Too Good To Be True?

Nutrients Quiet the Unquiet Brain

A Four Generation Bipolar Odyssey

New information obtained after publication of
Too Good to be True? Nutrients Quiet the Unquiet Brain - A Four Generation Bipolar Odyssey 

  • What is the truth about the Northern Illinois University school shooter Steven Kazmierczak?

Feb 16, 2008:  Starting and stopping psychotropic drugs can be dangerous, especially without professional assistance and nutritional support.  Starting certain drugs can cause mania. Stopping them can cause drug discontinuation syndrome or allow the original condition to manifest itself. So far press reports state that Steven Kazmierczak who killed seven students at Northern Illinois University and wounded many more stopped his "Paxil" and shortly thereafter began exhibiting unusual behavior.  This argues more for an initial diagnosis related to anxiety/depression rather than psychosis. So now the question is did the anti depressant cause him to become psychotic, in which case his stopping the meds could have been due to a Paxil-related manic psychosis or did withdrawal from the meds cause him to become psychotic?  Paxil is one of the most difficult drugs to stop taking. It appears there was a mental health history after high school when his parents put him in a psychiatric facility for several months because he cut his wrists. According to sources I have read, this was a person taking criminology courses with an excellent academic record as an undergraduate, and apparently no criminal history. Was his behavior the result of an underlying psychiatric diagnosis or drug discontinuation syndrome? In my book I describe my son's almost fatal suicidal behavior after he experienced this syndrome.  I see two possible explanations. (1)Withdrawal from the drugs itself precipitated the homicidal and suicidal behavior or (2) Taking the drugs (e.g. antidepressants) precipitated a manic and or delusional high.  I doubt that a delusional psychotic condition  resumed after he stopped taking the drugs because it would have been inappropriate to prescribe Paxil solely for a psychotic condition. What difference does it make, you say?  So far, the spin is that his stopping his medications is related to his homicidal and suicidal behavior.  While that is possible, very few in the media are suggesting the possibility that the drugs themselves could have caused his psychotic behavior as has been evident in  other documented cases. The general public is not aware of the dangers of starting or stopping psychotropic drugs including mania and/or drug discontinuation syndrome.  Therefore people start, stop and start again these mind altering drugs without any idea of the risks. UPDATE FEB 18: According to his girlfriend, Jessica Bety, Kazmierczak had been seeing a psychiatrist on a monthly basis since June 2007 and was taking Prozac, Ambien and Zanax. She stated he had taken antidepressant drugs before when in a psychiatric setting out of high school presumably without any side effects.  He decided to stop three weeks before the shooting because he wanted to deal with his problems and because the drugs "made him feel like a zombie."   How long he had been taking the drug was not disclosed.  "He wasn't acting erratic," she said. "He was just a little quicker to get annoyed." She said he was being seen for depression and obsessive like qualities, that he was a worrier. She also said the Tuesday before the shooting he asked her for her ring size, leading her to believe he was going to propose.  Based on the above, a likely explanation was that he suffered drug discontinuation syndrome or the cumulative effects of the antidepressant.  He could have also had an undiagnosed medical problem like a brain tumor or chronic infection. What is puzzling is that she apparently didn't notice a change in him.  When he called her the day before the shootings she thought he was at his  god gather's house and was puzzled when he said goodbye.   She also says he set her a note asking her to remember him. When police took her for questioning and they told her about the shootings, she feared that he had been hurt by the shooter, and could not believe he had done it. Other reports suggest their relationship was troubled and that he was very controlling. If that were the case, it is possible she has idealized him due to her own grief.  If they had broken up then the motive may have been to make sure she remembered him, as he requested in his note. It is very difficult to put all this together since there is also a strong element of deception and premeditation in his behavior. He appeared able to mask his deteriorating condition.

  • Autism is a disorder of the gut, not the head.

