Hello, new user here, excited about the fairly rapid recovery from schizophrenia I had sustained. My history since my first break consisted of three hospitalizations, and paliperidone injections that I first resisted, then eventually accepted for a year or so, before switching to 6mg oral.
I had been experimenting with Piracetam before that time, taking arbitrary amounts (spoonfuls), not knowing that it increased blood-brain barrier permeability, which may be a cause of schizophrenia.
I was also living in a basement room well below ground level, which was like a reservoir for the exhaust from cars that regularly passed by in front. There are now studied correlations between pollution and schizophrenia, and I wish I had known better than to stay in there for a decade.
There was a two-month period of supposed recovery after getting off injections and refusing medication, while I was living away from home. I was fairly stable until going back to my pollution-filled room and experiencing symptoms again, where I voluntarily got back on meds.
Resistance to medication was a constant, but I am on it now for the long haul, before I feel good enough to taper it down with a doctor’s guidance.
I had come across Dr. Hoffer’s adrenochrome hypothesis which somewhat explains the tendency for someone to have a psychotic break after an intense, stressful event, since some kind of physiology issue is preventing the person from breaking adrenaline down properly, causing it to oxidize and form adrenochrome, which causes the LSD-like effects that schizophrenia is characteristic of. Hoffer’s theory is that Niacin can prevent noradrenalin from becoming adrenaline, therefore reducing the amount of adrenochrome formed. It really does reduce symptoms, but can’t quite be called a cure for people who are seriously affected. Also, you must keep taking it to experience the reduction of symptoms so it’s even less of a cure in that regard. Vitamin C also slows down the oxidation of adrenaline, so it is often used in conjunction with Niacin.
Around this time I had been getting sleepier and sleepier during the day, as if my body was giving out. Caffeine would just make me feel wired and fatigued, where I still wanted to lie down. Sleep was just not restful, as I was having marathon 12 hour sleeps with hour long naps before noon. Some research lead me to believe that it was adrenal fatigue, which also leads to heavy metal buildup since the adrenal system is no longer as adept at removing the heavy metals that people tend to consume with the average diet. In my case, copper toxicity was a guess as to why I was having intense intrusive thoughts and a generally bad time, thinking too much, trancing out, and experiencing the gamut of symptoms that schizophrenia is known for (including severe sociophobia, which I was having a bad amount of during the burned-out days.) I had a hell of a time dealing with more than one source of sound at a time, feeling that my thoughts could interact with people only specifically when my “guard” was down and I’m trying not to focus on them. Completely abnormal state of mind. The pressure in my head was so great at times that I had to literally get over my fear of death and make peace with The Creator to even go out and be around people.
I tried more vitamins, like supplementing zinc and magnesium, tried a bit of chelation, and even some cognitive-behavioral therapy (like Dr. Gupta’s ME/CFS program, which promises a drug-free CFS cure with the force of will. It works a little bit, but not nearly enough.) None of these cured the heart of the problem, which was adrenal fatigue, and a weak blood-brain barrier that was sensitive to dietary factors.
I moved upstairs around this time (no more car exhaust, woohoo), and hunted around for more treatment possibilities. This was when I came across Victoria Everett and “ric”, who are people that basically cured themselves with a strict raw 80/10/10 diet, and stayed cured as long as they adhered to it. I had to try. It did reduce symptoms somewhat but not satisfactorily, after a few weeks (though Victoria claimed total relief after even one day of dietary change.) Also, it did nothing for my chronic fatigue, I was a mess. Still drink smoothies regularly though, but my biggest improvement was due to taking Protandim.
Enter Protandim, which is a combination of five herbs that are effective at activating Nrf2 genes, that increase the synthesis of superoxide dismutase and catalase, which are tremendous at training your own body to fight off free radical damage, without having to consume gallons of antioxidants.
The first hit when you google “Nrf2 disregulation schizophrenia” is a study implicating Nrf2 disregulation in the cause of schizophrenia.
The Protandim manufacturer, LifeVantage, claims that their particular combination of herbs is 18x more effective than taking them individually. The combination seems to work well enough.
The beauty of Protandim is that LifeVantage lists the recipe on their patent, so just combine the herbs as below to create the same thing, for maybe 1/5 the price:
Milk thistle (80% Silymarin) (225 mg)
Bacopa 50% (Bacosides) (150 mg)
Ashwagandha (20% Withanolides) (150 mg)
Green tea (90% Polyphenols 50% EGCG) (75 mg)
Curcumin (95% curcuminoids) (75 mg)
The amounts given are for one dose. The Protandim manufacturer’s website says there is no harm in taking more than one dose a day, but still, exercise caution. Also, no purchase links are provided to avoid implications of shilling.
So, within the first day of taking it my anxiety went down, and I felt somewhat more comfortable. Still didn’t want to go on trips to the store or anything that would have taken me out of my comfort zone. Also, it was much too early for significant Nrf2 gene activation, which was the main point of taking it.
Improvement was gradual, the pressure in my head began to subside, anxiety kept dropping bit by bit, and every day felt like a new breakthrough of improvement. I also started needing less sleep in the middle of the day, which was a clear sign that my adrenal fatigue issue was being healed. At present I barely even need to lie down for 5 mins, and this is with less than one month of taking Protandim. Mind you, I’ve been taking it 3-4 times a day, at 800 mg doses.
At the moment I feel slightly unnerved at being around other people, but it’s far from the ordeal it was a short while ago. Just keep getting more and more comfortable. Also, hallucinations are way, way down.
So, my current regimen is basically this:
6mg Paliperidone
500mg Niacin x3 (no-flush)
1g Vitamin C x3
10,000 IU Vitamin D3 (one pill)
A multivitamin
The “Budwig mixture”, which is 2 parts low-fat cottage cheese with 1 part flax oil and 2 tablespoons of flax or chia seed, blended with an immersion blender. The flaxseed oil’s omega-3 fats react with sulfur proteins in cottage cheese and become water-soluble, allowing them to be more bioavailable. The mixture goes rancid very quickly though, so it can’t be made in bulk.
800mg Protandim powder in tea 3-4 times a day
A green smoothie of two bananas, an apple, and a bunch of spinach plus a cup of water, spaced out through the day
A low-fat diet, as long as there is no gliadin-containing grain. Limited dairy, just some 2% milk in tea, and cottage cheese. I’m eating meat here and there and still feel okay, so the diet is not strict. Just be careful with fish, mercury issues. Also, may want to limit fats besides omega 3.
Just wanted to share the wealth. I wish I had known about Protandim way sooner, plus this was done on a budget.
Also there is an Nrf1 formula of Protandim that has Coenzyme Q10, Alpha-Lipoic Acid, Quercetin, Rhodiola, and Grape seed extract that they don’t give the ratios out for. I’m going to try it with a 1:1:1:1:1 mixture eventually and see how it goes (takes a few weeks to ship the ingredients.) Probably will be too late to notice a serious improvement since the Nrf2 formula is making such a difference, though.