MENTAL HEALTH ARTICLES
Schizophrenia Can Be Cured
I thought you’d appreciate this moving story from Janet D, the mother of John whose profound paranoid schizophrenia is now completely in remission, thanks to nutritional treatment. She followed the advice of Dr Abram Hoffer, my mentor (we represent his approach in the UK).
Here’s her story in her own words:
“My 25 year-old son, John, was diagnosed with schizophrenia at the age of 15, although I later discovered that he had been hallucinating for years.
At the time of his diagnosis he was paranoid, depressed and withdrawn, he was cutting and burning himself, and he had violent outbursts.
John was placed on the usual variety of medications; Thorazine, Risperdol, Zyprexa, Abilify, Geodone, Depakote, Lithium, Welbutrin, Remeron, Prozac, Effexor, Seroquel, and probably several others that I don’t recall.
The drugs caused very troubling side effects – facial ticks, trembling, weight gain and fatigue.
Even on the medications, his life was miserable. He still suffered from paranoia and manic attacks. He was never able to establish friendships, complete his education, or live independently.
Around two years ago, John’s illness became much worse and the medications were no longer able to control the symptoms. He was too paranoid to go out in public, certain that everyone was laughing at him. In his own words, this is how he described how he felt:
“I was seeing people crawling in the road when I was driving. I thought they were from Satan and trying to make me crash. I thought everybody was staring and laughing at me when I went to a public place, like the supermarket. I thought I was a horrible freak and women and children were scared of me. I believed my brother was putting stuff in my food. I was afraid to answer the phone because I was paranoid that my voice sounded weird. The prescription medicine wasn't helping much.”
He began to have violent fantasies of murdering strangers, and even family members. One night my youngest son awoke to find John standing over him with a knife. After that, we locked our bedroom doors at night and kept all sharp items hidden.
John still managed to cut himself several times a week, sometimes so seriously he required emergency treatment.
He attempted suicide several times. Once he leaped in front of a moving truck, which barely missed him. The violent attacks of rage and panic were happening almost daily and John was in and out of the local psychiatric hospital at least six times.
John’s psychiatrist and our entire family felt he should be placed in hospital for long-term treatment, but I resisted. Nothing the doctors had done worked so far and I was afraid my son would be lost forever. I just kept urging the doctor to try new medications and praying that something would work.
On October 22, 2004 I found the miracle I had been praying for when I met Julie Hilton. She told me about Dr. Hoffer’s amazing work and shared his books with me, as well as books by others.
At first, I didn’t rush out to buy the recommended supplements. I did not really believe that something so simple could actually work, and John’s doctor assured me that it would not help.
About two weeks later, John went into the woods and sliced his wrist with a razor. He was only saved because his brother found him in time. I was certain that it was only a matter of time before he took his own life and maybe someone else’s, as well.
Before we tried orthomolecular treatment John was taking extremely high doses of prescription medications daily; 600 mg Effexor, 360 mg Geodone, 10 mg Zyprexa and 2000 mg of Depakote.
All failed to control the schizophrenia symptoms. So, with nothing to lose, I started John on niacin (vitamin B3). After the very first 500 mg dose, the suicide attempts and self-mutilation stopped… completely stopped.
We gradually raised the niacin over the first two weeks to 1000 mg, and then the paranoia was gone for the first time in over ten years!
We added other supplements and continued to see improvements. He now takes 4500 mg of niacin (a combination of niacin & no-flush inositol hexanicotinate) and 600 mg B-6 daily. He also takes omega-3, vitamin C, magnesium & zinc, a good multi-vitamin, and he recently began taking 5HTP. As Dr. Hoffer recommends, John has also cut his caffeine and sugar intake.
His prescription medications have been reduced to 150 mg Effexor, 240 mg Geodone, and 10 mg of Zyprexa. We will continue to reduce these slowly.
John is now free of all paranoia and delusions. In fact, he recently told me that he cannot believe the thoughts that were in his head before. This is how he describes how he feels since we started the nutritional treatment:
“Now that I'm taking supplements I'm not paranoid anymore. I'm looking forward to my future and I am holding a job now for the first time in years. I'm so thankful for the supplements and the help from my family in my time of need. I love my family. The more time that goes by, the better I am. Sometimes when I see the old scars where I cut myself, I almost can't believe I used to feel that bad. I'm just glad the schizophrenia is gone now and I can have a normal life.”
He now remembers to take his supplements and medication on his own. He is comfortable in crowds. John now goes to the mall or supermarket without a second thought.
John always dreamed of working on ships at sea, like most of the men in his family. His father is a ship captain, but it was completely unthinkable for John to do this.
