapy. It has not, however, been accepted by mainstream medicine because randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials have not been carried out. Bill Walsh makes several suggestions for clinical trials in this book.
In the meantime, the work goes on. A US patent for an MT-Promotion formulation has been granted for the treatment of autism, and a patent is pending for the same formulation for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. MTs, or metallothioneins, are proteins which require zinc, and sometimes copper, for their action, and which play a crucial role in maintaining mental health.
'Nutrient Power' is not a self-help book, but it is a book about a therapy which has the potential to change the way mental illness is treated. For those opting for the treatment described, an appendix provides a partial list of doctors and clinics, that are experienced in diagnosing and treating biochemical conditions which have a detrimental effect on brain function.
This book provided me with information about a therapy of which I was completely unaware until very recently. As I read it, I was also conscious of the spirit of the writer shining through his work – honest and generous, dedicated and compassionate. However, I do have a couple of reservations. The first is about supplementation with antioxidants, in light of the role free radicals seem to play in signalling within a cell. The second is about the reliance on pills, whose purity can not be assumed.
February 11, 2019
Hadn't I read "Bad Science" by Ben Goldacre just before this book, I would have given it 4 stars, because the theories exposed seemed reasonable, fascinating and with enormous potential to cure millions of people. However, not being a man of science, I can't tell whether these theories are enlightened, already discredited or anything in between. And to add some good old conspiracy theory, how could big evil pharma ever allow natural treatment to impact their hefty profits? Unfortunately I don't have the answer to any of the above but I would more than welcome authoritative opinions because frankly I'm very curious to form a stronger opinion on this book.
May 23, 2014
Very good for subject matter discussed. This was recommended by my daughter's MD who is also very holistic in her approach. My daughter was diagnosed with Pyroluria a genetic blood disorder with zinc/ B6 deficiency that is best treated with nutrient therapy. This book was very helpful in that condition and many others that are well known conditions in which nutrient therapy has been proven to be effective. A treatment approach that is not very well known perhaps due to our dependency on pharmaceuticals and their overwhelming influence. Very informative.
May 14, 2015
Important book on the relationship of mental health to nutrition. Very specific nutritional deficits and imbalances are identified, and the chemistry of remediation is discussed.
I got some very specific ideas on altering my food and supplement regimen to help anxiety issues. The book mentions food/supplements to avoid if suffering from these diseases.
Depression, Alzheimer's, Autism, etc are also analyzed in nutritional terms.
I got some very specific ideas on altering my food and supplement regimen to help anxiety issues. The book mentions food/supplements to avoid if suffering from these diseases.
Depression, Alzheimer's, Autism, etc are also analyzed in nutritional terms.
February 28, 2015
This book is great for people who deal with or have family members or friends with ADHD, autism, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's, etc. If you like this book, also consider Grain Brain, which talks about the threat modern hybridized wheat poses to brain health through inflammation after crossing the blood brain barrier.
October 1, 2019
Started of being intrigued but looked up William Walsh the author and could not find any studies, even on his own website there was unpublished findings and PowerPoint presentations.
My skepticism started rising half way through the book and it certainly was warranted.
He makes claims without any peer reviewed studies, this is extremely poor form for a “scientist”.
My skepticism started rising half way through the book and it certainly was warranted.
He makes claims without any peer reviewed studies, this is extremely poor form for a “scientist”.
February 22, 2025
Absolute must read for any practitioner working with mental health disorder population or anyone struggling with mental health and behavioral disorders.
November 2, 2019
I think everyone would benefit from reading this excellent book. The first few chapters are technical and scientific and a little hard to get through for a layperson, but it is important to understand brain chemistry on a high level so that you can comprehend the rest of the book.
After the first few chapters, the author focuses on one condition for each chapter. I liked that approach. It was fascinating to learn more about these illnesses and how natural supplements and a change in diet can dramatically help people suffering with various symptoms. The author (and his medical partners/lab) has a huge database of lab results from patients, which validates his research and treatment approach even more. The examples used in the book, as well as the list of symptoms for each condition were really great.
