Diet And Schizophrenia: The Link Is More Important Than You Think

Today’s PsychCentral report that mothers who are sensitive to gluten have a higher incidence of children born with schizophrenia is not surprising.

For many years, holistic therapists, physicians, and others have noticed correlations between gluten, milk and sugar consumption (and allergies and/or intolerance) and schizophrenia and other brain conditions, including autism.

In this study from a 1988 issue of “Schizophrenia Bulletin,” Dr. F. Curtis Dohan noticed that a large number (over 50 times the norm) of schizophrenics had celiac disease.

He also noticed that there was a lower incidence of schizophrenia where consumption of dairy and wheat and other gluten-containing grains, was low. Both gluten (grain protein) and casein (milk protein) are thought by some to be responsible for the disease. As scientists learn more and more about the brain-gut connection, they are better able to understand the link between what’s going on in our digestive tract and how it affects our brain function.

Aside from gluten and casein, sugar is believed to be problematic. In at least one study, cited in an article by Stephen Ilardi, Ph.D at Psychology Today, a high-sugar diet is implicated in mental illness.

Other scientists have found an imbalance in Omega fatty acids (most specifically, a dearth of Omega 3s) in patients with schizophrenia as well as other mental illnesses. Even personality-types or personality disorders might be related to digestive functions and Omega fatty acids.

And although it’s anecdotal, most mental health professionals will tell you that diabetes seems to be a bigger problem in people with schizophrenia. Studies attribute this to medication-induced insulin resistance, but in our experience, diabetes and especially pre-diabetes (hypoglycemia) seems to affect newly-diagnosed, un-medicated patients often as well.

An imbalance or lack of ability to metabolize or simply a shortage of other nutrients are also implicated in mental illness. Lower blood levels of folate (B9) in schizophrenic patients appear to suggest that vitamin B metabolism also plays a role in the disease. And a study showed that schizophrenia patients have a higher need for vitamin C.

There are some studies (and a lot of conjecture), on the brain-gut link. Not only schizophrenia but anxiety, depression, bi-polar disorder, even some personality disorders are said to be associated with digestive and nutrition issues.

The majority of programs that treat patients with serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia are not holistic. They simply ignore the fact that diet is important to brain functioning in general, let alone to someone with a mental illness. Some doctors, such as Martha Herbert, an autism expert who we’ll be blogging about shortly, notice that autism symptoms and schizophrenia symptoms often coincide, and notice that improvements can be attained in some cases where diet is addressed.