Hi, Folks -

Dr. Abram Hoffer had success with schizophrenic patients, using an orthomolecular regimen that invariably included Niacin (B3)

Deficiency of assimilable/bioavailable Niacin had been found as the root cause of Pellagra, a disease which over time could include dementia as a symptom.

Pellagra tended to appear in populations whose primary food energy source was corn meal - though it did not appear among Native Americans, who treated their corn in a specific way, soaking it in lime or other highly alkaline solution (a process someone has named "nixtamalization"). Wikipedia says:

Most of the niacin in mature cereal grains is present as niacytin, which is niacin bound up in a complex with hemicellulose which is nutritionally unavailable. In mature corn this may be up to 90% of the total niacin content.[46] The preparation method of nixtamalization using the whole dried corn kernel made this niacin nutritionally available and reduced the chance of developing pellagra. Niacytin is concentrated in the aleurone and germ layers which are removed by milling. The milling and degerming of corn in the preparation of cornmeal became feasible with the development of the Beall degerminator which was originally patented in 1901 and was used to separate the grit from the germ in corn processing.[47] However this process of degermination reduces the niacin content of the cornmeal.

This has me wondering if "Celiac Psychosis" results not from some sort of sensitivity to gluten or gliadin but as a nutritional deficiency condition due to the manner in which wheat is, or isn't, processed in modern society.

"Fortifying" bread flour with some form of Niacin seems to have ended the Pellagra epidemic that was experienced in the American South, where ground corn meal was a staple but wheat flour was used for biscuits.

So...is there something about wheat that requires a preparation process like nixtamalization but we haven't caught onto that fact yet...? Are "wheat belly" and "grain brain" really nutritional deficiency conditions of some kind...?

--hobie

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