Nutrient Power: Heal Your Biochemistry and Heal Your Brain

Copyright © 2012, 2014 by William J. Walsh, PhD

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover design by Fiona Mayne

ISBN: 978-1-62636-128-7

eISBN: 978-1-62873-987-9

Printed in the United States of America

This book is dedicated to my loving mother, Christina, who long ago inspired me with the words If you can help just one child, all of your work will have been worth it.

Disclaimer

The nutrient therapies described in this book require supervision by an experienced medical professional. Nutrient overloads or deficiencies can have a powerful effect on brain functioning, and improper treatment can cause harm. The brain is a very complex organ, and accurate diagnosis of nutrient imbalances requires testing of blood and urine together with a detailed knowledge of a person’s medical history, traits, and symptoms. Readers must not attempt self-treatment based on information in this book.

The case histories in this book provide examples of the treatment approach for specific biochemical imbalances and describe the experiences of real patients. Names and certain other information have been changed to assure patient confidentiality. The case histories are intended to illustrate the clinical process and should not be regarded as evidence of treatment effectiveness.

Finally, The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language* defines mental illness as Any of various conditions characterized by impairment of an individual’s normal cognitive, emotional, or behavioral functioning, and caused by social, psychological, biochemical, genetic, or other factors, such as infection or head trauma. The use of the term mental illness in this book is descriptive only, and no disrespect is intended to the value of the persons experiencing the types of challenges described in this book. The principal objective of this volume is to provide information to help restore health, function, and happiness in the safest way possible.

*The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Acknowledgements

Isaac Newton once said that scientific progress is achieved by standing on the shoulders of giants. Heroic figures in the field of nutrition include Roger Williams, who established the concept of biochemical individuality; Abram Hoffer, who was the first to demonstrate that nutrient therapy can benefit mental patients; and Carl Pfeiffer, who developed meaningful chemical classifications for schizophrenia. As a young man, I had the privilege of knowing these very dedicated individuals, and I was inspired by their great accomplishments.

My education in the field of mental health started as a volunteer working with ex-convicts released from Illinois prisons. I was surprised to learn that many criminals were raised in good environments along with brothers who had become productive, law-abiding citizens. Several mothers said their offspring who later engaged in criminal activity were clearly different from birth and exhibited shocking behaviors by age two. This led me to a series of experiments at Argonne National Laboratory, where I searched for biochemical abnormalities in violent persons. I am grateful to supervisors Les Burris, Ed Croke, and Walter Massey, who encouraged this work and allowed use of world-class lab facilities. More than a dozen Argonne scientists and engineers generously volunteered their time and talent for the early studies. Our research successes led to the founding of the Health Research Institute in 1982 and the establishment of the nonprofit Pfeiffer Treatment Center in 1989. Jan Olah, Mike Donohue, and Dr. Bob Thomas provided invaluable contributions to this initial clinical adventure. I am forever grateful to the doctors, nurses, and support staff who exhibited great dedication in assisting patients challenged by behavioral disorders, autism, or mental illness. It was a joy working with colleagues who cared more about a patient’s welfare than about making money. I am also very appreciative of the volunteer efforts of Ed Tanzman and other board members through the years and to the many donors who provided financial support. Everett Red Hodges provided generous research funding during the 1980s. Bruce Jeanes, Judy Nicol, and John Skelton have worked tirelessly in developing our physician training programs along with the indomitable Marion Redstone and her daughter Marnie Lo. Ted DeZurik, Ron Elliott, and Jim Baird provided business expertise that brought financial stability to our charity. Sue Hanegraaf has been invaluable in her role as Special Projects Director. Dr. Woody McGinnis was dynamic in developing autism research collaborations. Jeff Tarpey and Aditi Gulabani made important contributions to our research programs. Most of what I’ve learned about the brain can be credited to Dr. Robert deVito, a psychiatrist and friend who patiently mentored me over the past 12 years.

Financial support for this book was provided by the Hilton Family Foundation based in Panama City, Florida. They were very supportive and patient with me as this 10-month writing project extended past 24 months.

One morning in 1986 at breakfast, Barbara, my wife, asked, Why don’t you quit your job at Argonne today and do what you really want to do? Her willingness to accept this financial risk while raising five children allowed me to devote the rest of my life to the study of mental illness and development of new medical treatments. Without her constant support and encouragement, my work and this book would not have been possible.

