Week No 45 | 06/11/2019

Mental health and protein

Never has there been a more important time to step back and look at the bigger picture that’s driving our current burden of health challenges, most of which are theoretically preventable. Suicides and mental health problems have hit new highs in our modern, industrialised world. Drugs remain the mainstay for treatment yet they provide benefits for surprisingly few. The causes are increasingly being linked to biochemical, social and emotional imbalances, aggravated by particular genetic, nutritional and lifestyle profiles, as well as the chemicals to which we’re exposed. That makes the problem ecological and social, as much as it is medical. It needs fixing from the ground up, akin to reforesting wasteland after bulldozers or fire have razed the forest that was once there to the ground.

Our first piece, inspired by it being International Stress Awareness week, feeds you rare morsels from one of the world’s leading nutritional psychiatrists, US-based James Greenblatt MD, taken from his recent presentations in London that Meleni and Melissa in our team attended. It’s a reminder that years of clinical practice and experience can often yield information that is more valuable to outcomes than consensus taken from clinical trials published in peer reviewed journals.

Our second piece is on protein - the all important macronutrient that, somewhat perversely, despite its seminal importance in our diets, gets a lot less air time than its stable mates, carbs and fats. Stranger still, given that carbs should be more correctly classified as ‘conditionally essential’ and not ‘essential’. We’ve also got another video for you that Ellen’s compiled, to help drive some of the key points home.

In our news round-up, you’ll find stories about planned genetic tests for all UK-born babies, Google’s buy-out of Fitbit, as well as findings from studies on the effects of ultra-processed foods on kids, the massive decline in arthropod numbers in Germany, why moving more and eating seasonally will keep you healthy for longer.

In health, naturally

Rob Verkerk PhD

Founder, executive and scientific director

Suicide: the hidden epidemic

06/11/2019

Nutritional Psychiatry: an upstream, biological model of addressing mental health dysfunction