Quote:
Originally Posted by Tart Cherry Jam
My immediate reaction is to look at different cuisines to prove or refute this hypothesis. China has a huge population who grew up eating food virtually devoid of dairy. And then in Indian cuisine there is plenty of cheese (paneer), cultured milk (raita) and milk in chai and desserts. Rice is gluten-free and is the main starch staple in China. In India they eat a lot of naan which has gluten. So if that theory were true, you would expect far fewer cases of schizophrenia in China than in India.
And yet
"For China, the estimated prevalence of schizophrenia in 1990 was 3.91 per 1000 population, so there were an estimated 4.43 million prevalent cases. This prevalence is less than half that estimated for developed countries (8.98/1000), but is similar to that estimated for India (3.36/1000)." Characteristics, experience, and treatment of schizophrenia in China - PMC).
Another reaction: the author attributes a contribution to developing schizophrenia to modern anti-diabetic medications Tradjenta or Januvia. But were these medications even around when the term schizophrenia was first coined?
"The introduction of the term and concept schizophrenia earned its inventor, Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler, worldwide fame."
"Eugen Bleuler (1857-1939)"
Eugen Bleuler's schizophrenia—a modern perspective
- PMC.
Tradjenta was first FDA approved in 2011
Tradjenta (linagliptin) FDA Approval History - Drugs.com
So that casts doubt on the hypothesis. The disorder is not new and yet modern medications are suspected to cause it? |
I remember watching a lecture by Gary Null PhD, who is an expert on longevity. This latter credential is not necessarily an implication to what I am about to say.
Null said that he is allergic to wheat and would get brain fog whenever he ate it in the states. He then said that when he traveled to Italy and ate the wheat there, he did not get any kind of reaction whatsoever. He then inferred that there must be something different about the wheat there than it is in the United States; perhaps the way it is grown or what it is exposed to. So, yes, consuming wheat may or may not be linked to the development of Schizophrenia. I suppose a similar postulate could be made about dairy.
So the data you provided is supportive of this.
Also, as far as pharmaceuticals like Tradjenta and Januvia: just because they are linked to schizophrenia does not mean they are necessarily the definitive causality in schizophrenia etiology.
I appreciate your scientific inquiry and I am not offended for you to refute Hoffer's stochastic conclusions. But I do believe that nutrition can help immensely in the possible convalescence of mental health maladies. However, like I indicated above, just because Hoffer claimed wheat and dairy as contributing to schizophrenia; does not necessarily mean one will contract it from those dietary entities.