Thanks also go to my outstanding editor, Teri Arranga, for her care in shaping my experiences and thoughts in a way to best serve my vision to help the public. Marlon Irizarry and Tim Rohlwing created the graphics, and Fiona Mayne expertly formatted the manuscript into book form.

Finally, I’d like to express my gratitude to the 30,000 patients whom I’ve studied over the past 38 years. True understanding of a mental disorder cannot come from laboratory experiments or the scientific literature alone. I found it both educational and inspiring to engage in hand-to-hand combat against mental illnesses in partnership with countless brave patients challenged by these disorders. They have been my greatest teachers.

Contents

Foreword

Chapter 1. Biochemical Individuality and Mental Health

Chapter 2. Brain Chemistry 101

Chapter 3. The Decisive Role of Nutrients in Mental Health

Chapter 4. Epigenetics and Mental Health

Chapter 5. Schizophrenia

Chapter 6. Depression

Chapter 7. Autism

Chapter 8. Behavioral Disorders and ADHD

Chapter 9. Alzheimer’s Disease

Chapter 10. The Clinical Process

References

Glossary

Appendix A. Methylation

Appendix B. Oxidative Stress

Appendix C. Metallothionein

Appendix D. Clinical Resources

Foreword

This book presents a natural treatment system based on current science that can help millions of persons who have been diagnosed with mental disorders. This approach recognizes that most human beings have nutrient imbalances due to genetic and environmental factors, and these imbalances can cause mischief in many ways, which include the following:

   Serotonin, dopamine, and other key neurotransmitters (chemical messengers that enable brain cells to communicate with each other) are continuously produced in the brain from nutrient raw materials that may be at improper concentrations.

   Nutrient imbalances can alter gene expression of proteins that govern neurotransmitter activity at synapses.

   Deficiency in antioxidant nutrients can cripple the brain’s protection against toxic metals.

Neuroscientists have identified the nutrients needed for synthesis of neurotransmitters, gene regulation, and antioxidant protection, and special blood and urine tests can identify imbalances in these nutrients. Biochemical therapies that use chemicals natural to the body can adjust brain levels of these key nutrients and have a powerful impact on mental health.

Psychiatry has made great advances in the past 50 years but needs a new direction. Today’s emphasis on prescription psychiatric medications will not stand the test of time. These drugs have helped millions of people diagnosed with depression and other mental disorders, but benefits usually are partial in nature and involve unpleasant side effects. Medication therapy is more art than science, and it involves a considerable amount of trial and error. A fundamental limitation is that psychiatric drugs are foreign molecules that result in an abnormal condition rather than producing normalcy. It is unlikely that these drugs will ever be universally effective or free of side effects. A new approach is needed. Recent progress in brain science has identified the molecular biology of many mental diseases, and this research provides a roadmap for developing effective drug-free therapies aimed at true normalization of the brain. Psychiatric medications have served society well over the past decades, but the need for drug therapies will gradually fade away as science advances.

CHAPTER 1

BIOCHEMICAL INDIVIDUALITY AND MENTAL HEALTH

Introduction

History teaches that scientific progress is often blocked not by ignorance but by a widespread belief in something that isn’t so. Advances in astronomy were delayed for centuries by assuming that the earth was the center of the universe.¹ Johann Becher’s phlogiston theory of combustion² was accepted by chemists for nearly a century until Robert Boyle proved it to be false.³ J. J. Thomson’s plum pudding theory⁴ of the atom blocked progress in understanding nuclear processes in the early 1900s.

The field of psychiatry has not escaped this malady. The misguided tabula rasa (blank slate) theory championed by English philosopher John Locke in the 17th century⁵ persisted as a central belief in psychiatry for 300 years. Locke revived Aristotle’s theory⁶ that each newborn baby begins life with a blank slate with his/her personality and other mental qualities written on this slate by life experiences. The blank slate principle was expanded by Freud,⁷ Adler,⁸ and others who attributed depression, schizophrenia, and other mental disorders to traumatic events, especially those experienced in childhood. This belief led to highly popular psychodynamic therapies that reached their zenith in the 20th century. In 1960, the treatment of choice for mental illness involved a psychiatrist’s couch and exploration of negative and positive life experiences. This protocol was dominant in psychiatry for more than 60 years, with benefits reported by millions of patients. However, the approach was very time-consuming and expensive, and progress was frequently partial in nature or nonexistent.

