Mental and Elemental Nutrients: A Physician's Guide to Nutrition and Health Care 0879831146

Citation preview

A Physician s Guide to Nutrition

Carl C. Pfeif fer,

PhD., m.d.

and the Publications Committee of the Drain Dio Center A Ore

and Health Care

$10.95

MENTAL AND ELEMENTAL NUTRIENTS

A Physician's Guide to Nutrition and Health Care Carl C. Pfeiffer, Ph.D., M.D. and the Publications Committee of the Brain Bio Center Schizophrenics returned to normal func-

tioning— hyperactivity and mental disabilities in

children alleviated— the effects of

aging reversed— psychoses reduced— these results

have been achieved, and observed,

by Dr. Carl C. Pfeiffer and his staff-not by drugs and the conventional psychotherapy, but by restoring their patients' nutritional balances.

Dr. Pfeiffer's research, practice and entire

experience as Director of Princeton's

Brain Bio Center have made inescapably clear the fact that

many mental

conditions

derive from bodily malfunctions— specifically

from the absence of

in the

The cause

body.

an abnormal inability

to

vital nutrients

of this

poisoning from pollutants,

or simply adherence to our

pre-packaged

snacks

an

keep a normal blood-sugar

level, outright

of

may be

loss of a trace mineral,

dishes,

and processed

modern

diet

empty-calorie

and adulterated

foodstuffs.

In Mental and Elemental Nutrients, Dr. Pfeiffer discusses the role and func-

known nutrients, from the proand vitamins with which most readers be familiar, to the place and impor-

tion of all tein will

tance of the little-known trace minerals

which can make the difference between sickness and health, often between life and death, or sanity and mental illness. (continued on back flap)

y-

MENTAL

AND

A Physician's Guide to Nutrition

and Health Care

ELEMENTAL NUTRIENTS

The Publications Committee

of the

Brain Bio Center, Princeton,

New

Jersey

CARL C. PFEIFFER, Ph.D., M.D., Chairman Elizabeth H. Jenney, M.S.

Rosalind LaRoche, B.A.

Susan Glantz, B.S. FredEarle,B.S.

Mary Alice Kruesi, Donna Bacchi Dehhy Cooper Ann Spane/, B.A.

B.A.

MENTAL

AND

A Physician s Guide to Nutrition

and Health Core

ELEMENTAL NUTRIENTS CarlGPfeiffer,

Ph.D.,M.D.

and the Publications Committee of the Drain Dio Center

A Drain Dio Dook

KEATS PUBLISHING,

INC.

\

New

Canaan, Connecticut

Mental and Elemental Nutrients Copyright © 1975 by Carl C. Pfeiffer, Ph.D., M.D. All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Catalog Card

Number 75-19543

ISBN: 0-87983-114-6 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Keats Publishing,

Inc., 36

Grove Street,

New Canaan,

Connecticut 06840

Contents Humphry Osmond, M.D. Commentary Abram Hoffer, M.D.

Preface

Introduction

xiii

xvii

One

Part

ix

Nutritional Background Medicine

1 Nutrition as Preventive

3

2 Nutrients Versus Drugs for the Good Life 3

We

Shall

Overcome— Inadequate

14

20

Diet!

