The Autointoxication Theory of Schizophrenia

Introduction
My view is that many diseases, including schizophrenia, are mistakes in evolution. Creationist Huckabee, running for President as a Republican, rejects evolution. However, how do you explain disease? Would God create cancer? Would God create schizophrenia? Or are they mutations?
Linus Pauling thought that schizophrenia was caused by a genetic error that caused a biochemical abnormality localized to the brain. But how could this happen? If a toxin is created in the brain, it might do its damage in the brain before it is detoxified by the liver.
The Promise of Orthomolecular Psychiatry
Unfortunately xenobiotic psychiatry (drugs) has had disastrous problems including seizures (from clozapine), neuroleptic malignant syndrome, tardive dyskinesia, akathisia, dystonia, etc.
Orthomolecular psychiatry has good side effects including cancer prevention. The brain is made from, fueled by, and repaired by the food that we eat. The use of good nutrition makes a lot of sense.
My own theory involves amino acids. It seems that amino acids are flooding the brain cells in mental illness.

Avoid Freud

Freud built castles in the air. Freud was a fraud. He committed suicide in London in 1939.

Real Science

Old work is of great value because it was done before the advent of neuroleptics. Neuroletics themselves can cause neuropathology, unfortunately. This is unfortunate both for the patient and for the scientist. A 1952 report by Scharenberg & Brown of the US revealed many positive findings.

Case 1

Scharenberg & Brown used biopsy material from Case 1. At that time lobotomy was common, and biopsies were taken during the lobotomy. Although I am against lobotomy, we should not throw out the results of the study. The damage was already done.

"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."

Since the Nissl bodies surround the nucleus, their source of RNA, the "necrotic ring" could be destroyed Nissl bodies. The Michigan workers found swollen cells. This suggests that the cells may be over-eating some macronutrients such as amino acids. This would explain the destruction of the Nissl bodies.

Case 2

Case 2 was 26 years old. The face and extremities became cyanotic. There was "proliferation and hypertrophy of the glia throughout the brain". THis signifies gliosis. Gliosis is seen in toxic diseases. This disproves the popular but false neurodevelopmental theory. Schizophrenia is caused by a toxic factor. Schizophrenia is organic. Scientologist deny an organic basis for the disease, but they are wrong.

Weil & Liebert (1940)

Again we are using old work because this way medication artifacts are minimized. The huge number of modern psychiatric medications now used makes scientific studies difficult.

These neuropathologists found swelling of neurons, chromatolysis, edema, and neuronophagia. This means that schizophrenia is a neurodegenerative disorder. The swelling supports my theory of the neuron over-eating due to a transport error. The chromatolysis means destruction of the Nissl bodies, discussed above. Neuronophagia means that dead neurons are eaten by scavenger cells. The toxic factor is killing some neurons.

Klippel & Lhermitte (1904-1909)

These brilliant French workers reported many positive findings. pathology was seen in deep cortical layers. There was disappearance of Nissl bodies. Lipid deposits appeared in the cytoplasm. There was a marked reaction of the neuroglia (gliosis).

Similar lesions were seen in the subcortical nuclei. These reports were largely ignored in the US, possibly due to the increasing popularity of psychoanalysis.

Orlovskaya, Savulev, & Oifa (1978)

This Russian work was also largely ignored in the US, possibly because only the abstract appears to have been translated into English. The groups found "acute swelling" of neurons using the electron microscope. Because of this and other similar findings (Averback, 1981a, 1981b), I formulated a theory of the cells overeating some macronutrients in schizophrenia.

Kleshchinov & Oifa (1986)

These Russian workers reported "swelling of the cysterns of the endoplasmic reticulum and loss of polysomes". This would probably happen if the cell was flooded with amino acids because amino acids are stored in these cisterns.

Bonartsev (1976)

Bonartsev of Russia found the lymphocytes of schizophrenics to be "activated". This means that the synthetic aspparatus was actively forming proteins from amino acids. This greatly strengthens the theory of amino acids flooding the cells.

Conclusions

My own view is that a diet very low in amino acids should be tried as a therapy. I have tried the diet on myself with no ill effects. In fact, I lost a few pounds on the diet. This was good because I was a little too fat before the diet.

Psychiatric drugs have been problematic. Some have cause the "serotonin syndrome". MAOs can raise serotonin levels, which can contribute to this syndrome. TCAs can cause weight gain, blurred vision, etc.

Side efects of MAOIs include insomnia, sleepiness, nervousness, sweating, weight gain, etc. A special diet is required because of an interaction with tyramine in foods. The interaction can cause hypertensive crisis.

The SSRIs can have a terrible side effect called the "serotonin syndrome". This happens because they alter serotonin metabolism.

The whole issue of drug side effects is extremely complex. The serotonin syndrome includes chills, headache, diarrhea, profuse sweating, confusion, and restlessness. The SSRIs interact with MAOIs.

Much of this information came from a website called Pubmed, run by the National Library of Medicine. This is an outstanding website, but it doesn't include much on orthomolecular medicine.