Could your – or your children’s – mental health struggles be due in part to nutrient imbalances?
- Marie Perez FNTP, HINT, MSTAT
- May 23
- 4 min read
Did you know that nutrient imbalances can contribute to mental health conditions? We need nutrients not just to function well physically, but mentally and psychologically too. I have had 4 clients this month where we have looked at this. The type of conditions these clients came for help with include ADHD, focus issues, brain fog, addictive behaviour, severe anxiety, depression, and extreme phobias.
There is a field of study called orthomolecular medicine. “Ortho” means to put right or straight, so orthomolecular medicine just means getting our molecules in order! It has a long history; one of its early proponents was the American chemist, biochemist, chemical engineer, and peace activist, Linus Pauling. He won the Nobel Prize twice, once as a chemist, and once as an advocate for peace and against the nuclear arms race. What follows is a very brief introduction to this field.
Later proponents of the orthomolecular medicine approach include Abram Hoffer and Carl Pfeiffer, who looked more specifically at orthomolecular medicine in relation to mental health. They discovered that some patients suffering from such varied conditions as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, depression and chronic anxiety, had fairly major nutrient imbalances. Some of these imbalances include:
Very low levels of zinc and vitamin B6
Very high or very low levels of histamine (histadelia or histapenia)
Imbalanced levels of copper
I am going to talk about the first 2 of these in this blog, and copper later as it is a subject all on its own!
Zinc and B6
There is a condition known as pyroluria which results in very low levels of zinc and vitamin B6. This condition was discovered by Dr Abram Hoffer. He discovered that some of his patients were excreting very high levels of pyrroles in the urine. Under the microscope, these pyrroles show up as a purple colour and became known as “mauve factor”.
These pyrroles are produced by the body when there is faulty breakdown of haemoglobin, the iron-containing protein in red blood cells. They then bind to zinc and vitamin B6, essentially “ripping” them out of the body, resulting in very low levels of these 2 nutrients. Zinc and B6 are essential nutrients responsible for gazillions of jobs in the body, not least the metabolic pathways of many neurotransmitters. This condition became known as pyroluria, or kryptopyroluria.
Some symptoms of this condition include:
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Urine tests for the condition are available (see pic below from a client's test). However, the “mauve factor” that is being tested for is very unstable once it is exposed to light; the test should come with a dark-coloured or obscured sample collection tube, and the collection instructions should tell you to collect the urine in a darkened bathroom.
This condition remains largely unrecognised in orthodox medicine, probably because there is no drug to treat it, just good old fashioned vitamins and minerals. This is a real shame as once recognised, it is relatively easy to treat.
Histadelia and Histapenia
Not so much a nutrient imbalance, as an imbalance in an essential molecule. We know about histamine in relation to allergic type symptoms – the itchy eyes, sneezing, swelling, rashes, hives etc of allergic reaction. There are receptors for histamine all over the body – including in the brain. Histamine is not only a mediator of allergic response, it is also an important neurotransmitter.
When levels of histamine become very high (histadelia) or very low (histapenia) in the brain, there are a number of symptoms which tend to arise (though not all histapenics and histadelics will have all symptoms):
High histamine symptoms (Histadelia)
| Low histamine symptoms (Histapenia) |
· Sneeze in bright sunlight · Shy and over-sensitive as a teen · Cry, salivate, feel nauseated easily · Hear your pulse in your head on your pillow at night · When you scratch an itch, you get another itch somewhere else on your body · Easy orgasm · Regular headaches and allergies · Depression · Fears, compulsions, rituals · Light sleeper · Suicidal thoughts · Tolerate a lot of alcohol · Little body hair, lean build · Large ears, long fingers and toes | · Mouth ulcers · Difficult orgasm · No headaches or allergies · Heavy growth of body hair · Fat in lower extremities · Dental cavities / fillings · Ideas of grandeur · Undue suspicion of other people · Seeing or hearing things abnormally · High pain threshold · Ringing in the ears
Adapted from: “Nutrition and Mental Illness – An Orthomolecular Approach to Balancing Body Chemistry” by Carl C. Pfeiffer PhD, MD |
If you tick several boxes in one of these lists then it may be worth investigating further. Histamine blood tests are hard to find (histamine has a very short half-life, blood must be tested very quickly after being drawn). However, while it does not always accurately predict histadelia/histapenia, you can test whether you have the genes needed to metabolise or clear histamine out of your system. Some genetic SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms, genetic "glitches") against the diamine oxidase (DAO) gene and the histamine n-methyl transferase (HNMT) gene have been linked to a lowered ability to be able to clear histamine:
Again, it is possible to help a patient to better metabolise histamine armed with this knowledge. That is exactly what I’m doing with one of the current clients mentioned above.
What to do with this information?
In summary, if you or someone you know has been struggling for a long time with mental health issues, has tried all the usual routes but nothing quite worked, then it may be worth looking into nutrient deficiencies and / or genetic testing. Please do book a discovery call here to find out more if this has whetted your interest. As I said, this is only a small part of this picture, it’s a huge field, more to come in future blogs. Food for thought.
Enjoy the bank holiday weekend!
Marie
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