Dr. Mel Litman practices Orthomolecular Medicine in Israel.  Originally from Canada, he and his wife Maya who is also a health care professional, opened a clinic in Tel Aviv where they have been helping patients with autoimmune disease, mental health, hormone imbalance, and even cancer.

Dr. Litman uses Hardy’s Daily Essential Nutrients (DEN) with his patients along with diet and detoxification in order to optimize the function of the body and to deal with the underlying symptoms rather than suppressing symptoms.  He says he uses DEN because it is therapeutic, very comprehensive, and comes in the right forms.  He mentions the research and clinical trials behind Daily Essential Nutrients which helped him to be comfortable using DEN with his patients.

The kind of patients who come to see Dr. Litman cover the spectrum of all of medicine because  nutritional biochemistry and endocrinology are underlying most diseases.  Patients with chronic diseases including psychiatric disorders such as autism and ADHD, and degenerative neurological disorders like alzheimers and parkinsons, go to see Dr. Litman to find nutritional balance. 

Essential nutrients are co-factors which produce neurotransmitters that patients need to overcome oxidative stress and repair pathways in the brain.  According to Dr. Litman and many other experts, nutrients impact the way the cells function in the body as well as assist in the detoxification process. 

Dr. Litman says he looks at nutrient deficiencies when dealing with all types of patients.  “In general, nutrients are not one of the things that doctors are going to look at in treatment…largely because of our training.  It’s not what [doctors] are trained in…”

The part of cells that generate the energy required for them to function—the mitochondrira—are often lacking the nutrients that they need in order to thrive.  The elements which are found in Daily Essential Nutrients are critical factors when it comes to cellular function.  Dr. Litman says that patients tend to be deficient in many of these because “we are not getting enough in, or we are interfering with the production in the body or depleting them too quickly.  There is an underlying process that is at least part of all of our chronic diseases.”

Dr. Litman says that about a month after starting Hardy’s DEN, patients often comment that they are noticing improvements in their health.  “Usually within a month or so…things are starting to change.  Two months later, and three months later, there was more benefit…”

He shares that although the Daily Essential Nutrients was originally developed for psychiatric issues, he regularly uses them for his cancer patients, and patients with autoimmune disorders or osteoporosis  because it provides important foundational support for all the tissues in the body.

“In general, the feedback from patients who are starting on it is much more common with the psychiatrist patients, because then there are very clear symptoms…if they’re feeling less depressed, if they’re feeling less anxiety, if their memory function is improving.  For the autistic kids if we see their language is improving, their interactions with people…We will get people that are using the Daily Essential Nutrients who don’t have a specific illness, they just don’t feel so great, they’re dragging, they’re not feeling so optimistic…and some of them will actually give feedback that they’re noticing clear changes in their day to day life when they’re on the nutrients.”

Dr. Litman says patients may not notice anything much in a day or two, but usually after about a month he starts hearing feedback that patients are feeling better, and less of the lack of energy or hopelessness some patients experience.  “It doesn’t plateau at that point.  Usually we’ll see it continue to improve over a period of several months.”

With psychiatric patients who are on medications Dr. Litman often works with their psychiatrists to help them successfully transition over time from the meds to the micronutrients.  He says it is a good sign that there are many psychiatrists who are very agreeable to that process.

“The top reported benefits from the Daily Essential Nutrients would be in terms of benefits to mood and even cognitive abilities.  Some of the others have to do with energy. They feel that their energy and vitality is better when they’re on the nutrients, and they feel that it will go down when they stop [taking] them.”

Daily Essential Nutrients is an important supportive part of the treatments and programs Dr. Litman uses with many of his patients.  He recommends the DEN because it is comprehensive, contains the right doses, the right forms and the right combinations of vitamins and minerals. 

Dr. Litman thinks that the medical community would be well-served to become more educated in looking at the hormones, the microbiome and nutritional deficiencies in order to successfully address the underlying root causes of disease.

“The way the world is right now, we’re deficient in a lot of nutrients. We’re overloaded in toxins.  We’ve disrupted our microbiome.  We’ve messed with our hormone balance…Whether it’s autoimmune, cancer, psychiatric, neurodegenerative, this is what’s underlying a lot of it…Until we deal with those underlying processes, we’re not going to get good results with chronic diseases.”