Journal of Psychosomatic Research, Vo1.22, p. 355. 0 Pergamon Press Ltd. 1978. Printed in Great Britain.
"CAN THE FOOD WE EAT DRIVE US MAD?"
Richard
Mackarness
MB BS DPM
Broadacre Longparish Nr. Andover Hampshire
Psychosomatic research has come to be regarded by most people as being concerned with psyche influencing soma, not the other way round, but in my work at the Clinical Ecology Research Unit at Basingstoke and in the Out-patient Department connected with it, I study the effects of changes in the body affecting the mind. The subject is known as Clinical Ecology and this is concerned with the effects of hypersensitivity in certain susceptible people to specific factors in the non-living physical environment. In practice this means that an attempt is made to identify the foods and chemicals which may be causing adverse reactions in the brain. If it can be commonly accepted that certain tissues can become the target organs of an unsuspected allergy to a food or chemical, then, if the central nervous system becomes involved, the resulting signs and symptoms may be neurological or psychiatric. In this way, a person may actually appear to be mad after eating a certain food. The methods of identifying the causative foods and chemicals are described with illustrative case histores which brings out the important points made in the book "Not all in the mind". A short film was shown on the subject.
355
"CAN THE FOOD WE EAT DRIVE US MAD?"
Richard
Mackarness
MB BS DPM
Broadacre Longparish Nr. Andover Hampshire
Psychosomatic research has come to be regarded by most people as being concerned with psyche influencing soma, not the other way round, but in my work at the Clinical Ecology Research Unit at Basingstoke and in the Out-patient Department connected with it, I study the effects of changes in the body affecting the mind. The subject is known as Clinical Ecology and this is concerned with the effects of hypersensitivity in certain susceptible people to specific factors in the non-living physical environment. In practice this means that an attempt is made to identify the foods and chemicals which may be causing adverse reactions in the brain. If it can be commonly accepted that certain tissues can become the target organs of an unsuspected allergy to a food or chemical, then, if the central nervous system becomes involved, the resulting signs and symptoms may be neurological or psychiatric. In this way, a person may actually appear to be mad after eating a certain food. The methods of identifying the causative foods and chemicals are described with illustrative case histores which brings out the important points made in the book "Not all in the mind". A short film was shown on the subject.
355
