Cause: Niacin Deficiency

... We decided to tackle the most important single problem, schizophrenia. Half of our mental hospital beds were occupied by these patients, and one quarter of all hospital beds in Canada were these patients. But there were very few tangible leads. Psychoanalysis was sweeping into North American psychiatry, and the biological psychiatrists were facing imminent defeat in their views about the nature of this disease.

Dr. Osmond and Dr. J. Smythies had discovered that the mescaline experience resembled the schizophrenic experience, and he and Smythies postulated that there might be a substance in the body with the properties of mescaline and related to adrenalin. Dr. Osmond and I developed this idea, which became known as the adrenochrome hypothesis of schizophrenia.

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Arising from this research are the following discoveries: (1) That adrenochrome is an hallucinogen, (2) that it could be made in the body. It is now known to be present and easily measured. (3) That megadoses of vitamin B-3 and ascorbic acid were therapeutic for schizophrenia. This was one of the roots of orthomolecular psychiatry and medicine as it is known today. (4) That niacin lowers cholesterol levels. This vitamin is now one of the world's standard materials for doing so. It also extends life and does not increase deaths from violent acts as some of the other compounds which lower cholesterol do. (5) The HOD (Hoffer-Osmond Diagnostic) and EWI tests for assisting in the diagnosis of schizophrenia. This is an excellent test, hardly known to the profession.

Read the full article: About Abram Hoffer M.D.