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Danielle (Bratt, Vermont) on 04/16/2008
5 out of 5 stars

I myself have schizoaffective a type of schizophrenia and I am gluten free. no sugar flour and wheat. when I went back to those foods I was sick very quicly. the diet works well for me. I tend to become overweight also adn decompensate quickly under stress and with the wrong foods. without b-complex vitamins I am also in a bad spot. I try to keep up with everything. I take a b complex, fish oil, green juice and a multi. without the supps I am pretty bad off. I have hallucinations and things like that. delusions. I become very psychotic. I may add that I also need antipsychotic and mood stabilizing meds. currently I do not require an antipsychotic med. I take that where necessary.
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Replied By Anonymous (South Pasadena, California) on 04/08/2009

Hi Everyone: I am was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia six years ago. At the time I believed the conspiracy theories out there that the meds for schizophrenia caused your brain to atrophy. Now, I know that studies have proven the opposite, that antipsychotics are essential to preventing or curbing the brain atrophy associated with schizophrenia as it is a degenerative brain disorder. Anyway, at the time, I tried high doses of Niacin and b-complex and magnesium, all to no avail. The only thing which took away the voices was antipsychotics. Unfortunately, they didn't take away all of the voices. As time went on, I realized that gluten made my fibromyalgia symptoms flair something terrible so I stopped eating all gluten. Around that time, the residual voices my meds weren't taking care of went away. So, now... after reading about gluten on this site I wonder if the gluten free diet helped with my voices.

BTW: I also eat large quantities of soy and estrogen has been proven to help women sz's. As I'm sure many of you know, soy is estrogenic. Now, I only hear one or two words every six months to a year and they are not nerve wracking like before. I am so grateful. Unfortunately, I get very fatigued between the sz meds and pain of fibro. Luckily, I discovered by accident really that taking 2,000 mg of B-12 and 2,000 mg of Inositol a day along with 600 mg of B-6 helps the fatigue to the point where I nap for about half of the time to no time on a good day. I will also say that for women taking antipsychotics you may find that you are producing a little breast milk. B-6 helps with this a little if you take 300-600 mg a day. Talk to a doctor first though as high doses of B-6 are linked to possible neuropothy. I will also say that if you have akathisia from the meds, (a movement disorder which causes you too pace and shake feet and fidget)... Stopping all caffeine took that away for me. Thank G-d for the meds and thank G-d for having discovered these few things which help with some of the side effects. Also, I started taking Armour a natural thyroid medication to deal with weight gain associated with the meds. I'm not necessarily advocating this though because it can lead to osteoporosis eventually if you get into the hyperthyroid range.

Hope this helps someone.

Sincerely, Anonymous

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Replied By Anonymous (South Pasadena, California) on 04/10/2009

P.S. I was tested for celiac disease a while ago and the test was negative. So, you can't say all schizophrenics are celiacs. I do happen to have a sensitivity to gluten though, pain wise. I will also say that the gluten free diet alone isn't sufficient to keep voices at bay... I absolutely need medicine and I believe this may be the case with many if not all sz's as the medicines minimizes the brain damage the disease itself causes even if many other things can be treated naturally. In other words, in my case a gluten free diet and b vitamins couldn't cure me but the diet might have helped. All the best.

Sincerely, Annonymous

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