You are here: Library
Health Conditions
Mental Illness
Get a FREE Health Guide
...plus all the latest news and offers
We respect your privacy and will not pass on your details. You will receive free, relevant health news, and can unsubscribe at any time.
Mental Illness
Mental Illness - A Successful Method of Treatment with Nutritional Supplements
Update January 2017
Schizophrenia/Hallucinations/Psychosis/Paranoia
In 1966 Humphry Osmond and I reported (1) that
NAD was therapeutic for schizophrenic patients treated in a psychiatric wing of
the University Hospital at Saskatoon. We used an enteric coated tablet
containing 100 mg suspended in an oily medium to bypass the stomach. Patients
who were responding slowly to vitamin B3 in doses of 3 grams daily, responded
much more quickly to NAD using 1 gram daily. For as long as the NAD was
available, they remained well or much improved. When we ran out of supplies they
quickly relapsed.
Two negative attempts were made to repeat our
work using a preparation which was dumped into the stomach of patients who had
been maintained on the backwards of the mental hospitals of that era and were
sick for many years. These two negative reports effectively quenched interest in
this compound until a few years ago.
Professor J.G.D. Birkmayer and his associates
at the Birkmayer Institute for Parkinson Therapy in Vienna, Austria, studied a
stable form of NADH. They found that their stable preparation using 5 mg doses
was therapeutic for Parkinson's disease, for Alzheimer's, and for depression.
They wrote, "When we first used NADH with regard to its clinical efficacy the
effect was not convincing".
This was most likely due to the rapid
dissolution (approximately 10-15 minutes) of the capsule leading to a release of
NADH into the acid conditions of the stomach. Since NADH is rapidly oxidized
below pH 7.6, the conditions in the stomach will inactivate NADH by converting
it to NAD. The investigations of this report were therefore performed with NADH
capsules coated with an acid stable film and a release time of 2-3 hours. With
this galenic formulation of NADH an improvement in disability could be achieved
which was comparable to that of intravenously applied NADH."
In our studies we used NAD, which was the only
form of this coenzyme available, in doses of one gram daily, but the Austrian
group found NADH active at 5 to 10 mg daily.
NAD and NADH are interconvertible in the body.
This suggests that the active form is the reduced form, NADH, and that NAD is
much less effective since it would first have to be reduced to NADH. The
decreasing order of therapeutic efficacy would be NADH, NAD and finally vitamin
B3. There would be no formation of NADH in the stomach from NAD, but there would
be some made in the intestine.
Editors note: Therefore we conclude that
NADH is the most obvious choice for the successful treatment of Schizophrenia
alongside Vitamin
B12 in the form of methylcolbalamin lozenges |
By mental Illness we are referring to the various kinds of psychosis including, but not necessarily confined to schizophrenia, Manic depressive Psychosis, bi-polar disorder, psychotic depression, Obsessive Compulsive disorder (OCD), delusions, hallucinations. Epilepsy may also be improved by the suggested remedies listed in this article.
This article will suggest that the above conditions can be understood in terms of oxidative distress , inflammation, infection (Often including parasitic infection, fungal infection and viral infection), toxicity (Heavy metals, and other neurotoxins such as aspartamine, pesticides) All these issues often are present together in varying degrees and in turn will promote auto-immune reactions in the brain. In turn, as is the case with other more well recognised auto-immune disorders, food intolerances can combine to 'overcharge' and already hyped up immune system where the bodies immune response is actually attacking the distressed areas of the body, in this case the brain to produce further inflammation and oxidative stress.
Obsessive Compulsive disorders
These definitely have personality and psychological factors as part causative agents. However persons with OCD have reported improvements when eliminating infections such as Candida. For an e-book on a psychological approach that can work go to
http://www.therootcause.co.uk/?hop=bicchione
When I was 22 years old I worked in a psychiatric hospital for 18 months as a psychiatric nurse. We were taught at the nurses school that mental Illness was probably biochemical, but I questioned this and tended to go along with the idea that most mental illness was due to some kind of personality disorder and psychological problems that caused the actual sickness as expounded by writers such as R.D Lang. Now 40 years later I have largely reversed my understanding of mental illness based on the successes of physical based 'treatments'.
The first clue I came across was from Dr. William Phillpot. He worked with food intolerances and also magnetic field therapy. He gave examples of completely psychotic patients who were 'cured' in a week by stopping one food item that they had an intolerance to. He also brought some people out of psychosis with the use of the calming pole of the magnetic field he refers to as negative magnetic energy. Personally I believe that eliminating the causes as detailed in this article, is a more through and permanent approach.
Details of his food intolerance reducing system can be found at
here
He has published a number of books one of these relevant to mental illness is Brain Allergies: The Psychonutrient and Magnetic Connections, 2nd Ed. (Keats Publishing L.A., CA 2000).
