(Excerpt from my research paper titled Bhagavad Gita and Nutrition for Mental
Health of Students
presented at the World
Suicide Prevention Day's UGC Sponsored National Conference on "Educational Reforms and its Impact on
Suicidal Ideation of Students organized by Smt. Binzani Mahila
Mahavidyalaya, Nagpur, on Sept. 10-11, 2014)
The human body is a society of cells, composed of
some hundred trillion cells. And today we know that, “All living cells that we know of on this planet are DNA software driven biological machines comprised of hundreds to
thousands of protein robots coded for by the DNA software. The protein robots
carry out precise biochemical functions developed by billions of years of
evolutionary software changes.”[i]
An individual gets his
life because of the cells living in his body. And the primary tasks of the
cells are performed by their protein robots. If the nutrient
molecules required to form these
proteins are not available in the calls, the proteins cannot be formed, and the
cells sicken or die. And if the cells sicken or die, the individual also
sickens or dies.
Proteins are all chains of amino
acids linked together, and so can be formed only from the 20 amino acids found
in nature, nine of which are the essential amino acids. So in order to prevent
diseases and disorders – including mental disorders – it is important to ensure
the formation of the proteins by including adequate amounts of at least the nine
essential amino acids in our diet every day; a balanced diet must ensure the
correct balance of the essential amino acids.
As most people are ignorant about
the amino acids, educational institutions can begin conducting classes to educate
students, especially those in Home Science Colleges, about the importance of
amino acids – their exact daily requirements, their deficiency symptoms, and
the foods in which the amino acids are found.
The Amino Revolution by Robert Erdmann can serve as a good
primer on amino acids. Gopalan’s Nutritive
value of Indian foods, published by the National Institute of Nutrition,
Hyderabad, gives us the amino acid contents of all Indian foods, but it is no longer
in print. Educational institutions ought to make this book available to their
students.
Nutrition
for Mental Health
The ability to think clearly is
vital for students. Clarity of perception and thoughts depends on us having
normal or healthy states of
consciousness like the wakeful and drowsy states. And when we cannot think
clearly, our behavior also tends to become dysfunctional. So it is very
important to ensure that our brain maintains the normal states of consciousness
if we are to avoid behavioral problems and mental disorders – that is,
psychiatric illnesses.
Vander’s
Human Physiology textbook says, “The components of the RAS (reticular
activating system) that release norepinephrine, serotonin and acetylcholine are
most involved in controlling the various states of consciousness.”[ii]
When the nutrients needed to form these three neurotransmitters get depleted in
the brain, the RAS cannot form and release these neurotransmitters, and we can develop
altered states of consciousness. And
Vander’s says, “These altered states
are also characteristic of psychiatric illnesses.”[iii]
So it is important that everyone knows the nutrients needed to form
norepinephrine, serotonin and acetylcholine.
“Acetylcholine (ACh) is synthesized from
choline… Some ACh receptors respond not only to acetylcholine but to the drug
nicotine, and have therefore come to be known as nicotinic receptors… one cholinergic system that employs
nicotinic receptors plays a major role in attention, learning, and memory.
“Dopamine,
norepinephrine, and epinephrine (also known as adrenaline) all contain a catechol
ring and an amine group; thus they are called catecholamines. The
catecholamines are formed from the amino acid tyrosine… These neurotransmitters
play essential roles in states of consciousness, mood, motivation, directed
attention, movement, blood-pressure regulation, and hormone release.
“Serotonin
is
an important biogenic amine. It is produced from tryptophan, an essential amino
acid… In addition to their contributions to motor activity and sleep,
serotonergic pathways also function in the regulation of food intake,
reproductive behavior, and emotional states such as mood and anxiety. Serotonin
reuptake blockers are thought to aid in the treatment of depression.”[iv]
The
essential nutrients choline, tyrosine and tryptophan are extremely important
not only for ensuring healthy states of consciousness, but also for other vital
needs of students. When choline gets depleted, acetylcholine cannot be formed
in the body and the student’s attention, learning and memory suffer. And tryptophan
deficiency can cause symptoms of raging emotions, anxiety and depression, –
which is the primary cause of people attempting suicide – and also insomnia and
overeating or obesity.
Tyrosine’s
deficiency symptoms are more disturbing, primarily because the catecholamines
that it forms play an essential role in movement – our bodily activities,
including behavior.
And also because adrenaline, which is formed from tyrosine, gets secreted in
the blood-stream during stress – for the activation of the body’s
fight-or-flight stress response – and can quickly cause the depletion of
tyrosine during chronic stress.
A
person whose body is deficient in tyrosine can develop symptoms of blood
pressure problems, attention deficits, loss of motivation, or pep, and
disturbing moods. All these symptoms can be very agonizing and so, students often
seek relief from their agony by experimenting with alcohol or psychoactive
substances, often getting addicted to them. A few students seek relief from
psychiatrists who often end up prescribing psychoactive substances as
medication.
But
Vander’s says, “Virtually all
psychoactive substances exert their actions either directly or indirectly by
altering neurotransmitter-receptor interactions in the biogenic
amine—particularly dopamine—pathways.”[vi]
And once the drugs make the alterations in a person’s brain, the person is
unable to lead a normal life without the use of drugs, leading to drug-dependence
– addiction.
I
had been one of the toppers when I entered IIT Bombay in 1968. However, after
taking the psychiatric drug dextroamphetamine for just a week or so during one
of the IIT exams, I had got severely addicted to the drug, and remained a
drug-addict until 1990. Today the same drug, dextroamphetamine
(Dexedrine/Aderall), is being prescribed by doctors to children suffering from
attention deficit (ADD/ADHD).
To
overcome the anxiety caused by stress, students often consume alcohol. But
alcohol is a form of sugar/carbohydrate that requires niacin for its
metabolism. And so in drinkers, niacin often gets depleted, causing tryptophan
to get converted to niacin and get depleted. Thus consuming alcohol can also lead
to depression. So, it is good idea to take Niacin – vitamin B3 –
when drinking.
Bill
W., the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), started suffering from severe
depression in 1944 for over a decade. Bill finally found freedom from depression by taking large doses of niacin.
And in 1968, Bill W wrote a paper giving the result of the clinical studies on
niacin, showing that niacin is highly effective in treating Alcoholism,
Schizophrenia, Heart Diseases and other problems.
Orthomolecular Psychiatry
professionals recommend taking niacin for the prevention of depression.
Indiscriminate
prescribing of psychoactive medication by medical professionals must also be
addressed. Medical professionals began prescribing opioid analgesics –
painkillers – ever since Bayer started marketing Heroin
in 1898 and psychiatrists, psychoactive substances since the 1950s. But the
drugs they have been prescribing are so addictive that today America is facing
a prescription-drug overdoses epidemic: “Since 2003, more overdose deaths have
involved opioid analgesics than heroin and cocaine combined.”
“We can no
longer pretend that we are not aware. Regardless of what the disease is called,
its root cause is still deficiency and toxicity. The typical convention methods
of cut (surgery), burn (radiation), and poison (medication) have little effect
as they do not address these issues.” – A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, The Family and the Nation (2008)
