Mental and Neurological Disorders 107
an orthomolecular physician in Australia. Reading found a link
between celiac disease, an inherited digestive disorder caused by intol-
erance to wheat gluten, and Down syndrome. He contends that if a
woman whose fetus is allergic to wheat eats wheat products during
pregnancy, it can cause a doubling of chromosome 21 in the fetus.
The result is Down syndrome, a form of mental retardation that is
caused by the extra chromosome, because it triggers the production
of chemicals the body doesn’t need. These clog the blood vessels, pre-
venting the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the brain cells. Inad-
equate supplies of brain “food” explain the low IQ and emotional
instability of Down syndrome victims. Reading’s study of eighteen
children with Down syndrome substantiates his premise. It showed
that a diet free of wheat products vastly improved the mental func-
tions of these youngsters.^7
The gluten in grain may also cause schizophrenia and depression in
people allergic to it by depleting the supply of the minerals zinc, cal-
cium, magnesium, iron, and manganese, and vitamins B 1 , B 3 , B 12 , and
folic acid. Mental disorders, like other degenerative diseases, probably
didn’t become a problem until the cultivation of wild grain plants
began.^8 Thus it’s not surprising that mentally disturbed people feel
more balanced on a diet that emphasizes meat, vegetables, and saturated
fats, and avoid food products made of grain as well as polyunsaturated
oils.
Signs of the onset of schizophrenia are a change in behavior, atti-
tude, and personal appearance that can’t be explained. But this isn’t
always the case. The fi rst sign of schizophrenia in Helen, a middle-aged
woman who was as stable and free of complexes as anyone I know, was
a hallucination, a symptom that ordinarily occurs when the disease is
well advanced. Helen and her husband live on the fl oodplains of a small
rural town north of Seattle where, along with most of the other farmers
in the area, they grow tulips. One day Helen was sitting on her front
porch gazing at a large fi eld of red tulips across the street when the
tulip blossoms suddenly broke off from their stems and began doing the
polka. Helen recognized this vision as a symptom of schizophrenia, and
the doctor confi rmed her diagnosis when a blood test revealed excess
kryptopyrroles in her blood and urine. (Kryptopyrroles are also
referred to as the “mauve spot” because of the reddish color they give
urine.) Helen’s hallucinations disappeared as abruptly as they had come