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A bone-marrow transplant treated a patient’s leukemia – and his schizophrenia

nytimes.com

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Re: A bone-marrow transplant treated a patient’s leukemia – and his schizophrenia

#61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And I cannot comprehend how anyone who sees themselves as scientific can genuinely insist in earnest that the power of belief has more influence over my physical body than the power of food chemistry. It would appear belief can have an extreme severe acute impact on our bodies. It follows then belief can also have chronic affects. People can die simply because they've given up, life has beaten them and they feel de…

Thank you. It's a reasonable comment. Unfortunately, in the context of multiple people being incredibly dismissive, it somewhat comes across as just another dismissal, though I sincerely believe you don't mean it that way. For context, my official diagnosis is atypical cystic fibrosis. I was diagnosed a bit over 17 years ago. I had been bedridden for several months and had a hole in my left lung. Classical CF account…

For what it's worth, the placebo effect is such a strong effect, sugar or no, that the immediate reaction of most skeptics is to attribute most things to it. HN is full of skeptics. I feel you've done a fine job defending you position though.

My take on food and mental health is that we are omnivores, and as such we need a wide veriety of foods to be healthy. I have noticed time and again that certain foods smell and taste absolutely heavenly to me one week, and I can't be bothered to eat a spoonful a month later. This is most common for me with high nutrient low calorie foods like salads and soups (though if you pay attention it's there with various sweets as well). All of which makes me very suspicious that it has to do with my body trying to regulate it's nutrient balance.

And god forbid you fall out of normal working parameters for certain nutrients, you can end up in a positive feedback loop. There was a study I saw some years ago linking anorexia and a lack of some common metal (zinc or magnesium I think). Not being hungry means you're not likely to get this metal, means you're not hungry...

Re: A bone-marrow transplant treated a patient’s leukemia – and his schizophrenia

#62
post #21

I've long suspected that my depression & OCD were caused by some immune response. It all started very suddenly when I had a very bad illness. Unfortunately I have yet to find a doctor that believes me and is willing to do anything other than giving me the standard medications.

There’s an illness called PANDAS in children that is very much like that, a key symptom is the OCD. The Cunningham panel test is used for diagnosis and can also be used by adults although there are no established diagnosis from this in adults. The test costs about $900. Treatment in children requires a smart doctor who is aware of the illness and who will get IVIG and/or plasmapheresis for the child. Both are incredi…

Actually I already take naltrexone, but in ultra low doses. I'm combining it with low dose buprenorphine, which is basically the only medication that has done anything for my depression. I will see if I can get an appointment with a specialist about PANDAs. I have known about PANDAs for a while, but it was dismissed very early since I'm an adult. Now that I've failed pretty much every treatment it might be worth it to take a second look.

Re: A bone-marrow transplant treated a patient’s leukemia – and his schizophrenia

#63
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When penicillin was first used to treat syphilis, thousands of cured schizophrenics were released from mental asylums Syphilis itself produces psychosis and those "schizophrenics" were most likely never schizophrenics in the first place (shame on you Newsweek) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11186166 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1521109 If those diet based treatments work for you then that's great but, r…

Anecdotally, I've heard of and seen nursing home patients and other elderly people that have seriously altered mental states, with anger and/or disorientation, that recover immediately with antibiotics, where the medical people describe the infection as a UTI. And also in my experience, even once it's repeated a couple times, they can be obtuse about inferring the mental changes are a sign that they should treat with…

> So I think that probably syphilis is only one example of an infection that leads to an altered mental state, and there's no reason to assume that because something is treatable with penicillin, that is is necessarily syphilis.

I don't doubt this at all however:

> I've also seen a cancer patient on chemo with symptoms that resemble some forms of psychosis, and of course that is someone who is immuno-compromised and susceptible to opportunistic infections.

this might simply be due to the stress of a life changing, life threatening event. Couldn't it be?

Re: A bone-marrow transplant treated a patient’s leukemia – and his schizophrenia

#64
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When penicillin was first used to treat syphilis, thousands of cured schizophrenics were released from mental asylums Syphilis itself produces psychosis and those "schizophrenics" were most likely never schizophrenics in the first place (shame on you Newsweek) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11186166 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1521109 If those diet based treatments work for you then that's great but, r…

Anecdotally, I've heard of and seen nursing home patients and other elderly people that have seriously altered mental states, with anger and/or disorientation, that recover immediately with antibiotics, where the medical people describe the infection as a UTI. And also in my experience, even once it's repeated a couple times, they can be obtuse about inferring the mental changes are a sign that they should treat with…

> where the medical people describe the infection as a UTI

Very interesting. Are you suspecting that the medical diagnosis of a UTI wasn't totally accurate?

Re: A bone-marrow transplant treated a patient’s leukemia – and his schizophrenia

#65
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdotally, I've heard of and seen nursing home patients and other elderly people that have seriously altered mental states, with anger and/or disorientation, that recover immediately with antibiotics, where the medical people describe the infection as a UTI. And also in my experience, even once it's repeated a couple times, they can be obtuse about inferring the mental changes are a sign that they should treat with…

> So I think that probably syphilis is only one example of an infection that leads to an altered mental state, and there's no reason to assume that because something is treatable with penicillin, that is is necessarily syphilis. I don't doubt this at all however: > I've also seen a cancer patient on chemo with symptoms that resemble some forms of psychosis, and of course that is someone who is immuno-compromised and…

No. I'm not talking about something like shock moments after being diagnosed, I'm referring to cognitive issues that developed later, in someone who was terminally ill and suffering the effects of both the cancer and the chemo. And, you know, people get worse and better and then worse so the contrast is clear. Especially when the treatment is massive amounts of antibiotics, vancomycin among others, I think?

Re: A bone-marrow transplant treated a patient’s leukemia – and his schizophrenia

#66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdotally, I've heard of and seen nursing home patients and other elderly people that have seriously altered mental states, with anger and/or disorientation, that recover immediately with antibiotics, where the medical people describe the infection as a UTI. And also in my experience, even once it's repeated a couple times, they can be obtuse about inferring the mental changes are a sign that they should treat with…

> where the medical people describe the infection as a UTI Very interesting. Are you suspecting that the medical diagnosis of a UTI wasn't totally accurate?

Not particularly suggesting it was incorrect. I don't have any other hypothesis, but neither do I know what the mechanism would be for it to cause mental symptoms. It might be that the diagnosis is technically correct but misleading. See: blind men and the elephant.

The main issue was just that it recurred and the medical people did not have an overarching theory about what was going on. They seemed to regard the test results and symptoms as just random disconnected facts without a pattern. The belief among some of the relatives of the patient was that the mental symptoms were a harbinger of the UTI and therefore treatment should start sooner.

Of course, that's what happens with elderly patients, doctors just don't try that hard, because being old is explanation enough for anything that goes wrong and if you fix one problem another will occur.

Re: A bone-marrow transplant treated a patient’s leukemia – and his schizophrenia

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried prescription memantine, both the generic and XR formulations. The brain fog startup side effect never went away for me, so I had to quit. I've never found a supplement that has actually done anything.

Did you taper 2.5 mg at a time every 3-4 days until taking 5-10 mg? Also add selank. Have you ever tried chelated/TRAACS magnesium? What else have you tried? Do you have any nutrient deficiencies? Ever looked into nutrient tests like NutrEval? A comprehensive hormone panel? Thyroid panel? Genetic testing?

I also tried Memantine, my verbal fluency took a serious nose dive, I was unable to follow simple instructions. I slowly tapered up, much slower than 2.5 mg at a time.

It helped in some other areas, but not being able to do simple tasks nixed it for me.

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