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Catalyst — May 2000
Mental Illness & Nutrition

by Bill Asenjo, PhD, CRC

According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), over 28 percent of Americans suffer from some form of mental disorder requiring psychiatric treatment¹. Mental disorders can be divided into several overlapping categories loosely defined as emotional, personality, and thought disorders.

Emotional Disorders

Depression and anxiety are two of the most common emotional disorders. Depression may involve feelings of persistent sadness, fear, or hopelessness. Symptoms include a marked increase or decrease in eating and sleeping.

Anxiety disorders affect about 10 million Americans². Symptoms range from mild to intense fear and panic. Sufferers may experience chest tightness, heart palpitations, or hyperventilation.

Personality Disorders

Personality disorders are characterized by a person's inability to effectively relate socially. For example, narcissistic people are selfish and self-centered; those who are antisocial fail to conform to society's rules; addicts (alcohol, other drugs, gambling) are also considered to have personality disorders.

Thought Disorders

These include, for example, behavioral problems, learning difficulties, schizophrenia, manic-depression or bipolar, and dementia.

Causes

Traditionally, the causes of most mental disorders were considered to be psychological or genetic. Today numerous factors are viewed as contributing causes of mental disorders: diet and nutritional deficits, environment, allergies, and even some 'prescription drugs — including those prescribed for mental illness. Psychiatrist Peter Breggin, MD observed that drug therapy, while suppressing symptoms of mental illness, may also make a person chemically toxic³.

Other than psychological and genetic causes, diet and nutritional factors may be the most significant predisposing determinants of mental illness. Many nutrient deficiencies bring about mental disorders, especially deficiencies in vitamins C, B 1, B3, B6, B 12, folic acid, as well as essential fatty acids⁴.

William Walsh, PhD, has tested thousands of people in prisons, and many more with behavioral disorders. He found that nearly all have had chemical imbalances that predispose them to problem behaviors. Walsh found that violent individuals often had elevated levels of copper or zinc, and extremely low levels of potassium, sodium, manganese, calcium, magnesium, and amino acids along with toxic levels of lead (http://www.hriptc.org/).

According to Joan Matthews Larson, PhD, hypoglycemia and nutrient deficiencies figure prominently in addictions, especially the depression and anxiety often experienced by those in recovery (http://www.healthrecovery.com/).

Benjamin Feingold, MD found that nearly half of all hyperactive children are sensitive to artificial food flavors, colors and preservatives⁵. Studies reveal that allergies and food sensitivities also provoke such reactions in children⁶.

In England, researchers found unusually high levels of depression and suicide among those living near high-voltage lines⁷. Another study showed that those living nearest to their apartment building's main power supplies and electrical cables experienced up to 82 percent more depression⁸.

Exposure to heavy metals, solvents, paints and other toxic substances and fumes may result in depression and fatigue⁴ as well as contribute to violent behavior. University of Oklahoma researchers determined that Postal office slayer Patrick Sherril had extraordinarily high blood levels of cadmium and lead as well as a severe copper-zinc deficiency. James Huberty, who shot 24 people in a California MacDonalds, had an extremely high level of cadmium⁹. Studies attribute childhood learning disabilities to high levels of mercury, cadmium, lead, copper, and manganese⁴.

Stress

According to the Harvard Mental Health Letter, up to 80 percent of American health problems are stress related. The central nervous system, endocrine system, and immune system are stressed ftom experiences such as divorce, job loss, and sleep deprivation¹⁰.

Natural Treatments

St. Johns Wort (hypericum) has historically been used as a mood elevator. In Germany, where it is covered by health insurance as a prescription drug, some 20 million people take hypericurn for depression. British researchers identified 23 randomized studies of 1757 patients with mild to moderate depression. All the studies were conducted outside the U.S. and subjected to at least two reviews. Researchers found that St. John's Wort was comparably effective to standard antidepressants¹¹.

A 10 year follow-up survey of 26 chronic schizophrenics treated with large doses of vitamin B3 and other nutrients revealed that 11 of the former patients were employed, two were married with families, two were single mothers caring for their children with no difficulty, and three were managing their own businesses. One patient had received his bachelor's degree while another attained a master's degree¹². In treating schizophrenics nutritionally, Walsh found that after several months of treatment symptoms such as nervousness, depression, and hallucinations very often disappeared, while paranoid symptoms often took up to a year to subside⁹.

In treating over a thousand children with learning disabilities, hyperactivity, and attention deficit disorder with nutrition and wholesome diets, Walsh realized major improvement with 70 percent of these children, twenty-two percent had some improvement, and eight percent had little improvement¹³. For more on this see http://www.hriptc.org/ or contact the Health Research Center (630-505-0300).

Bill Asenjo is a PhD candidate in the Rehabilitation Counselor Education Program at the University of Iowa.

REFERENCES

1.   Regier, D, et al. (1993). The de facto US mental and addictive disorders service system. Archives of General Psychiatry, 50, 85.

2.   Clayman, C. (Ed.). 1989. The American Medical Association Encyclopedia of Medicine. New York: Random House.

3.   Breggin, P. (199 1). Toxic Psychiatry: Why Therapy, Empathy and Love Must Replace The Drugs, Electroshock, and Biochemical Therapies of the "New Psychiatry." New York: St. Martin's Press.

4.   Pizzorno, J. & Murray, M. (1989). Textbook of Natural Medicine. Seattle, WA: John Bastyr College Publications.

5.   Feingold, B. (1975). Why Your Child is Hyperactive. New York: Random House.

6.   Egger, J., et al. (1985). Controlled trial of oligoantigenic treatments in the hyperkinetic syndrome. Lancet 1(8428), 540-545.

     O'Shea, J. & Porter, S. (1981). Double-blind study of children with hyperkinetic syndrome treated with multi-allergen extract sublingually. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 14(1), 189-191.

7.   Perry, F. et al. (1981). Environmental power-frequency magnetic fields and suicide. Health Physics, 4(2), 267-277.

     Dowson, D. & Weith, G. (1988). Overhead high voltage cables and recurrent headache and depressions. The Practitioner, 232(1447), 435-436.

8.   Perry, F. & Pearl, L. (1988). Health effects of ELF fields and illness in multistory blocks. Public Health, 102(l), 11-18.

9.   Walsh, W. (1992). Biochemical treatment of behavior, learning & mental disorders. Townsend Letter for Doctors. August/September, 299.

10.   Harvard Mental Health Letter. (1992). 8(7), 5. January.

11.   Linde, K, et al. (1996). St. John's wort for depression--an overview and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials. British Journal of Medicine, 313(7052), 253.

12.   Hoffer, A. (1993). Chronic schizophrenic patient treated ten years or more. Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, 8, 123-125.

13.   Werbach, M. (199 1). Nutritional Influences on Mental Illness. Tarzana, CA: Third Line Press.

© 2000 by Bill Asenjo

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