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Schizophrenia information
Introduction
There are many conditions in Western industrialised societies today that were unheard of, or at least very rare, just a century ago. The same conditions are still unheard of in primitive peoples who do not have the 'benefits' of our knowledge. There is a very good reason for this: They eat what Nature intended; we don't. The diseases caused by our incorrect and unnatural diets are those featured on these pages.
Dietary causes of schizophrenia:
'Healthy' carbohydrate-rich diet, particularly cereals containing gluten; low-fat diet.Schizophrenia
Introduction
In the 1960s, Dr. F. Curtis Dohan noticed that in regions where gluten consumption was common, the rate of schizophrenia was substantially higher than in places where gluten consumption was absent: places where people relied on sweet potato, rice or millet rather than wheat, rye, barley or oats, for example. Subsequent research, including experiments by others involving biopsies, led Dohan to conclude that people diagnosed as schizophrenic did not typically have the same reaction to gluten as people with coeliac disease, in that they did not have the same type of damage to the villi of the small intestine, but that a gluten-sensitive subset of schizophrenics processed gluten and the casein in dairy foods in a way that exposed their brains to certain very potent psychoactive substances that are now known to exist in those foods.
In his first published clinical trial, at a Veterans' Administration hospital, Dohan tried removing gluten-containing cereals and dairy from the diets of people diagnosed as schizophrenic while they were on a locked admitting ward; they went back on a regular gluten-containing diet once they moved to the open wards.
Of those on the gluten-free diet on the locked ward, 80% were on that ward and the gluten-free diet for 10 days or less. Other people diagnosed as schizophrenic who went through the same wards were kept on a high-gluten diet while on the locked ward instead of a gluten- and dairy-free diet.
The people at the V.A. hospital who were on the gluten-free diet while on the locked ward were discharged almost twice as quickly as those who were on the high-gluten diet. Dohan writes: 'The average time until discharge for the discharged CFMF [cereal-free, milk-free] patients (77 days) was 55 percent of that of the discharged HC [high cereal] patients (139 days).'[i]
Between 1966 and 1990 more than 50 articles regarding the role of cereal grains as a cause of schizophrenia were published. Dr Karl Lorenz conducted a meta-analysis of them and concluded that 'In populations eating little or no wheat, rye and barley, the prevalence of schizophrenia is quite low and about the same regardless of type of acculturating influence.'[ii]
This supported earlier clinical studies which had shown that schizophrenic symptoms improved on cereal-free diets and worsened upon their re-introduction.[iii] [iv] [v]
Schizophrenia and low fat intake
This evidence also ties in well with other dietary research along parallel lines. If people eat more of one thing, they necessarily eat less of another. For this reason, a high-carb diet is likely also to be a low-fat diet and there is a growing body of research data which suggests that schizophrenia may be the result of an abnormal fatty acid composition of the brain. In a controlled study of fatty acids in patients with schizophrenia, doctors at the University Department of Psychiatry, Northern General Hospital, Sheffield, noticed that arachidonic acid and docosahexaenoic acid, were particularly low. These fatty acids are plentiful in meat and fish fats respectively, but not found in vegetable oils. The authors say that 'A strong correlation exists between schizophrenia and deficiencies in fats, . . . The possibility that diets generally low in fat might worsen schizophrenia or even bring on the condition among those already predisposed to it is hard to ignore.'[vi] They go on to suggest that this 'opens up novel and exciting therapeutic possibilities' for dietary treatment of schizophrenia — with a low-carb, high-fat diet.
Crime increase blamed on schizophrenia
While the number of reported crimes in Denmark has remained unchanged since 1987, there has been a growing number of offenders found to be mentally ill in that country. In line with many other countries, Denmark reorganised psychiatric care with closure of half its psychiatric beds in favour of community mental health. A report published in June 2003 found that the 'main reason for the exponential growth rate is an increasing number of schizophrenic patients committing crimes. It is concluded that deinstitutionalisation is the main reason for this development.'[vii] But, as we know, schizophrenia may be affected by diet. Diet also has been shown to influence social behaviour and criminality in both adults and children.
References
[i]. Dohan FC, Grasberger JC. Relapsed schizophrenics: earlier discharge from the hospital after cereal-free, milk-free diet. Am J Psychiatry 1973; 130: 685-8
[ii]. Lorenz K: Cereals and schizophrenia. Adv Cereal Sci Technol 1990; 10: 435–469.
[iii]. Dohan FC, et al. Relapsed schizophrenics: More rapid improvement on a milk and cereal free diet. Br J Psychiatry 1969; 115: 595–596.
[iv]. Dohan FC, Grasberger JC. Relapsed schizophrenics: Early discharge from the hospital after cereal free, milk free diet. Am J Psychiatry 1973; 130: 685–688.
[v]. Singh MM, Kay SR. Wheat gluten as a pathogenic factor in schizophrenia. Science 1976; 191: 401–402.
[vi]. Laugharne JD, Mellor JE, Peet M. Fatty acids and schizophrenia. Lipids, 1996; 31 Suppl: S163-5.
[vii]. Kramp P, Gabrielsen G. Crimes committed by mentally ill persons in the years 1977-1999. Development, number and causes. Ugeskr Laeger 2003; 165: 2553-6.
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