LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

Schizophrenia

Gluten and Schizophrenia

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CAN WE GET SERIOUS BRAIN DAMAGE FROM THIS VERY COMMON FOOD??

Gluten sensitivity is becoming much more commonplace.  I was recently talking to a patient who was diagnosed with celiac disease about 8 yrs ago.  He was having weird muscle twitches and had been put on a barrage of medications.  The game has changed much in the past few years, and “gluten free” is a very common finding at restaurants and healthier food stores.  The reality is that gluten sensitivity is a spectrum of reactivity.  Some have minor, hardly detectable (except through stool samples) sensitivity and some have full blown celiac disease with destruction of the gut.  They are all harmful.  This particular article again shows us the link between gluten and the brain.  Those with schizophrenia and psychosis had 500-600% higher risk of having serum defined celiac disease.  This IS a link, and there are all kinds of reasons for reducing our intakes of enriched wheat flours.

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Vitamin D Deficiency and the Brain; Links You Need to Know

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Vitamin D deficiency has been the rage for the past few years.  Some of it hype, some solidly grounded in research and basic physiology.

Don’t get me wrong–vitamin D deficiency is a very real issue.  And you can tell how well-versed your doctor is on the subject.  Basically, if he or she actually checks your vitamin D levels…he or she is at least 5 years behind in the medical literature.  I’ve covered this before, but we have reached a point where we can just accept that everyone is deficient and recommend supplementation.  The cost is next to nothing (in our office vitamin D runs about $20 per year) and the safety margins are very wide.

But vitamin D is not a panacea.  It’s not going to drop your blood pressure or cholesterol so don’t think you will just take your vitamin D and chase it down with a fast food meal.  It’s not going to grow hair on your head (have you seen my profile photo??).  It’s not going to do much to lower your risk of heart disease.

But some conditions vitamin D can have a pretty strong impact.  These can include:

  1. Breast cancer
  2. Type 2 diabetes
  3. Type 1 diabetes
  4. Boost immune system and prevent infections
  5. Heart disease
  6. Multiple sclerosis

I could go on, but you get the idea.  Now there is another condition that you can add to the list.

In general, vitamin D’s effect on the brain is positive.  There is an association with vitamin D levels and other brain conditions such as depression and dementia.  So the idea that vitamin D could have an impact on schizophrenia should not come as a big surprise, especially in light of the recent admission by the American Psychiatric Association that schizophrenia has an inflammatory component to it.

This particular review looked at a group of 19 studies on the relationship between vitamin D and schizophrenia.  Here’s what they found:

  • Vitamin D deficiency was present in 65.3% of schizophrenic patients.
  • Vitamin D-deficient persons were 2.16 times more likely to have schizophrenia than those with normal levels of vitamin D.

Now, this is a big stretch from saying that we can use vitamin D to treat schizophrenia, but there is clearly a relationship buried in there somewhere.  Overall, it is just another reason to supplement with at least 2,000 IU of vitamin D daily to make sure your levels are optimal (60-100 ng/ml) and not just “normal” (30 ng/ml).

So what are you waiting for??

 

Autism, Schizophrenia and Depression; Surprising Thing They Have in Common

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Disorders of the mind have never been as easy to grasp for doctors. While therapists have a larger toolbox, most physicians are limited to medications.

For me, medications that screw with the essential way that your brain cells function in relationship to one another are a wee bit on the scary side.  We really know so little about the brain so it seems that using medications to alter it would be akin to cavemen using rocks to fix an iPad.

But alas, this is all we do in modern medicine.  The lucky ones will find their way to a good therapist and find tools to help.

But rarely does the topic of lifestyle changes come up.  The prevailing attitude is the opposite—there is little that can be done in the way of diet and lifestyle to manage these conditions.  But contrary to this opinion is an increasingly growing body of medical literature stating the opposite.

There is one key factor all these conditions and all this research have in common.

Inflammation.

