Bad brain chemistry triggers violence.

• Position: Behavior - Vitamin and nutrient therapy - Brief Article

Acts of violence in the workplace or schools often are not as random as they appear to outsiders. Parents of violent children have been telling doctors and educators for years that their kids were born with unique, disruptive, angry, defiant personalities. William J. Walsh, a senior scientist at Health Research Institute and Pfeifer Treatment Center, Naperville, Ill., backs them after 25 years of research.

A study of 24 pairs of brothers, one average and one violent, was conducted by Walsh. The results, replicated in three blind, controlled experiments, showed two distinctive patterns in the brain chemistry of violent individuals not found in their siblings. The first included an elevated copper/zinc ratio; depressed sodium, potassium, and manganese; and abnormal calcium, magnesium, and blood histamines. The other revealed very depressed copper; very elevated sodium and potassium; elevated blood histamines, kryptopyrroles, lead cadmium, iron, calcium, and magnesium; and depressed zinc and manganese.

How did this translate to behavior? Those having Type 1 levels exhibited Jekyll-Hyde behavior with episodic violence, poor stress control, and genuine remorse, often accompanied by acne, allergies, and academic underachievement. Type 2s were assaultive without remorse; pathological liars who had a fascination with fire; cruel to people and animals; and often had sleep disorders. The researchers later identified two additional distinctive, less-violent behavior types: nonassaultive delinquents who were impulsive, irritable, underweight underachievers in...