Schizophrenia informationIntroductionThere 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.SchizophreniaIntroductionIn 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.
Schizophrenia and low fat intakeThis 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 schizophreniaWhile 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
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