Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine Official Journal of the International Society for Orthomolecular Medicine International Standard Serial Number 0317-0209 Volume 24 Second Quarter, 2009 Number 2 Table of Contents Editorial ..............................................................................................................................................59 My Paranoid Patients Are Now My Friends A. HOFFER, M.D., Ph.D.; F. FULLER, RNCP (Cand) ................................................61 Antioxidant Vitamins Reduce the Risk for Cancer: Part Two M.J. GLADE, Ph.D., FACN, CNS .......................................................................................65 Case from the Center–Vitamin D (25-OH-D3) Status of 200 Chronically Ill Outpatients Treated at The Center J.A. JACKSON, MT(ASCP), CLS, Ph.D., BCLD(AAB); R.K. KIRBY, R.D., M.S., M.D.; M. BRAUD, M.D.; K. MOORE, B.S., MT ...............88 Oriental Medicine and Orthomolecular Medicine: Six Lyme Disease Cases Examined from Both Perspectives C. QUATTRO, P.A., DAOM, L.Ac. ...................................................................................91 ISOM News –2009 Orthomolecular Medicine Hall of Fame; 2009 Orthomolecular Doctor of the Year; 2009 Orthomolecular Medicine Today Conference Report ..............................................................................................................................100 Information for Manuscript Contributors ............................................................................110 Orthomolecular Medicine © 2009 by the International Schizophrenia Foundation. Publication Office: 16 Florence Avenue, Toronto, ON Canada M2N 1E9. Printed in Canada. Published quarterly. Reproduction without permission is prohibited. 06/09 Editors Interim Editor-in-Chief Harold D. Foster , Ph.D. Assistant Editor Andrew W. Saul, Ph.D. Managing Editor Steven J. Carter Production Editor Gregory Schilhab Contributing Editors Richard P. Huemer, M.D. Erik T. Paterson, M.B. Palmdale, California Creston, British Columbia James A. Jackson, Ph.D. Jonathan Prousky, N.D. Wichita, Kansas Toronto, Ontario Editorial Review Board Michael Gonzalez, D.Sc., Ph.D. Karin Munsterhjelm-Ahumada, M.D. San Juan, Puerto Rico Enekas, Finland Masatoshi Kaneko, Ph.D. Alexander G. Schauss, Ph.D. Tokyo, Japan Tacoma, Washington Steve Hickey, Ph.D. Gert Schuitemaker, Ph.D. Manchester, UK Gendringen, The Netherlands L. John Hoffer, M.D., Ph.D. Garry M. Vickar, M.D. Montreal, Quebec St. Louis, Missouri Editorial Offices 16 Florence Avenue, Toronto, ON Canada M2N 1E9 Telephone: 416-733-2117 Facsimile: 416-733-2352 website: www.orthomed.org e-mail: [email protected] Editorial In this issue of the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, the editorial pages have been left empty as a symbol of Dr. Abram Hoffer’s passing. For 40 years he populated these pages with his inspiring opinions, ideas and hopes. 59 Editorial 60 Editorial Hoffer blank.indd 2 7/24/09 4:29:20 PM My Paranoid Patients Are Now My Friends Abram Hoffer, M.D., Ph.D; Frances Fuller, RNCP (Cand)1 Introduction hospital under a Provincial Act. In Ontario Just before Christmas in 1960, I it is against the law to force medication. received a handwritten two-page letter Not so in the rest of Canada. from Dr. Ted Robie of New Jersey. Ted had been practising psychiatry for about What is Paranoia? forty years. He was compelled to write to Paranoid ideas are delusions that are me because, for first time in his career, his held firmly against known facts. It is there- paranoid patients had become his friends. fore a value judgement that has to balance I think that in this very brief statement he the probability that the facts used by the demonstrated the fundamental difference paranoid patient to support his delusion between standard psychiatry as practised are real. There is no doubt that many then and even now, and orthomolecular paranoids are not really paranoid but are medicine, practised by a few. responding to their altered perceptions, as You have to understand paranoid Dr. John Conolly pointed out many years patients to grasp what Ted wrote. Para- ago. A common example was the belief noid patients are fearful because of their that one’s spouse was putting poison into delusional beliefs and they do not trust one’s food. However, this could be traced very many people. Even patients who to the bitter taste that food may develop have had loving relationships with their when patients are deficient in zinc. When partners for many years will doubt them I explained to some of these patients that and, in the past, it was not unusual for the bitter taste arose from a deficiency of paranoid patients to believe their mates zinc, they were no longer paranoid. were poisoning their food. Since most There is no limit to the number of paranoid patients do not believe they are paranoid delusions patients will develop. sick and it’s the rest of