My Victory Over Bipolar Disorder: food sensitivities

Hi All,

Since I'm not a doctor I can't tell you what to do, but there is no reason why I can't tell you what I did - how I conquered my bipolar disorder! I had been reading about how food sensitivities can cause mental problems, so I tried one-by-one to eliminate foods from my diet. First I got off all my meds so that my persistent anxiety symptom would return. I used the anxiety as a test as to whether or not elimination of a specific food had any effect. Within two days of stopping cow's milk, my anxiety disappeared. I stopped all dairy products immediately and I haven't had any mental symptoms since, including manic episodes. It's been over a year now and I feel great. I didn't have a problem with milk when I was younger, so it seems these sensitivities can develop later in life. I did a search on the internet for “food sensitivities” and "food allergies" to come up with a list of possible candidates.

The “Textbook of Nutritional Medicine” by Melvyn R. Werbach, M.D. (1999) has a chapter on nutritional causes for bipolar disorder (p. 174). There he has a section on food sensitivities and he gives an example of a 32-year-old art teacher that found that bread was her problem. He also talks about deficiencies in vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients as being possible causes for BP.

If you want to pursue this method, talk to your doctor about how to go about it. It is my understanding that if you’ve been on meds for a while it may be hard to get off them.

Best of luck to you.