Toxicosis
Since the time of Hippocrates it has been understood that symptoms of most diseases, other than degenerative disorders where irreversible organic damage has been sustained, represent the efforts of the body to eliminate toxins (4).
Any substance, endogenous or exogenous, that cannot be utilized by the cells is recognized as toxic and eliminated. When elimination is impaired, toxins accumulate. The cells adapt to toxicosis, but when levels of toxin become intolerable the body initiates a detoxification process.
Toxicosis is the true disease, and what we call disease is remedial action, a complex of symptoms caused by the vicarious elimination of toxins. Recovery from disease is not because of remedies but in spite of them. The illusion that remedies cure disease is based on the periodicity that characterizes functional disorders.
When levels of toxin are reduced to the toleration point, the sickness passes and health returns. But the true disease is not cured. With continued enervation toxins again accumulate and another crisis occurs. Unless the causes of toxicosis are discovered and removed, crises will recur until functional derangements give way to irreversible organic disease.
In 1848 Thomas Sydenham, the English Hippocrates, wrote,
"[a] disease, however much its cause may be adverse to the human body,
is nothing more than an effort of Nature who strains with might and main to restore
the health of the patient by the elimination of the morbific matter" (5).
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The etiology of nervous and mental disease
Toxicosis is widespread in neurons, and the concept that symptoms of nervous and mental disease represent the body's action to eliminate toxins is not new (4, 6). Genetic predisposition may influence which tissues are susceptible to disease, or there may be a specific defect, but the development of symptoms of most nervous and mental disorders depends on environmental factors.
"Synthesis of monoamine oxidase (MAO) may eventually be inhibited in depression and stimulated in mania, accounting for the shift in symptoms of persons with manic-depressive disorder." Van Winkle
"When the MAO inhibitor iproniazid, which is similar to drugs still used in the treatment of depression, was administered to rats, there was an increased excretion of methylated metabolites (25).
The use of iproniazid has been linked to relapses in schizophrenia, which is further evidence that toxicosis results in symptoms, in this case intensified by the administration of a drug." Van Winkle
"Pathology in the human brain
Unequivocal evidence for toxicosis in mental illness is found in the pathology of the human brain." Van Winkle
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"The end of mental illness and violence
The toxic mind theory, by providing an understanding of the physiological effects of toxicosis on behavior, will have a positive influence on the way people deal with emotions in everyday life, on the development of therapeutic methods, and on measures taken by society to eliminate violence.
When a theory is found that can help prevent and relieve suffering by explaining the causes of disease, a decision to embrace such a theory is ultimately a decision to support life itself. An understanding of the biology can provide the basis for therapy and self-help measures that will alleviate a wide variety of disorders.
Hopefully, the toxic mind theory will provide knowledge useful to everyone--abused children, parents, the mentally ill and all addicts, therapists, physicians, educators, religious leaders, government officials, the courts, prisoners, and those in charge of rehabilitation.
Proper nutrition is essential to prevent deficiencies and toxicosis. Exogenous toxins are particularly likely to accumulate in the hypothalamus and in some cases may be the primary cause of symptoms.
Dietary changes are known to alleviate symptoms of nervous and mental disease (6, 40, 41), and it is well known that when the nutrition of prisoners is improved the likelihood of violence is diminished. This is because avoiding stimulant foods decreases the severity of detoxification crises." Van Winkle
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1. Friedhoff AJ, Van Winkle E. Isolation and characterization of a compound from the urine of schizophrenics. Nature 1962; 194: 897-898.
20. Friedhoff AJ, Silva R. Catecholamines and behavior. In: Ramachandran, V. S., ed. Encyclopedia of Human Behavior, vol. 1. San Diego: Academic Press, 1994.
24. Schweitzer JW, Friedhoff AJ. The metabolism of alpha-14C-3,4-dimethoxyphenethylamine. Biochem Pharmac 1966; 15: 2097-2103.