Feed Your Brain explores the link between diet and mental health, and how food influences brain function. How what you eat — or don’t eat — can change the way you feel, and even affect your ability to learn new things, remember past events and sharpen your focus.
While cholesterol remains a contentious issue – for good reason – there’s nothing contentious about homocysteine. A high level is a known risk factor for the development of dementia (especially Alzheimer’s), stroke, and cardiovascular disease (CVD). In most people, homocysteine is easily controlled, without the use of medication. That so few people know about it is nothing short of a scandal.
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Imagine eating something that quickly causes a dramatic change in personality and behaviour. Or perhaps just creates a mental fog, or a depressed mood. Does that sound like a powerful drug, or mind-altering substance? It’s neither of those. It’s something most people eat every day.
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You know when you’ve been triggered. Once you’ve had time to reflect, you also know that your anxiety or fear was probably an overreaction to a relatively trivial event. It’s easy enough to reason with yourself on a conscious level, but subconsciously it’s difficult to control your emotions.
That’s because you’ve been hijacked.
A study published in October 2021 found that “a meat-free diet was associated with poorer psychological health.” This review may be highly significant, but it does not prove that a vegetarian diet causes mental health problems. It just highlights a strong relationship between two factors. Association is not causation, after all.
This review may be highly significant, but it does not prove that a vegetarian diet causes mental health problems. It just highlights a strong relationship between two factors. Association is not causation, after all.
Vitamin D may be associated with bone health, but there is so much more to this hormone-like vitamin. When it comes to the brain, it protects neurons from damage and is involved in the transmission of messages. It is essential for the regulation of healthy mood and memory.
A broad spectrum of neurological disorders has been linked to vitamin D insufficiency. These disorders include depression, schizophrenia, dementia (including Alzheimer’s disease), and Parkinson’s disease.
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FMT is highly effective in the treatment of antibiotic-resistant gastrointestinal infection caused by the bacterium Clostridium difficile, or C. diff. C. diff frequently arises after a course of antibiotics and is often fatal. FMT works by altering the patient’s microbiome, the collection of living microorganisms in the gut. It all begins with research. Now, with what we know about the gut-brain connection, and the role that bacteria play in influencing the mind, FMT has sparked interest in the field of mental health research too.
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Your brain is like a powerful command centre, surrounded by a wall to prevent enemy elements from breaching security. Damage to the wall undermines the strength of the command centre. The blood brain barrier is that wall. If compromised, the brain is left vulnerable to assault and subsequent mental health problems
Read moreFeeding potato chips to rats makes them want more, even when they are already full. Humans are remarkably similar. Open that bag and you know how it will end. Even so, go easy on yourself; you’re not weak, you’re normal. Your brain is responding the way it is programmed to respond. The trick is to short-circuit the system — the brain’s reward system.
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Beyond the runner’s high lies a biochemical process that is part of the brain’s growth and repair system. Central to that process is a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). BDNF protects existing brain cells from damage. It strengthens the synapses (a synapse is the structure between nerves, through which messages are transmitted), and helps form new synapses. BDNF is also involved in a process called neurogenesis, the creation of new brain cells.
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Sugar makes you fat, which is bad enough. But can it really make you depressed? Clinically depressed, even? The evidence is compelling, and it’s a journey that starts with a mild blood sugar imbalance and can end with serious mental illness. Each step of that journey is fuelled by sugar, or more specifically, glucose.
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