Eva Edelman workshop at 2013 Alternatives Conference in Texas

I will be speaking at the Alternatives Conference in Austin on Friday, Dec 6th at 3:30 on nutrients, herbs and mental health. Come bring your questions.
I'll also be available through the week for free educational sessions. Look for me!
Historically, the focus of this conference has been mostly psychosocial approaches to mental health, so l am delighted to add orthomolecular approaches to the mix.
BTW, one of the highlights of this conference is consumer/survivor art, music, poetry and theater.

IIIA. Histapenia Vitamins

Doctors Pfeiffer, Hoffer, Walsh and other orthomolecular physicians have, in over ten thousand  schizophrenic patients with histapenia (and here), found the following nutrients and other approaches almost always beneficial, roughly grouped around the following symptoms:
Note: Some choices listed below can be detrimental in other biotypes, particularly histadelia (See Natural Healing for Schizophrenia.)

Voices and other psychotic symptoms

Vitamin B3 — Critical to brain circulation and metabolism, histamine production, metal metabolism, copper elimination. Antioxidant. Niacin increases reuptake of dopamine, suppressing dopamine activity. (Walsh) May create a flush.
Vitamin C — Promotes copper excretion, protects brain tissue from oxidation.
Vitamin B6 and/or P5P — May be even more important than B3 in children. Helps form GABA, serotonin, glutathione, CoQ10. Antioxidant. Supports B12 absorption, zinc metabolism. May help decrease available methyl.
Folic acid  — Counterbalances and traps methyl.  Folic acid enhances dopamine reuptake, decreasing availability in the synapse. (Walsh)
Vitamin B12   — As hydroxy- or cyano-cobalamin. Note: Methyl-cobalamine increases methylation so can be problematic for histapenics -- who are already overmethylated.
Zinc — Inhibits copper absorption and promotes its excretion. Facilitates histamine storage. Antioxidant. Helps maintain GABA levels and supports GABA function.
Restrict copper and support metal metabolism — See Metal Metabolism Notes, next post.

Paranoia

Especially: Vitamin C, B3, zinc. Other nutrients as relevant.
Usually critical to restrict copper and support metal metabolism.  See Metal Metabolism Notes, next post.

Overstimulation, grandiosity, anxiety, insomnia

Vitamins B3, C, B6, Zinc, etc. Also:
Magnesium — especially with irritability.
Pantothenic acid (B5) — Supports adrenals. Helps keep copper low. Helps counter overmethylation, and support dopamine reuptake. Helps form melatonin.
Choline or DMAE — Counters dopamine  and norepinephrine.
Manganese — Lowers dopamine. Supports metal metabolism and copper elimination. Makes choline available to form acetylcholine.
GABA — Counterbalances norepinephrine.
B complex — Generally supports neural function and helps prevent deficits due to high doses of  single B vitamin.  Not always helpful as some components can overstimulate.
Often critical to restrict copper and support metal metabolism.  See Metal Metabolism Notes, next post.

Depression  and/or fatigue

Vitamins B3, C, B6, B5, omega 3, folic acid, B12.

Antioxidants — To counter the oxidative stress. 
Omega 3 — Supports neural receptor function.

L-carnitine — Brings fuel (fats) to the mitochondria (cellular energy factories) and protects mitochondria from oxidative stress. Only if needed for fatigue. Stopped if voices or overstimulation worsen.
Iron — only if deficient.

Diet

Fresh whole foods (organic, if possible), omega 3 fish, abundant folic acid-rich vegetables. Avoid allergens, fried or hydrogenated fat, sugar, alcohol, refined carbs.
Meat requirements depend on individual reactions and chemistry.*

* Meat is rich in B3, B6, B12, zinc and carnitine, and benefits hypoglycemia. However, as Walsh points out, meat can markedly increase methionine and methylation.

Cautions

Supplements of methionine, SAMe, methyl-B12, and betaine increase methylation and are usually countraindicated for overmethylated individuals.
SSRI’s and St Johnswort often produce adverse reactions in this biotype.

Reminder: This information is presented for educational purposes only, and is not intended as diagnosis or treatment recommendations for the individual. Even within the histapenic subgroup, everyone's biochemical requirements are unique. So if you need treatment for schizophrenia, bipolar, or any other medical condition, please consult a knowledgeable physician.