All of us know at least one person who has symptoms of ADHD or other behavior disorder, depression, anxiety, autism, Alzheimer’s or maybe even schizophrenia. This book provides insight into the behavior of people suffering from these illnesses, and I believe it can help all of us understand them better. Hopefully this research and protocol will continue to expand and be shared with everyone who needs it.
After the first few chapters, the author focuses on one condition for each chapter. I liked that approach. It was fascinating to learn more about these illnesses and how natural supplements and a change in diet can dramatically help people suffering with various symptoms. The author (and his medical partners/lab) has a huge database of lab results from patients, which validates his research and treatment approach even more. The examples used in the book, as well as the list of symptoms for each condition were really great.
All of us know at least one person who has symptoms of ADHD or other behavior disorder, depression, anxiety, autism, Alzheimer’s or maybe even schizophrenia. This book provides insight into the behavior of people suffering from these illnesses, and I believe it can help all of us understand them better. Hopefully this research and protocol will continue to expand and be shared with everyone who needs it.
January 27, 2017
THE DIGGING CONTINUES!! Fascinating stuff on Neuro Nutrigenetics; the therapeutic impact of nutrition on gene expression for improving or eradicating such issues as autism, bipolar disorder, Alzheimer's, schizophrenia, ADHD, depression, and anxiety. I learned a lot more about the biochemistry in this book than any other so far and it gives me a lot of hope in natural solutions to these problems.
September 22, 2015
This book was filled with interesting information about the role of genetics and mental illness. Dr. Walsh combines history, stories and case studies to better explain a complex subject. He provides hope and light for the future of nutrient therapy.
September 13, 2014
Fascinating exploration of the next chapter in psychology: the biochemical.
January 1, 2017
Excellent analysis of the effect of nutrients and food on mental health.
November 8, 2023
This book by William Walsh attempts to dig into the core of mental illnesses, behavioral issues & cognitive degeneration. From the 1950s onward, the standard treatment protocol for mental illnesses has either been pharmaceutical substances or psychotherapeutic approaches.
This books attempts to delve into the epigenetic & biochemical causes behind these issues.
The core indicators & causes behind mental illnesses, as he lays them out are:
- under/over methylation.
- copper/zinc imbalances. Typically with an excess of copper and/or a deficiency in zinc.
- pyrroles disease (elevated pyrroles in urine) this is a sign of excess oxidative stress.
- Heavy Metal Toxicity
These imbalances can then be treated by nutrient & vitamin approaches, attempting to restore the body to a state of homeostasis as opposed to ingesting a pharmaceutical meant to partially bandage the pathology.
Walsh’s approach is just the beginning of targeted nutrient approaches to mental health in addition to epigenetic alterations that can be leveraged to restore individuals to a more balanced & healthy state of being.
The book also raises some interesting question:
- why do almost all mental illnesses, behavior issues & cognitive decline share the same biomarkers & biochemical imbalances. Why do these underlying imbalances have different manifested disease states between individuals?
- are all diseases really a “pathological” state or is the individual, at a biochemical level, simply not naturally adapted to the current social mores/culture
- these imbalances may not be the root cause. What are the primary drivers behind the imbalances? Can somebody have some of these biochemical imbalances & be asymptomatic?
- often times, patients will only have a partial recovery of symptoms. Are there more comprehensive treatments or testing options available that can reveal & treat the full scope of symptoms.
- how much of these issues are epigenetic vs genetic? additionally, how malleable are human beings once given the rate course of treatment?
It is an incredible undertaking, that once you start looking at people from a biochemical perspective, how much of the variability between people can be explained from various deficiencies/excesses of vitamins/nutrients & how that variability I can be altered through certain types of intervention.
This books attempts to delve into the epigenetic & biochemical causes behind these issues.
The core indicators & causes behind mental illnesses, as he lays them out are:
- under/over methylation.
- copper/zinc imbalances. Typically with an excess of copper and/or a deficiency in zinc.
- pyrroles disease (elevated pyrroles in urine) this is a sign of excess oxidative stress.
- Heavy Metal Toxicity
These imbalances can then be treated by nutrient & vitamin approaches, attempting to restore the body to a state of homeostasis as opposed to ingesting a pharmaceutical meant to partially bandage the pathology.