the world that is Here is an example of a paranoid delusion out of order, it becomes very difficult to that forced a prisoner from Prince Albert treat them. They have had to be forced or prison to flee and kidnap several police in committed into hospital, where treatment their car. After being returned to prison he was forced upon them, and since most of told me he had to escape in order to save them did not recover, they never had a his life. He was convinced that poison gas chance to establish positive relationships was being piped into his cell. His evidence with their doctors. was that he could smell it coming from A paranoid patient in one of Ontario’s the vents. He tried to stop this by plugging mental hospitals refused to accept treat- the air vents. (Kahan, 1973). ment. He said that he preferred to deal In her second report, Kahan described with his ideas free of the drugs with their the history of a young man who killed terrible side effects. This issue was taken almost the entire Hoffman family in to the Supreme Court of Canada, which northern Saskatchewan because he had found that forcing anyone to submit to been ordered to do so by the Devil, and treatment against his or her will was this command was not countered by the against Canada’s constitution. Of course, usual advice he would get from his guard- governments have immense power to have ian angel not to do so. He died psychotic their own way. He was therefore kept in in a mental hospital. Recently in Canada, another schizo- 1. 3A-2727 Quadra Street, Victoria, BC V8T 4E5 phrenic patient was found not guilty by 61 Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine Vol. 24, No. 2, 2009 reason of insanity because he too believed perhaps we would not be in our present he was ordered by God to kill a fellow financial situation. I think also it can be bus passenger, which he did by cutting helpful to believe when driving that other off his head. drivers may actually want to hurt you, Conolly described a woman in his as long as you know this is seldom true. hospital who was very depressed because Interestingly, paranoid patients, no matter she knew her husband was dead. She how delusional and paranoid they can be, could see his ghost perched in a tree out- are gullible when it comes to other ideas, side her window. Her doctor told her hus- like falling for the billion dollar scams that band about this delusion, but would not flood the Internet. let him go into the room lest it frighten her too much. However, when no one was Why So Few Paranoid Patients Become looking, he went in anyway. She looked Friendly With Their Psychiatrists at him, fainted, and when she came to The main reason is that most of these said, “Let’s go home, John.” Confronted patients do not recognize they are sick, with reality she no longer believed that and therefore cannot be persuaded that her hallucination was his ghost. treatment will do any good. ‘In vino veri- An example of the tenacity with tas’ refers to men or women who, under which patients can hold onto their delu- the influence of alcohol, will blurt out sions was the patient who had concluded paranoid and other socially unacceptable he was dead, and could not be argued out ideas. The alcohol reduced some of their of this. When his doctor asked him, “Do social controls. Paranoid patients are very dead men bleed?” He replied, “Of course pleased when they are no longer bothered not! What a ridiculous question.” The by these repetitive intrusive ideas, and doctor followed up, “Will you allow me the odds they will become friendly with to prick your finger to see if you bleed?” the doctors who treated them increased. “Of course,” he replied and held up his Otherwise, they cannot be persuaded that forefinger. The doctor pricked the finger to get well they need correct treatment, and it bled. The patient was astounded. nor that it would be smarter on their part He exclaimed, “I did not realize dead men not to talk about their paranoid ideas. could bleed.” This delusion reminds me of In Hoffer reported by Challem (2007), the delusions held by modern psychiatry I summarized the major change that that their toxic, poisonous drugs are more has occurred from psychiatry of 1950 helpful than harmful to patients. and orthomolecular psychiatry today. In Paranoid ideas are not always in- June, 2007, a forty-year-old man came to jurious. For some occupations, being see me, accompanied by his sister. He paranoid can be very useful. I think be- had been a very busy and skilful artisan. ing paranoid is very helpful for police He told me that he had suffered from officers, for detectives, for the military, anxiety and depression most of his life, as this will prolong their lives. I think and latterly from what he described as a paranoia is advantageous evolutionally if delusional disorder, meaning he became it is not excessive, or else it would have extremely suspicious of any girlfriend, disappeared long ago.