Dr. Chris Palmer: Diet & Nutrition for Mental Health | Episode 99
Main Takeaways
Dr. Palmer struggled with depression and metabolic syndrome and cured his metabolic syndrome by following a modified Atkins diet.
After changing his diet, Dr. Palmer noticed an improvement in his mood, energy, cognition, and sleep.
Dr. Palmer began offering a modified Atkins or keto diet to patients and noticed remarkable success in treating depression and schizoaffective disorder.
Adherence is difficult with any diet, but the ketogenic diet is great as a treatment protocol because it can be measured to ensure compliance.
Intensive support is necessary to make the diet easy and doable, and negative reinforcement is used to help patients adhere to the diet.
The first variable to consider when prescribing a diet is current weight, and a thin person needs a lot of fat.
The ketogenic diet was developed in 1921 as a treatment for epilepsy and is now an established treatment for the condition.
Mitochondria are the energy factories of cells and provide energy for the production and release of neurotransmitters. The ketogenic diet stimulates mitophagy and mitochondrial biogenesis, which improve mitochondrial health.
Mitochondrial dysfunction is associated with nearly every physical and mental health disorder and disorder of aging.
Alcohol disrupts the way the brain uses all fuels, and reward pathways are metabolically compromised in alcoholics.