To contact me, click here.
For more info on histapenia and schizophrenia, see
    http://boragebooks.com
To order my book, Natural Healing for Schizophrenia, please go to:
              http://boragebooks.com/orderBooks.html
Note: Ordering directly from Borage Books, gives you a free educational phone session with the author.

II. Histapenia chemistry and general approach

The focus in histapenia treatment is reducing brain overmethylation, increasing folate, and addressing high copper and metal metabolism problems.

Overmethylation increases activity of dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin, creating overstimulation and histapenia symptoms (e.g., anxiety, voices, hypomania, paranoia...). Methylation does this by decreasing expression of transporters that remove these neurotransmitters from the synapse. For example, methylation decreases the creation of dopamine transporters, leaving more dopamine in the synapse, thereby increasing dopamine messages.

Dr. Walsh suggests that the niacin therapy, developed by Dr Hoffer, turned out to be so important because it increases reuptake of dopamine from the synapse.

Similarly, folic acid helps the histapenic by increasing acetylation enzymes, and fostering creation of transporters to bring dopamine and norepinephrine out of the synapse, so stimulation can subside.

Metal Metabolism

Histapenia alone is generally associated with anxiety, panic and hyperactivity. Add metal metabolism dysfunction, and you can get voices, psychosis and paranoia.
Copper elevation is a good indicator of poor metal metabolism, and prevalent in schizophrenics with histapenia. Copper itself worsens voices, paranoia, overstimulation, insomnia and hypomania.
Reminder: This information is presented for educational purposes only, and is not intended as diagnosis or treatment recommendations for the individual. Even within the histapenic subgroup, everyone's biochemical requirements are unique. So if you need treatment for schizophrenia, bipolar, or any other medical condition, please consult a knowledgeable physician.

If you want to contact me, click here.
For more info on histapenia and schizophrenia, see  http://boragebooks.com
To order my book, Natural Healing for Schizophrenia, go to:
              http://boragebooks.com/orderBooks.html
When you order here, you get a free educational phone consult.

More on Histapenia nutrients next post.

1. Schizophrenia biotypes: Histapenia symptoms

The discovery of the histamine biotypes

Carl C. Pfeiffer, MD, PhD, working in New Jersey in the 1960s and 1970s,  discovered extremes of histamine in approximately two-thirds of his schizophrenic patients. He found that the mental symptoms responded well to nutrients which brought histamine into balance.
He dubbed the low histamine biotype, histapenia.
Over the years, Pfeiffer found that almost 50% of his schizophrenia patients fit into the histapenic biotype. Dr. William J Walsh recently suggested that the major biochemistry for 90-95% of paranoid schizophrenics is histapenia.

Symptoms (tendencies)  -- see the pic from my book here

Often, classic schizophrenia or paranoid schizophrenia symptoms.
High anxiety, perhaps panic attacks. Suspicious. Paranoia.

Racing thoughts, grandiosity. General overstimulation. Somewhat hypomanic.
Insomnia. Often turns day into night.
Dysperceptions. Voices. Distorted sense of reality.
Learning disorders, underachiever in school. Problems with abstract thought.
Often artistic or musical. Increased religiosity.
Depression, but usually less than in other biotypes.
 Note: If copper, zinc are sufficient, symptoms usually revolve around anxiety and panic. But with high copper, or low zinc, insufficient B3 histapenics tend to experience not only anxiety and panic, but also,  paranoia, voices, and psychosis.

Physical tendencies

Often overweight. Low metabolism, low libido.
Restless leg syndrome, hyperkinetic movement, ringing in the ears.
Dry eyes, mouth (increasing tendency to tooth decay). Dry skin, tendency to eczema. Hairy.
Food and chemical sensitivity, particularly perfume sensitivity. Seasonal allergies uncommon. Estrogen sensitivity. Increased estrogen (e.g., postpartum) often associated with psychosis.
High pain threshhold. Any pain clusters in the head, neck, upper body.
Reacts poorly to methionine, SAMe, antihistamines.

Labs

Low levels of whole blood histamine and, often, absolute basophils.
Low folic acid, high copper, often low serum zinc.
Elevated norepinephrine and/or dopamine and, often, serotonin.

For more on histapenia, see my compendium on nutrient-based approaches for schizophrenia, Natural Healing for Schizophrenia.
When you order here you can call for a free educational phone consult.
You may also be interested in Natural Healing for Bipolar Disorder, available here.