Well, today John is working on a ship. He is a happy and productive young man.
John feels angry when he thinks of all the years he suffered because we didn’t know there was a treatment that works. “I don't understand how such a simple cure for such a bad problem can be ignored by so-called medical professionals.” He told me. Neither do I.
I am so grateful to Dr. Hoffer for his groundbreaking work, for his moral courage, and for his persistence.
Janet D
Please share this information with anyone you know who could benefit from nutritional treatment. We treat many people at the Brain Bio Centre in London who have similar stories to tell. The real tragedy is that for every one of our patients there are a thousand more who don’t even know this treatment is available and works. All they or you need to do is go to www.brainbiocentre.com where you can print out a comprehensive information pack. Or call 020 8871 9261 to order an Information Pack (£4.99, including several comprehensive articles on the ‘optimum nutrition’ approach to ADHD, psychosis, depression and dementia)
For more information on Optimum Nutrition and Mental Health read my book Optimum Nutrition for the Mind.
Source: www.patrickholford.com
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The 'Science' Cure For Depression
If you are prone to feeling low no doubt you’d like to know what really works. In the case of the treatment of depression that means looking at studies of different approaches, including conventional drug treatments and alternative approaches, from nutrition to exercise. Proper studies measure an improvement in symptoms, most commonly measured using a simple questionnaire called the Hamilton Rating Scale. This consists of a number of statements you, as a patient, might be asked about such things as your mood, suicidal thoughts, sleeping patterns, anxiety and so on, such as…
I feel unusually sad
Life is pointless
I worry about things more than I used to
I’ve been waking up earlier than usual and can’t get back to sleep
There’s 76 questions in total and the more signs you have of depression the higher your score. A score of 11 to 16 gives you a diagnosis of minor depression and above 17 you’ll be classified with major depression.
The current treatment of choice that most GPs recommend are anti-depressant drugs, especially SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) such as Prozac or Seroxat. So widely are they recommended by doctors, and promoted in the media, that a patient seeing a doctor with depression often expects to be given such a drug.
How well do they work? According to a recent analysis of all double-blind placebo trials, called a meta-analysis, published in the British Medical Journal not very well at all (1). Results show that anti-depressants, on average, produce a 2% decrease in the Hamilton Rating Scale. This doesn’t sound like much, and it isn’t. What’s more the authors of this review think even this small difference in result between anti-depressants and placebos may be exaggerated for a number of reasons. (One, for example, is that people taking part in trials, where they might receive a placebo or a real drug, often experience side-effects on the real drug, therefore think they are on the real thing, and feel better as a result.)
On top of this, there’s the downside – side-effects. Another review of all studies to date concludes that the suicide rate in those taking SSRI anti-depressants is double that of those taking placebos! Other common side-effects (there are 45 listed in the British National Formulary) include nausea, nervousness, insomnia, headache, tremors, anxiety, drowsiness, dry mouth, excessive sweating and diarrhoea. These drugs also tend to flatten moods, sometimes to the point of zombie-like emotionlessness, and reduce libido and sexual performance. According to psychiatrist David Richman, between 10 and 25 per cent of people taking an SSRI experience one or more of these symptoms.
Perhaps one could still argue that this is good medicine if this were the best thing going. But let’s explore if there is anything better by looking at other treatments – for example with B vitamins, essential fats, an amino acid and simply exercising.
Let’s examine the evidence. Firstly, the rationale behind anti-depressants, and especially SSRI anti-depressants, is that they promote a healthy level of serotonin in the brain, which is the brain’s ‘happy’ neurotransmitter. Serotonin is made in the body and brain from tryptophan, an amino acid that you eat in protein foods. Tryptophan is slightly changed into 5-Hydroxy Tryptophan (5-HTP), which is also found in some foods, most notably meat, fish and eggs. Low levels of serotonin in the brain, and tryptophan or 5-HTP in the diet are associated with depression. For example, in studies in which people were fed food deficient in tryptophan they became rapidly depressed in a matter of hours.
Both tryptophan and 5-HTP supplements have proven effective anti-depressants in clinical trials, as has omega 3 essential fat supplements, which are known to boost serotonin, and B vitamins, with virtually no side-effects. But just how good are they, compared to anti-depressants?
In the case of 5-HTP, which has proven more effective than tryptophan, there have been 27 studies, involving 990 people to date, most of which proved effective(2). Of these, 11 are what we call double-blind placebo controlled, six of which measured depression using the Hamilton Rating Scale. Let’s look at these six, since we know that current anti-depressants average a 2% improvement compared to placebos.