 An article from March 22,  2007 issue of Discovery Magazine supports a major point addressed in Too Good to be True? Nutrients Quiet the Unquiet Brain.  The innovations in treatment brought on by the autism community are phenomenal and point to a model for dealing with what we currently call mental disorders.  Just as some autistic children can be treated for identified triggers and no longer be autistic, the same is true for bipolar disorder. However, mainstream medicine is not yet willing to consider this possibility. You will be after you read this article.

http://discovermagazine.com/2007/apr/autism-it2019s-not-just-in-the-head/?searchterm=neimark

Note the experimental use of an anti inflammatory antibiotic minocycline discussed below for autism.

  • Lyme wars heat up.

An article entitled "Ticks aren't the only parasites living off patients in borreliosis-prone areas" by David Wheland was published in Forbes Magazine Mar 12, 2007 (http://members.forbes.com/forbes/2007/0312/096.html).  The article is highly critical of Lyme Literate Physicians.  Is this an new salvo in an ongoing battle between the two camps discussed in the book?  Is it a defensive response to Connecticut Attorney General Blumenthal's investigation into the possible anti competitive activities of the Infectious Disease Society (IDS)?  The IDS guidelines minimize the seriousness of Lyme disease, especially chronic Lyme.  Meanwhile, we have the International Lyme and Associated Disease Society (ILADS) coming out with their own treatment guidelines supported by a considerable body of scientific evidence; we have investigations into the practices of  Lyme Literate Physicians one of whom, Dr  Charles Jones, has treated 7,000 children with Lyme disease over the years, saving many lives in the process.  As I stated in the book, I am not qualified to assess the scientific merits of both sides, though I clearly have my own evolving views.  Readers are encouraged to do their own due diligence.  Here is an interesting perspective.

In 1880 former managing editor at the New York Times John Swinton had this to say about the free press.

"There is no such thing, at this date of the world’s history, in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it.  There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinion out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone.

The business of the journalists is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it, and what folly is this toasting an independent press?
 
We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."

For a balanced discussion of this controversy visit a recent Columbia Magazine article featuring Dr. Brian Fallon whose ground breaking research on long term antibiotic treatment of Lyme disease will soon be published.

  • Possible antipsychotic effects of minocycline in patients with schizophrenia.

Researchers discuss two patients exhibiting symptoms of what is generally called schizophrenia who responded favorable to minocycline, an antibiotic that crosses the blood brain barrier.  Whether the effect is due to the antibiotic effect or neuroprotective effects is uncertain.
 
Miyaoka T, Yasukawa R, Yasuda H, Hayashida M, Inagaki T, Horiguchi J.
Department of Psychiatry, Shimane University School of Medicine, 89-1
Enyacho, Izumo 693-8501, Japan .Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry, Oct 4, . 2006 
 

  • The Two - Minute  24 - Hour Mania Manager.

An article written by the author is published in the July 2006 issue of the Townsend Letter. The article explains the theory behind the use of left caloric vestibular stimulation to stop mania almost instantly and describes the successful use of it with two cases.

  • A Must Read!

Autumn Stringam, whose father helped develop E.M. Power has now published a book entitled These Painted Wings. This is a moving account of her family's history, a central them of which is that paradoxically, her mother's death by suicide started a chain of events that brought life and health to thousands of others. It is a simple, touching and wonderful story.  Autumn was psychotic and symptomatic on and off drugs; she took the supplements, got off all drugs, and she has been symptom free for years, even bearing healthy children when doctors had advised against it. Readers should bear in mind that bipolar disorder is a constellation of disorders and that while E.M.Power is effective for many, when other risk factors are causing the symptoms a nutritional approach may not be sufficient and could be excessively risky. This is why professional consultation is recommended before anyone changes their treatment program.  The book is no longer available but will be published this fall by a major book publisher under the title "A Promise of Hope."

  • The role of intracellular parasites in schizophrenia; the effectiveness of antibiotics and immunotherapy for treatment

The evidence continues to trickle in. B. Fellerhoff and others from the Institute of Immunology in Munich Germany have written ground breaking articles in Medical Hypothesis and The Journal of Molecular Psychiatry confirming that infections can and do play a role in psychosis.  They found chlamydial infections in 40.3% of the schizophrenic patients compared to 6.7% of a healthy control group.   Treatment consisted not only of antibiotics but also immunotherapy which they found was restorative without the use of antipsychotic drugs.  In addition, they found a particular genetic vulnerability as well.  Google on "fellerhoff + schizophrenia" or search for articles on PubMed.   Incidentally, C. Pneumonia is also associated with some cases of MS, aneurysms and stroke, suggesting  that current symptom based diagnoses for any number of disorders, including CNS disorders do not reflect the heterogeneity of actual disease processes that produce the symptoms which lead to the labels.

