Testimonials
A Multitude of Recoveries Through
Alternative Mental Health Treatments
Recovery from Schizophrenia
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Schizophrenia
and depression are obviously complicated
diseases and I don't claim to be an expert, but I was diagnosed as a
paranoid schizophrenic in 1976, and spent a few weeks in a psych
ward. I collected mental disability for 9 months after which I
voluntarily quit it. I found in my recovery that diet was more
effective than anything in reducing symptoms. The more I limited my
diet in nutrition the less the symptoms. I had been worried about
the
threat of nuclear war and went to live along the Mexican border in
case war happened. Still I continued to experiment with diet and by
being vegan and cutting out salt, condiments, etc. was able to work.
For safety I decided to move further south to the
Suriname
,
South
America
. After an exciting journey I arrived in that fairy tale of a
country that time passes by. I worked construction as a carpenter
and
started experimenting with the native tropical foods. The most
popular
vegetable was yuca, or cassava as the English say it. In the markets
were many venders with big quantities of the roots. I found they had
a
remarkable effect on schizophrenia and other related disease
symptoms
when eaten in restricted diets for days at a time. It made working
in
a tight intimate work crew doable and even pleasurable. I continued
to
experiment by adding 1 food at a time to a base yuca diet to see
effect.
I
returned to south
Florida
in 1983 (war or no war) and
continued my diet and construction work. There were enough South
Americans in
South Florida
so that the roots were available but hard
to find.
I
discovered the medicinal anti-oxidant element in the roots - the
cyanogenic glucosides linamarin and lotaustralin. These are
analogous
to the cyanogenic glucoside amygdalin popularized as Laetrile a
semi-synthetic version used by alternative doctors to treat cancer
in
the 1970's till the Federal Department of Agriculture and American
Medical Association accused them of peddling a worthless dangerous
treatment. The whole movement disintegrated under that pressure but
worse the research around anything containing cyanide became taboo.
The value to me was that the Laetrilist did a lot of research and
exposed the science and extent of cyanogenic glucosides in the
animal
diet at many level. Their theories may not have been 100% accurate
but
they got an A for effort in their individual battles against cancer
and the due diligence they applied to their search for answers.
In
1997 I discovered gari the course grain meal that the
Africans make from yuca. You will find a big bag of gari in most
African kitchens throughout the continent. Fresh roots and gari are
a
mainstay of their diet especially among the rural poor.
The
introduction of gari into my diet routine made it easier to
maintain day after day as it is very tasty.
Schizophrenia
is for me controllable with diet alone. I tell you how I
do it at my web site yucadiet.net. It is a simple theory that
relates
the disease to oxidation. The organic fear and and depression are
real
legitimate expressions of the organism under free radical attack and
the consequent organ and systematic degeneration that chronic
oxidative overload produces. Relieve the attack, the organism
recovers
(temporarily) and sanity and optimism return.
Remember
to keep it simple (fresh yuca, gari, decaf green tea)
(supplements during the diet limited to small amounts of B-3, B-1,
B-6, and folic acid [250 mg. ea.] )
Later
after you see what the base diet can produce by itself you can
tinker with it.
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