Integrative Medicine and Psychiatry

Introduction

The term "integrative medicine" appears to have been invented by Dr. Andrew Weil, who I greatly admire. He favors omega-3-fatty acids for depression. My experience is that this doesn't work, but it has a good side effect of being healthy to your heart.

There are differences between integrative medicine and orthomolecular medicine. Pauling was not interested in herbal medicine. Weil has been open to herbal medicine. I myself am skeptical of herbal medicine. I feel it is trial & error. It isn't scientific enough.

Nutritional Approaches

"Among the several arguments Irwin Stone presented to support his thesis that the proper physiological intake of vitamin C is 50 or more times the RDA were two that especially impressed me. . . Almost all animal species - dogs, cats, cows, horses, elephants, and so on - have continued to synthesize ascorbate. . . The second fact that impressed me is that animals manufacture very large amounts of ascorbate. The amount manufactured is approximately proportional to the body weight, and, converted to the weight of a human being, ranges from about 2,000 to 20,000 milligrams per day. Irwin Stone concluded that human beings with an average diet are accordingly all suffering from hypoascorbemia, a deficiency of ascorbate in the blood and tissues." Linus Pauling (1)

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

One of the leaders of the nutritional movement was Emanuel Cheraskin, MD, DMD. This was unusual for a dentist, but he was no ordinary dentist. He had been an author of books on dentistry. Then he began to broaden his field of work. His first book on nutrition was Ref. 2. Cheraskin brought hope to people who had no hope (3).

Cheraskin took an interest in mental health (4). Soon he started to use Linus Pauling's term "orthomolecular" (5). He adopted Pauling's interest in vitamin C (6).

Amino Acids

Prior to his death, Dr. Carl Pfeiffer of New Jersey was taking an interest in amino acids in psychiatry. Of course, amino acids are important in a number of different diseases, many with psychiatric symptoms. Many different measurements of amino acids have been made in psychiatry. Many of these results have come out abnormal (8). There is a glutamate theory for schizophrenia (9). The glutamate receptor has been suspected (10). Of course there are many theories for schizophrenia (12). I have been long interested in the glutamate theory because glutamate is found in the diet.

Ref. 13 reported glutamine to be high in the brain in "never-treated schizophrenics". However, Ref. 15 rejects the glutamate theory.

Tryptophan

Abnormal tryptophan metabolism has been suspected in depression (18). Interferon induces tryptophan degredation and causes symptoms of depression (18, 19). Interferon is used as a treatment for certain diseases, but it has this bad side effect, unfortunately. But why is this relevant to integrative medicine? Tryptophan is found in the diet.

Conclusions

My own theory is that tryptophan floods the brain cells in various forms of mental disease including depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disease, etc (20-23). My suggestion is a diet very low in tryptophan, which is found in almost all protein. Gelatin lacks tryptophan and corn protein is low in tryptophan. Such a diet must be supplemented with niacin to avoid pellagra (niacin deficiency). It might be also good to supplement with coenzyme Q10 because it is made from tyrosine, which is in protein. Coenzyme Q10 is good for the heart.

References

1. Linus Pauling in His Own Words : Selections from his Writings, Speeches and Interviews, edited by Barbara Marinacci. NY: Simon and Shuster, 1995.

2. Cheraskin, E., Ringsdorf, W.M., Jr. and Clark, J.W. Diet and Disease. 1968. Emmaus, Pennsylvania, Rodale Press, Inc. Paperback, 1977: New Canaan, Connecticut, Keats Publishing, Inc.

3. Cheraskin, E. and Ringsdorf, W.M., Jr. New Hope for Incurable Diseases. 1971: Jericho, New York, Exposition Press, Inc. Paperback, 1973: New York, Arco Publishing Company. Also published as New Hope for The Incurable. (NY: Information, Inc.)

4. Cheraskin, E., Ringsdorf, W. M., Jr. and Brecher, A. (1974) Psychodietetics: Food as the Key to Emotional Health. Stein and Day Publishers, New York. Also in paperback (1976) New York: Bantam Books, Inc.

