“Our brains are intoxicated”

Javier Aizpiri is 74 years old and is specialist in neurobiology and psychiatry. National Award for Psychiatry in 1977, director of the Zamudio Hospital, head of mental health in Guipúzcoa and director of Drug Addiction of the Basque Government in 1982. He is currently medical director of the Burmuin Institute in Bilbao.

Aizpiri has verified through long years of clinical experience as an integrative neuropsychiatrist how many of the mental disorders that are treated today with drugs and psychological support can be resolved to a large extent through brain detoxification, a restful rest, physical exercise and a diet rich in nutrients, especially essential amino acids and phospholipids, the famous omegas.

“There are no diseases, only sick people”

-What are the keys to preserving brain health?
-I want to clarify a concept first: within medicine and integrative psychiatry there is no disease, there is the sick person and each person is different at a metabolic level, in their way of thinking, in their affective and emotional world, in the repercussion that it has its environmental environment in its health… So we are not talking about disease, but about sick people, and starting from this, many sick people have a lot of alterations, yes.

-I understand, and the keys…?
– An important part of the nervous system is located in the intestine, and it is very important to remember that the nervous system of a human being depends on oxygenation; therefore, physical activity, exercise, is essential for brain health. Second, it has to be well nourished, because, if there is no correct diet, the final metabolic substances that have to reach all the cells to function do not arrive and this nervous system does not work…

Gut health is essential…
-Yeah. The intestine has to be perfect, because if it does not absorb substances well, it modulates them through the flora and they pass to the liver, the liver filters everything and from the liver they go to the brain. In other words, if we do not have a perfect intestine, with proper nutrition and a liver, the brain works poorly. But there is still a third key: rest, which is vital. If we do not have enough rest for the entire metabolism to function optimally, then we do not have enough energy to be able to perform and live. Then there are other fundamental issues, such as avoiding the toxic substances that surround us and make us sick.

“The first 90 minutes of sleep are the most important”

-What do you recommend regarding rest?
-When you have good oxygenation and good nutrition, rest is easy. The first ninety minutes after eleven or eleven thirty at night are key, because they give you balance; then, the rest of the time, one will rest better or worse, will have REM sleep or not, but we are talking about rest. The first ninety minute sleep is essential for everything to work. It is the one that metabolizes well, just like the half hour nap when it is correct. When all the blood is in the intestine and has come down from the brain, then that half hour of nap recovers you for the whole afternoon.

-What toxins affect our mental health?
-When there is a poisoning (by iatrogenic, medication or by a legal or illegal poison), the brain does not work well. You are putting a substance that is blocking metabolic functioning. And here many problems arise. In our society, poisoned by environmental issues and with so many people taking benzodiazepines to sleep, we have a population with a brain in very poor condition due to permanent poisoning. I’ll give you figures. Last year, seven thousand young people were admitted to pediatric hospitals due to ethyl coma.

-They are many…
-An alcoholic coma in a fourteen or fifteen-year-old boy supposes a brain failure that will take him more than a year to recover. That to begin with, but it is that 33% of these young people, between alcohol, cannabis and other substances, are touched. These are government data on cannabis use. And then, half the adult population is taking benzodiazepines, omeprazole, ibuprofen… And, as I said, if we add to this that we live in cities intoxicated by the environment, we find ourselves at this moment with a lot of psychic symptoms produced by a malfunction of the brain. If you add one more pill to this, you won’t fix it, quite the contrary.

How does integrative psychiatry approach detoxification of the brain?
-At the Burmuin Institute we are a comprehensive work center and, when a person comes, they are given a very complete history of one hour. We perform a cognitive study, a QEEG (quantitative electroencephalogram) to study the brain and do a mapping, and we perform an aminoacidogram to find out what amino acids it is missing.

-What does it consist of?
-We check if it lacks taurine, which is important for sulfur; if you lack methionine, because without it the liver cannot create all the substances that it then has to send to the digestive system; if you lack tryptophan, an essential amino acid that is converted into serotonin, the neurotransmitter that affects our good mood… In addition, we control the pH, we follow an alkaline diet and we cleanse the body and see how it goes, depending on each person (if take toxic substances such as alcohol, cannabis, caffeine, Orfidal…). We set out a total treatment program, with objectives and time.

