Curioser and Curioser

WARNING: I am not a medical practitioner, please do not take any action based on what you read here unless recommended by your doctor.

I’ve perked up a bit tonight thankfully and feel I am having interesting thoughts again, whether they can also be considered intelligent is for those more knowledgeable than me to decide.

I came round to writing this post after reading a couple of fellow bloggers’ posts about the Alice In Wonderland Syndrome that can affect migraine sufferers and thought how on its own it could be mistaken for the delusions common in schizophrenia. This is not the topic of tonight’s post but is related.

While wondering whether there really was any merit in my theory of nutritional changes to help treat serious mental illness I started considering scientific articles I’d read that suggest both the flu and covid could lead to psychosis in some cases and also how an expectant mother who contracts flu during the first trimester of pregnancy may have a child more likely to develop serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and other neurodevelopmental disorders.

Looking at the development of the organs during the first trimester all of the liver, kidneys and brain start to function near to the end.

But then what if the mother contracts flu during this time? Could a combination of the resources the mother’s body needs to fight this infection coupled with the debilitating effects of being unable to function during this time end up starving the placenta and hence unborn baby of much needed nutrients for healthy brain development. It seems so.

Maybe there is a lot more to the old saying “feed a fever, starve a cold” than there first appears.

This all makes me wonder whether pregnant women should be having more frequent blood tests to check essential vitamin levels or regular tests for viral infection.

I know I’m trying to teach the medical profession to suck eggs on this one but it was interesting to me to find out for myself with a bit of research.