Let's go back to Traditional Western Allopathic Medicine for a moment, and review its strengths and weaknesses.

• Emergency care in America is the best in the world. If you have a life-threatening health problem, have been in an accident, have an overwhelming bacterial, parasitic or fungal infection, you need to see a Traditional Doctor.

• If you have a life-threatening disease, such as asthma, you want the best medication on hand. If and when you have an attack, naturally you will want these wonder drugs on hand.

• If you want a head-to-toe diagnostic workup, have a medical doctor do it. Your doctor may not know much about sophisticated amino acid testing, but he or she is unlikely to miss something serious like cancer or an impending heart attack.

• If you need surgery, there is nothing in the world that can replace or match Western high-tech science. If you have appendicitis, obstructed coronary arteries, a fracture with the bone protruding through the skin... or if you need an organ transplant (heart, lung, kidney, liver, cornea, bone marrow)...find the best surgeon around.

• 100,000 Americans die every year from medications their doctors prescribe for them.

• Hundreds of thousands more have severe reactions to drugs.

• Medications often have long-term side effects. It may take decades after a new drug is introduced before the full story is in. Prozac is a good example. When it first came out, Eli Lilly Pharmaceutical Company reported that 8% of people taking Prozac suffered some kind of sexual dysfunction. A decade later, we know that that figure is more like 80%.

• 50% of all hospitalized patients have a protein/amino acid deficiency. However, you're not likely to have your amino acids tested for or replaced if you're sick enough to be in a hospital, because amino acid testing is almost never done in hospitals.

• Drug reactions cost America $2 billion a year.

• Psychiatrists seem to prescribe Prozac for just about everything. Non-psychiatric physicians seem to prescribe an antibiotic for every symptom they don't understand. As a result of this practice, antibiotics are losing their effectiveness and soon we will face bacteria that we can no longer treat.

• Politics and Medicine. Not to be conspiratorial, but the power of the AMA-FDA-Pharmaceutical Industry Complex (The Big 3) is formidable. Remember what you read earlier about Dr. Pert and her discovery of Peptide-T, a promising AIDS treatment? After she showed her data to the administrators at the NIH (National Institutes of Health), she was told, "We've already committed our money to AZT. We don't care how good your data is. We're not putting any money into Peptide-T." And they didn't.

• The amino acid L-Tryptophan is another example of outright deception by The Big-3 in health care. In the late 1980's, hundreds of Americans fell ill from ingesting tainted L-Tryptophan. They developed eosinophilic myalgia syndrome, or EMS. Once the FDA discovered that the source of the problem was a single Japanese company called Shoyu-Denko, you'd think the FDA would have banned Shoyu-Denko and not L-Tryptophan, but that's not what happened. What happened was that the FDA kept L-Tryptophan off the market. There was no justification. Time Magazine covered the wonder drug Prozac the same week that L-Tryptophan was yanked from the market. Why is that important? Because, both act by increasing levels of serotonin in the brain. An interesting coincidence.

Get Involved and Educated

Pharmaceutical grade L-Tryptophan was used to actually treat many cases of EMS - treated successfully.

Not everyone who needs serotonin responds well to Prozac. One young woman's life was dramatically helped by L-Tryptophan. She declared, "I feel like my brain has waited a lifetime for L-Tryptophan." When the FDA pulled L-Tryptophan off the shelves, this young woman decompensated, became psychotic and depressed. There were thousands of people taking L-Tryptophan whose lives were ruined when they no longer could take it.

Finally, in 1997, the FDA made it legal for L-Tryptophan to be made by pharmaceutical houses. This is a great benefit to the public, as so many people are deficient in L-Tryptophan and Serotonin. However, the price has quadrupled now, and one must pay a doctor for a visit in order to get L-Tryptophan, since it is now classified as a prescription drug.

With all you've read so far, you may think that amino acids are being touted as the panacea for all disease. As you continue reading the "Amino Acid Pages" of this web site, you will indeed read about miraculous cures. But to make a point, let's go back to Prozac and L-Tryptophan. Some people will respond exceptionally well to Prozac, but won't respond to L-Tryptophan. Others will respond exceptionally well to L-Tryptophan, but not to Prozac. Each has its place and it's up to you to find a medical doctor who understands the value of both.

A final note: While we're talking about Prozac and L-Tryptophan, we should talk about one of the few risks in taking amino acids. Prozac and other SSRI antidepressants (selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors) should NOT be taken with L-Tryptophan because a condition called Serotonin Syndrome can occur, which then requires the individual to take both substances for the rest of his or her life.

Be an educated recipient of healthcare systems. Learn the strengths and weaknesses of treatment your doctor or any other healthcare provider is recommending.

Get educated. Get smart, and make intelligent decisions. It's your one and only body. Treat it right!