“We are very low in phospholipids”

What nutrients do we lack?
-Due to our diet, we are very low in phospholipids, the famous omegas. They are lipids that, as their name indicates, have phosphorus. They are essential for the stability and fluidity of cell membranes, and influence the proper functioning of brain chemistry, helping to regulate mood, memory, concentration, comprehension… They are found in oily fish (salmon, sardines, mackerel), in nuts and other plant sources.

– Any more?
-Essential amino acids such as taurine are missing, which is essential for neuronal functioning and provides sulfur to the liver system. Lack of cystine, which forms mucosa and membranes and is an important antioxidant and heavy metal scavenger. And beta-alanine is often lacking, which reduces the intramuscular pH and improves the musculature, which is very necessary in the elderly, women and vegetarians.

-Who taught you that amino acids are one of the secrets of good health?
-When I finished my medical degree, all the amino acids were in the vademecum and they were dispensed by Social Security. I have always worked with amino acids, but after the hiatus that dedicating myself to political activity in drug addiction meant for me, when I returned to medicine I saw that part of what I had learned had disappeared. A lot of basic substances were gone; the multinationals took them off the market because they were cheap, they did not have patents and it was convenient for them to sell other, more expensive things.

-When we follow a vegan diet we lack phospholipids from oily fish, for example. Can we make up for it with phospholipids from other sources, such as avocados, nuts, or microalgae, or will there always be a shortage?
It depends on the metabolism of each one. There are vegan people who have a nutritional deficit and others do not, that is, it is not only what you eat or what you eat, but it depends on how your body works metabolically. There are bodies that are perfect with a vegan diet, and on the other hand, other bodies, with the same diet, the same weight and the same amount of food, have deficiencies. That is why you have to do a medical follow-up when you decide to do a diet of this type.

“To recover an intestine it takes between 3 and 6 months”

-Do microbiota problems also influence the brain?
-At the expense of our food, half the world has a porous intestine. That is why it is important to achieve a good pH, trying to go towards pH 7-8, with a diet based on vegetables, legumes and fruits, and small fish, and very little meat, if you are not vegan or vegetarian. With a pH of 5 to 6, you are exposed to disease, because your immunity is in shambles; with a pH 6 to 7 you are in inflammation territory, while a pH 7 to 8 indicates that you are metabolically perfect and functioning. The first thing we look at is the microbiota; when the diet is right, everything works again, but people think that to heal the intestine with a pill is enough. To recover an intestine it takes between three and six months. You have to have a great discipline, a schedule and ways of eating and take it seriously.

-What makes the mind sicker, poor nutrition or environmental toxins, such as endocrine disruptors…?
-Both. Currently, degenerative syndromes produced by heavy metal poisoning and endocrine disruptors abound. These are very dangerous because they alter hormonal functions and increase cases of thyroid, breast and prostate cancer, as well as difficulties in hyperactivity processes in children.

-Mental disorders seem to improve with physical exercise and with activities that take the person out of the daily routine. For what is this?
-Physical activity oxygenates you, as I said before, allows you to sleep well, eliminates free radicals and environmental toxins from the body and all kinds of toxins from fats, so the benefit is multiple. In an experiment published in the scientific journal Journal of Neuroscience, it was also shown that when we perform physical exercise on a regular basis, the neurons that produce gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) increase in our brain, which affects the ventral hippocampus, a region of the brain linked to the regulation of stress and anxiety. As for getting out of routines, our brain is very curious and needs constant stimulation, new things.

-If it is known that the integrative approach in psychiatry gives good results, why is it not used more from conventional psychiatry?
-It is a problem of misinformation, of ignorance. People have been trained that the mentally ill have to take medication and run. You don’t see the person, but the disease. You don’t see the schizophrenic person, but the problem itself. It is more comfortable to see only the disease and medicate. But each person is a world and for each person much more can be done.