Fight Diseases with Food

I have been interested in flavonids, which are also favored by Hoffer. Flavonoids are in grapes, black currants, peppers, rose hips, plums, papaya, prunes, parsley, cantaloupe, oranges, grapefruit, tomatoes, lemon juice, cabbage, cherries, and apricots.

Vitamin C

The same foods that are high in flavonoids, which are only found in plants, are also high in vitamin C. Hoffer favors the views of the late Linus Pauling, who was also the George Burns of nutrition. Hoffer feels that vitamin C fights aging, cancer, and other problems. Similar views are expressed in a Reader's Digest book entitled "Fight Back with Food".

Meats

Unfortunately meats are high in salt, cholesterol, saturated fats, dioxins, and other bad substances. Some meats have nitrates and nitrites. These can be converted into nitrosamine, which is carcinogenic.

Beta Carotene

"The low beta carotene group had five to seven times the risk of getting cataracts." Hoffer (1996)

The above quote is from the book "Hoffer's laws of Natural Nutrition".

Potassium

Hoffer favors high potassium foods including dulse, kelp, sunflower seeds, wheat germ, almonds, raisins, parsley, etc. Unfortunately kelp is also high in sodium, which Hoffer is critical of.

Schizophrenia

Neuropathology studies have shown schizophrenia to be organic. Miyakawa et al studied biopsies from the frontal lobes of schizophrenics. They used the electron microscope. This work was done in the Seventies. They found deposits of unknown substances. They found the Golgi apparatus to be "remarkably prominent". As the Golgi apparatus packages proteins, this suggests a possible excess of proteins.

The Japanese scientists suggested an error in neuron metabolism. A flooding to the cell with amino acids would cause all kinds of problems including the possible excessive production of proteins. the brain could burn amino acids for fuel instead of glucose. If that happened, there could be deposits of glycogen and possibly deposits of fat. Some excess amino acids could be converted to fat.

I believe that the Japanese workers were right in blaming an error of metabolism.

Manic-Depressive Disorder

According to Alvin & Virginia Silverstein & Laura Nunn in the book "Depression" (1977), Vincent van Gogh, Edgar Allan Poe, Lord Byron, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Virginia Woolf, Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), Tennesee Williams, and Robert Schumann all had manic-depressive disorder. Van Gogh was an artist. Poe, Byron, and Tennyson were poets. Woolf and Clemens were novelists. Williams was a playwright. Schumann was a composer. Van Gogh and Woolf committed suicide, presumably in the depressive phase.

Depression

The book "Depression" by Jennifer Roy (2005) lists Abe Lincoln, Charles Dickens, Kristy Mc Nichol, Delta Burke, Carrie Fisher, and Emily Dickinson as having suffered from depression. She lists Zoloft, Paxil, Prozac, Celexa, and Luvox as treatments for depression. These drugs are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. Since serotonin has been found to be normal in depression, it is not at all clear what the rationale is. At one point in time there was a theory that serotonin was low in the brain in depression. However, actual postmortem measurements proved that this theory was false.

Conclusions

In 1974 Fluoxetine (Prozac) was found to inhibit reabsorption of serotonin by nerve cells. Why this would be of any benefit is not at all clear. Serotonin levels have been found to be normal in the brain in depression.

Hoffer & Osmond favor the use of orthomolecular treatment. Unfortunately there have been problems associated with drugs (see #10 in the references).

Mandel & Spooner (1969) reported that 5-hydroxytryptophan, an amino acid, induced "behavioral depression" in various species including man. This would appear to suggest a diet very low in amino acids as a treatment for depression.

References

1. Hoffer A & Osmond H (1959) Concerning an etiological factor in alcoholism. The possible role of adrenochrome metabolism. Quart J Stud Alcohol 20: 750-756.

2. Hoffer A & Osmond H (1960) Alcoholism and the researcher. AA Grapevine.

3. Hoffer A & Osmond H (1961) Double blind clinical trials. J Neuropath 2: 221-227.

4. Hoffer A & Osmond H (1961) The biochemistry of mental disease. Can Med Ass J 85: 1309-1311.

5. Siegler, Miriam & Osmond, Humphry (1966) Models of madness. Br J Psychiatry. Dec;112(493):1193-203.

6. Hoffer A & Osmond H (1960) The Chemical Basis of Clinical Psychiatry. C.C. Thomas, Springfield, IL.

7. Hoffer A & Osmond H (1966) How To Live With Schizophrenia. University Books, New Hyde Park, NY.

8. Kolomeets NS. Zh Nevrol Psikhiatr Im S S Korsakova. 2008;108(4):70-6. Russian.

9. Mitochondrial involvement in psychiatric disorders. Shao L, Martin MV, Watson SJ, Schatzberg A, Akil H, Myers RM, Jones EG, Bunney WE, Vawter MP. Ann Med. 2008;40(4):281-95. Review.

10. In vivo observations of a case of chlorpromazine deposits in the cornea using an HRT II Rostock corneal module. Toshida H, Uesugi Y, Ebihara N, Murakami A. Cornea. 2007 Oct;26(9):1141-3.

11. The ultrastructure of lymphocytes in schizophrenia. Uranova N, Bonartsev P, Brusov O, Morozova M, Rachmanova V, Orlovskaya D. World J Biol Psychiatry. 2007;8(1):30-7.

12. The role of oligodendrocyte pathology in schizophrenia. Uranova NA, Vostrikov VM, Vikhreva OV, Zimina IS, Kolomeets NS, Orlovskaya DD. Int J Neuropsychopharmacol. 2007 Aug;10(4):537-45. Epub 2007 Feb 21.

13. Evidence for white matter abnormalities in schizophrenia. Kubicki M, McCarley RW, Shenton ME. Curr Opin Psychiatry. 2005 Mar;18(2):121-34.

14. Electron microscopic study on schizophrenia. Mechanism of pathological changes. Miyakawa T, Sumiyoshi S, Deshimaru M, Suzuki T, Tomonari H. Acta Neuropathol. 1972;20(1):67-77.