% Improvement in Hamilton Rating Scale versus placebo or drug
Alino et al 39% improvement
Nardini 56% improvement
Rousseau 13% improvement
Van Praag (72) 40% improvement
Van Praag (84) 30% improvement
Quadbeck 34% improvement
Since these studies differ in design, you can’t just add up the scores to arrive at an average, but it doesn’t take a scientist to realise these results are a lot better than the average 2% improvement of anti-depressants. On top of this the side-effects were minimal, consisting of infrequent nausea, which usually disappeared after a few days or on lowering the amount. The psychiatrist Dr Erick Turner, and his colleagues from the Mood Disorders Center, Portland VA Medical Center, Portland, OR, United States conclude that 5-HTP warrants more research but that ‘unfortunately, because 5-HTP is a dietary supplement and not a prescription pharmaceutical, there is comparatively little financial incentive for extensive clinical research as to its efficacy and safety for depression.’
Now let’s look at omega 3 fat supplements. The richest dietary source is in fish, specifically cold water fish, and especially cold-water fish that eat fish such as salmon, mackerel and herring. Surveys have shown that the more fish a country eats the lower is their incidence of depression. There’s a type of omega 3 fat called EPA which seems to be the most potent natural anti-depressant. Again, let’s see what proper scientific trials tell us.
In this case, there’s less double-blind placebo controlled trials to call on, namely five, four of which show significant improvement, although not all used the Hamilton Rating Scale(3). The first trial by Dr Andrew Stoll from Harvard Medical School, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, gave 40 depressed patients either omega 3 supplements versus placebo and found a highly significant improvement. The next, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, tested the effects of giving twenty people suffering from severe depression, who were already on anti-depressants but still depressed, a highly concentrated form of omega 3 fat, called ethyl-EPA versus a placebo. By the third week the depressed patients were showing major improvement in their mood, while those on placebo were not. Of those that measured the Hamilton Rating Scale, including one recent ‘open’ trial, not involving placebos, published three months ago, the average improvement in depression, using the Hamilton Rating scale, is shown below:
% Improvement in Hamilton Rating Scale versus placebo
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Stoll et al,(4) 49% improvement
-
Nemets et al,(5) 52% improvement
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Osher et al,(6) 50% improvement (open trial, not double blind)
Again, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that these results are a quantum leap ahead of anti-depressant drugs, again without the side-effects.
Our next example is B vitamins, and more specifically folic acid. It’s known that people with either low blood levels of folic acid, or high blood levels of homocysteine, which is an indicator of not getting enough B6, B12 or folic acid, are both more likely to be depressed and less likely to get a positive result from anti-depressant drugs. One study compared the effects of giving an SSRI anti-depressant, fluoxetine, with either a placebo or with folic acid(7). While 61% of patient improved on the drug plus placebo, 93% of patients improved on the drug, plus folic acid. But how does folic acid itself, a cheap vitamin with no side-effects, compare to anti-depressants?
Three trials involving 247 people have set out to answer this question(8). Two studies involving 151 people assessed the use of folic acid in addition to other treatment, and found that adding folic acid reduced Hamilton Depression Rating Scale scores on average by a further 2.65 points. That’s not as good as the results with 5-HTP or omega 3 fats, but in the same realm as antidepressants. These studies also show that more patients treated with folate experienced a reduction in their Hamilton Rating score of greater than 50% at ten weeks compared to those on anti-depressants.
Doing exercise is also as effective as taking anti-depressants. That’s the conclusion of a number of studies that gave people exercise regimes, usually involving around 30 to 60 minutes of exercise three to five times a week. Overall, these studies show something in the order of a 5 point drop in Hamilton rating scores, which is more than you’d expect from anti-depressant drugs alone(9).
One of the big problems with medicine today is that, in order to make big profits, a limited number of drugs have to be given to a large number of people, with very little checking to see what they need. The most effective approach to beating depression lies in a much more personalised approach in which you’d be given a blood test to find out if you were low in folic acid, serotonin or omega 3s, then given your own personal prescription of diet, supplements and exercise.
In fact, that's exactly what happens at the Brain Bio Centre in London, which serves as a model for the best science-based medicine for the future.
