The book, “Nutrition and Mental Illness”, states very clearly, “celiac disease may be responsible for many cases of ‘schizophrenia’. Evidence is accumulating that links various psychiatric disturbances with malabsorption caused by cereal grains, and it is becoming increasingly apparent that for many individuals, daily bread is much less than a blessing (53).”
I used to be gripped by a social anxiety and depression since I was 10, until I realized I was gluten sensitive. At that point I learned I could literally affect my ups and downs by what I ate. This is not to say I don't still have an existentialist malaise, but I realize I have the power to affect my mood swings by cutting out all flour products, most dairy and processed sugar foods.
What if Emily Dickinson’s baking bread every day was a contributing factor of her isolationist, paranoia and agoraphobia!?
According to the New England Historical Society website, Emily learned to bake bread at 14, and after attending the Amherst Academy for a few years came home. She is known to have baked bread literally every day. Her mother was in ill-health and an invalid that was the excuse for why Emily stayed home, but who knows that the bread baking contributed to her agoraphobia (fear of going outside in public), which has been linked to celiac and gut-related disturbances. A nervous collapse and breakdown happened once while she was making cake (the culprit!) and she later died from what was termed Bright’s Disease.
According to the book, "Nutrition and Mental Illness":
Symptoms of Hypoglycemia:
Fatigue, irritability, nervousness, depression and crying spells, vertigo, or dizziness, faintness, insomnia, mental confusion or forgetfulness, inability to concentrate, anxiety, phobia and fears, disperceptions, disruptive outbursts and headaches” (64).
Pyroluria
“Closely ranked in creativity to the compulsivity of the histadelic patient (low-histamine level) is the pyroluric patient. Many great people in history have shown the signs of pyroluria. Among them are the poet Emily Dickinson and the scientific philosopher and discoverer Charles Darwin.
“…Emily Dickinson and Charles Darwin may have suffered biochemical abnormalities that produced the physical and psychiatric symptoms of pyroluria. Any change in routine or involvement with people outside the family group provoked stress, which could manifest itself as a tremor, palpitations, insomnia….
“They shared boughts of depression, blinding headaches, nervous exhaustion , change of handwriting, and family dependence.” Both ended up choosing to live in an intentionally reclusive lifestyle, rarely going outside, let alone to parties or even church, “they became retiring and avoided even the closest friends, except through correspondence.” If this isn’t a diagnosis of agoraphobia I don’t know what is. Agorophobia as defined by Psychology Today:
“For some people, leaving home can be a reason to panic. Translated from Greek as "fear of the marketplace," agoraphobia refers to a fear of any place where escape may be difficult, including large open spaces or areas with crowds, as well as various means of travel. People with agoraphobia may avoid situations such as being alone outside of the home”
After all, if gluten sensitivity is linked to agoraphobia, and Emily Dickinson had symptoms of agoraphobia then it only connects that she may have had gluten-sensitivity. In which case eating bread every day would have sent her immune system into a tail spin: creating gut-brain anxiety and phobia, thus contributing to her reclusiveness. However, this disability in normal brain function would have given her the time and material to construct such intense metaphors and personifications so necessary for her poetry.
What if Sylvia Plath’s daily breakfast of white toast with jam and black coffee every morning was a recipe for undigested proteins getting into her bloodstream and causing severe anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts!?
“Celiac patients are classically very thin, and have a protruding relaxed abdomen. Facial expression is usually shriveled and drawn, suggesting a state of melancholy. In fact the psychiatric picture of the celiac child is not unlike that of the schizophrenic child. Both are dissociated from the world, weepy, and introverted. Celiac patients are also subject to mood disorders such as extreme depression and anxiety. These mood behavior swings occur after cereal grains are eaten and subside when such food is carefully avoided (54).”
Dr. Green was quoted as saying:
“Schizophrenia used to be called bread madness”
https://www.glutenfreesociety.org/bread-madness-schizophrenia-or-gluten-sensitivity/
Zelda Fitzgerald is known to have suffered from schizophrenia and later institutionalized. She is known to have drunk corn liquor and gin regularly and to excess. If she was allergic to corn, or any chemicals in the gin that wouldn't have helped. The Fitzgeralds were always drinking to excess, and toxic substances are a genuine probability for not only affecting the gut-brain balance, but also neurologically as well. Zelda painted a lot later on, and heavy metal toxicity can affect skin and brain. She suffered from “stomach problems, asthma, and eczema, all of which may have had an allergic basis. There are known immune issues associated with schizophrenia….” (67). Not to mention the hormonal imbalance of having a baby, and the lack of support from Scott leaving Zelda for months on end….
The treatments were morphine and bromides enemas, which caused her severe rashes, headaches and eczema on her face and neck. (Milford 169). It became a vicious cycle.
“diet is the crucial factor in treating gluten-sensitive schizophrenics”.
An emerging group of people with gluten sensitivity have such psychiatric and neurological disorders as schizophrenia, ADHD, depression, and bipolar syndrome, and “a higher rate” of some antibodies, said Dr. Peter H.R. Green, director of the Columbia University Celiac Disease Center in New York, another summit sponsor.
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Could it be as simple as that? Is the creative artist merely a toxic gut-brain cocktail? Not minimizing their efforts, however, a good probiotic could have helped...but we may not have had the kind of angsty writing we so love.
So maybe we really we are what we eat (and drink)!
