I have had schizophrenia for about 7 years now. However, my mom found an alternative treatment to medication that may actually work. I have been treated by a natural wellness center for about 6 years now. And I have had no hospital stays for 4 years. I’m hardly on any many medication, have been so for 2 years now and feel very normal. I wanted to share this after seeing the terrible existence of some of you from being on pharmaceutical drugs. Research Dr. Hoffer and orthomolecular vitamin therapy. People are usually skeptical of vitamins, I was at first, but not anymore. We took a hair analysis test and discovered that I had excessive copper in my body, toxic metals, and many mineral imbalances. After about years everything is all in balanced and my symptoms are gone. Vitamins can correct all of this but it is too long to explain. So check it out - Dr. Hoffer and Orthomolecular medicine. Its working very well for me.
It’s all rubbish actually.
Vitamin therapy doesn’t work for people with schizophrenia. Who says that? Why Dr. Hoffer himself. He watered down his claims, and said that it doesn’t work for “chronic” schizophrenia, i.e. the permanent kind. Let me know if you find the temporary kind anywhere, lol.
This post should be in unusual beliefs and not health and recovery.
Edit: What meds are you on?
Its great that you’re doing pretty well - have you had any other changes in your life the past 4 years? How do you keep stress low? Do you work or have any outside activities? Do you hear voices or other hallucinations? How have they changed over time. Many people have psychosis go away by itself without any help - so perhaps you fall into that category.
There is some significant evidence that some nutritional supplements and therapy helps with schizophrenia but its not with Dr. Hoffer’s vitamins he researched (from what researchers tell us now). We have a page on Complementary therapies here: Vitamins and Complementary and Natural Treatments - Schizophrenia.com
Unfortunately the work that Dr. Hoffer did was never able to be duplicated by other scientists. Back in the 1970s people tried but could not duplicate his vitamin C, Niacin, etc. research that in early tests he thought showed potential to help people. People later found many problems with his original work.
We cover the review of that research here:
Summarized here:
Niacin and Nicotinic Acid - the marketing of niacin (also known as vitamin B3 and Nicotinic Acid) as a “cure” for schizophrenia began over 30 years ago by Dr. Abraham Hoffer. In what must surely be classified as one of the most “optimistic” viewpoints ever to hit the field of schizophrenia Dr. Hoffer continues to push this approach despite significant amounts of research to the contrary. We believe that this is a very good reason to be skeptical when anyone claims any cure for schizophrenia. When a cure is finally discovered for schizophrenia, you should expect to see it on the covers of every major newspaper and magazine in the world. Dr. Irwin David Irwin of Vancouver, Canada summarizes the current view of Dr. Hoffers Theories - which even now still gets covered in newspapers and public forums - in this statement in a letter to the Editor of the Vancouver Sun newspaper:
"At a time of real progress in treatment of schizophrenia, Dr. DeMarco has written about an approach which Dr. Abram Hoffer and others developed in the 1950s, but which by the 1970s was proven to be fruitless. The work of Dr. Hoffer and others is discussed in detail in the American Psychiatric Association Task Force Report, July 1973, which points out methodological flaws in the early work and reviews later studies which failed to show any benefit for such treatments.
In recent years, new medicines, with improved side-effect profiles and techniques to overcome problems with social and occupational functioning, have been well proven advances for the treatment of schizophrenia. Early intervention programs should prevent some of the serious dysfunction of the disease.
Serious illnesses like schizophrenia require proven treatments. Vitamin treatments as “alternative” therapy for schizophrenia should not be recommended.
David Irwin, MD
Department of Psychiatry
Vancouver General Hospital
Source: The Vancouver Sun, January 23, 1998 "