Walsh’s approach is just the beginning of targeted nutrient approaches to mental health in addition to epigenetic alterations that can be leveraged to restore individuals to a more balanced & healthy state of being.
The book also raises some interesting question:
- why do almost all mental illnesses, behavior issues & cognitive decline share the same biomarkers & biochemical imbalances. Why do these underlying imbalances have different manifested disease states between individuals?
- are all diseases really a “pathological” state or is the individual, at a biochemical level, simply not naturally adapted to the current social mores/culture
- these imbalances may not be the root cause. What are the primary drivers behind the imbalances? Can somebody have some of these biochemical imbalances & be asymptomatic?
- often times, patients will only have a partial recovery of symptoms. Are there more comprehensive treatments or testing options available that can reveal & treat the full scope of symptoms.
- how much of these issues are epigenetic vs genetic? additionally, how malleable are human beings once given the rate course of treatment?
It is an incredible undertaking, that once you start looking at people from a biochemical perspective, how much of the variability between people can be explained from various deficiencies/excesses of vitamins/nutrients & how that variability I can be altered through certain types of intervention.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 5, 2025
Had high hopes for this book as I am always seeking out studies / scientific information on nervous system and the brain but this has been a disappointment.
Nutrition plays a massive role in all bodily processes, including mental health conditions and the way genes activate based on the internal and external factors are all very important points however author has backwards understanding of autism. We do not have increased rates, we have a better understanding of it and better diagnostic tools so we are more able to spot it.
This so called “epidemic” applies to adults too - people in their 40s and 50s are only now getting their autism diagnosis that were overlooked in childhood - not because they all suddenly succumbed to the disorder but because it took this long to be finally acknowledged and recognised. I went through this myself and personally know two other people in the same boat, as well as a few who exhibit all of the traits but have fallen through the cracks of the system being treated for “psychiatric disorder” that is 99% likely to be an undiagnosed autism.
Also, it’s not the vaccines, pesticides or heavy metals that cause autism - and it is not a condition to be cured. Reason why we regress is stress caused by ableist expectations. This ableist attitude is very damaging to those who are actually autistic and a reason for C-PTSD for many autistic adults. Stop trying to fix us and offer acceptance and willingness to learn and understand.
We form neural connections whether we are deficient or not. Thoughts and attitudes are equally important. If you fixate on nutrients alone you will miss the full picture. And this is what this book is all about.
Also, audiobook has a terrible narrator who sounds like a cartoon character which makes it hard to take the content seriously. Read it instead.
Nutrition plays a massive role in all bodily processes, including mental health conditions and the way genes activate based on the internal and external factors are all very important points however author has backwards understanding of autism. We do not have increased rates, we have a better understanding of it and better diagnostic tools so we are more able to spot it.
This so called “epidemic” applies to adults too - people in their 40s and 50s are only now getting their autism diagnosis that were overlooked in childhood - not because they all suddenly succumbed to the disorder but because it took this long to be finally acknowledged and recognised. I went through this myself and personally know two other people in the same boat, as well as a few who exhibit all of the traits but have fallen through the cracks of the system being treated for “psychiatric disorder” that is 99% likely to be an undiagnosed autism.
Also, it’s not the vaccines, pesticides or heavy metals that cause autism - and it is not a condition to be cured. Reason why we regress is stress caused by ableist expectations. This ableist attitude is very damaging to those who are actually autistic and a reason for C-PTSD for many autistic adults. Stop trying to fix us and offer acceptance and willingness to learn and understand.
We form neural connections whether we are deficient or not. Thoughts and attitudes are equally important. If you fixate on nutrients alone you will miss the full picture. And this is what this book is all about.
Also, audiobook has a terrible narrator who sounds like a cartoon character which makes it hard to take the content seriously. Read it instead.
March 12, 2021
I enjoyed this book, and it provides an interesting perspective on mental health/disorders.
It makes perfect sense to me that chemical imbalances can be alleviated (even cured, depending on the circumstances) by approaching the issues from a nutritional point of view. Instead of the "normal," psychopharmacological, way of treating mental disorders - i.e. throwing pills at them - Walsh promotes achieving similar results without any of the side effects (to the individual and society).