In the 1970s, the tabula rasa theory was proven to be fundamentally wrong, with clear evidence that babies are not born with a blank slate but rather with strong predispositions that affect personality and behavior. This understanding has led to a revolution in mental health, with a new focus on the biochemistry of the brain.

The Biochemical Revolution

Psychiatry research from 1950-1970 included several well-designed studies that examined the impact of life experiences on depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and other mental illnesses. The studies confirmed that a history of emotional or physical trauma, poverty, and deprived living conditions increased the likelihood of these disorders. However, this effort produced a surprising result—the discovery that the greatest predictor of mental illness was not life experiences but rather a family history of the same disorder. The most decisive results came from adoption and twin studies⁹-¹¹ that confirmed the presence of powerful predispositions that could not be explained by tabula rasa. By the mid-1970s, most scientific and medical experts agreed that the dominant cause of most mental illness involved genetic or acquired chemical imbalances that alter brain functioning. Within a few years, psychiatry researchers changed their focus from life experiences to neurotransmitters, receptors, and the molecular biology of the brain.

It soon became apparent that brain chemistry is extremely complex and that clear understanding of the neurobiology of mental illness would require decades of research. With millions of mentally ill persons needing immediate treatment, the psychiatry profession turned to the only known method of altering brain chemistry—psychiatric medications.¹² From the beginning, there were many seriously ill persons who benefited from these medications. Unfortunately, the improvements usually were partial in nature and resulted in serious side effects. Early medications included Prolixin, Mellaril, Haldol, and Thorazine, which frequently resulted in sedation, personality change, weight gain, loss of libido, and other nasty symptoms. Over the past 30 years, many improved medications have been developed, including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants and atypical antipsychotics. However, serious side effects continue to be reported for each of these newer medications, and there is little hope that future psychiatric drugs will ever be free of this problem.

It seems likely that advanced treatments in future years will utilize natural body/brain chemicals that restore the patient to a normal condition rather than foreign drug molecules that result in an abnormal condition. The acceleration in scientific knowledge regarding neurotransmitters, receptors, and the molecular biology of the brain is greatly assisting achievement of this goal. The world will eventually learn the wisdom of Pfeiffer’s Law: For every drug that benefits a patient, there are natural substances that can achieve the same effect.

The Birth of Neurotransmitters

The human brain is an organ of extraordinary complexity.¹³-¹⁴ A typical adult has approximately 100 billion brain cells, with an average of 1,000 synaptic connections per cell. Every thought, action, and emotion involves communications between brain cells that are triggered by special chemicals called neurotransmitters. It is now generally accepted that most mental disorders involve imbalanced levels or altered functioning of these critically important brain chemicals.

In the 1970s, most research focused on a handful of neurotransmitters that were considered dominant in thought processes. Low serotonin activity was associated with clinical depression, elevated norepinephrine with anxiety, and elevated dopamine with schizophrenia. Other intensively researched brain chemicals included acetylcholine, aspartic acid, glutamate, and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). Many additional neurotransmitters have been identified in the past 50 years, and it is believed that more than 100 are active in the human brain.

We do not receive a lifetime supply of brain chemicals at birth. Instead, the brain is a chemical factory that continuously produces serotonin, dopamine, and other neurotransmitters throughout our lifetime. Scientists have identified the brain locations where individual brain chemicals are synthesized and also defined the chemical reaction steps involved.

The Power of Nutrients

An underappreciated fact is that the primary raw materials for the synthesis of many neurotransmitters are nutrients—amino acids, vitamins, minerals, and other natural biochemicals that we obtain from food. Serotonin is produced from the amino acid tryptophan, a constituent of protein, and the final reaction step requires vitamin B-6 as a cofactor. Dopamine can originate from either of two amino acids with iron and folate also involved in the process. Norepinephrine is produced from dopamine with copper (Cu) having a decisive role. In another example, zinc (Zn) and B-6 are required for the synthesis and regulation of GABA. There are numerous other examples of the decisive role of nutrients in neurotransmitter synthesis.