4 Those Publicized Weight-reducing Regimes 5 Eat to

Live— Don't Live

to Eat

2

50

55

6 Cholesterol, Sugar, Fats and the Frequently Maligned Egg 7 Artificial Sweeteners

8 Vegetarianism:

Part

Its

Two

9 Niacin and

88

Advantages and Shortcomings

99

The Vitamins 116

Mega vitamin Therapy

117

10 The Sleep Vitamins: Vitamin C, Inositol, and Vitamin B-6 11 B-12 and Folic Acid

155

12 The Remainder of the B-Complex Vitamins

13 Rutin and Bioflavonoids

14 Deanol:

A Biochemical

Stimulant

187

16 Zinc as an Essential Element

247

18 Manganese

253

K

190

Essential Trace Elements

New Vistas 17 Iron

172

185

15 The Fat-soluble Vitamins: A, D, E and

Part Three

71

215

212

Open

125

19 Sulfur: The Forgotten Essential Element

20 Selenium: Stepchild of Sulfur

266

21 Calcium and Demineralization

22 Magnesium 23 Potassium

270

277

280

24 Molybdenum

282

25 Vanadium: Little-known Element

26 Chromium 27 Tin

259

286

289

294

28 Cobalt

296

29 Fluoride

298

30 Nickel: an Essential Trace Metal but Where? 31

Aluminum

304

Part Four 32 Lead, Mercury and

Toxic Effects of Heavy Metals Cadmium

325

34 Bismuth: The Fifth (Column) Heavy Metal

Part Five

Human

36 The Air

We

Clinical

Brain: Three

Breathe

341

Problems

Pounds

348

of Delicate

367

38 Alcoholism: The Major Drug Addiction

Low

371

Blood Sugar

380

40 The Schizophrenias— At Least Three Types A. Mauve-factor Patients

408

415

41 Insomnia: To Sleep, Perchance to

42 Headache

Dream

422

432

43 Aging and Senility

396

402

B. Childhood Behavioral Disorders

C. Cerebral Allergy

Hardware

359

37 Milk Problems: Lactose and Lactase

39 The Hypoglycemias:

443

44 Arthritis and Joint Disorders

452

45 Skin Problems in Patients of All Ages

46 Nutrients for a Better Sex Life 47 Side Effects of Hormones

310

311

33 Copper: The Fourth Heavy-Metal Intoxicant

35 The

301

469

473 vi

459

349

48 The Contraceptive It

Pill:

The Mental and Metabolic Havoc

478

Evokes

49 Hexachlorophene Poisoning

485 Conclusion,

493

General References,

496

Books for Further Reading, 499

Index,

List of

Tables

TABLE

1.1

Basic Causes of Malnutrition

TABLE

2.1

The "Good Life" Has Various Facets

TABLE

2.2

Progress in the Science of Typology According to

Disciplines

TABLE

5.1

4 15

18

Analysis by Atomic Absorption Spectograph of Trace

Elements in Honey and Molasses

60

TABLE

10.1

Outline of Possible Biochemical Stimulants

TABLE

10.2

Drug Actions Measurable

in

Man by Means of the

Quantitative Electroencephalogram

TABLE

10.3

Effect of Large

140

141

Doses of the Water-soluble Vitamins

in the Quantitative

Electroencephalogram of Normal

Human

142

Subjects

TABLE

10.4

Presence of Inositol

TABLE

10.5

Inositol

TABLE

10.6

Levels of Vitamin B-6 in the Blood of Pregnant and

Non-Pregnant

in

Some Animals

Content of Various Biological Materials

Women

16.1

Clinical Disorders

TABLE

16.2

Dietary Supplements of Zinc,

TABLE

16.3

and Possible Zinc Deficiency

239

Food Sources

147

152

TABLE

Manganese

144

of Zinc

241

vii

Magnesium and

228

.

496

TABLE

18.1

Selected Foodstuffs with Appreciable Amounts of

Manganese

256

TABLE

24.1

Food Sources of Molybdenum

TABLE

32.1

Hazardous Environmental Heavy Metals

TABLE

33.1

Typical Copper Content of

TABLE

33.2

Copper Content of Some Drinking Waters

Eastern United States

TABLE

33.3

33.4 of

323

Home Waters

329 in the

331

"Dementia Dialytica": Clinical Mystery or Diagnostic

Dichotomy?

TABLE

284

334

Selected Foodstuffs with Appreciable Amounts

Copper

338

TABLE

39.1

Classification of

TABLE

39.2

Comparison of Spermine and Histamine Levels

TABLE

39.3

Foods for Hypoglycemic Patients

Hypoglycemias

382

392

393

TABLE 40.1

Comparison

TABLE

Comparative Symptoms of Pyroluria in Emily Dickinson

40.2

of Blood Histamine Levels

and Charles Darwin

TABLE

40.3

397

405

Drug- and Vitamin-induced Changes in the Behavior of

Autistic, Schizophrenic

and Hyperactive Children

414

TABLE 40.4

Parent Evaluation of Drug Effects in Young Patients

TABLE

Presenile and Senile

43.1

Dementia— Spermine Levels

List of Figures

FIGURE

6.1

FIGURE

16.1

Types of White Spots on Fingernails

FIGURE

39.1

Glucose Tolerance Curve

389

FIGURE

39.2

Glucose Tolerance Curve

389

FIGURE

40.1

Symptoms: Three Types of Schizophrenia

400

FIGURE

40.2

The Schizophrenias

American Dietary

401

The Biosynthesis

of Cholesterol

'75:

vili

73 J35

414

448

Preface and a privilege to welcome this sensible and much needed book, which draws together a great deal of information of value to the mentally ill and their families for planning appropriate nutrition. Yet this book should be equally use-

It is a pleasure

ful to all of us.

