I was quite surprised to read that I was a Doctor of psychiatry, and this goes to show that people who aim to criticize the connection between hypoglycemia and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) have not done their home work or read any of my numerous original articles dealing with the psychonutritional therapy of PTSD.
It is fashionable to believe that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is triggered by a traumatic event and has a created a "psychological" cascade of irrational fears long after the effluxion of time from the original trauma.
The attraction of the "psychoanalytical interpretation" of PTSD is of course its simplicity, that PTSD is considered one of the "mental illnesses", which by definition it is to be an illness of the mind, and not the body. This means, that its treatment is simply accomplished by a process of "changing the mind" with a series of talk therapy sessions aimed at "retraining the mind".
Most psychotherapists are fully aware that this process is not as simple as it sounds, and that therapy may take time, perhaps years to accomplish "changing of the mind" of a PTSD patient. Many studies have been published about the success and/or failure of psychotherapeutic approach in PTSD cases, and some authors have even concluded that PTSD may be incurable, especially the chronic type of PTSD.
The complexity of this kind of talk therapy is explained by the assumed complexity of the mind in the eyes of psychologists, who have designed the mind as consisting of the "conscious" and the "unconscious" mind, each of which have their own laws of nature. Of course, there are many other forms of psychotherapy, that do not assume an "unconscious mind", but rather see the mind as learning organ that can be changed by the various behaviouristic techniques such as in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), Systematic Desensitisation, or Relaxation Therapy and so on. Many of these techniques are merely "management techniques" (like breathing exercises), that temporarily mask symptoms, but do not "cure" the problem and need to be repeated as is the case with with drug therapy.
One such "management technique" could be the use of GLYCERINE, which bypasses the pancreas and does not stimulate insulin secretion. One table spoon of glycerine in a glass of water with a dash or lemonade (to improve taste), will stop the adrenaline rush. It has a calming effect. lowers anxiety and may improve sleeping. It certainly will demonstrate that you may be hypoglycemic if it calms you. But remember it is not a cure and without proper treatment It may leads to "treatment resistance" .
Thus, it is argued, the reason why PTSD patients do not benefit immediately from these kinds of psychotherapy is explained by the imagined complexity of the mind and not because therapists are ignoring the underlying biochemical abnormality that is really responsible for most mood disorders, including PTSD.
The success in treating PTSD depends naturally on the seriousness and nature of PTSD. Some milder forms can be treated psychologically, but in the majority of cases PTSD, that seem to become treatment resistant, remains a very difficult illness to treat. This is why it is necessary to look at alternatives, that will necessarily place the psychological aspects in a subordinate position.
There is an important practically self-evident principle in Psychonutritional Therapy that says:
THAT IF A MOOD DISORDER IS CAUSED BY AN UNDERLYING BIOCHEMICAL DISORDER, NO AMOUNT OF TALK THERAPY IS GOING HELP THAT PERSON, UNLESS THAT BIOLOGICAL DISORDER HAS BEEN TREATED FIRST.
Now it happens to be the case that most of these (but not all) of these underlying biochemical abnormalities can be treated without recourse to drugs and by nutritional means. This is because it has been found that most people with mood disorders - including PTSD - have been found to be positive to a test for hypoglycemia as distinct from diabetes type II.
Hypoglycemia can be treated without recourse to drugs by the adoption of the hypoglycemia diet. This does not mean, as has been assumed in this thread, that NUTRITION ALONE can treat all forms of mood disorders. There are many silent diseases - meaning diseases that a person may not be aware of, or which has not been diagnosed - that in addition to hypoglycemia or separately from it, may be responsible for mood disorders.
But let us concentrate on hypoglycemia and its connection to PTSD, because this is the main subject of this thread. The term means low blood sugar levels (BSLs), and this will confuse many professionals in the medical fraternity. It is an unfortunate term, because it is characterised by unstable blood sugar levels - going up and down and not necessarily low BSL - which is therefore responsible for the excretion of excess stress hormones from the adrenal glands, quite unrelated to what may be going on in the environment. This will occur when he brain senses a hypoglycemic dip.
Because mainstream medicine does nor recognize the existence of hypoglycemia, most conventional doctors do not know how to test for hypoglycemia as distinct from diabetes. This is one reason why we are now experiencing an epidemic of diabetes, as hypoglycemia is in fact the forerunner of diabetes. Testing for hypoglycemia is part of preventative medicine, rarely practised by mainstream medicine. It may take twenty years for hypoglycemia to develop into full-blow diabetes type II. Dr George Samra of Kogarah, NSW, Australia, has designed a test for hypoglycemia, as distinct from diabetes. One should be able to find this on the internet.
Seen from a psychonutritional point of view, PTSD is caused by erratic secretion of adrenaline due to a metabolic disorder that has been triggered by a traumatic event in the past into an ongoing illness. Adrenaline is a fight/flight hormone - a fear hormone - that functions to activate a person to take strenuous action in the face of danger occurring in the environment. It supplies instant energy (glucose) to the body for action. In the absence of a actual fear in the environment, the person will be apt to make up a story that would justify the experience of fear for no rational reason. It is natural that a traumatic event is seen to have triggered PTSD, and would be perceived as the cause of these reactions.
To understand what is going on, we need to realize that adrenaline functions in the body to convert glucose stores in the body - glycogen - into glucose, whenever it senses a glucose starvation. Glucose (itself derived from carbohydrates) is one of the precursor to biological energy called ATP, that is necessary to convert one molecule into another, such as in the conversion of tryptophan found in food into the feel good neurotransmitter called serotonin.
The brain is highly dependent on glucose, although it is only 2% of the body. When a person suffers from hypoglycemia - meaning blood sugar levels going up and down - during the hypoglycemic dip, the brain is starved of energy and it will immediately trigger the release of adrenaline from the adrenal glands. This occur in matters of seconds. This will feed the brain with the indispensable glucose as the source of biological energy. The brain cannot get its energy from any other source. But adrenaline causes a fear response.
Thus PTSD is simply a sign of hypoglycemia. This explains why some people experience PTSD and others do not among similar circumstance. A PTSD patient may have been suffering from hypoglycemia at the time of the traumatic event (a silent disease at the time) and the person not experiencing PTSD did not suffer from a potential metabolic disorder that could be triggering mood disorders.
Going back to the important principle of psychonutritional therapy mentioned above, the metabolic disorder needs to be treated BEFORE any psychosocial consideration. To ignore the biological aspect is turning PTSD into a "treatment resistant disease".
Thus the first step in treatment is the adoption of the hypoglycemic diet, supplemented with vitamins an minerals, and adjusted to the individual needs of the person. If no drugs have been used, the hypo diet should show its beneficial effects within three months. If drugs have been used, receptors for neurotransmitters in the brain may have been damaged, in which case it takes much longer (up to a year) for a diet high in amino acids (high protein diet) to repair this damage.
I suggest that people familiarise themselves with the principles of nutritional psychotherapy (info from internet). This will help you to discuss any problems you may encounter. The more you know, the more cost-effective your consultation will be with these expensive and specialist health care workers.
This is not to be interpreted to mean that hypoglycemia ALONE is responsible for all mood disorders. There are many other silent diseases that need to be taken into account.