As our days are getting shorter in Alaska, it is very exciting to see all the research going on related to diet and mental illnesses. Many people see a dramatic difference with fasting and/or changing their diet.
Moscow Psychiatric Institute fasted over 10,000 people over a 30 year period. 70% of people diagnosed with schizophrenia did well if they stayed on a primarily vegetarian diet afterwards along with fasting at times. Their studies showed too high a protein level for people diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Allan Cott did a replication study at Grace Square Hospital in NYC with similar dramatic results. Many people who were diagnosed with schizophrenia then would be diagnosed with a bipolar disorder today.
People are having remissions and recoveries with fasting and/or a lower protein, whole food, plant-based lifestyle. Some people continue this healthy lifestyle for many decades, have families with many healthy children, and contribute immensely to our society through their own work and that of their children and grandchildren. Others have multiple remissions with fasting and/or a lower protein, whole food, plant-based lifestyle. My own brother had thousands of dramatic remissions during the 44 years he was diagnosed with either a bipolar disorder or schizophrenia.
My brother, Charles, was accepted to medical school at age 19, then diagnosed with schizophrenia. He was hospitalized and injected with neuroleptics until he was stiff as a board. He subsequently successfully studied two and a half years of medical school on a low dose of a neuroleptic, but he was not totally well. He was skinny when he was diagnosed with schizophrenia, but on neuroleptics he gained a lot of weight so he decided to fast.
After 2 days of fasting he had no symptoms! It was dramatic! He was like himself before he was ever diagnosed with a mental illness. He had no hallucinations, delusions, anger, irritability or any other symptoms of a mental illness!
I asked many other physicians what was going on, but all they said was ketosis. I figured that, but I needed something more. I figured it must be something in the food, but at that time in 1997 I did not know what. I gave him a bunch of T-bone steak. He went out on the front porch and agitatedly walked back and forth and talked to himself. For years he had at times talked to himself in his bedroom alone or alone in the kitchen, but I had never seen him be so agitated and talking to himself before on our front porch.
I started experimenting with foods and found he did well after a couple days eating a very low protein, whole food, plant-based diet, but he would only eat it for 2 or 3 days and then go to the grocery store, restaurant, or a fast food place and get other foods we were used to eating like meat, milk, eggs, and cheese as well as snack foods, donuts, cookies, hot dogs and hamburgers.
We met people who had recovered by changing what they ate. They came and cooked at our home and they were a tremendous inspiration to me!
Thousands of times Charles had dramatic remissions after he ate a very low protein, whole food, plant-based diet for a couple days. The hallucinations, delusions, anger, and irritability rapidly disappeared.
We had for a number of years a friendship community where people stayed alive and out of the hospital and jail as long as they were part of it. After seeing the dramatic effects of food, we started having things like half a cantalope with a candle in it for birthdays.
Child and adult psychiatrist, Dr Robert Wald, gradually reduced Charles’ medication and I was able to see him well and off of all medication.
But tragically the 44 years he was diagnosed with either a bipolar disorder or schizophrenia and all the neuroleptic medication he had taken took a toll on his body.
Psychiatrists took him off of medication too rapidly at the end that they thought were small doses, but were too rapid for him and he ended up in jail. These were horrible experiences for him and our whole family.
Anyone on medication should NOT reduce or go off of it on their own. It is very important for anyone that wants to reduce or come off of mediation to work with a provider experienced in medication withdrawal. Fasting and dietary lifestyle can be powerful in eliminating hallucinations and delusions and helping people recover, but withdrawal from medications is the hardest part to do successfully. Work with your own provider or another experienced one for your diagnosis and treatment.
Child and adult psychiatrist, Dr Robert Wald, moved from UCSF to Anchorage and he gradually reduced Charles’ medication especially slowly at the end and we were able to see him well and off of all medication.
The book FOOD AS MEDICINE for Recovery from Heart Disease, Early Alzheimer’s, Bipolar Disorders, Schizophrenia & Most Chronic Illnesses shares more about my brother’s life as well as important international research, principles, links, resources, and a chapter on how to get started. The eBook is available at https://www.FoodAsMedicine.International.
Has diet affected your mental health or that of a loved one or friend? You are welcome to share what you have observed as there is a lot of research in this area now and the input of individuals and their families is important so this research moves forward to help millions of people around the world who are currently struggling and their families. We can do much better!
Shirley Saucerman, M.D., Nutritional Psychiatry, Lifestyle Medicine Anchorage, Alaska