Good mental health requires proper neurotransmitter activity at synapses. The dominant factor is reuptake, in which neurotransmitter molecules are whisked away from the synapse and returned to the original brain cell like a vacuum cleaner inhaling dust particles. This process is enabled by transporter proteins¹⁵-¹⁶ (aka transporters) embedded in the cell membrane that act as a passageway for the returning neurotransmitters. The population of transporters generally has a more dominant effect on synaptic activity than the number of neurotransmitters present. Transporters are continuously produced in the brain by genetic expression, the process by which information in a gene is used to produce a protein. The rate of production of transporters is enhanced by certain nutrients and inhibited by others. For example, methylation (addition of a CH3 chemical group) of DNA is a primary mechanism for silencing (switching off) genes that produce neurotransmitter transporters. The net result is that undermethylated persons generally have reduced serotonin activity and a tendency for depression. In another example, overmethylated persons may have excessive dopamine activity and a tendency for anxiety and paranoid schizophrenia. Nutrient therapy to adjust methyl levels can produce major benefits for these patients by normalizing the synaptic activity of these important neurotransmitters.

There are a multitude of genetic and environmental aberrations that can produce nutrient imbalances in the brain. If the brain is presented with a severe overload or deficiency of a nutrient required for neurotransmitter synthesis or activity, one can expect that mental problems will result. This understanding has given rise to a new medical approach for the treatment of depression, anxiety, and other types of mental illness called biochemical therapy or nutrient therapy. The primary elements involve (a) diagnosis of nutrient imbalances through testing of blood, urine, and tissues, and (b) therapies aimed at normalizing nutrient levels in the brain.

Biochemical Individuality

Each of us has innate biochemical factors that influence traits such as personality, behavior, mental health, immune function, and allergic tendencies. The number of different genetic combinations possible in a child from the same two parents exceeds 40 million. Human beings are not a combination of their mother and father but possess physical characteristics and traits from a genetic lottery involving many ancestors. Except for identical twins, each human being has unique biochemistry, resulting in quite diverse nutritional needs. Shakespeare was correct when he wrote One man’s meat is another man’s poison. For example, some of us are genetically suited for a vegetable-based diet and others are not. Some persons can satisfy their nutritional needs by diet alone, and others must have nutritional supplements in order to overcome genetic aberrations.

A major breakthrough in medical science was the concept of biochemical individuality developed by Roger Williams in the 1940s. Williams, the discoverer of the B vitamin pantothenic acid, was renowned for his pioneering research on folic acid and other vitamins. However, his greatest contribution may have been the discovery that many persons are born with nutrient imbalances that play a role in heart disease and other disorders. This breakthrough has inspired many researchers to study the biochemistry of diseases and to investigate biochemical therapies aimed at correction of nutrient imbalances. Williams founded the Clayton Foundation Biochemical Institute in Texas that continues as a world leader in nutrition science.

It is now clear that abnormal levels of key nutrients can have an adverse effect on brain chemistry and mental health. Because of these abnormalities, some individuals have a predisposition for conditions such as clinical depression, oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), while others are quite invulnerable to these disorders. Biochemistry can be affected by diet and stressful life events, but the dominant factor often goes back to genetics or, additionally, epigenetics. The concept of epigenetics will be addressed more thoroughly in Chapter 4, but very briefly, the environment (e.g., diet, toxins, lifestyle) can affect the expression of a person’s genes, and this alteration in gene expression is called epigenetics. Epigenetics explains why one identical twin may manifest a particular disease, while the other does not.

A comprehensive metabolic analysis of any person would likely reveal several nutrients that are deficient due to genetics. Some deficiencies might be of minor importance with respect to human functioning, while others could result in serious mental problems. If people knew which nutrients were deficient, they might benefit greatly from many times the recommended daily allowance (RDA) of those nutrients since they may be fighting a genetic tendency for deficiency.

After clinical experience with thousands of mental health patients, I was surprised to learn that nutrient overloads usually cause more mischief than deficiencies. This explains why most multivitamin/mineral products are ineffective for mentally ill patients and can cause more harm than good. Patients with an overload of copper, methionine, folic acid, or