Brilliant Russian Research on Schizophrenia

The Russians have consistently demonstrated toxic factors in the bodily fluids in schizophrenia. They view the disease as an encephalopathy (toxic disease of the brain).

Romasenko (1967)

Romasenko of Moscow injected serum into rats. Degenerative changes were seen in the mitochondria. This kills the popular but false neurodevelopmental theory. It supports neurodegenerative theories.

Snezhnevsky & Vartanyan (1971)

These two big name Russian scientists reported an "erthrolytic action of schizophrenic serum" seen with the electron microscope. What this means is that they incubated red blood cells in the serum of schizophrenics. This caused hemolysis (destruction of red cells).

Their toxic factor was a beta globulin. Abnormal lymphocytes were seen.

Mishchenko & Bonartsev

These Moscow scientists reported a "harmful membranotropic factor in the blood serum of schizophrenics". The factor caused hemolysis. They found that their factor increased lactate in an assay. This suggests an error in energy metabolism, which is vital to the brain.

They incubated granulocytes and platelets with the blood serum of schizophrenics. "Almost all granulocytes and platelets showed signs of plasmolysis." This means destruction of the cell membrane.

Lymphocytes showed "destruction" and "signs of activation". Vacuoles, "transperant to the electron microscope", appeared in the cytoplasm. "Thereafter the number of vacuoles increase; sometimes they occupy the cytoplasmic space almost completely."

These vacuoles were probably fat since fat is transperant to the electron microscope. The cells were probably overeating some macronutrients.

"A comparatively well developed granular endoplasmic reticulum consisting of several elongated cisternae could quite often be seen in the cytoplasm". This may sound dry, but it gives a very important clue. These cisternae house amino acids. Something terribly wrong has happened with the amino acids. They appear to be flooding the cells.

The "wide-cytoplasmic" lymphocytes had an "active physiological state". This means that the cells were converting amino acids to protein, possibly to get rid of some of the excess amino acids.

"The transformation of some chromatin into an active physiological state and the presence of a large number of organelles participating in synthesizing (ribosomes, granular endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi's apparatus) and energy (mitochondria) processes are evidence of the active physiological state of cells."

Conclusions

This suggests an error in protein metabolism with amino acids flooding the cells. Some excessive amino acids are converted to fat, explaining the vacuoles.

In 2001 Uranova et al reported abnormal oligodendroglia in "severe mental illness". The Russian reports have been consistently positive.

I have attempted to put the pieces of the puzzle together. It appears that a diet very low in amino acids should be tried. Some Russian scientists have favored a fasting diet. I feel that fasting is a mistake because the blood sugar could become low. A vegan diet is relatively low in protein. Some high protein plant foods such as soybeans should be avoided.

Reference

1. Lozovski, D. Biochemical theories of schizophrenia. Int. J. Neuropsych. 1 (1965).

2. Uranova, N. et al (2001) Electron microscopy of oligodendroglia in severe mental illness. Brain Res. Bull. 55, 597-610.