But I also like the fact that Walsh doesn't write drugs off either. Yes, he promotes an approach that can hopefully wean its patients of drugs altogether. However, he readily concedes that not everyone can be fully treated by his approach. Great if it does, he argues, and that's the ideal solution. But drugs will continue to serve their purposes, in certain cases and under certain circumstances. Regardless, employing his approach with drugs as a complement, Walsh is certain that most people can severely cut their dosage - even in cases where drugs continue to be a part of the solution.
The writing is a little dry for the most part, but that's to be expected from a book like this. It's well worth a read even for someone, like me, with no real connection to any of the disorders the book covers. If you're more personally impacted by the subject matter, definitely give it a read. Whether one has a mental disorder or not, finding out more about how deficiencies of various kinds affect us - and how we can go about balancing the values out through nutrition - should be interesting to everyone.
It makes perfect sense to me that chemical imbalances can be alleviated (even cured, depending on the circumstances) by approaching the issues from a nutritional point of view. Instead of the "normal," psychopharmacological, way of treating mental disorders - i.e. throwing pills at them - Walsh promotes achieving similar results without any of the side effects (to the individual and society).
But I also like the fact that Walsh doesn't write drugs off either. Yes, he promotes an approach that can hopefully wean its patients of drugs altogether. However, he readily concedes that not everyone can be fully treated by his approach. Great if it does, he argues, and that's the ideal solution. But drugs will continue to serve their purposes, in certain cases and under certain circumstances. Regardless, employing his approach with drugs as a complement, Walsh is certain that most people can severely cut their dosage - even in cases where drugs continue to be a part of the solution.
The writing is a little dry for the most part, but that's to be expected from a book like this. It's well worth a read even for someone, like me, with no real connection to any of the disorders the book covers. If you're more personally impacted by the subject matter, definitely give it a read. Whether one has a mental disorder or not, finding out more about how deficiencies of various kinds affect us - and how we can go about balancing the values out through nutrition - should be interesting to everyone.
August 10, 2021
Audiobook Version? Yes, based on audiobook version
Story? 4/5 - Divided into multiple case studies to discuss the benefits of nutritional therapy for a variety of different mental conditions and mental illness (Alzheimer's, Autism, etc.). Well-paced and the different case studies are pretty thorough.
Characters? 5/5 - Very detailed background is given for the characters and patients in each case study.
Voice Acting (if audiobook) 2/5 - Decent sometimes, but mostly, voiceover work involves moments with monotone.
Worth a read? Not a book for everyone. If you have an interest in nutritional therapy or curious about how nutrition affects the brain, then I recommend this book. Yes for doctors, nurses, clinicians and healthcare practitioners.
Worth reading again? Definite yes for doctors, nurses, clinicians and healthcare practitoners.
Overall rating and summary? 3/5 - Again, not a book for everyone, but an informative book that may help doctors establish alternative procedures (involving nutritional therapy) to help mental health patients. Some information I’m somewhat skeptical due to suggested correlation (i.e., antisocial personality disorder individuals are most likely to have higher levels of copper in their system, which can affect brain function). Argumentative, I’m sure, so some facts will need to be verified by other sources. However, it was enough to pique my interest.
Story? 4/5 - Divided into multiple case studies to discuss the benefits of nutritional therapy for a variety of different mental conditions and mental illness (Alzheimer's, Autism, etc.). Well-paced and the different case studies are pretty thorough.
Characters? 5/5 - Very detailed background is given for the characters and patients in each case study.
Voice Acting (if audiobook) 2/5 - Decent sometimes, but mostly, voiceover work involves moments with monotone.
Worth a read? Not a book for everyone. If you have an interest in nutritional therapy or curious about how nutrition affects the brain, then I recommend this book. Yes for doctors, nurses, clinicians and healthcare practitioners.
Worth reading again? Definite yes for doctors, nurses, clinicians and healthcare practitoners.