was self-evident to the older psychiatrists that a good was essential for their patients. Not only because of the It

diet

nutrients

was seen

which they ingested with

their food, but

because food

in the hospitals of the mid-nineteenth century as be-

ing a focus for the exercise of good behavior. To further this, the director of the hospital frequently sat down with his patients

and

him an excellent opportunity to ensure that the hospital cooks were providing nutritious and tasty fare, while also allowing him to engage in conversation with patients and to observe their table manners. The gigantification of the mental hospital made it impossible for the superintendent to do this. With that gigantification the quality of the food dropped so much that it would have required a cast-iron stomach and fortitude perhaps beyond the limit of human endurance for the superintendent to ate with them, family style. This gave

eat frequently with the patients. This omission tended to divert

from the importance of eating for paboth as a nutritional and a social exercise. I was walking through a mental hospital dining room the other day and was struck by its noisiness, smelliness and general bleakness. I am not sure how nutritionally sound the food was, but it was certainly not so inviting that I longed to seize a tray and join in the repast. Yet from almost a century before, we have descriptions of the excellent food in that same hospital, dainty ways in which it was served, the clean white napery, fine chinaware and glistening crystal. Food should not only be good, but it should be seen to be good and it should be served in a manner appropriate to its goodness. Unluckily, those with grave mental illnesses are unlikely to be particularly well-fed in hospitals. In part at least because

psychiatrists' attention tients,

the hospital authorities often have the crudest ideas as to what

ix

the patients' requirements might be both nutritionally and psychosocially.

The

own

psychiatric hospitals, instead of sticking to their

have tended to become more like the general hospital of fifty to a hundred years ago where patients might easily starve. Doctors Provost and Butterworth, of the University of Alabama School of Medicine, have shown that even today this lamentable event does occur due to a technical preoccupation with surgery and medicine rather than a general concern for the well-being of the patient. The situation is certainly made worse in some mental hospitals and probably in general hospitals too, because vending machines carrying a variety of junk food snacks are frequently present on the hospital floors and provide temptations for patients who are not well enough fed in hospitals to be able traditions for feeding patients well

to resist.

There are exceptions.

I

recall with gratitude the ex-

tremely good meals I had at Moorefield's Eye Hospital, London, England, following a cataract operation. These were made all the better because my greatly improved vision gave the food an almost psychedelic quality. I can still remember biting into the fried fish and how good it tasted. In the mid-nineteenth century cookery for the sick was considered a special aspect of the gastronomy and much thought and attention was given to it. I hope that Mental and Elemental Nutrients will be followed by a cookbook developed to accommodate the information provided here, which can be used in general and psychiatric hospitals. Its principles can be taught to patients and their families so that when they return home they can sustain themselves in the best possible nutritional state.

We live in a world many

where there

is

much

malnutrition and

areas a danger of starvation. In addition to malnutricaused by poverty, there is probably almost as large and great an amount of malnutrition caused by what one might call perversity of taste. Anyone who watches T.V. advertisements soon notices that eating habits are encouraged in the very young, which are liable to do them much harm over the years. What then can we do about this? Reading this book is certainly one step forward and carrying its message to hosin

tion

pitals of all kinds, schools

which

will

repay those

good health

and homes

is

who undertake

for their friends, children

clearly a citizenly duty this labor manyfold and themselves.

Humphry Osmond, MRCP., FRC

in

Psych. Tuscaloosa, Alabama

XI

Commentary Dr. Carl Pfeiffer

and

his clinical

and research colleagues

are pioneers and leaders in the field of orthomolecular psy-

A

research group

may

consider itself fortunate to make one new clinical finding. This group, one of the too few research groups in the world in this field, has made major contributions toward accurate diagnosis and toward improved treatment. They have refined the schizophrenic syndrome by using biochemical assays for blood histamine levels, for urinary kryptopyrrole levels and for other substances which have proven very valuable in treatment of schizophrenic patients. They have shown that high kryptopyrrole levels produce a deficiency of zinc and pyridoxine and they have demonstrated the immense importance of trace elements in the prevention and treatment of mental illnesses. Since this group is only beginning an epoch marked by enormous creativity and productivity one can only wonder at the discoveries which will pour from their laboratory over the next ten years. This book will be a preview of the future. I advise every family which has any history of severe neuroses or psychoses to read it with care and to apply the chiatric research.

principles to themselves for only in this

way

will there

be any

from the human waste and ravages of Standard psychiatry (tranquilizers and talk) has bankrupt. This book represents the wave of the

significant reduction

mental proven

illness. itself

future.

Abram

Xlll

Hoffer, Ph.D., M.D.

MENTAL

AND

A Physician s Guide to Nutrition

and Health Care

ELEMENTAL NUTRIENTS

Introduction