More on schizophrenia

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We have had an interesting time in the past few weeks since I last

posted. We have learned that the surgery did not really help our son,

as we thought it had. What was really going on is that he is affected

by a very severe intolerance or brain allergy to mold! During our dry

summers the mold is very slight or goes away, and during our very wet

but mild rainy season, which lasts 9 or 10 months, there must be a lot

of mold in the air because two year in a row he was doing well at the

end of September and then he got worse over the period of a couple of

weeks when the rains started.

 

Last year our otho doctor finally put him on 9 grams of niacin a day

beginning in September, after messing around for 4 months with other

vitamins and after 3 weeks he was normal, but only for about a week.

Later we thought it might be because of mold and I tried a bunch of

cleaning and put air filters in the house but it did not do any good.

 

To keep this post from getting too long I am going to skip to our

solution. We have learned that if he takes enough niacin, with vitamin

C, the mold reaction is eliminated, but he has to take an unusual

amount of niacin. He need about 35 grams of niacin a day to stay well.

I tried lowering it to 30 grams and he had negative symptoms, but then

I gave him 15 grams and 3 hours later he was normal again. When

symptoms are caused by an intolerance or allergy then it only takes a

few hours for the symptoms to go away IF the person takes enough

niacin (they also need vitamin C or it does not work, we found that

out with my husband's asthma). If you take a little less than enough

then there will be NO improvement, it seems like there would be an

in-between, but there is not. Because of this, people who are trying

to figure out how much niacin is enough should keep raising the dose

until they get better or until they reach 40 grams in one day, divided

into 3 doses. I say 40 grams because I don't think that anyone would

be likely to need more than that and if there is no improvement at 40

grams then intolerance is probably not the cause of their symptoms and

they need to try other things instead, and just take 2-6 grams of

niacin a day.

 

Niacinamide can not be taken in such large doses because 10 grams is

about the max and very few people can take so much without getting

nausea and vomiting. Because of that, anyone who wants to test for a

few days at a very high level, (this is how I discovered that it

helped my son,) should use either regular niacin or hexanicotinate,

which is the inositol form of niacin. A few people get nausea from

hexanicotinate and regular niacin, but not nearly as many as from

niacinamide. If a person gets nausea, they may have to take some of

each kind in order to be able to take enough.

 

Regular niacin will cause flushing, which can be rather painful if you

get a very strong flush, but it is harmless and goes away within an

hour. Once you have a strong flush you can avoid having another strong

flush by taking more niacin every 2 or 3 hours, raising the dose a

little each time, until you reach the dose you want. The idea is not

to let the blood levels drop. Once you work yourself up to a high dose

the flush becomes very slight or goes away completely. My son had a

slight flush when he took 10 grams a day, but now he has no flush or

any other side effects at all. You should not take it on an empty

stomach until you are used to it because it can also cause a sort of

hypoglycemic reation with low blood sugar when it is taken on an empty

stomach, but this has never been a problem with my son so I guess that

when you take it in large doses and your body is used to it that

doesn't happen so much. Regular niacin has the advantage of being less

expensive than hexanicotinate, and it also raises the blood levels of

niacin very quickly, getting results in a matter of hours after you

reach a high enough level.

 

Hexanicotinate is non flush. With children I would always use this

form, an adult may choose to take regular niacin for its quick acting

properties. The disadvantage is that I have read that it takes 3 days

for the blood level of niacin to peak after taking it, and so you may

not get results as quickly. It may take 2 or 3 days longer to get

results and then you will need to lower the dose back a couple of days

and experiment around to find a mainenance level. You have to check

the label to see how much niacin is in each capsule. Usually it takes

4 capsules of hexanicotinate to make 1 gram of niacin.

 

2-5 grams of vitamin C must be taken 3 times a day with the niacin for

a total of 6-15 grams a day. Children can take 1/2 their age in C

divided into 3 doses, actually they can take up to their age in

vitamin C divided into 3 doses as long as that dose does not give then

loose stools or diahrrea. I think I would not go up to 40 grams with a

child, but I would give them less depending on their weight.

 

It is amazing to see our son going from being half zombie like from

negative symptoms to being talkative and happy, looking us in the eye

when he talks to us, all in a matter of a few hours. I hope that this

post enables other people to experience the same thing. I don't know

what percentage of people with schizophenia this will help, but I

think it could help quite a few, it is worth trying. With

hexanicotinate you could probably take 20 grams the first day and 30

the second and 40 the third, if you needed to go that high, but each

person is different in what they can take.