In November 2004, when David (not real name) a 48 year old man, consulted with one of the clinical nutritionists at the Brain Bio Centre he had a Hamilton Rating Scale score of 22 (major depression). He had suffered with depression with occasional manic spells all his life. He had been prescribed Prozac and Seroxat however these only made him feel worse and even suicidal at times so he stopped taking antidepressants. Counselling, self help programmes and homeopathy failed to improve his mood. The Brain Bio Centre carried out various biochemical tests and David was found to have low serotonin, suboptimum levels of many minerals, plus an allergy to a variety of foods including oats, dairy products, eggs, yeast, garlic, citrus fruits and almonds. He was recommended a comprehensive supplement programme that included essential fatty acids, 5-HTP and a B complex. He was also told to avoid the foods that he was allergic to and was encouraged to take regular exercise. Eight months after starting the nutritional regime, David reported that he felt ‘happy, healthy and fit.’ David’s Hamilton Rating Scale score dropped by 19 points (an improvement of 86%) to a score of 3 (not depressed). ‘The last three months have been the best I’ve felt for many years. I now have the tools to live a normal life. As long as I stay on the diet and take the supplements I can now manage my condition. The nutrition programme is like having a support network. Of all the therapies I’ve tried during a twenty five year search, the nutrition approach has been the best I’ve found.’
References
1.Moncrieff J, Kirsch I., Efficacy of antidepressants in adults BMJ 2005;331:155-157
2.Turner E et al., , Serotoninalacarte: Supplementationwiththeserotoninprecursor 5-hydroxytryptophan. Pharmacology&Therapeuticsxx(2005) xxx–xxx (article in press)
3.Peet M, Stokes R. Omega 3 Fatty Acids in the Treatment of Psychiatric Disroders Drugs 2005;65(8):1051-9
4.Stoll A et al., Omega 3 fatty acids in bipolar disorder: a preliminary double-blind, placebo-controlled trial Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1999 May;56(5):407-12
5.Nemets B et al., 2002, Addition of Omega-3 Fatty Acid to Maintenance Medication Treatment for Recurrent Unipolar Depressive Disorder. Am J Psychiatry159:477-479.
6.Osher J et al., Omega 3 eicosapentaenoic acid in bipolar depression: report of a small open-label trial J Clin Psychaitry. 2005 Jun; 66(6):726-9
7.Coppen & Bailey J. Affective Disorders 2000;60:121-130
8.Taylor MJ, Carney S, Geddes J and Goodwin G. Folate for depressive disorders. The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2003, Issue 2. Art. No.: CD003390. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD003390.
9.Craft L, Perna F., The Benefits of Exercise for the Clinically Depressed, Prim care Companion, J Clin Psychaitry, (2004);6(3):p104-111
www.brainbiocentre.com
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Chromium Relieves Depression
Chromium, an essential mineral commonly deficient in the British diet, has been found to provide major relief for two thirds of depressed patients, according to a study published today. Researchers at Cornell University gave 117 people suffering from ‘atypical’ depression either chromium supplements or placebo. Two thirds of those taking chromium had significant relief of their depression, compared to a third on placebo.
Chromium is naturally found in wholefoods but up to 98% is removed in refining sugar, rice or flour, so it is exceptionally low in a highly refined diet. What’s more, eating sugary foods robs the body of chromium. This is because chromium is essential for the hormone insulin to work properly, and insulin is released whenever a person’s blood sugar increases, for example after eating sweets or sugared drinks.
According to director of the Brain Bio Centre, Patrick Holford, who has pioneered this approach in Britain “The classic picture of depression is someone who doesn’t eat enough, doesn’t sleep enough and loses weight. We are seeing more and more patients who are gaining weight, feel tired all the time, crave carbohydrates and could sleep forever. People with this kind of ‘atypical’ depression often get instant relief by taking a 200mcg chromium supplement twice a day.”
The discovery of the link between chromium and depression was made by a psychoanalyst Professor Malcolm McLeod by accident. McLeod was treating a patient called George who had been depressed for several years. He suddenly got completely better after taking a nutritional supplement. “It was unbelievable. Without the supplement his depression returned. I narrowed it down to the chromium in the supplement.” McLeod then ran a small trial giving fifteen depressed patients either chromium or placebos and reported highly significant improvements. This latest trial, published today in the Journal of Psychiatric Practice, confirms that chromium supplements are highly effective natural anti-depressants.
“For many people chromium is the missing link” says Holford from London’s Brain Bio Centre “Most the patients we see with depression respond to simple diet changes and supplements. For some it’s chromium, while others respond to omega 3 fats or an amino acid called 5-HTP. We find out exactly what’s out of balance and correct it with nutrients rather than drugs. This is the future. Most of our patients are off anti-depressant drugs within a year.”
Chromium, which is available in health foods shops, has no known toxicity of side-effects at 100 times the ideal level of 400mcg a day for depressed people.
To find out more about the nutritional approach to depression visit www.brainbiocentre.com/depression.
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