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Many patients benefit from a gluten and casein-free diet. It appears that if the gut is not
functioning properly, short chains of peptides instead of separate amino acids are
absorbed through the gut wall and they cannot be used in the manufacture of the 300 or
so neurotransmitters that are made and broken down 24 hours per day in the brain.
The whole idea of oxidative stress would seem relevant in autism, in fact, as it does in so
many cases of mental health problems. For a child to make a good recovery they need to
start nutrient therapy by four years of age, although some improvement can be seen in
older children too.
I would see a great benefit for children, parents, and the exchequer if this were done. I
suggested it to the Departments of Education and Health in 2006, but, while they
acknowledged my letters, they appear to have done nothing about it.
Knowing about the biochemical aspects of psychiatry is enormously helpful. I will
mention just one case where the gut was critical. I saw a 36 year-old woman over two
years ago who had spent a total of over two years in hospital in 10 admissions in the
previous 18 years, with bipolar disorder mostly. Among the tests I did was to tick the
coeliac lab test on the routine blood test form. It was positive and subsequent duodenal
biopsy confirmed coeliac disease, although she had minimal symptoms.
This woman has followed a gluten-free diet since and her psychiatrist has gradually
reduced her medication. She started to feel herself getting better within a month, has been
very well for two years now and has lost four stone in weight.
Four per cent of those with a history of psychosis have only coeliac disease, according to
Pfeiffer. I have picked up several other cases of coeliac disease too and I now believe the
coeliac antibody test should be done routinely in all psychiatric patients. I think it will be
very hard in the future to defend in court a case where coeliac disease is missed in
psychiatry because a doctor has not ordered this test.
The place of the gut in mental illness looks to me to be significant in many psychiatric
conditions including depression, schizophrenia, bipolar, ADHD, violent behaviour,
Parkinson¹s disease and Alzheimer¹s disease. If the gut is working right and breaks down
proteins properly the manufacture of the proper level of neurotransmitters is much more
likely to be normal. Proper levels of other nutrients are critically important too, of course,
but are much easier to get right.
The combination of medication with proper brain nutrition is far more beneficial in my
opinion than medication alone and can often make a really good improvement even in
some chronic cases. I have noticed a few psychiatrists recently writing prescriptions for
the amino acid tryptophan (a precursor of serotonin).
Perhaps they may extend their range to cover other nutrients in due course. In the past
month I have seen for the first time a psychiatrist order a test for caeruloplasmin, an