5. Cheraskin, E. The Name of the Game is the Name IN: Williams, R.J. and Kalita, D.K. A Physician's Handbook on Orthomolecular Medicine. 1977. New York, Pergamon Press, pp. 40-44.

6. Cheraskin, E., Ringsdorf, W. M., Jr. and Sisley, E. L. (1983) The Vitamin C Connection: Getting Well and Staying Well with Vitamin C. New York: Harper and Row, Publishers. ISBN: 0-06-038024-1 Paperback: 1984. New York, Bantam Books, Inc.

7. Cheraskin, E., Orenstein, N.S. and Minor, P.L. Bio-Nutrionics: Lower Your Cholesterol in 30 Days. 1986. New York, Perigee Books.

8. Elevated glutamine/glutamate ratio in cerebrospinal fluid of first episode and drug naive schizophrenic patients Kenji Hashimoto, Göran Engberg, Eiji Shimizu, Conny Nordin, Leif H Lindström, and Masaomi IyoBMC Psychiatry. 2005; 5: 6. Published online 2005 January 31. doi: 10.1186/1471-244X-5-6.

9. Javitt DC, Zukin SR. Recent advances in the phencyclidine model of schizophrenia. Am J Psychiatry. 1991;148:1301-1308.

10. Olney JW, Farber NB. Glutamate receptor dysfunction and schizophrenia. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1995;52:998-1007.

11. Goff DC, Coyle JT. The emerging role of glutamate in the pathophysiology and treatment of schizophrenia. Am J Psychiatry. 2001;158:1367-1377. doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.158.9.1367.

12. Coyle JT, Schwarcz R. Mind glue: implications of glial cell biology for psychiatry. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2000;57:90-93. doi: 10.1001/archpsyc.57.1.90.

13. Bartha R, Williamson PC, Drost DJ, Malla A, Carr TJ, Cortese L, Canaran G, Rylett RJ, Neufeld RW. Measurement of glutamate and glutamine in the medial prefrontal cortex of never-treated schizophrenic patients and healthy controls by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1997;54:959-965.

14. Kim JS, Kornhuber HH, Schmid-Burgk W, Holzmuller B. Low cerebrospinal fluid glutamate in schizophrenic patients and a new hypothesis on schizophrenia. Neurosci Lett. 1980;20:379-82. doi: 10.1016/0304-3940(80)90178-0.

15. Perry TL. Normal cerebrospinal fluid and brain glutamate levels in schizophrenia do not support the hypothesis of glutamatergic neuronal dysfunction. Neurosci Lett. 1982;28:81-5. doi: 10.1016/0304-3940(82)90212-9.

16. Abnormal N-acetylaspartate in hippocampus and anterior cingulate in posttraumatic stress disorder Norbert Schuff, Thomas C. Neylan, Sabrina Fox-Bosetti, Maryanne Lenoci, Kristin W. Samuelson, Colin Studholme, John Kornak, Charles R. Marmar, and Michael W. WeinerPsychiatry Res. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2009 February 28.

17. Is COMT a Susceptibility Gene for Schizophrenia? Hywel J. Williams, Michael J. Owen, and Michael C. O'DonovanSchizophr Bull. 2007 May; 33(3): 635-641. Published online 2007 April 4. doi: 10.1093/schbul/sbm019.

18. Capuron L, Neurauter G, Musselman DL, et al. Interferon-alpha-induced changes in tryptophan metabolism: Relationship to depression and paroxetine treatment. Biol Psychiatry. 2003;54(9):906-14.

19. Byrne G, Lehmann L, Kirschbaum J, Borden E, Lee C, Brown R. Induction of tryptophan degradation in vitro and in vivo: A gamma-interferon-stimulated activity. J Interferon Res. 1986;6(4):389-96.

20. www.associatedcontent.com/article/1854191/chemical_tests_for_mental_illness.html
21. www.associatedcontent.com/article/1839047/medical_breakthroughs_in_psychiatry.html
22. www.associatedcontent.com/article/1835535/the_latest_research_in_psychiatry.html
23. www.associatedcontent.com/article/1832155/tryptophan_in_medicine.html