Introduction
After the brutal killing of 58 people and wounding hundreds more by gunmen, one identified as Stephen Paddock, who, according to the Nevada prescription Monitoring program, was prescribed 50 *10 mg Diazepam (Valium) tablets on June 21 2017.
Diazepam is a sedative-hypnotic drug classified as a Benzodiazepine.
In 1995 Toby Sincino, a 15 year old who attended a South Carolina school shot 2 teachers and himself, and it was discovered he had been prescribed Zoloft an antidepressant drug.
In April 1999 Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold the Columbine shooters, both troubled teenagers.
Eric whose diagnosis of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), and the internal rage that was effervescing, fuelled by the SSRI antidepressant drug Luvox prescribed to him, which can trigger manic depression in some, and Dylan, who lacked confidence in himself and low esteem became attached to the seemingly more confident Eric. This tragedy is described in more detail in Part 2.
In this case, to blow the smoke away from the real problem, everybody blamed gun availability, which in 90% of these cases it is not the target of blame, but part of the problem in most cases is the mind altering chemical prescribed before the event.
So I want to explore this in a little more detail and discuss the association of Psychiatric drugs and their behavioral effects, what conventional medicine’s understanding of Psychosis is, the biology of psychosis and how it is (mis) treated.
The Medical Definition of Psychosis
Psychosis is a symptom or feature of mental illness typically characterized by radical changes in personality, impaired function and a distorted or nonexistent sense of objective reality.
Patients suffering from Psychosis have impaired reality testing; that is, they are unable to distinguish personal subjective experience from the reality of the external world.
They experience Hallucinations, and/or Delusions that they believe are real and may behave and communicate in an inappropriate and incoherent fashion.
Psychosis may appear as a symptom of a number of mental disorders including mood and personality disorders.
It is also a defining feature of Schizophrenia; Schizophreniform disorder (defines Schizophrenic symptoms whose duration is at least 1 month but < 6 months), Schizoaffective disorder, Delusional disorder and Psychotic disorders (i.e brief psychotic disorder, shared psychotic disorder, psychotic disorder due to a general medical condition, and substance induced psychotic disorder).
Other definitions (DSM V and Wikipedia) include:
Catatonia defined as a state of Psychogenic motor immobility and behavioral abnormality.
Catatonia is associated with Bipolar disorder, depression and Post traumatic stress disorder, Narcolepsy (excessive daytime sleep).
Thought disorder evidenced by disorganized speech, Perseveration (uncontrolled repetition upon cessation of a stimulus), Alogia (speech poverty, unable to hold a fluent conversation, Agitation, Aggression, and Word salad (confused or unintelligible mixture of seemingly random words and phrases.
Avolition, refers to the decrease in motivation to do anything like doing hobbies, going to work and/or school, or engaging in social activities, and staying at home for long periods of time.
Reduced affect display (emotional blunting), almost non existent emotional activity, failure to express feelings (affect display) either verbally or non-verbally, no expressive gestures and very little facial expression or vocal inflection.
Possible Factors that Feed Onset Schizophrenia
In a textbook of psychiatry and the Mayo Clinic it is reported that risk factors for Psychosis -Schizophrenia are:
- That men (15-25yrs) tend to be diagnosed earlier than women (25-35 yrs)
- Children that are born in Winter
- A family history of schizophrenia
- A family with a high level of expressed emotions
- Schizophrenia tends to be more frequent in urban areas and in developing countries
- Lower socioeconomic status
- Schizophrenia is more frequent in recent immigrants (stress of immigration)
- Increased immune system activation (from inflammation or autoimmune disease)
- Older age of the father
- Some pregnancy and birth complications, such as malnutrition or exposure to toxins
- Taking psychotropic drugs while a teenager
- Households receiving social welfare benefits
- Unemployment
- Single parent households
- Rented apartments
So if you listen to any lecture on the subject of Schizophrenia two schools of thought emerge that believe this condition is driven by social factors, or biological factors.
Some forward thinking psychiatrists believe the condition falls between both camps, so its cause is derived by both factors which seems to be reflected from the list above.
There are some factors listed above that are in my opinion, questionable; such as older age of the father, or a child born in Winter for example, but most have some indirect relevance.
Number 10 on the list is the more plausible i.e malnutrition and exposure to toxins (not or..and).
The pregnancy link is inheritance of a poor gut flora from the mother.
Social Factors:
An indirect link to the development of Psychosis
Some of the other risk factors dealing with low social status, but more importantly living on a meager income or the implication of such, like Unemployment, social welfare benefits, single parent households are partially relevant.
What it means is, in many cases people will opt to buy cheaper food, processed food, and fast food because it’s affordable within a limited budget.
