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Call this the crazy-butt theory, but it's a series of little things that
I've noticed.  It has to do with lysine.

Lysine is an essential amino acid that (if I'm reading it right) gets
linked to glutamine/glutamate by transglutaminase during a gluten
reaction.  Do I have this right?

If so, an undiagnosed celiac who is living on the usual diet of pizza,
pasta and po' boys is tying up a lot of lysine.

Lysine is necessary to convert niacin from tryptophan, hence a
deficiency of lysine could result in a deficiency of niacin.

Why would this be important?

First, niacin is a vaso-dilator.  That refers to the niacin flush.  Some
of us get it, some of us don't.  I think not getting it is an indicator
that something is not quite right...

Second,  whether or not you agree with Dr. Abram Hoffer and his use of
niacin on people with  schizophrenia,  something was going on...a
deficiency of both lysine and niacin might be what was going on

Third, niacin is used to lower cholesterol.  This is think is the
interface of scenario one and scenario two.  If schizophrenia is related
to cholesterol metabolism, I think the role of niacin needs to be traced
out here.

So lysine might rate-limit niacin, if you don't get enough bio-available
niacin in your diet.

What would limit lysine?

An on-going gluten reaction?  A biotinidase deficiency?  An acquired
biotinidase deficiency?  (I just threw that in to see if you were paying
attention...most biotinidase deficiencies seem to be diagnosed in babies
and thought to be rare...sort of like...celiac disease)

Curiously enough, the amount of available lysine is significant in
digestion of wheat, corn and rice...i.e. we know that corn is
notoriously lysine deficient.  The availability of protein from corn is
limited to the amount of essential acids that are available...since
lysine is scarce, use of corn protein is restricted to the part that
includes lysine.  So those of us who have problems with rice (as well as
corn) might want to look into the possibility of  mixing rice with
lysine-rich foods...beans, amaranth and quinoa.  MAYBE this accounts for
the indigestibilty that some of us have with rice...  anecdotally, it
works for me.

So what I am suggesting is that a massive tie-up of lysine is going to
cause other problems. Maybe it's that lysine - glutamine cross linking.
One of my heroes is Dr. Curtis Dohan who a long time ago notice that
there was a higher incidence of celiac disease in the families of his
patients with schizophrenia.  This was when CD was thought to be rare.

We can only make progress on this when we start noticing the little
stuff, the metabolic quirks that make us unique.  Thanks to this forum,
for getting enough of us together.  Thank you, Valerie, for not letting
this topic slip away....

Rebecca Markle
Erie, PA

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