Reminder: This information is presented for educational purposes only, and is not intended for diagnostic or treatment purposes. If you need treatment for schizophrenia, or any other medical condition, please consult a knowledgeable physician.

0. Hoffer's discovery of Niacin/ Vitamin C megadose treatment

The Discovery of Megavitamin Therapy

Abram Hoffer, MD, PhD, founded Megavitamin Therapy, now called Orthomolecular Psychiatry. He began this research in a hospital in Saskatchewan, Canada, in the early 1950's, with a half dozen double blinds investigating megadose niacin and vitamin C for schizophrenia. These studies introduced double blinds to the field of psychiatry.
One of the early patients was a young boy, who had become catatonic, unable to speak or use the bathroom. He had eventually lapsed into a coma and his doctors, judging him to be dying from his schizophrenia, had placed him on a terminal care list. Hoffer gave him 5 gm vitamin C and 10 gm niacin, divided doses, and the next day he was out of the coma. After two weeks, he was completely recovered. Twelve years later, he was still taking vitamins, still well, and an active member of his community.
Many others in these initial trials showed similarly marked improvement. Hoffer has commented that God must be smiling down on researchers, to give such encouraging results at the early stages of research, steering them in the right direction. (Usually patients who are so ill take a lot longer to improve, with initial improvement not so clearly discernible.)
Orthomolecular psychiatry gathered momentum, with the contributions of hundreds of physicians and researchers. Treatment came to rely on a panoply of nutrients and herbs and, often, differentiation into biotypes, as well as attention to allergies, Candida, toxins, and other health factors. Laboratory testing helped distinguish unique individual needs.
The late and great Dr. Hoffer, for more than half a century, and up til the end of his life, nourished, expanded, and fought for this nascent medical field of orthomolecular psychiatry.

The following series of posts will focus on histapenia, the most prevalent biotype in schizophrenia. Hoffer's original niacin/C therapy is probably essential for virtually all patients who experience voices, but is particularly critical for the histapenia biotype.


For details on niacin, C, other vitamins, and biotypes, see my compendium on nutrient-based approaches for schizophrenia, Natural Healing for Schizophrenia.
Available here.
You may also be interested in  Natural Healing for Bipolar Disorder.
Available here.

This information is presented for educational purposes only, and is not intended for diagnostic or treatment purposes. If you need treatment for schizophrenia or any other medical condition, please consult a knowledgeable physician.

Nutrient-based Psychiatry and Hoffer-Walsh-Pfeiffer Outcomes

Scurvy and pellagra (see Power of Nutrients) are not the only conditions in which severe mental symptoms are "cured" by vitamins.
Others include:
Wernicke-Korsakoff psychosis, associated with B1 depletion due to chronic alcoholism.
The dementia caused by difficulty absorbing and/or insufficient intake of B12.
The depression associated with lack of vitamin D and sunlight.
The depression of iron, copper, or B6- deficiency anemia.
And so on.

The basis of medical treatment: A period of sufficient intake of respective vitamins to resolve the psychosis / dementia / mood symptoms for almost all patients.

So perhaps we can extrapolate the power of nutrients to address those same symptoms in some of what is now thought of as exclusively psychiatric disorders.

Hoffer-Pfeiffer-Walsh Clinical Outcomes

To support this contention, we can look to the clinical outcomes reported by Drs. Hoffer, Pfeiffer and Walsh. Together, these three giants of orthomolecular psychiatry, treated at least 50,000 patients with severe psychiatric disorder, focusing on nutrients tailored to individual biochemical requirements, and considering, where relevant, metal metabolism, environmental toxins, and confounding health conditions. Outcome for schizophrenia, anxiety, and mood disorders was 75-85% great-improvement or recovery, in the higher range when patients were treated early in the illness. Follow-up was generally one year or longer.
Recovery (defined by Hoffer) meant that people could go back to school or work at comparable level to that at which they left off, and that they again got on reasonably well with the people with whom they associate.
Furthermore, each of approximately 40,000 of these patients were assessed with hundreds of tests of nutrients, enzymes, and health status, which correlated nutrient-induced biotype and other biochemical changes with psychiatric improvement.

