The Food Allergy Link to Schizophrenia
Dr. William Shaw is the Director of the Great Plains Laboratory in Lenexa, Kansas. A noted researcher, he is also an advisory board member for Latitudes ACN. The excerpted article below is excerpted from his full report on schizophrenia and food allergy.
Schizophrenia is a common severe psychiatric disorder associated with symptoms such as auditory and visual hallucinations, paranoia, and blunted emotions. Brain scans reveal abnormalities even at the first onset of the disease. Many homeless people are afflicted with this disorder since their illness makes them difficult to be steadily employed. I remember one of my employees asking for time off because his wife was beginning to hallucinate in the supermarket. Although some people with schizophrenia are able to function while taking drugs like Risperdal and other neuroleptic drugs, a significant number don’t adequately respond or fail to take their medications because of severe side effects. Obesity is one of the common side effects of these drugs that can lead to non-insulin dependent diabetes.
For over 60 years, a connection of schizophrenia with a variety of food intolerances has been noted. As early as 1951, it was found that schizophrenia was commonly found in people with celiac disease, a disorder caused by severe wheat sensitivity. Dr. F. Curtis Dohan at the Medical College of Pennsylvania found that schizophrenia was essentially absent from primitive people in the East Indies until they adopted a Westernized diet which involved increased grain consumption. In addition, Dohan found that there was a striking decrease in schizophrenia associated with decreased wheat and rye production during World War II. Dohan put half a group of 115 schizophrenic patients on a milk and wheat-free diet while the other half ate the standard hospital diet. All of the patients kept their normal medications. Significantly, the patients receiving the milk and wheat free diet were discharged from the hospital twice as soon as the other group on a regular diet.
To read more of this article please see “Food Allergy linked to schizophrenia: evidence spanning the last 60 years”from BioMed Today.
