A Promise of Hope

Some children inherit the family nose. Autumn Stringam and her brother Joseph inherited bipolar disorder, a severe mental illness that led to the suicides of their mother and grandfather. Autumn, at 22, was psychotic and in a psychiatric hospital on suicide watch; Joseph, at 15, was prone to violent episodes so terrifying the family feared for their lives. But after they began taking a nutritional supplement developed by their father-and based, incredibly, on a formula given to aggressive hogs-Autumn’s and Joseph’s symptoms disappeared. Today they both lead normal, productive lives.
A Promise of Hope chronicles Autumn Stringam’s personal flight from madness to wellness and also provides an astonishing scientific account of an innovative treatment that moves from a kitchen table in Alberta to the offices of a distinguished Harvard psychiatrist and into the labs of a skeptical medical establishment. Now updated with the groundbreaking results of a clinical trial and with additional content from the perspective of Autumn’s family, A Promise of Hope is a powerful call for a new understanding of the mental illness that affects thousands of Canadians.

“In striking, intimate and lyrical passages, Autumn Stringam brings us into her madness, into the world of the psychiatric ward.” - Pat Capponi, The Globe and Mail