American Research on Mental Health

A lot of brilliant work has been done in the US that has been largely ignored. For example, the late Seymour Kety of Harvard never mentioned the brilliant 1952 work by Scharenberg & Brown. Scharenberg & Brown found gliosis, which signifies a toxic factor. This confirmed Alzheimer (1897, 1900, 1913).

Scharenberg & Brown (1952)

These Michigan neuropathologists reported, "The oligodendroglia were greatly swollen." The neurons "contained large amounts of lipoids" (i.e., fat). This also confirmed Alzheimer. The myelinated fibers "carried numerous beady swellings". To me this suggests that the cells were overeating some macronutrients.

"In the white matter the astroglia were in a state of advanced proliferation and hypertrophy, and many of the cells suffered ameboid degeneration (clasmatodendrosis)."

What does this mean? First it means that schizophrenia is organic. It also suggests a metabolic error. This work was done before the advent of neuroleptics, so it is probably not a drug artifact. Many positive findings were reported.

Case 1

Scharenberg & Brown used biopsy material from case 1. "The degenerated astro- and microglia appeared as hypertrophic elements with numerous swollen and broken-down processes."

"The oligodendroglia were swollen, forming either large globular cells with a central nucleus, which was surrounded by a necrotic ring, or hypertrophic cells of irregular shape."

Case 2

Case 2 was 26 years old. The face and extremeties became cyanotic. There was "proliferation and hypertrophy of the glia throughout the brain." This signifies gliosis, which means that a toxic factor is at work. Toxic diseases present with gliosis.

Geiger (1963)

Dr. Ruth Geiger was from Illinois. She is not the only brilliant female scientist to have studied schizophrenia. In 1920 Gurd, a neuropathologist, reported "loss of chromatin" and "fatty degeneration" in the brain in what is now called schizophrenia. At that time it was called "dementia praecox". Janice Stevens (1982), another neuropathologist, reported periventricular gliosis in schizophrenia. She also found abnormal mineralization in the pallidum. She also found ependymal granulations and corpora amylaces. Corpora amylacea are starch bodies seen in glucose abnormalities.

Gieger studied "cortical brain tissue in culture". This same technique was later used in the Soviet Union with similar results. The Soviets also demonstrated a toxic factor in the blood.

Gieger found that adrenochrome was very toxic to the cultures. Hoffer and Osmond thought that adrenochrome caused schizophrenia. It "causes chromatolysis within several hours". This is the same result seen with serum from schizophrenics only more potent.

The "serum from untreated schizophrenic patients" was added to a tissue culture. "During the first few days, the Nissl substance increases." This means that the cells are being activated. "Nissl particulates appear around the nuclear membrane." This means that the cell has been activated.

"... transfer of material from the glia to the neurons becomes more evident." This appears to mean that the neurons are overeating some macronutrient(s).

After 72 hours "the Nissl particulates become smaller and more diffuse and tend to disappear." This is tigrolysis, which was later reported by Savulev in similar experiments with rats in the Soviet Union in 1967. This means that the Nissl bodies, now called the "rough endoplasmic reticulum", are being destroyed. These bodies house protein synthesis from amino acids. This would be explained if amino acids were flooding the cells and destroying the Nissl bodies.

Astrocytes

"... phenol-red-colored substances were seen to be gradually taken up by sucker feet of astrocytes and drawn up through their processes into the cell body. Subsequently the whole astrocyte can take on a pinkish color." This is abnormal. The processes are extensions that go out from the cell body. In a neuron they are the dendrites and the axon.

"None of the free astrocytes or other glial elements normally take up this color." This suggests a weakening of the blood-brain barrier.

Conclusions

There appears to be a toxic blood fraction in schizophrenia. This fraction appears to cause amino acids to flood the cells. Similar conclusions were reached by Frohman & Gottlieb of Detroit, who blamed it on the amino acid tryptophan. Geiger called the toxin "taraxein", a name coined by Dr. Robert heath of New Orleans. "Taraxein" is in the serum of schizophrenics.

The Russian scientists Orlovskaia, Savulev, and Oifa (1978) reported "acute swelling" of neurons in schizophrenia using the electron microscope. This is consistent with amino acids flooding the cells. Kleshchinov & Oifa (1986) reported "sweling of cysterns of the endoplasmic reticulum and loss of polysomes." This would probably happen if the cells were flooded with amino acids because the cysterns house amino acids.

In order to restore proper metabolism this author (Olson) suggests a diet very low in amino acids. This is a low protein diet. A similar diet is used in PKU, liver disease, kidney disease, and gout. In gout purines are avoided. These are often found in meat.

I have not mentioned all the great American scientists. Linus Pauling has just been honored by a 41 cent stamp. Pauling studied various diseases including sickle cell anemia, mental disease, cancer, etc. Other great American scientists will be mentioned in future articles.

References

1. www.associatedcontent.com/article/644151/european_research_on_mental_health.html

2. www.associatedcontent.com/article/631235/curing_mental_disease.html

3. www.associatedcontent.com/article/630989/the_riddle_of_mental_illness.html

4. www.associatedcontent.com/article/622741/international_findings_in_schizophrenia.html