Yup, that all so subtle, lifestyle-driven state of immune dysfunction.  It ranges from full-blown autoimmune conditions where the immune system is attacking tissues and organs it should not be to allergies and asthma when the immune system completely ignores the tissues inside and runs around like a Tasmanian devil trying to keep innocuous dust and particles at bay.

In all these situations, the resources used to drive the inflammation leaves the inflamed patient fatigued and prone to infections.  The constant insult to the body, the zapping of the body’s resources, the need to repair tissues again and again ultimately increases the risk for all chronic diseases, especially heart disease, dementia and many cancers.

But what does this inflammation do to the brain in the here and now?

It is very clear that current inflammation wreaks havoc on the brain.  This little fact, however, has escaped the notice of psychiatrists for decades.  Until now.

At this years’ (2014) annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association the cat was let out of the bag by Dr. Eric Hollander of Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York City.  During the next several presentations, Dr. Hollander and others covered several important examples that demonstrate the links between inflammation and psychiatric disorders.

Dr. Andrew Miller of Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta discussed the relationship between depression and inflammation.  He used these findings as proof:

  • Several studies have demonstrated that patients with depression have higher levels of inflammatory messengers (cytokines) in their blood and cerebral spinal fluid (specifically IL-6, TNF-alpha and CRP).
  • In treatment-resistant depression (about one-third of all depressed patients) there is an increase in inflammatory chemicals that have the ability to sabotage and deactivate the action of antidepressant therapy.
  • In one of the first studies in psychiatry linking a biomarker to treatment response, the high-powered drug used to block TNF-alpha (infliximab) was used in those with treatment-resistant depression.  Those patients who had high CRP levels had the best response to infliximab.
  • In a related study, Miller’s team were able to tell, using gene expression profiles, which patients were going to responded to infliximab within 6 hours of the first infusion.

The topic of schizophrenia was addressed by Dr. Norbert Müller of Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany.  Here were his points:

  • Infections and inflammation play a role in the development of schizophrenia; prenatal and postnatal infections are risk factors for schizophrenia.  The risk increases with the number of infections.
  • A number of studies using anti-inflammatory cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitors in addition to antipsychotic medication have had positive effects.
  • Timing is important: no benefit was seen in who had chronic schizophrenia, but anti-inflammatory therapies given early in the course of the disease were effective.

Dr. Hollander addressed the relationship between autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) and inflammation.  He notes:

  • Increases in inflammatory chemicals have been found both in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with ASD and in brain tissue at autopsy in those with autism.
  • The bacteria in the gut may play a large role (the gut “microbiome”).
  • In support of the “hygiene hypothesis,” developed countries have higher rates of autoimmune conditions.
  • Hollander and others have focused on affecting the microbiome using a medicalized parasite, Trichuris suis ova (TSO-the eggs of a porcine whipworm). Trichuris suis ova is safe in humans, does not multiply in the host, is not transmittable by contact, and is cleared from the system spontaneously.  It works by balancing the inflammatory response to increase its survival. This balance in our system has shown some success in autoimmune diseases such as Crohn’s disease.
  • His group has been carrying out a small study of TSO in 10 high-functioning adults with ASD for 3 months and have found a potential benefit.
  • In another interesting study, researchers studied 10 children with ASD who were known to improve when they had fevers.  The children spent alternate days soaking in a hot tub at 102°F (to mimic fever) or at 98°F (control condition), showing improvements on the hot tub days.  It is believed that upping the body temp releases anti-inflammatory signals that positively affect behavior.

All of this information is a bit to swallow at once.  However, the real take home message is that inflammation is very bad for the brain, whether it is related to one of the three conditions covered here or another one like migraines, epilepsy or dementia.

Brain health is all-encompassing.  If you have no conditions it is still just as important to keep your brain healthy today for tomorrow’s brain health.  Leading an anti-inflammatory lifestyle is critical.  While the full nature of an anti-inflammatory lifestyle is beyond the scope of this article, you can better believe it involves exercise, stress management and a plant-based diet high in healthy fats.