ABA Subgroup

Which is not to say people get cured, in the sense that to maintain improvement those vitamins tailored to individual biochemical requirements usually must be taken for life. This is actually advantageous because, unlike most meds: nutrient benefits tend to increase slowly but steadily over time; taking many indicated nutrients tends to compound the benefit; and improved physical health is often a side-effect.
Which may have contributed to a decision by many hundreds of the above patients that they were so well they could go off the nutrients. Almost invariably, they deteriorated, then were started again on the vitamins. These situations produced an ABA (on-off-on) within-subject experimental design bolstered by several factors: (1) Most biochemical parameters (except those being manipulated by the vitamins) were as identical as you are going to get (since it was within patient). (2) During the "off" stage, the deterioration was opposite to subject expectations (which was that they were well). (3) Accompanying labs tracked biotype-related biochemistry as it related to psychiatric status.
So this ABA group produced particularly strong data.
The results for almost all patients were deterioration during B, improvement during both A stages, although slower the second time around. Improvement in biotype biochemistry correlated with psychiatric improvement.

How can anyone ignore these amazing outcomes

Altogether, we have long-term outcome on tens of thousands of individuals reported from three distinct clinics, with most recovering over time, or improving greatly, and with the degree of recovery largely unheard of in mainstream psychiatry. And this, using nutrients, which, by definition, are essential to life, and which, accurately-used and tailored to individual requirements, are not going to cause the heart-rending side effects we see with many psych drugs.
Now add to these outcomes, the many thousands of positive studies and clinical results from all other nutrient-oriented physicians and researchers, a fertile body of research, constantly expanded by new insights and findings. And just possibly, what we as a society will find ourselves moving towards is a way to treat the brain with all due respect to its natural processes.

For an extensively-referenced compendium of nutrient-based approaches for schizophrenia, see my book,  Natural Healing for Schizophrenia.
Available here.
You may also be interested in  Natural Healing for Bipolar Disorder.
Available here.

This information is presented for educational purposes only, and is not intended for diagnostic or treatment purposes. If you need treatment for schizophrenia or any other medical condition, please consult a knowledgeable physician.
Warning: Changes in medication can trigger episodes which are worse than the initial illness. If changes are desired, please consult a knowledgeable doctor. Orthomolecular doctors usually add the new nutrients to the prior drug regimen. They then reduce meds in very gradual steps, and each stage, only when enough improvement on the nutrients allows it. 

Schizophrenia: Vitamins work! But take Time and Fine-Tuning.

Patience

Drugs, when they work, usually create relatively rapid improvement, until tolerance develops and side effects set in.
Nutrients are usually slow, so that at first it may not be obvious that they are working at all. Usually, improvement is subtle, almost unnoticeable day-to-day. Much subtler than drugs.
But effectiveness compounds with time. Multiple nutrients have a multiplicative effect. And, tailored appropriately to the individual, virtually no significant side effects (except enhanced general health). After all, nutrients nourish and are essential to health by definition.

Degree of Improvement

The clinical outcomes of Doctors Pfeiffer, Walsh and Hoffer, over tens of thousands of patients with schizophrenia, suggest that approximately 75-85% get better. To start, improvement may be almost unnoticeable, but progresses -- especially when treated relatively soon -- to a remarkable extent, as compared to meds. Many people can go back to school, pursue previous career goals, take up where they left off. They get their lives back. Nutrients work!

Education critical

But nutrient treatment does have to be tailored to individual requirements. In some cases repeated fine-tuning is needed and patience is essential. Education is critical for everyone involved. The more the individual, the physician and the family know about what each nutrient does, the role of biotypes, and the influence of other health factors (allergies, metals and toxins, thyroid and adrenal function, blood sugar, Candida, neurological issues, etc.), the more the long-term outcome is likely to improve.

Hence, my book, Natural Healing for Schizophrenia, so doctor and patient can work together to solve the riddles of this illness.
Available here.
Note: If you buy from Borage Books, you get a free educational consult with the author. 

Warning: If already taking medication, please do not make changes without consulting with a knowledgeable doctor. Changes in medication can trigger episodes which are worse than the initial illness. If the individual is taking meds, orthomolecular doctors usually just add nutrients to the drug regimen. They then reduce meds in gradual steps (often 10% at a time), each stage only when enough improvement on the nutrients allows it. 
This information is presented for educational purposes only, and is not intended for diagnostic or treatment purposes. If you need treatment for schizophrenia, or any other medical condition, please consult a knowledgeable physician.

The Power of Nutrients in Schizophrenia

How important can nutrients be? Can they really do much for severe mental health symptoms? Two old illnesses, whose vitamin cures have been used by modern medicine for the past hundred years, will serve to provide an intuitive glimpse into the potency of nutrients in brain function.