  • Anti TNF medications and and malignancy

A May 17 07 article in JAMA entitled Anti-TNF Antibody Therapy in Rheumatoid Arthritis and the Risk of Serious
Infections and Malignancies found that tumor necrosis factor (TNF) is important for defense and tumor growth control. The review of the literature suggests that anti-TNF antibody therapies may increase the risk of serious infections and malignancies. The odds ration for malignancy was 3.3, for serious infection 2.0. Higher doses of anti-TNF medications resulted in greater risk of malignancy. In the book and in a study discussed below I discussed the role of anti-TNF medications in schizophrenia. While they are effective in reducing symptoms, presumably by mediating the effects of certain immune responses, it appears that either a targeted treatment of specific cytokines or successful treatment of the infection would be preferable than increasing risks of further illness or tumors.  It will be interesting to see how researchers in the future will explain the documented positive relationship between rheumatoid arthritis and cancer patients and the inverse relationship between rheumatoid arthritis and schizophrenia. The answers may lie in the area of the immune response to infections.

  • Anecdotal stories about E. M. Power

Some very dramatic "too good to be true" anecdotal stories are being shared from the  Truehope offices. For example, there was a elderly man who was severely brain damaged after a stroke and a fall where he hit his head. After 14 months he still could not walk or feed himself. He talked with a slur. After taking E.M. Power for an unknown  period of time he could walk, feed himself, and talk without a slur.  There is the woman who had been in a wheelchair with MS  I discuss in the book. There was a man with a treatment resistant case of psoriasis whose skin cleared completely on a new more potent formula of E. M. Power that will be coming out soon.  If one considers MS, psoriasis and bipolar disorders as a consequence of immune processes run amok, then the supplements must help the body's immune system to respond more appropriately to whatever it is that is provoking an antigenic response.  These anecdotal stories do not prove anything but they are certainly interesting, and, since a state of inadequate nutrition predisposes the body to illness and disease it would seem only logical that a state of sufficient nutrition would prevent illness. Click here for a transcript of the 38th Canadian Parliament standing Committee on Health in which regulation of Truehope and similar products is discussed.

  • The Marshall Protocol - a new breakthrough? 

According the Dr Marshall, who developed the Marshall Protocol, feedback from patients with dementia, MS, Sarcoidosis and Lyme disease is very positive.  While the protocol developed out of Dr Marshall's research on Sarcoidosis , it actually applies to what he calls chronic cell wall deficient infections that reside in phagocytes and yet cause cytokine cascades. He uses very small amounts of antibiotics with Benicar which binds with enzymes essential for these bacteria to create proteins. No one has yet applied his ideas to the treatment of "psychiatric" disorders primarily because very few psychiatrists understand the relationship that often exists between Lyme and other infections and psychoses. His protocol is not just for Lyme disease but for any number of bacteria and mycoplasma that the phagocytes are unable to recognize and destroy. The bugs have evolved a way to stealthily live in the very phagocytes that would destroy them.  As I recently stated on MMI, large doses of antibiotics for Lyme is tantamount to a tank blasting away while the Marshall Protocol is like a sniper targeting in on the specific enemy.   Research discussed in the book showing an increased risk for major psychiatric disorders to adult children of mothers who had antibodies to herpes simplex virus type 2 during their pregnancy may be consistent with Dr Marshall's ideas.  Positive results for MS have been reported through both nutritional supplementation and targeted treatment of cell wall deficient bacteria. Dr Marshall is not a physician. His doctorate is in an unrelated field. Like Geoge Eby in the book, he had to find a cure. He had sarcoidosis, he cured himself, and now his Marshall Protocol is being used all over the country with apparent great success.  His work runs counter to many established studies on the effectiveness of Vitamin D for the prevention of numerous illness and is considered controversial.