 

Retroviral RNA in the CSF and brains of individuals with schizophrenia – (05-10-01)

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Retroviral RNA in the CSF and brains of individuals with schizophrenia

Just thought I would throw this article into the mix. Psychiatrists and counsellors today give little credence to the idea that physiology places a role in mental health. Granted, I am biased because of my studies, but I feel that physiology may indeed be the major player in many forms of mental health. Which would, of course, mean that any patient with a mental health problem, be it depression, anxiety or schizophrenia, would benefit greatly if not entirely from nutritional and lifestyle modification.

PNAS — Abstracts: Karlsson et al. 98 (8): 4634

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Celiac disease and schizophrenia – (03-01-04)

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Celiac disease and schizophrenia

I firmly believe that schizophrenia has a strong physiological component that can be responsive to natural approaches. Mauve factor is one marker that may result from increased oxidative stress on fatty acids. In this study we see a relationship with celiac disease. With evidence of other neurological effects (such as ataxia and increased risk of Alzheimer’s) this should not be a big stretch for many. However, I do disagree with the author’s conclusion that celiac disease is rare–it has been estimated to be upwards of 1-2% of the general population. That is not rare.

bmj.com Eaton et al. 328 (7437): 438 –

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INCREASED RISK OF SUICIDE WITH ANTIDEPRESSANTS – (08-04-03)

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Antidepressant prescribing and suicide

There is a debate in the medical literature about the effect of antidepressants on suicide. It is beginning to show that there is no effect, and possibly and increased risk, of suicide with antidepressant use. Now, I’m not a counselor (and I would refer someone out if I thought it was necessary), but this would sure put a damper on my idea of having ANY patient put on antidepressants. I really do think that, in the psychiatric arena, we have thoroughly botched up the handling of patients with mental disorders. There is never any evaluation of whether or not there is a causative physiological imbalance (underactive hypothyroid, B12 deficiency for depression, heavy metal toxicity, imbalanced antioxidant status for schizophrenia….by the way, if anyone would like to argue that last point…I’d love to send you a ton of medical literature to back it up….) and even less of an attempt to correct the problem w/o drugs (exercise, therapy, fish oils…).

bmj.com Ankarberg 327 (7409): 288-c

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HOMOCYSTEINE REDUCTION IMPROVES SCHIZOPHRENIC SYMPTOMS – (12-04-06)

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Homocysteine-Reducing Strategies Improve Symptoms in Chronic Schizophrenic Patients with Hyperhomocysteinemia

A woman going to graduate school for psychology told me one of her professors mentioned in class that medications are the only approach for schizophrenia. Out of all the psychological problems out there, I think schizophrenia has one of the largest bodies of evidence suggesting physiological imbalances that lead to symptoms, and that treatment that addresses these physiological imbalances have an impact on symptoms. This article again supports this concept.

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HOW TO MANAGE AND PREVENT SCHIZOPHRENIA? – (07-30-07)

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Why are immigrants at increased risk for psychosis? Vitamin D insufficiency, epigenetic mechanisms, or both?

Schizophrenia is somewhat of a hot topic with many therapists. There is little thought to physiological alterations and how we could impact this condition with functional medicine. To them, it’s a hard wired problem that requires meds to control. The research, on the other hand, disagrees with this attitude greatly. This is a thought process as to why we see some of the patterns of schizophrenia in immigrants and raises some very interesting questions as to how to manage/prevent schizophrenia.

We already know that Vit D plays a large role in neurologic function and is very important during pregnancy. The thought process is that immigrants may move from an area of heavy sunlight exposure and sufficient Vit D to an area of reduced sunlight exposure and deficient Vit D. Quite frankly, the research is strongly in support of functional medicine approaches to schizophrenia, and yet, disappointingly, this type of approach is shunned by the group of providers that treat it the most. Welcome to medicine.

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