The Connection Between Nutrition & Psychiatry

One point of view is that schizophrenia is a disease of the neuron.

My own view is that both neurons and glia are involved. My view is based on the results of many neuropathology studies. An interesting book is entitled "New Biological Vistas in Schizophrenia". The chapter by Casanova et al is about neuropathology.

Images of neurons and other items are available for free from a website called "WP Clipart".

Macrophages

Many abnormalities have been reported in schizophrenia, including macrophages laden with fat and pigment. Macrophages are scavenger cells that eat dead neurons.

It is likely that they had eaten neurons that burst from too much fat and pigment.

Abnormal blood cells have also been reported.

Hemolysis (destruction of red blood cells) has been reported. The cells swell up and burst.

Nutrition

The fact that the cells are swelling up and bursting suggests that the cells are overeating some macronutrients. Unfortunately there are many that reject the medical model of mental disease. This is a mistake.

There are abnormalities in the cell as in other diseases such as cancer. However, the cell pathology is different than that in cancer.

The main treatments in psychiatry have been drugs.

Unfortunately these drugs have been both very expensive and problematic.

This does not mean that all drugs are bad. What it means is that caution must be used. One should not give a 350 lb. woman a drug that makes her gain weight, and yet this happened. It happened with an atypical antipsychotic drug.

Vitamins or Drugs?

Unfortunately there are drug to drug interactions and drug to food interactions. Some patients take several drugs at once. One drug may be for the psychosis and another for the side effects of the first drug. However, the drug to fight the side effects has side effects itself!

These problems are greatly reduced when nutritional supplements are taken. These supplements often have good side effects!

Not only that , but the supplements are much cheaper than xenobiotics (unnatural drugs).

Conclusions

The brain is the seat of the problem. The maximum pathology has been seen in the brain. The brain chemistry needs to be corrected. My view is that a special diet is needed.

Unfortunately some drugs have the ultimate side effect.

There is no coming back from this side effect.

However, there is hope in nutrition. I favor a high fiber, low protein diet in which sugar is restricted. This article is getting a bit long, so more details will be provided in future articles. My theory is that amino acids are flooding the brain cells.