I am working with my son, 25, diagnosed withschizophrenia this summer and hospitalized for 2 months. he left on haldol, refuses medication. the medication is out of his system (was a month long shot) for the last 2 weeks.
To keep his good energy going consistantly we are using sarcozine, he’s not taking L-Theanine and maybe is ok without it. But according to this site these are very useful amino acids to take regularly.
We are now Gluten-free, casein free - my schizophrenia and celiac linked - my mom had celiac and asthma. Son always had asthma.
Son is working with an ayurvedic practioner located across the country - they skype together. Practitioner sends herb based concoctions for cognition, adrenal cleansing tea, "Nutritional superfood, spice additive for foods, asthma additive for raw honey concoction.
A functonal medicine psychiatric nurse and the ayurvedic practioner have helped me to see it this way: We are talking about load of stress. Someone is smoking marijuana (THC), not sleeping enough, not eating well, disregulated in all aspect, stress of parents fighting with them, not being able to keep a job, etc. the load of stress only going up until finally a full break from reality. What we are trying to do is bring the load down, through proper diet, vitamin Bs, niacin, anxiety reducing ingredients in foods, calming foods. For MY son, that appears to mean root, cooked veggies, cooked greens in soups and stews, beans - esp. mung beans, but all kinds.
We use a hemp CBT tincture to calm, very good grade fish oil, 900mg niacin (so far), as I said - sarcozine daily 250mg. This week am making our own nut milks, and nut/seed butters of hemp, chia, almond, will do hazelnut milk - everything that I read about that helps calm and is good for the brain and motivation and mood.
Our son has been very obsessive all his life, then grandiose, highly reactive and lacking curiosity. Suddenly he is not obsessive or grandiose, I’m wondering what his brain will do with that empty space. We are rebuilding a very fraught relationship of peaceful and respect. But I think the first step of listening to what he wanted with his diet - “religion of no meat, fish, no gluten or milk” helped me to see it’s not religion, its science - for his body.
Also making sure I get some sarcozine in daily, helps me to feel I can help his mood and cooperation for that day.
He notices more energy - good so far on niacin and fish oil. Doesn’t realize sarcozine is doing anything, but I see it. I admit I try everything he takes and am on this diet. I have been amazed that I do not need to take my own celexa for anxiety and depression and feel so much more peace in our home.
Thanks for all of this and great to hear! As I mentioned there was a 6 month waiting list for me to see the functional nurse and she wasn’t familiar with scz so this has really helped me! Not that I can get my son to take the niacin yet. Where are you getting the sarcozine? Is it a supplement?
I also agree the high stress is when this all started to really come out. Then last summer combined with no sleep - boom - it all came to a head. Trying to have a low stress household for him.
hi Diane- I bought the sarcozine from the advertisement on the schizophrenia.com site. it is made by BrainVitaminz at brainvitaminz.com . We take it at 2 grams a day which is the recommendation. Cost was about $14.00 for about 4 months worth. It is an amino acid, so is the L-Theanine. will your son take the L-Theanine? Its supposed to help with the positive symptoms so also sounds well worth it.
The book, 'The UltraMind Solution"is good - Mark Hyman MD, but mostly about total diet. Does mention the niacin, but not with much depth. Foods with vitamin Bs in them and OMega3 might be a good place to start also. I’m not a professional in this, and am doing lots of looking things up, I have to get much better at writing foods with the different vitamins down in a list. Bananas are calming and my son loves those. The Ayurvadic superfood we have is for Vata - in ayurvedia energies that need to be balanced in the individual (each individual is typed by a questionaire and usually feeling their pulses. The Vata Nutritional superfood contains, wheat grass, dashamoola, morniga, spirulina, chlorella, Ashwaganda beet root powder,cumin, cinnamon, ginger, kelp and stevia.
Hope something in this long answer is of use to you.
Wow, I wish you were my mom! You are really doing healthy things.