Schizophrenia: An Error in the Blood-Brain Barrier?

Introduction

  The bibliography gives a lot of background information on mental health including metabolic treatment. I used to use the name "orthomolecular" treatment, but there is so much prejudice against this that I have decided to call it "metabolic" treatment.

  Numerous Russian reports using the electron microscope have found gliosis, which is an abnormality of the glia. The glia mediate the blood-brain barrier. They feed the neurons and support the neurons in other ways. They maintain the myelin sheaths. Gliosis is seen in toxic diseases. This suggest that an unknown toxin causes schizophrenia.

  A toxin is consistent with the theories of Hoffer, Osmond, and Smythies. Unfortunately Osmond is deceased. It is also consistent with a Detroit theory of Frohman & Gottlieb at Wayne State University.

Therapeutic Nutrition Based on Biochemical Individuality

  The expression "biochemical individuality" comes from the late Roger Williams, who supported Linus Pauling in his efforts. The idea is that RDA's aren't that good because everybody is different in their chemistry, particularly in diseases. Not onlyu that, but there are interactions between and drugs, which makes things very complex. A drug can cause you to have a deficiency of a nutrient.

  The other side of the coin is food allergies. My theory is that amino acids are flooding the cells in schizophrenia due to an error in the blood brain barrier. This is caused by a toxin. The toxin may not need to cross the blood-brain barrier because it is produced in the brain, perhaps from dopamine.

  Metabolic treatment tries to correct the biochemical errors. For example, in a food allergy the allergen is avoided as much as possible. This is sometimes very difficult. For example, protein is in almost everything in varying amounts. 

 "Good plant sources of protein are beans, peas, nuts, bread, and cereals." orthomolecular.org

  This is also true of seeds, which also often have a lot of fat (as do nuts). For example, sunflower seed oil is made from sunflower seeds. Flaxseed also has a lot of oil, but it is good oil.

Russian Research

  Russian researchers, including Bonartsev, have reported "large activated lymphocytes" (LAL) in Korsakoff's Journal, which is the premier psychiatry and neuropathology journal in Russia (and perhaps in the world). This finding is consistent with my theory of amino acids flooding the cells. The fact that lymphocytes are immune cells doesn't mean that much because Mesa reported large platelets in schizophrenia and other workers have reported swollen neurons. Mesa is from Havana.

  A flooding of the cell with amino acids would activate the cell. This means that the cell would produce protein from the amino acids, perhaps to keep from bursting. Thus the activation may be in self-defense.

Metabolic Treatment

  The suggested treatment is a diet low in amino acids. Tryptophan is in the following foods:

Bananas, beans, brewer's yeast, brown rice bran, caseinate, cottage cheese, dairy products, dates, eggs, fish, lactalbumin, legumes, meat, milk, nuts, peanuts, protein (hydrolysis), seafood, seeds, soy, turkey, whey, whole grains.

Conclusions

  Thus it may be best to avoid turkey this Thanksgiving. Go to a Chinese restaurant or a vegetarian restaurant instead. Although fish does have healthy oils, particularly salmon, fish does have plenty of protein. The brain is allergic to protein in schizophrenia and possibly depression. My theory is that depression has similar biochemical errors to schizophrenia.  I have never seen a Russian report on depression, so that they may include it as a category of schizophrenia in their nosology (classification). Thus the Russian findings may reflect depression and possibly bipolar disorder as well as schizophrenia.

Bibliography

1. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1044372/a_possible_major_breakthrough_in_mental.html

2. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1044925/protein_amino_acids_and_brain_allergies.html

3. www.associatedcontent.com/article/1030724/abnormal_energy_metabolism_in_mental.html
4. www.associatedcontent.com/article/1033872/supplements_and_orthomolecular_medicine.html