Conquering Schizophrenia

The use of nutrition as a treatment was advocated by Dr. Gerson. But can nutrition be used to treat mental disease?

"Vitamin C is a specific antagonist of chemical and bacterial toxins." William McCormick, M.D.
1880-1968

"Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen, and thinking what nobody has thought."
- Albert Szent-Györgyi

I believe that the answer is "Yes."

"When in doubt, try nutrition first." Roger J. Williams, Ph.D.
1893-1988

Linus Pauling

"The failure of the medical establishment during the last forty years to recognize the value of vitamin E in controlling heart disease is responsible for a tremendous amount of unnecessary suffering and for many early deaths. The interesting story of the efforts to suppress the Shute discoveries about vitamin E illustrates the shocking bias of organized medicine against nutritional measures for achieving improved health." Linus Pauling

"We didn't make vitamin E so versatile. God did. Ignore its mercy at your peril."
- Dr. Evan Shute

In 1968 Pauling advocated the use of nutrition to attack mental illness.

"Vitamin C is the safest substance available to the physician."
- Frederick Klenner, M.D.

"For every drug that benefits a patient, there is a natural substance that can achieve the same effect." - Pfeiffer's Law Carl C. Pfeiffer, M.D., Ph.D.
1908-1988

Pauling invented the word "orthomolecular" in 1968 in a brilliant paper on psychiatry.

"Linus Pauling was right." - Associated Press

"Orthomolecular is a term made up of ortho, which is Greek for "correct" or "right" and molecule which is the simplest structure that displays the characteristics of a compound. So it literally means the 'right molecule'." orthomolecular.org

"Professor Pauling as always is ahead of his time. The latest research on vitamin C substantiates his twenty-five years of advocacy and investigation on the benefits of vitamin C." J. Daniel Kanofsky, MD, MPH, Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

"Man is a food-dependent creature. If you don't feed him, he will die. If you feed him improperly, part of him will die."
- Emanuel Cheraskin

"Varying the concentrations of substances normally present in the human body may control mental disease." - Linus Pauling
A Theory for Schizophrenia

Pauling correctly pointed out that in certain cases of avitaminosis (vitamin deficiency) there are psychiatric symptoms. This is true of niacin deficiency and of vitamin B12 deficiency. Both vitamins are vital to energy production in the brain. The brain burns glucose to make energy in the form of ATP. Niacin is needed in the process of glycolysis, which is the breakdown of glucose to form energy. Vitamin B12 is needed by red blood cells, which carry oxygen to the brain.

Another interesting fact, pointed out by the late Adelle Davis, is that in hypoglycemia there are mental symptoms. The sugar is low in the blood, causing problems in the brain. The brain is heavily dependent on glucose for its energy.

Another disease involving an enzyme deficiency also has psychiatric symtoms. This enzyme metabolizes glucose. Thus it would appear that almost any problem leading to a lack of brain glucose metabolism causes psychiatric symptoms.

I researched this further. In starvation the blood glucose gets low. There are psychiatric symptoms. In PKU the brain is flooded with the amino acid phenylalanine due to a metabolic defect. There are psychiatric symptoms. In biopterin deficiency the brain is flooded with both phenylalanine and tryptophan, leading to psychiatric symptoms. It seems that the brain is burning amino acids instead of glucose.

Therefore I concluded that mental disease is a form of diabetes of the brain. In regular diabetes the brain is affected, but in a different way. In diabetes mellitus the blood sugar is high. The patient can pass out from too much sugar in the brain.

Conclusions

Pauling lived to be 93 years old, as did the Hungarian scientist Albert Szent-Györgyi. Both worked on vitamin C. However, I believe that mental illness is not due to a lack of vitamin C. I believe that the brain is burning amino acids instead of glucose in mental diseases. This also happens in steroid abuse because steroids alter the brain metabolism. Amino acids flood the cells. This is why athletes abusing steroids get bigger muscles but can suffer mental side effects.

I believe that a diet very low in amino acids should be tried as a therapy in mental diseases. Methionine has been found to exacerbate schizophrenia (see #18 in the bibliography). For more information see the bibliography.

Bibliography

1. Pauling, L.: Orthomolecular psychiatry. Science 160: 265-271, 1968.

2. Hoffer, A.: Niacin Therapy in Schizophrenia. Springfield, Ill., Charles C. Thomas, 1962

3.Osmond, H., Hoffer A.: Massive niacin treatment in schizophrenia: review of a nine-year study. Lancet 1:316-319, 1962

4.Hoffer, A., Osmond H.: Treatment of schizophrenia with nicotinic acid: a ten-year follow-up. Acta Psychiatr Scand 40:171-189, 1964

5.Cleckley, H.M., Sydenstricker, V,P., Geeslin, LE-: Nicotinic acid in treatment of atypical psychotic states associated with malnutrition. JAMA 112:2107-2110, 1939

6.Sydenstricker, V.P., Cleckley, H.M.: The effect of nicotinic acid in stupor, lethargy and various other psychiatric disorders. Am I Psychiatry 98:83-92,1941

7.Kubala, A.L., Katz, M.M.: Nutritional factors in psychological test behavior. J Genet Psychol 96:343-352, 1960

8.VanderKamp, H: A: biochemical abnormality in schizophrenia involving ascorbic acid- Int J Neuropsychiatry 2:204206, 1966

9.Herjanic, M., Moss-Herjanic, B.L. Ascorbic acid test in psychiatric patients. J Schizophrenia 1: 257-260, 1967

10. Pauling, L., Robinson, A.B., Oxley S.S., et al: Results of a loading test of ascorbic acid, niacinamide, and pyridoxine in schizophrenic subjects and controls, in Orthomolecular Psychiatry: Treatment of Schizophrenia. Edited by Hawkins, D., Pauling, L San Francisco, W.H. Freeman and Co., 1973, pp 18-34
11. Hawkins, D., Pauling, L (eds): Orthomolecular Psychiatry; Treatment of Schizophrenia. San Francisco, W.H. Freeman and Co., 1973

12. Hawkins, D.: Orthomolecular psychiatry: treatment of schizophrenia. Ibid, pp. 631-673

13. Osmond, H.: The background to the niacin treatment. Ibid,pp. 194-201
14. Herjanic, M.: Ascorbic acid and schizophrenia, in Orthomolecular Psychiatry; Treatment of Schizophrenia. Edited by Hawkins, D., Pauling, L San Francisco, W.H. Freeman and Co., 1973, pp. 303-315

15.Stone, L: The Healing Factor: Vitamin C Against Disease. New York. Grosset and Dunlap, 1972

16.Pauling, L: Evolution and the need for ascorbic acid. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 67:1643-1648, 1970. 17. Pauling, L: Vitamin C and the Common Cold. San Francisco. W.H. Freeman and Co. 1970.

18. Ananth, J.V., Ban, T.A., Lehmann, ILE., et al: Nicotinic acid in the prevention and treatment of methionine-induced exacerbation of psychopathology in schizophrenics. Can Psychiatr Assoc J 15:15-20, 1970.