Overall rating and summary? 3/5 - Again, not a book for everyone, but an informative book that may help doctors establish alternative procedures (involving nutritional therapy) to help mental health patients. Some information I’m somewhat skeptical due to suggested correlation (i.e., antisocial personality disorder individuals are most likely to have higher levels of copper in their system, which can affect brain function). Argumentative, I’m sure, so some facts will need to be verified by other sources. However, it was enough to pique my interest.
October 7, 2021
Marketed as a self-help book but apparently written for medical professionals, this potentially valuable information is presented in a disorganized and unclear manner, without any sort of action plan. I wanted to learn how vitamin deficiencies and/or excesses can be corrected to relieve depression and anxiety, and this book wasn't helpful.
For useful information about good nutrition for mental and physical health, I recommend:
The Mood Cure: The 4-Step Program to Take Charge of Your Emotions--Today
Adrenal Fatigue: The 21st Century Stress Syndrome
For useful information about good nutrition for mental and physical health, I recommend:
The Mood Cure: The 4-Step Program to Take Charge of Your Emotions--Today
Adrenal Fatigue: The 21st Century Stress Syndrome
March 31, 2019
Apakah kamu tau bagaimana mekanisme otak bekerja?apakah kamu tau ketika kita berpikir terjadi sebuah simfoni senyawa kimia yang begitu kompleks diotak kita? Apakah kamu tau penyakit gangguan mental bukanlah diakibatkan oleh hal ghaib yang merasuki tubuh seseorang?ketika kita berpikir,bergerak,melihat/melakukan sesuatu butuh kerja sama yang baik dengan senyawa2 kimia diotak kita, kita dapat melakukan sesuatu karena kinerja dari senyawa kimia dan otak kita,lantas bagaimana jika terjadi sebuah ketidakseimbangan/masalah didalam senyawa kimia ini?apa yang akan terjadi dengan manusia tsb?penyakit mental seperti skizo,deperesi,bipolar,dll adalah penyakit yang diakibatkan oleh ketidakseimbangan senyawa kimia didalam tubuhnya bukanlah sebuah penyakit kutukan dengan menyeimbangkan senyawa kimia tsb maka penyakit tsb dapat teratasi..
November 26, 2025
This book details the importance of nutrients in health and discusses how individualized biochemistry therapy can replace pharmaceutical drugs without harmful side effects or introducing foreign chemicals into the brain.
Benefits to depression, psychopathy, schizophrenia, ADHD, and more are discussed in incredible anatomical detail. I thoroughly enjoyed this read.
My nitpick? Actual food could have been discussed and not just micronutrients themselves. I recognize how that removes money from the health industry and often that is why food is not included when involving a doc either in books such as this or in-person. For the health and wellbeing of the world, that needs to change. However, this book does move away from chemical therapy with possible lifelong consequences to nutrient therapy so it’s halfway there.
Benefits to depression, psychopathy, schizophrenia, ADHD, and more are discussed in incredible anatomical detail. I thoroughly enjoyed this read.
My nitpick? Actual food could have been discussed and not just micronutrients themselves. I recognize how that removes money from the health industry and often that is why food is not included when involving a doc either in books such as this or in-person. For the health and wellbeing of the world, that needs to change. However, this book does move away from chemical therapy with possible lifelong consequences to nutrient therapy so it’s halfway there.
March 28, 2019
Although parts of this book were a bit beyond my basic understanding, having never taken biochemistry, I enjoyed reading it and learning about the possibilities of nutrients improving the lives of many who suffer from neurological problems. The book includes a good glossary as well as appendices that go a bit further to help withy clarifying some points. I believe there must be a more natural methodology than the constant drugging of the population, and this book addresses that. The author does state several times that the methods outlined in the book are not to be done by lay persons, but must be done with doctors and appropriate lab tests.
August 23, 2022
I downloaded the audio version of this because it was free, and figured I could half-listen because I assumed I already knew all of it. I quickly discovered I needed to pay more attention, and did. Then I realized I needed to read a kindle version that I could highlight and take notes on, and downloaded that too. (I'm not a great auditory learner.) Many of the chapters pertain directly to my patient populations, and while I knew some of it, this seemed far more in-depth. I'll have to read the Kindle version to determine whether it fleshes out all the mechanisms, and answers the questions I had while listening, but--fantastic!