  • 6,000 to die this year from QT-c-prolonging medications ? (including intestinal medications and antipsychotics)

The quote says it all: "Although prolongation of the QTc interval by non-cardiac drugs is not an unusual finding, potentially fatal arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death are relatively uncommon," Dr. Stricker said. "Nevertheless, our results suggest that 320 cases a year of sudden cardiac death can be attributed to QTc-prolonging medication in the Netherlands and, by extrapolation, around 9,000 in Europe and 6,000 [in] the USA." Eur Heart J. Posted online May 11, 2005. You will need to sign up for access to Medscape. It is free.

  • May '05 article features EMPowerplus

Article in Discover Magazine includes comprehensive essay on EMPowerplus, the latest product from Truehope. (http://www.discover.com/issues/may-05/features/vitamin-cure/?page=1)

  • Brian Nichols - An example of san paku

(March 13, 2005) Ashley Smith, in describing her harrowing ordeal with 33 year old Brian Nichols who allegedly killed four in Atlanta, commented in a dramatic televised interview that at one point he told her he should be shot in the back of the head. According to her, he said to her, " I am dead already. Look at my eyes. "  In the mug shot his eyes look very similar to those of Mohamed Atta and Margaret Jones discussed in the book.

  • Lyme Disease can play a role in 300 chronic illnesses!

Dr. Lee Cowden from Dallas Texas discussed this statistic December 5th, 2004 on Cary Nosler's Wide World of Health. At the link below you can find studies showing involvement of Lyme with these illnesses. Examples include  bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, MS, ALS, Alzheimers, heart block and stiff person syndrome.  I find the link with stiff person syndrome particularly intriguing since in the book I discuss similarities between what I call "mania of the cerebrum" and "mania of the cerebellum."  This is not to suggest that all these conditions are solely caused by Lyme disease, but rather that Lyme can trigger or cause these conditions. This link does not imply endorsement of any products. While some have claimed great benefit from Samento, and the site discusses one study that seems too good to be true, doctors with whom I have talked have not been able to replicate the results. Indeed, some report no progress and even adverse effects. On the other hand, these physicians did not do the comprehensive protocol that Dr Cowden did, of which Samento was only one part. Unfortunately there is as of yet no "magic" drug or remedy that will cure Lyme disease. http://www.samento.com.ec/nutranews/story002.htm The "kitchen sink" approach appears to be the most effective but there is still debate on which parts of the kitchen sink are needed. For the Alzheimer connection go to http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/Retreat/1593/ad-miklossy-study.txt

  • Folic Acid Enhances Repair Processes in the Adult CNS: Animal Study

This study supports the notion that in adult rats, folic acid supplementation aids in the growth, repair and recovery of central nervous system (CNS) injury. To access the site below registration at Medscape is required.

Reuters Health Information 2004
http://mp.medscape.com/cgi-bin1/DM/y/ejKJ0JjGqq0D2J0GCs10Ar

  • Historic Discovery: Mania can be stopped in two minutes for up to 24 hours. The technique is more effective than Zyprexa or ECT! And, it is an accepted medical procedure already practiced by neurologists, though not currently for mania.

A psychiatrist from New Zealand, Dr. Mike Dodson, has clinically confirmed Dr Jack Pettigrew's slow switch theory of bipolar disorder discussed in the chapter entitled "Switches, Widgets and Brain Cells."  Details in the book.

  • Nutrients restore brain tissue!

This exciting research from the U of Lethbridge shows that nutrients actually restore damaged brain tissue. Two groups of rats were given a regular diet or a diet supplemented with E.M. Power or inositol alone. The offspring of these rats had parts of their brains removed at birth. Those offspring fed E.M. power (from the mothers fed E.M. Power) performed much better than those fed regular diet. Their brains were thicker, suggesting that the nutrients facilitated new brain growth.  Rats fed only inositol also did better, but their improvement was not as broad based as with E.M. Power. They are now examining whether E.M. Power could be effective in rats who have had a stroke. Double Click here to download 2.6 meg Powerpoint poster presentation. In my (back yard mechanic's) opinion, this study suggests that brain repair, not "brain interuptases" is where the focus needs to be. Note: Infant rats can grow new neurons given proper nutrient support.  There is no evidence that adult humans can grow new neurons except that the dendritic branches of the neurons may expand.

