Posted by Larry Hoover on June 30, 2003, at 9:11:46
In reply to Celiac disease and depression, posted by Deb R on June 29, 2003, at 2:50:25
> My Mum has schizophrenia and in a recent blood test they tested for celiac disease. She was positive to two of the indicators, not enough for them to say a definite yes......so an endoscopy is next on the list.
Deb, check out this article. An exorphin is a small protein fragment (peptide), which by coincidence, happens to bind to opiate receptors. Our own bodies actually use short peptides to regulate the "opiate" system, so exorphins can be thought of as diet-derived hormone mimics. There have been a number of different exorphins identified that arise from digestion of gluten, and also casein (milk protein).
Schizophr Bull. 1988;14(4):489-94.Genetic hypothesis of idiopathic schizophrenia: its exorphin connection.
Dohan FC.
Medical College of Pennsylvania, Eastern Pennsylvania, Psychiatric Institute, Philadelphia 19129.
This brief overview proposes a testable oligogenic model of the inheritance of susceptibility to idiopathic schizophrenia: "abnormal" genes at each of a few complementary loci. The model is based on my assumptions as to the likely genetic abnormalities at possibly four or five interacting loci that would permit exorphins, the opioid peptides from some food proteins, especially glutens and possibly caseins, to go from gut to brain and cause symptoms of schizophrenia. Exorphins may reach the brain cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in harmful amounts because of their genetically increased, receptor-mediated transcellular passage across the gut epithelial barrier plus decreased catabolism by genetically defective enzymes. A schizophrenia-specific, genetically enhanced affinity for exorphins by opioid receptors influencing dopaminergic and other neurons would permit sustained dysfunction at low CSF exorphin concentrations. Tests of each postulated genetic abnormality are suggested. This model is supported by a variety of evidence, including a significant effect of gluten or its absence on relapsed schizophrenic patients, the high correlation of changes in first admission rates for schizophrenia with changes in grain consumption rates, and the rarity of cases of schizophrenia where grains and milk are rare.
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:237849
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030624/msgs/238102.html