Gut, Brain, Bacteria, and Behavior

Can the way we use antibiotics — without focusing on keeping up the normal biota in our gut that antibiotics wipe out — be contributing to the rise in both “mental” illnesses as well as inflammatory and metabolic disorders such as allergies and diabetes?

Scientists are saying “YES.”

They are re-confirming what many doctors and researchers in the field of Integrative medicine have been saying for years — that gut health is intimately connected with the function of our brain.[1]

The gut-brain connection is being implicated in brain disorders ranging from anxiety to schizophrenia (as it was in my own children).

Bipolar and Off Her Meds

Words that usually strike fear into a parent’s heart are that their adult child with a diagnosed mental illness is off their meds.

My older daughter suffered 13 years of unrelenting, unstable bipolar disorder in spite of hospitalizations, psychiatrists, therapy, and strict adherence to medications.

She is finally STABLE, but NOT while on any of the past psychiatric medications.

She is finally stable, AND off her meds. (Part 2 here - Getting Better and Part 3 - Recovered: No Longer on Psychiatric Medications or, start with the book that started it all -- It's Not Mental)

Huh!!???

Gluten Sensitivity and Symptoms of Schizophrenia

In Brain Health: The Gluten (Dis)Connection, we wrote about the connection between gluten sensitivity and its ill-effects on the brain function of some individuals.

Research into this area seems to be taking off recently, with several new intriguing articles, the latest of which shows an astonishing percentage of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia having Celiac and gluten sensitivity. (Note that there may be some overlap with sensitivity to casein as well. See information about testing at bottom of article. For more on the topic, see It's Not Mental - the BOOK)

Abnormal Sleep as a Cause of Mental Symptoms

Sleep disorders can be a CAUSE of the brain symptoms being diagnosed as "mental illness."

That seems so logical, except that for years doctors insisted that our children's sleep problems are being caused by the "mental illness." This is true even when we tell them... THE SLEEP ISSUES CAME FIRST.  (See book)

Brain Health: The Gluten (Dis)Connection

Can symptoms called "mental illness" in some people be cured just by going gluten-free?

Research (below) suggests the answer to that is, "Yes."
(NOTE: In our personal experience we had to also eliminate casein [dairy] in order to be recoverED.)

A group of Scandanavian researchers even suggests that partial or complete symptom alleviation in a subset of patients labeled “schizophrenic” can be achieved with the simple solution of withdrawal from gluten. [1]

(Here is an audio about some severe intermittent psychosis or hallucinations.)