The second clue I found was:
A well known Professor in Portugal - Serge Jurasunas, who has a successful natural health clinic, has used
Zell Oxygen for over twenty years to treat chronically ill patients with much success; these include Cancer, (please also see the article
Cancer: Helping to Win The Battlewith Nutritional Therapy), CFS, Depression, Schizophrenia and other forms of psychosis.
How this is accomplished we cannot be certain but we do know that the nutrient combination contained in the product called
zell Oxygen contains a full range of B vitamins, and respiratory enzymes (Support ATP cycle for cell oxygenation and energy) The brain requires more oxygen than any other part of the body, so a chronic lack of cellular oxygen to the brain due to mitochondrial impairment can conceivably play a part in mental illness. Also low oxygen status of the cells encourages the proliferation of infections.
The third clue comes from research into the relationship of infections to mental illness and the improvement or even complete elimination of the mental illness when infections are eliminated. Some of this work is detailed in the article
The Role of Infections in Mental Illness by Frank Strick, Clinical Research Director. Extracts from the article are as follows:
"Since 1953, eighteen out of nineteen studies of T.gondii antibodies in persons with schizophrenia and other severe psychiatric disorders have reported a higher percentage of T. gondii antibodies in the affected persons. Two other studies found that exposure to cats (the primary carrier for toxoplasmosis transmission) in childhood is a risk factor for the development of schizophrenia. Furthermore, certain antipsychotic and mood-stabilizer drugs such as Halperidol and Valproic acid inhibited this parasite in vitro at a concentration below that found in the cerebrospinal fluid and blood of individuals being treated with this medication, suggesting that some medications used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder may actually work by inhibiting the replication of toxoplasmosis gondii. (Ref: Jones-Brando, Torrey, Yolken)
It is research like this that has led Johns Hopkins virologist Robert Yolken and psychiatry professor and former special assistant to the Director of the National Institute for Mental Health Dr. E. Fuller Torrey to believe that toxoplasmosis is one of several infectious agents that causes most cases of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The idea is not new. In fact, as far back as 1922 the famous psychiatrist Karl Menninger hypothesized that schizophrenia was "in most instances the byproduct of viral encephalitis." Torrey notes that in the late nineteenth century schizophrenia and bipolar disorder went from being rare diseases to relatively common ones at the same time that cat ownership became popular.
Yolken designed a retrospective study of twenty-five hundred families showing that mothers of children who later developed psychoses were 4.5 times more likely to have antibodies to toxoplasmosis than the mothers of healthy controls. Due to the frequency of cat ownership, a large percentage of the US population (up to 50%) has been exposed to toxoplasmosis but most immunocompetent carriers remain asymptomatic until another immunological burden such as chronic viral infection or a separate parasite weakens the host defenses and precipitates pathogenic expression.
(Patients previously diagnosed with "Chronic Candidiasis" often find that Candida was merely a cofactor or consequence of more significant infections and infestations which created obstacles to long-term cure.) "Mental" symptoms often improve dramatically when hidden neuro-immune infections are treated successfully and normal brain metabolism resumes, especially in "sudden-onset" syndromes. After identifying and treating the primary infections we focus on rebuilding the host's immunological defenses and mucosal integrity to prevent relapse"
For a non-drug approach to eliminating all types of infections see the article:
Note: There are a few remedy options suggested in the above Eliminating Infections article.
For mental Illness we suggest to use Olive leaf - for eliminating Candida in the gut and colloidal silver for eliminating all types of infections elsewhere in the body including the brain. It is suggested to use colloidal silver before using Iodine. (If in fact you want to use the Iodine protocol at some point in time, after learning of its potential benefits in the treatment of hyperactivity ADD, and in fact for general metabolic health as well as eliminating infections at the correct dose) The reason for suggesting colloidal silver first is because it is calming on the immune and nervous systems and has potential healing effects. On the other hand Iodine, will initially be highly stimulating and may cause an aggravation of mental conditions until adapted to, which could take weeks.
If you have significant infections of a chronic nature after a few days of regular colloidal silver and olive leaf use there will be a die off reaction of the resident infection(s). This will cause effects like headache, possible nausea, aching in places and often flu like symptoms, and sometimes even a fever. These symptoms should be welcomed as they indicate that the first stage of the battle against your chronic health problems is being won. The simultaneous use of zell Oxygen or even better Zell-Immunocomplex will tend to shorten and reduce the die off symptoms via its nutrient help of the immune and detoxification systems. The use of conventional anti-biotics at such a time may be self defeating as if the anti-biotic is not specific to the known or unknown infections you have, it will merely destroy beneficial bacteria and cause immune suppression, so symptoms of detox and immune response will reduce or stop, but your long term health issues will not be dealt with.
As detailed in the article:
The use of
vitamin D at the correct dose in restoring immunity is often paramount.
Certain Nutrients can also have a significant beneficial effect on patients suffering from mental disorders, example:
The Use of Vitamin B12 in the form of Methylcolbalamin for mental Illness
High-dose sublingual vitamin B12 has been found in many cases to help relieve Alzheimer's disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Bipolar disorder (especially depression), Psychotic depression, violent behavior, Paranoid psychoses, asthma, allergies, low immunity, chronic fatigue, poor memory.
