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Media Archive |
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Feb 2001
Alberta Premier's Council on the Status of Persons With
Disabilities
E.M. POWER : FROM SWINE FEED TO SCIENCE
An unlikely treatment for a debilitating mental illness
has gained credibility and become the subject of a government-funded
U of C research project in the process.
A variation of a dietary supplement developed for use
in animal feeds is making believers out of people with
bipolar affective disorder and researchers a like.
The supplement, or nutraceutical, was developed by David
Hardy, a businessman and former high school biology teacher
who lives in Raymond, Alberta. Hardy's company developed
nutraceuticals, consisting of vitamins, minerals and amino
acids, which have proved to be effective in treating nervous
disorders in swine populations.
In 1996, Hardy took a bold step, formulating a similar
supplement for treating bipolar disorder in humans. In
doing so, he may have changed forever how we develop treatments
for mental illness.
Hardy had become friends with Anthony Stephan, who lives
in nearby Cardston. Stephan's family had been ravaged
by bipolar disorder, a mental illness formerly known as
manic depression that is thought to affect up to 2% of
our population-twice the prevalence rate of schizophrenia.
Those it affects cycle between manic phases and acute
depression, and paranoid delusions can accompany either
phase.
Two years earlier, Stephan's wife, stricken with the disorder,
had committed suicide. By 1996, several of his children
had also been diagnosed, and psychotropic medications
weren't helping much.
Stephan, desperate for help, appealed to his friend. Hardy
explained to Stephan that, like humans, hogs experience
central nervous system disorders. Together, they noted
that, while hogs can effectively be cured with nutraceuticals,
mental illnesses in humans - including bipolar disorder
and schizophrenia - can only be masked or suppressed with
psychotropic medications, such a lithium. Such medications
fail to remove the causes of the illness and often have
serious side-affects that rarely make treatment a truly
viable solution.
On January 18,1996, Stephan's son Joseph began taking
a supplement that Hardy had developed for human consumption.
Joseph's progress was remarkable. Within 30 days, all
symptoms had disappeared. Joseph's sister, Autumn, began
treatment soon after and experienced similar results.
Word of the success spread, and Hardy and Stephan were
soon approached by others seeking treatment. At that point,
both were convinced of the effectiveness of his supplement,
which had been named E.M. Power. But they realized that,
if E.M. Power were to benefit everyone who needed it,
it required scientific validation.
Enter Professor Bonnie Kaplan, a research psychologist
at the University of Calgary who admits she was far from
impressed when she first heard about E.M.Power.
"Tony Stephan and David Hardy tried to get the attention
of physicians and academics, and they ended up talking
to one of my colleagues at the University of Lethbridge,
Dr. Bryan Kolb," says Kaplan. Bryan e-mailed me,
and I said, "Go away...I'm too busy to deal with
these flaky people. You can't change mental health with
nutrients." The way they got my attention was, a
few months later, Bryan faxed me an analysis of variance,
which is a statistical procedure, of some pilot data that
he had helped Tony and David with. And it was significant,
and I said, "I guess I have to look at this."
"The truth," she continues, "is that any
of us, five years ago, would have said, "This is
absolutely impossible - you cannot have a significant
impact on mental health with ordinary, dietary nutrients."
I simply didn't believe it. Nobody did."
Confronted with the crude but compelling evidence, Kaplan
and Steve Simpson, a psychiatrist at Calgary's Foothills
Hospital, began planning an open trial. Last spring, with
a finalized formula in place, the open trial began in
earnest.
"(Results from) the first ten adults with bipolar
disorder that we monitored on the supplement systematically
were presented to the Canadian Psychiatric Association
annual meeting on October 2 in Victoria," says Kaplan.
"And the results were really pretty amazing. It's
a small sample, obviously. But the point is that it's
not a selected sample-it's the first ten people who walked
through the door, basically, who were assessed and put
on the supplement. All ten of them showed some treatment
benefit. Ass of our outcome measures were statistically
significant, and some people are, in fact, off of all
of their psychotropic meds and doing very well just on
the supplement. It's only preliminary, but it's very exciting."
Clearly, the results implied that more exhaustive testing
was required. But the price tag was high, and given that
a supplement of minerals and vitamins would be very difficult
to patent and trademark, it seemed unlikely that pharmaceutical
companies - the most obvious research funding source -
would be interested in determining EM Power's potential.
Help arrived in the form of the Alberta government. Stephan
and his daughter had met with Lorne Taylor, Minister of
Innovation and Science. Taylor was impressed. Subsequently,
an application by Kaplan and Simpson requesting $588,000
for a double-blind placebo controlled trial was approved
last October by the Ministry's external review and ministerial
committees.
"Placebo controlled trials are very costly, and that's
why we could not do the placebo controlled trial without
the government grant," says Kaplan. "So we're
very grateful to them for that."
"It started a few months ago. It's ongoing, and it
will probably be about 100 patients with bipolar disorder.
They are randomized to receive either the nutritional
supplement that we're studying, or a placebo. They are
all monitored really closely because, as you know, suicide
is a huge risk with people with bipolar disorder."
She adds that results of the study won't be available
for at least another year.
Nevertheless, she is optimistic that the outcome will
be a confirmation of what she and Simpson found in their
first study - and excited by what it may mean to the field
of mental illness.
"I really think that the most important implication
of our work is that we're going to change our idea about
what mental illness is. Clearly, people are carrying predisposing
genes for certain forms of mental illness such as bipolar
disorder. The question is, "What do those genes do?"
And if they're interfering with some kinds of pathways
in the brain that we can of kind of "fix" by
supplementing at the end point, that's really exciting."
Kaplan says that other researchers across North America
have begun their own investigations, including teams at
Harvard Medical School, adding to the credibility of her
own research.
"Very early on I was told by a
senior scientist in the U.S. that no reputable scientist
would study any supplement that had more than one ingredient.
Some day I'm going to call him - maybe after we have our
first publication."
Meanwhile, who should you call for more information? If
you live in Calgary, have bipolar disorder, and are not
currently taking psychotropic medication, you may be a
candidate for Kaplan's study (you can reach her at 403/229-7365).
However, if you don't meet the above criteria, but would
still like to find out more about E.M. Power, Kaplan asks
that you contact the Synergy Group,the company incorporated
by Hardy and Stephan. The Synergy Group sells E.M. Power
and, more importantly, provides no-fee counseling on how
to safely use the supplement.
The Synergy Group maintains that this counseling component,
usually provided by former bipolar sufferers, is critical,
since psychotropic medicines must be cut back as the benefits
of E.M. Power occur.
Typically, E.M. Power tablets cost about $180 per month
during the initial treatment stage; following initial
treatment,, maintenance can require as little as half
a bottle - about $45 per month.
According to the Synergy Group, more than 1,000 people
with bipolar disorder have benefited from EM Power treatment,
and it is investigating whether the supplement is a useful
treatment in other central nervous system disorders, such
as fibromyalgia.
The Synergy Group can be reached toll-free at 1-888-TRUEHOPE,
and the company also has an informative website
(www.truehope.com)
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