For nearly 6,000 years essential oils have been used for therapeutic purposes. A number of ancient civilizations including the Chinese, Indians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans used them for cosmetics and perfumes as well as for rituals and spiritual reasons. Oils are documented by the Greek physician and botanist Pedanius Dioscorides in the first century in...

We are all born with genes that predispose us to all kinds of things–in my case, most of the psychiatric illnesses listed in the DSM-5 (Diagnostic Statistical Manual, Fifth Edition). And while we have some control over the way our genes express themselves or “turn on” – a new science called epigenetics—we are more or...

Most people are still locked into the theory that depression is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain – a shortage of feel-good neurotransmitters like serotonin that deliver messages from one neuron to another. That explanation works well for public consumption because it’s simple and it makes for great pharmaceutical commercials. But depression is...

A friend of mine approached me the other day in tears. The nine year old of a close friend of hers tried to kill himself. “He’s nine!!??!!” she said. “How do you explain that?” It’s true that we are all born with genes that predispose us to all sorts of things—in my case bipolar disorder...

If you’ve been reading my blog for a month or more, you know that I have found nutrition to be a powerful force in my recovery from depression. Since 2008, I haven’t responded to medications or have had only a minimal, partial response, so I have been on a mission–for myself and for the millions...