B12 in the form of Methylcolbalamin is non-toxic and crosses the blood-brain barrier and is therefore especially beneficial in brain and neurological disorders. It is available as a sublingual (dissolves in the mouth) tablet so it does not have to be injected - as B12 cannot be reliably absorbed by the stomach.
*Psychotic depression has been particularly associated with B12 deficiency. (22) As I'll discuss later, success of B12 therapy against depression in its various forms is "probable."
* Paranoid psychoses This nutritional deficit has also been linked to paranoid psychoses, characterized by over-suspiciousness and delusions.
* Bipolar-disorder (manic depressive), marked by alternating periods of elation and depression; and more commonly bipolar-2 (cyclothymic personality), marked by mood swings within normal limits. (24-26)
*violent behavior B12 also has yielded seeming miracle cures in still other desperate illnesses. In numerous cases of patients with violent behavior, for instance, when B12 was replenished (with or without other changes in life), violent behavior disappeared. (45-49)
Extracts above from the article High-dose vitamin B12 for at-home prevention and reversal of Alzheimer's disease and other diseases.
Heavy Metals as a Co-Factor in the Cause of Mental Illness
Mental illness and also neurological disorders, Alzheimer's disease, in fact most chronic health disorders, there is frequently heavy metal accumulation in the tissues and brain. For optimum healing these can easily be removed in a few weeks or months see the article:
One may ask why there can be so many different contenders for the cause and therefore the relief of mental illness and other health disorders? The answer is that there is a relationship between all these 'causes'. Heavy metal exposure such as via immunisations, amalgam fillings , also neuro -toxins such as pesticides, can pre-dispose the person to infections as these types of toxins interfere with the defenses of the cells and immune system. Vitamin B12 has some protective role to the brain cells and is an essential nutrient for their proper functioning. Deficiency of B12 can therefore amplify the effects of toxins and infections within the brain. Since Vitamin B12 deficiency is quite common, as detailed in the B12 article, it is quite likely that the majority of cases of mental illness have the co-factors of heavy metal toxicity, B12 deficiency and chronic infection of some kind. In this situation an auto-immune syndrome can and probably does usually occur resulting in inflammation and further free-radical stress to the effected brain.
By eliminating mitochondrial insufficiency the immune system is improved, and combining this with remedies to eliminate infections, and heavy metal toxicity the immune response will settle down and the optimum chance of a permanent solution to the patient is available, provided that the treatment protocol is kept up sufficiently to prevent re-infection or re-infestation.
Maintaining the health of the nervous system with an adequate supply of B vitamins, minerals and trace elements will further support the nervous system recovery and health. Nutritional supplements such as
Zell-Oxygen or the more nutrient rich
Immunocomplex provide a broad spectrum of nutrients and B vitamins as discussed earlier. The mineral Magnesium is widely recognised as being of tremendous importance for the functioning of the nervous system and indeed body in general, however what is not widely appreciated is the need for full spectrum unrefined salt. A nutritional supplement such as
Magsea Ionics supplies both plentiful quantities of magnesium along with full spectrum unrefined salts.
Essential fatty acids
These are required by the body as raw, unheated, unprocessed raw oils. Any decent nutritional program for any disease amelioration must include these. If you are having sufficient raw nuts or seeds your needs will probably be met. If you are consuming fried oils or processed oils as found in margarine, processed food in general (e.g. hydrogenated fats) then the cells of the body including the nerve cells cannot function efficiently resulting in either disease or at least a block to healing from any disease including mental diseases. For an understanding of this issue see the article:
Alternatively if you can obtain hemp oil from your local shops, this is highly recommended as being a well balanced oil with a balance of omega 3, 6, 9.
Removal of Blocks to Health, Healing and Wellness
We have defined the major blocks to health improvement which should be considered the number one priority for resolution before one goes on to a more specific healing regimen such as that detailed in the programme above. By removing these blocks one will feel stronger and more prepared for a specific programme and will achieve far greater success with it. Please read this essential article here
The Core Regime
Not all of the remedies listed here will neccessarily be needed. We strive to bring you the most effective remedies to resolve your health problems in the simplest supplemental regime possible. We aim to treat the actual root causes of health problems holistically rather than supply remedies that will give temporary or partial relief from only the symptoms. This has been our mission since the founding of Regenerative Nutrition in 1994. As we uncover more fundamental truths about the causes, and therefore the relief, of diseases and health problems we update and revise our product range and recommendations.
Above, we detail targeted remedy recommendations for Mental Illness, but we further suggest that you view the core regime article and supplement pages by clicking here
To achieve overall good health and long term resolution of this health problem the remedies selected here should be combined with core regime remedies for the best results.
It may well be that there is some overlap and that many of the remedies in the core regime are listed here also.
If you need any assistance in selecting the most suitable remedies, or have any questions, please Contact Us