Vitamin C and Scurvy

 

Consider first, scurvy, the disease of the ancient pirates, a prolific killer of olden-day sailors on long sea voyages. Symptoms included easy bruising, internal bleeding, roughening skin, and wounds which would not heal. Teeth would loosen and fall out. As if that was not enough, scurvy also caused profound anxiety and depression, overwhelming fatigue, insomnia and, eventually, in some cases, psychosis. Late stage scurvy often resolves into fever, convulsions, and death.

Scurvy has been known for at least 2000 years, and periodically, people have tried various fresh food cures, only to lose that knowledge in subsequent generations. In the twentieth century, treatment with sources of vitamin C caught on more universally. Sufficient C not only stems the physical changes, but also reverses the often-severe mental symptoms.

Note again: Vitamin C, all by itself reverses the psychosis and mood changes of scurvy! Interestingly, many institutionalized psychiatric patients have vitamin C levels close to that found in people with scurvy.

Vitamin B3 (Niacin) and Pellagra 

Secondly, let us look at pellagra, an illness characterized classically by the 4Ds: Dermatitis, Diarrhea, Dementia and Death. That is: various skin and gastrointestinal symptoms, along with increasing weakness and depression, mood instability, aggression, insomnia, confusion eventually resolving into dementia and, in some cases, a schizophrenia-like psychosis.

In the early 1900s, liver, and then, its active ingredient, niacin, was found to cure pellagra. A few hundred mg. of vitamin B3, over several weeks, reversed the unstable mood, the irritability and violent disposition, and the pellagren psychosis.

Since then, orthomolecular psychiatrists have found niacin helpful in many cases of schizophrenia and depression, and critical in up to 90% of cases of paranoid schizophrenia.

If such nutrients can cure the severe mental symptoms of scurvy and pellagra, then perhaps they also have the power to address those same symptoms in psychiatric disorders. Come to my talk April 23rd [LCMH, 6:00] to hear more.

About the author

Eva Edelman is a health researcher and the author of two widely-acclaimed compendiums:

Natural Healing for Bipolar Disorder: A Compendium of Nutritional Approaches

Natural Healing for Schizophrenia and Other Common Mental Disorders

For more info on these books, see http://www.boragebooks.com

NAMI/ Lane County/ Spring 2013 Newsletter 

My review of Nutrient Power by Dr. William J Walsh, PhD

NUTRIENT POWER  Heal Your Biochemistry and Heal Your Brain by Dr. William J. Walsh

Nutrient Power by Dr. William J Walsh grants us a privileged look at the results of 35 years of research by a scientist who never stops pushing the envelope. Research, bolstered  by a scientific database of 25,000 patients and a million assays of chemical factors in blood, urine, and tissue;

This breakthrough book is a bridge from epigenetics and molecular biology to a biochemical psychiatry based on nutrients. It guides us through the brain’s rich biochemical tapestry and healing capacity. We learn about nutrients in terms of:

(1) Treatments for behavior and conduct disorders in youth, promising both a more humane and more effective approach.
(2) The role of metal metabolism, methylation and oxidative stress in autism.
(3) A review of approaches for Alzheimer’s, plus a new nutrient-based therapy.
(4) New theoretical underpinnings for niacin/ folic acid treatment of schizophrenia.
(5) Biotypes underlying ADHD, depression, schizophrenia.

And more. We move, from the methylation and acetylation of DNA histones to neurotransmitter transporters and regulators and synaptic reuptake. From metallothioneins and pyrrole disorders to the repercussions of oxidative stress...

And through it all, we see how nutrients, being intrinsic to how the the brain operates and thrives, directly target errant brain chemistry, while supporting natural brain processes. How nutrients fit intricately with the subtleties and plasticity of brain/body chemistry, as the most accurate biochemical key to neurotransmitter balance, synaptic activity, neuron viability, and genetic manifestation. Nutrients, the natural match for our internal chemistry and structure, created to sustain, build, activate, moderate, repair, and support healthy brain and body function.

The lesson is truly nutrient power!
All packed into one concise gem of a book.
A must-read for anyone who ponders the power of nutrients in mental function.

Review by Eva Edelman, author,
Natural Healing for Bipolar Disorder: A Compendium of Nutritional Approaches
Natural Healing for Schizophrenia and Other Common Mental Disorders