"Diet can stimulate functional recovery and cerebral plasticity after perinatal cortical injury in rats," Celeste Halliwell and Bryan Kolb from the Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience, The University of LethbridgePublication is pending in the Society for Neuroscience Abstracts, 2003, vol 28, 459.11

  • Nutrients change genetic expression of proteins in mice.

Another study at Duke University showed that four basic nutrients, vitamin B12, folic acid, choline and betaine can change genetic expression of proteins in mice.  The mice genetically bred to producing offspring with yellow fur and diabetes produced offspring without yellow fur or diabetes. To me these are marvelous examples of a marriage of nature and nurture. Genetic expression of proteins is altered by nutrients. The process involves methylation.  While the implications need to be thoroughly researched, if this work is replicated it would suggest that those who carry genetic risks may improve their odds of having a normal baby with the right supplementation for mother and baby. If nutrients can change genetic expression or proteins for the better, might it be possible that lack of nutrients over time might likewise alter genetic expression of proteins for the worse?

http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/001692.html The article is in the Aug. 1, 2003, issue of Molecular and Cellular Biology

  • Supplements as good as Ritalin, study shows

Charles Gant M.D., Ph.D.and Karen Harding, Psy.D., R.N. co-authored an article in the August 2003 issue of Alternative Medicine Review. They tested ten ADHD children on Ritalin and ten treated with a broad-scale nutritional supplements (Nutrenergy products). Both groups performed equally well in post testing.

  • An epidemiological overlap between rates of schizophrenia and multiple sclerosis?

Thanks to MMI poster Jutta Zacharias, I recently learned of this article that was published in December 2002. Some amazing epidemiological facts: There is a "striking epidemiological overlap" between rates of schizophrenia and multiple sclerosis.  As people from warm climates migrate to colder northern climates their rates of MS and schizophrenia increase. Without going into all the details the bottom line is that rates of infection of Lyme appear related to rates of MS and schizophrenia. Go to the site listed below to read more about this. By the way, MS patients also have twice the rate of bipolar disorder as a healthy population.

August, 2003 "Geographical and seasonal correlation of multiple sclerosis to sporadic schizophrenia" Markus Fritzsche," International Journal of Health Geographics 2002 1:5 Clinic for Internal Medicine, Soodstrasse 13, 8134 Adliswil, Switzerland

http://www.ij-healthgeographics.com/content/1/1/5

  • May, 2003  "'Lyme disease': ancient engine of an unrecognized borreliosis pandemic?"

This seminal article published this May in Medical Hypotheses (Med Hypotheses. 2003 May;60(5):742-59) is simply staggering in its implications. The central premise is this. Lyme disease as we know it is restricted to a narrow definition provided by the CDC that does not take into account the world wide epidemic of borreliosis that has occurred for ages and which has been passed down through innumerable generations through such mechanisms as sex, and breast feeding. The authors state, "We conclude that 'Lyme disease' currently acknowledges only its zoonosis arm and is a limited conceptualization of a far more pervasive and unrecognized infection state that must be considered a global epidemic." 

This broad perspective helps to explain some unresolved issues in the book.

The study discussed in Too Good to be True? Nutrients Quiet the Unquiet Brain that reported increased antibodies to Lyme disease in psychiatric patients  raises more questions than it answers. Does this mean that psychiatric patients enjoy the outdoors more -  in tick infested areas? Very unlikely. Does it mean, as one psychiatrist suggested to me, that the mentally ill are homeless and therefore outdoors more where they are exposed to ticks? Hardly.  In the light of the above the answer may be that those patients who have a genetic predisposition to experience symptoms in response to this infection may simply have had borreliosis passed on through their families, and that such intergenerational transfer has occurred for eons, not just from the 1980's when certain youth in Old Lyme Connecticut began to experience arthritis and other symptoms from tick bites.

