MENTAL ILLNESS (Part Nine)
- no3photography
- Dec 14, 2022
- 2 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
Certainly it appears that more serious mental illness, from depression to bipolar and schizophrenia, may be alleviated or eliminated if the fundamentals of that person’s diet (aka their fuel, their building blocks) are looked to.
Drawing on decades of research, Harvard psychiatrist Dr. Chris Palmer, in his book Brain Energy, (BenBella Books, November 2020) (buy here) "outlines a revolutionary new understanding that for the first time unites our existing knowledge about mental illness within a single framework: Mental disorders are metabolic disorders of the brain. "
The book reveals:
Why classifying mental disorders as “separate” conditions is misleading
The clear connections between mental illness and disorders linked to metabolism, including diabetes, heart attacks, strokes, pain disorders, obesity, Alzheimer’s disease, and epilepsy
The link between metabolism and every factor known to play a role in mental health, including genetics, inflammation, hormones, neurotransmitters, sleep, stress, and trauma
The evidence that current mental health treatments, including both medications and therapies, likely work by affecting metabolism
New treatments available today that readers can use to promote long-term healing
Dr Palmer has, alongside guidance towards better sleep and more exercise, utilised the ketogenic diet, with the accompanying elimination of inflammatory 'vegetable' oils, to immense effect.
Georgia Ede MD has written a book called "Change your Diet, Change your Mind'.
Dr Ede "is a Harvard-trained psychiatrist specializing in nutrition science, brain metabolism, and mental health. Her twenty-five years of clinical experience include many years as a college psychiatrist and nutrition consultant at Smith College and Harvard University Health Services, where she was the first psychiatrist to offer nutrition-based approaches as an alternative to psychiatric medications. Dr. Ede speaks internationally about dietary approaches to psychiatric disorders, nutrition science, and nutrition policy reform. She is also the creator and director of the first medically accredited course in ketogenic diets for mental health practitioners. In 2022, she co-authored the first inpatient study of the ketogenic diet for serious mental illnesses ..." (source: Dr Anthony Chaffee).
Here is a conversation between Dr Chaffee and Dr Ede, entitled "The Plant-based Brain is Unhealthy" (April 2024).
The more I think about it, the more obvious it becomes to me that, if metabolic illness affects the rest of the body, then the brain has to be affected too. It seems embarrassingly simplistic to say this. And yet if we ignore the evidence that our diets affect our metabolic health, this physical and mental suffering will only increase.
When saturated fats were cited, back in the 70s by Ancel Keys, as the risk factor for heart disease, heart disease did not go down. Notice, though, how heart disease and other metabolic illness has increased with the introduction of processed vegetable/seed oils as an alternative.
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