Despite having been used medicinally since ancient times, micronutrients have until recently been overshadowed by modern therapies insofar as their clinical applications for psychiatric illness.  Physicians who today overlook micronutrients do so to the neglect of powerful research evidence showing that the human body requires a minimum of these substances – vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, and amino acids – in order to function properly… and that a paucity of certain micronutrients may contribute to the pathophysiology of mental illness.

In this forty-minute video lecture, Dr. Judith Pentz explores the role of micronutrients in mental health through the lens of cutting-edge scientific research, expanding horizons for the treatment of psychiatric and neurologic disorders such as ADHD, OCD and depression.  After elucidating current models for the pharmacodynamics of key micronutrients, Dr. Pentz presents research evidence supporting the efficacy of broad-spectrum micronutrient formulas as part of a personalized approach for mental health treatment.

Judith Pentz, MD

Judith E. Pentz, MD is an integrative psychiatrist who has dedicated her career to combining the very best of western and integrative medicine in order to cultivate balanced mental health for all those who seek it. Dr. Pentz attended the Medical College of Ohio at Toledo (now the University of Toledo), completing her psychiatric training in 1990 and achieving board certification in 1993 (adult psychiatry) and 1994 (child and adolescent psychiatry), respectively. In addition to her training in the medical field of psychiatry, Dr. Pentz has studied numerous complementary healing methods ranging from craniosacral therapy and EMDR to homeopathy and qi gong. She has trained with various healers exploring Chinese, Native American, Peruvian, and Ayurvedic herbal, bodywork, and energetic modalities. Dr. Pentz is an active writer as well as a healer. In addition to her own articles and blogs she is published in the breakthrough Integrative Therapies for Depression: Redefining Models for Assessment, Treatment, and Prevention (Greenblatt JM, Brogan K (eds), 2016) textbook, which features her chapter on botanicals for the treatment of depression. Her new book, Cleanse Your Body, Reveal Your Soul (Mango Publishing) will be released in 2020, and documents her personal odyssey towards physical and spiritual healing through an Ayurvedic cleanse called panchakarma.