In some cases however, eating low quality processed food, and fast food will definitely not going to feed or reseed your gut, so this is a factor.
Psychosis and Nourishment
Psychosis is the correct name for the various overlapping disorders like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder and depression etc, and in the good old days, before modern medicine, psychiatrists were aware that their patients suffering with psychosis were also physically sick with digestive problems, diabetes, autoimmunity etc.
Sir David Henderson (1884-1965) Scottish physician and Psychiatrist in his Textbook of Psychiatry that he co wrote with Robert dick Gillespie (1897-1945) stated that
‘Schizophrenics are commonly poorly nourished’.
Hippocrates also stated ‘All diseases start in the gut’ (at least the majority).
The Actual Cause of Psychosis
(…no it’s not because your father was too old or your next door neighbor was gay..)
It was Pruimboom & de Punder that confirmed in a publication in 2015 what had already been discovered some 30 years earlier, that Gluten and Casein are degraded in the gut producing several morphine like substances called Peptide Opiates, ONLY WHEN THEY ARE NOT DIGESTED.
This only occurs if the gut is Dysbiotic and the Enterocytes (Epithelium cells that the gut wall is composed of) are in bad health, so these 2 proteins remain in the gut undigested, as I explained in my article ‘Healing the quackzene damaged Part 3’. The diagram below depicts the Tight junction Gut wall lined with Mucos as an additional repellent against bacterial pathogenes entering the body.
Since the gut is compromised, chances are the Tight Junctions (the Gut Wall) high security are also compromised, allowing these opiate toxins to be absorbed into the blood across the blood brain barrier and into the brain..Viola..PSYCHOSIS.
Dr Campbell Mcbride also points out that most schizophrenic patients were not breast feed depriving them of critical protection during the early stages of life.
Generally, Psychotic symptoms show themselves in the early teenager years or early 20’s after a past history of gut ill health when they were younger, suffering from eczema, digestion disorder, hypersensitivity, sleep disorder, fatigue, and possible ADHD, Dyspraxia, Dyslexia etc.
This occurs because those afflicted have also inherited an unhealthy gut flora from the mother.
Natures Synaptic Pruning
One of nature’s wonderful strategies is to overproduce Neural Circuitry including Axons and Synapses (these are physical neuronal structures where dendritic cells connect to each other by an Axon extension on the cell proper into a nexus connecting point called a Synapse) when developing the nervous system embryonically. The diagram below depicts this arrangement :
In other words when we become teenagers the body performs a type of Brain Sculpting that results in the teenage brain losing many brain connections that were formed earlier in life, that are now surplus to requirements.
Once the child is around 2 and during puberty, these over produced neural circuits are ‘pruned’ back, discarding the redundancies and damaged circuits.
Newborn neurons migrate chemically to their defined routes until they arrive at their predefined destination, and it appears that there is a state of competitiveness between neurons, resulting in unsuccessful ‘sibling’ neurons that are driven to Apoptosis (natural cell death).
These neuron circuits proliferate after birth reaching twice their neonatal levels by mid to late childhood and decrease during adolescence.
This synaptic streamlining explains why there is a boost in cognitive skills during early teens or early 20’s, but the downside is that head trauma causing damage to neural pathways takes time to heal since excess pathways have previously been eliminated, thus decreasing the body’s ability to build a bypass around the damaged area.
Interaction with Synaptic Pruning
The New York times in Jan 2016 published an article reporting that scientists at Harvard have taken a scientific step in understanding the cause of Schizophrenia and according to David Goldstein professor of genetics at Columbia University said “They have done a phenomenal job”.
Researchers commented that this synaptic pruning primarily occurs within the thinking and planning area of the Pre-frontal cortex.
It was also hypothesized that people who carry genes that accelerate or intensify pruning are at a higher risk of developing schizophrenia.
Oh no..genes..again..they have even identified the genes from analyzing the genomes of 64,000 people, finding that schizophrenics had an overactive form of gene C4-A.
Excessive Gene Copies
Scientists speculate that people who develop schizophrenia produce more copies of this gene other than the 2 copies they were born with from both male & female chromosome, and in this case there are short and long version of C4-A, so we are born with 4 copies ??.
They confirmed it with mice bred without this gene that produce abnormal synaptic pruning, which I have no doubt, and I would hazard a guess that pruning would not happen at all if the gene responsible for this function is absent.
However, I don’t see how by depriving mice of this gene proves that we produce excess copies of this gene and that is could be the cause of Schizophrenia, as Dr McCarrol also questions.
Linking Gene Expression with Symptoms
However, a Dr McCarroll commented
“ Carrying a gene variant that facilitates aggressive pruning is hardly enough to cause Schizophrenia; far too many other factors are at work”.