These findings would suggest that the exploration of the role of Lyme in psychiatric disorders in Too Good to be True? Nutrients Quiet the Unquiet Brain only only explored the tip of the iceberg. Given that a Dr Gregory Bach found Lyme disease in 40 patients diagnosed with ALS and cured two of them by treating their Lyme disease, this is an area that needs needs further research. 

Doctors W T. Harvey and P. Salvato meticulously document the limitations of our current understanding of Lyme disease. They find no other way to explain the positive symptoms and lab findings in their patients in Houston, an area where the typical carriers such as are found in the North East apparently do not exist.

http://www.canlyme.com/pandora.html 

  • Milk and Diabetes - a prototype of milk and psychiatric disorders?

Here is a summary of some interesting research from the December 1999 Townsend Letter that complements material in Too Good to be True.  There are several genetic variations in cows milk. While across the board consumption of milk does not correlate with increased diabetes, certain of the variants yield a pronounced relationship between intake and diabetes (p = 0.0001) Just as humans have particular genetic alterations (haplotypes) that predispose to chemical, mold and Lyme sensitivity, apparently cows have genetic variability that affects the proteins in their milk. If particular proteins in particular cow's milk predispose to diabetes, then perhaps some but not all milk causes brain antibodies that predispose to psychiatric disorders.  Perhaps in the future, customers will be able to identify and avoid the particular variant that would have predisposed to either diabetes or psychiatric illness. In the meantime, casein (and gluten) can be harmful to psychiatric patients. (Editorial implications are mine.)

Elliot, R.B., et. al. Type I (insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus and cow milk: casein variant consumption., Diabetologia, 1999; 42;292-296.

  • Bartonella and Psychosis?

Mar 6, 2003 - Who would have thought that the apparently innocuous cat scratch disease, an illness that waited 50 years for a definitive cause (Bartonella) could prove to be so devastating to those with compromised immune systems? This UCLA study found that  50% of AIDS patients (numbers unknown) with psychosis have Cerebral Spinal Fluid (CSF) with Bartonella antibodies while none of the AIDS patients without psychosis had any Bartonella antibodies in their CSF. Correlation is not causation, but this relationship bears further investigation, particularly so with Lyme patients. Given that Lyme patients are often immunocompromised as evidenced, for example, by low levels of natural killer subset (CD57+), there are significant  implications for Lyme patients that need to be researched. For more information go to the following URL and scroll down to "Bartonella henslae and AIDS-related Psychosis."

http://www.aegis.com/pubs/gmhc/1995/GM090305.html

  • Celebrex and Schizophrenia

Mar 8, 2003 - In the book I discuss pending research through the Stanley Foundation to explore the efficacy of cytokine (e.g. Tumor Necrosis Factor) binding products such as Enbrel in schizophrenia. If cytokine proliferation  secondary to exposure to viruses or other antigens  were responsible for some of the symptoms of schizophrenia, then these products might be therapeutic by binding with these cytokines (See Chapter 19, "Cytokines - Too Much of a Good Thing"). While I have found no evidence of the results of the Enbrel study, there has been a study involving Celebrex, a similar cytokine binding drug. Schizophrenic patients given Risperdal and Celebrex did significantly better than Risperdal alone. This is a very preliminary study and there is no proof that cytokine binding effects were the cause, but it is a surprising finding that may lend support to the notion that chronic infections and the body's immune response to them may play a significant role in mental illness.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12042193&dopt=Abstract

  • Fourth Study Published on Nutritional Supplements

Mar 21, 2003 - This particular study published in March 2003 in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry describes how one psychiatrist, Dr. Miles Simmons, used nutritional supplements in his practice with bipolar patients. The paper states that 11 of 19 patients were able to stay on the supplements and did not need psychotropic medications for an average of 13 months. Four discontinued the supplements because of gastrointestinal problems and one was lost to follow-up. Three had recurrent symptoms and had to start taking psychotropic medications again.

http://www.truehope.com/research3.asp