It used to be called manic depression. Wide swings in mood, from elation to the doldrums. Days or months of expansiveness, irritability, increased activity, grandiosity, inflated self-esteem, followed by troughs of sadness, flatness, pessimism, guilt, concentration problems, and weight gain.An estimated 2.3 million U.S. adults suffer this, as well as another million children and adolescents under age 18. Conventional medicine offers prescription drugs but no lasting improvement or cure. Natural medicine can do much better than that."The Natural Medicine Guide to Bipolar Disorder," an innovative and inspiring book on natural medicine treatments for a healthy mind, is about healing bipolar, not merely enduring it. Within these pages, medical journalist Stephanie Marohn explores the key contributing factors and triggers for mood disorder and profiles a range of effective, nondrug-based approaches that can truly restore health.Among the successful healing techniques used by eight natural medicine experts are biological medicine, applied psychoneurobiology, biochemical therapy, nutritional therapy, cranial osteopathy, allergy elimination, homeopathy, and shamanic healing.Treating the underlying imbalances, rather than suppressing the outer symptoms (as most drugs do), leads to lasting recovery. And only by considering the well-being of the mind and spirit as well as the body can comprehensive healing take place.