February 13, 2023
A must read for any caretaker / doctor / nutritionist,....
This book made me so emotional on different levels - happy because of the amazing work of Dr Walsh.
When you learn about Dr Walsh's history, on how it all started with playing chess in prison, you can tell this is a man that really cares, has a passion and because of that became a trailblazer in his field & is making a tremendous difference in peoples lives. I am so very grateful for his work.
It also made me incredibly sad, as it took me 9 years to find this book and feel like I lost time. I hope that soon urine and blood testing will be done as part of the protocol for new borns / small children.
This book made me so emotional on different levels - happy because of the amazing work of Dr Walsh.
When you learn about Dr Walsh's history, on how it all started with playing chess in prison, you can tell this is a man that really cares, has a passion and because of that became a trailblazer in his field & is making a tremendous difference in peoples lives. I am so very grateful for his work.
It also made me incredibly sad, as it took me 9 years to find this book and feel like I lost time. I hope that soon urine and blood testing will be done as part of the protocol for new borns / small children.
February 16, 2021
This book is not what I was expecting. I thought it would talk about specific foods/supplements to add to your diet in order alter your brain chemistry, but instead it talks about nutrient therapy that has to be administered by a physician in order to get the benefits the book talks about. Still great information, just not what I thought it would be.
This book is VERY biochemistry dense. Definitely had to brush up on my biochem to be able to understand it. If you don’t Hagen a background in chemistry/biochemistry, understanding this book might prove difficult.
This book is VERY biochemistry dense. Definitely had to brush up on my biochem to be able to understand it. If you don’t Hagen a background in chemistry/biochemistry, understanding this book might prove difficult.
January 8, 2021
Helped treat my mom's mental illness. We did some testing and she turned out to have an MTHFR mutation. She is now doing much better on vitamin supplements than she did on antipsychotics. I cannot express how grateful i am to Dr. Walsh.
I read it some time ago but as far as i remember the book doesn't give specific recommendations for dosages. But it's a great place to start. I found the outline of the book very convenient, you can quickly find what you're looking for.
I read it some time ago but as far as i remember the book doesn't give specific recommendations for dosages. But it's a great place to start. I found the outline of the book very convenient, you can quickly find what you're looking for.
September 30, 2022
This book provided a helpful new framework and I will certainly reference it from time to time when treating clients with these diagnoses. However, I wish there was more information on some other common disorders. I respect the years of research that has gone into the making of this book, but, to me, the publication felt rushed, only touching on ADHD, Autism, Schizophrenia, and Alzheimer's. All in all, interesting and thought-provoking.
January 9, 2018
This is an owner's manual for human brains. A must-read for any human who has a brain and wishes to keep it optimally functioning, or anyone who cares about a human who has a brain. Recognition that we are all biochemically unique and require individualized treatment and maintenance is something Western medicine is willfully ignoring in its vain quest for universal light-switch-type drugs.
January 2, 2019
A Beautiful Learning Experience
Rarely do I find a book with so much (need to know) information that is absolutely critical to sustaining life. Now that I have read this, I will start my next journey by going through every page earmarked for further learning. And, I have earmarked many pages!
Rarely do I find a book with so much (need to know) information that is absolutely critical to sustaining life. Now that I have read this, I will start my next journey by going through every page earmarked for further learning. And, I have earmarked many pages!
August 26, 2019
I started out to just skim this book to please a friend, but it was not at all the usual scam I expected. Dr Walsh is an academic with years of experience with 30,000 patients and explains how various conditions can be cured, or at least improved, by testing for what nutrient is missing in the brain and correcting the deficiency. He begins by carefully explaining how the brain works in technical, but easy to understand words, and builds from there to cover depression, autism, ADHD, Alzheimers and other ailments. He is professional, scientifically matter-of-fact and I learned a lot. His arguments are logical and based on thousands of tests and cases and make a lot more sense than injecting foreign chemicals into the brain as the only solution. A large percentage of his patients improve so much over a sustained time-period and don't need other drugs at all.
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