My Significant other 68 year old male, has anxiety, can't relax, racing thoughts, heat and cold over sensitivity, light and noise sensitivity, somewhat claustrophobic, exhausted from not sleeping, lost 10 lbs in 3 weeks... not on purpose. He's getting too skinny. His hands shake so that he often can't write legibly.
Out of desperation he checked himself into a behavioral health hospital.
They found him low in Vitamin D and B-12. They do not check for hormones or mineral balance other than the basic magnesium, potassium, sodium ... But a recent hair analysis from an alternative health provider showed elevated copper levels. A few months later his hair analysis showed copper levels (in his hair) more normal, but manganese levels were high (in his hair). (I have mixed info on what mineral levels in hair actually mean: I hear that it could mean that the body got rid of excess minerals into the hair because other detox methods / paths weren't functioning well enough to handle it. Or that it shows that there is still too much of a mineral in the body. In any case, I wish the things that seem to be likely to contribute to his illness were taken into consideration and checked out before filling him up with narcotics to make him not feel the symptoms that might be warning signs to something that need attention. Besides, mineral imbalances of copper and manganese which are both apparently known for effecting the nervous system when at toxic levels, he also has an enlarged prostate which seems to be related to hormone levels ? A friend tells me that low testosterone caused her anxiety episodes. Also, he has had lime disease diagnosed twice. Once hospitalized for it.
How can we get potentially underlying causes / or contributing factors checked out and addressed?
He needs the relief of meds ASAP, and I'm grateful he's getting some symptom relief so he can sleep and think, even. But how can we get the underlying causes / or potentially contributing factors looked into?
In his teen years, his cavities were filled with fillings containing mercury, after which he suddenly went from a healthy boy, to one who fatigued easily and couldn't play physical sports anymore. He tells me stories of what sound like a hyper-active attention deficit child even before that, injuring himself frequently because he usually lept before he looked. From his late teens into his 40's he drank, sometime heavily. For 33 years he worked in a factory where a lot of chemicals were used without much protection. I know, he sounds like he's a cumulation of every holistic health complaint that's been written about. But it's all true. His drinking was the only thing he had much choice in and quite probably the thing that caused the most harm to his health and nervous system, but both he and I believe that such damage can be at least mostly cured with nutrition, detox, time, stress control ... holistic means. How can we have the best of both conventional symptom control to help him function and get the medical professionals to pay attention to and help him discover and treat the underlying damage / imbalances he may have?
He's been running around for years chasing this or that holistic Dr. trying this or that holistic treatment at great cost and with some benefit, but no cure. Why? Because he can't get the 'real' doctors to help him get past symptom control. So he's left to do the guess work of which holistic cure is best for his condition and which 'holistic' practitioner really knows what they're doing and which don't. How can the Doctors that are trained in mental health / nervous system and physical system disorders help him find answers, cures along the path of symptom control?
Thanks very much.