Finally a doctor with some sense…..but please don’t ask the drug companies to manufacture a drug to modulate C4..because the side effects I am sure will cause excessive pruning and loss of existing neural circuits.
Well, at least they have discovered a link to synaptic pruning aberration and psychosis, but their piece of the puzzle makes no sense..why is that scientists who look for a cause are always blaming our genes ??.
The fact that they found schizophrenics had an overactive form of Gene C4-A is purely symptomatic; in other words the cause of the condition is simply producing this symptom but it’s not the cause in my opinion.
This is another example of many where medical science who appreciate the complexity of the body, assume that causality must also be as complex, but generally it is more simple, and what they are witnessing are symptoms not the underlying cause.
The Most Plausible Cause of Schizophrenia
I believe the more plausible explanation is that the build up of opiate (Morphogenic) like toxins released from the gut microbes due to undigested proteins like gluten and casein interfere with the natural process of synaptic pruning causing the gene to over express itself producing excessive proteins.
Conventional Medicines Understanding of Psychosis
From the diagram above we see 4 Dopanergic pathways, but in terms of Psychosis there appears to be two, that according to conventional medical research, are affected, which are the Mesolimbic and the Mesocortical pathways.
The Psychosis sufferer appears to have 2 sets of symptoms in reaction to their ‘affliction’.
Excess Dopamine at the Nucleus Accumben * causing Delusions and Hallucinations, while low dopamine received at the prefrontal cortex that causes sadness and depression.
*we discussed this area of the brain in the article https://www.extremehealthacademy.com/convential-medicine-part-5-the-business-of-antidepressants/ where we described its function within the Brain’s reward circuitry involving 2 neurotransmitters that are received; Dopamine promoting desire, and Serotonin that promotes satiety and inhibition.
Conclusions
We know that the medical research institutions have worked hard to try and find better ways to treat psychosis analyzing the genome of 64,000 people, some of which were suffering with psychosis only to conclude that the gene that encodes for synaptic pruning is overactive which could be part of the schizophrenic condition.
As always, conventional medical research by pass the actual cause and pin it on a genetic problem.
Psychosis is a very complicated condition therefore the cause must also be hinged upon a complicated scientific truth.
In Part 2 we will discuss some of the anti-psychotic drugs used to treat psychosis and their mechanism of action.
We will also explore in more detail the clear link between the Brain, the nervous system and the enteric nervous system showing how one influences the other.
Gretchen: You’re weird.
Donnie: Sorry.
Gretchen: No, that was a compliment.
Gretchen: My mom had to get a restraining order against my step dad. He has emotional problems.
Donnie: Oh, I have those too! What kind of emotional problems does your dad have?
Gretchen: He stabbed my mom four times in the chest.
Donnie: Oh.
-Quote from the Movie Donnie Darko 2001
References/Acknowledgments:
- Las Vegas strip shooter prescribed anti-anxiety drugs in June Las Vegas review Journal 2017
- Gut and Psychology Syndrome Dr Natasha Campbell Mcbride Book 2010
- Preservation, Alogia Wikipedia
- Textbook of Psychiatry 2013 Wikibooks
- Clozapine Drugs.com
- The cause of psychosis Dr Kwame Mckenzie Youtube video lecture
- Brief Introduction to psychosis Youtube Video Armando Hasudungan
- Psychosis Free Medical dictionary
- The opioid effects of gluten exorphins: Asymptomatic Celiac disease Leo Pruimboom & Karin de Punder Journal of Health,Population and Nutrition 2015
- Why is synaptic pruning important for the developing brain Irwin Feinberg Scientific America
- Scientists move closer to understanding Schizophrenia’s cause Benedict Corey NYTimes Jan 2016
- Overpruned brains & Schizophrenia The Tech Museum of Innovation ( Stanford Uni) Dr Barry Starr
About The Author: Eric Malouin
In terms of my heritage I am not a thoroughbred, I am half English from England and half French Canadian from Quebec. Having spent the last 10 years in Medical research I thought that it was time to share my passion for true health to anybody interested in maintaining health without using conventional medicine. Once in the distant past I lived off conventional grocery shelves until you visit the man in the white coat and then a light shines through the darkness that you had not realized you were in… I was in..the twilight zone….I cured my own problems using natural methods, although they were not a big deal since I have always exercised..jogging every morning and tennis 12 hours/week, swimming but I was eating a lot of devil food that was causing my body to become unbalanced..an easy fix..reprogrammed my taste buds and gave the food back to the devil…lol
I hope you enjoy the articles……
Regards,
Eric
Contact the Author: emalouin@gmail.com