Evolutionary Psychiatry

I'm a firm believer that many different environmental factors (including unexpected ones, such as diet, prenatal environment, and vitamin D levels) play a role in the pathology of mental illness.  While such claims are more accepted in conditions such as schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorders, could it also be true of other conditions - say anxiety or even eating disorders? Read More

There is little argument that diet has a contribution in the major diseases of civilization, such as heart disease and type II diabetes. However, the effect of diet on mental health disorders remains controversial in the conventional circles. Read More

Magnesium is a vital nutrient that is often deficient in modern diets. Our ancient ancestors would have had a ready supply from organ meats, seafood, mineral water, and even swimming in the ocean, but modern soils can be depleted of minerals and magnesium is removed from water during routine municipal treatment. Read More

In the West a few centuries ago, mental illness was considered the result of personal or spiritual failure. Read More

One of the major differences between our industrial diets of today compared to even the recent agricultural past is the massive increase in the consumption of sugar.  Tom Naughton's blog has some graphs with data that Americans consume on average 216 liters of soda annually.  A liter of soda has 108 grams of sugar.   Read More

In my last post on dopamine, I introduced this essential neurotransmitter and put forward some evidence that it is the key to the thinking style of humanity. Today we'll go over the different neurotransmitters on the different sides of the brain, and why it matters where we think.   Read More

The problem with mucking about with our biochemistry is that we are never really sure what is going to happen. For most nutrients and chemicals there are a range of acceptable amounts, though the best range may depend upon levels of something else (zinc in toxic amounts can interfere with the absorption of copper with fatal consequences, for example). Read More

What would you think if I told you that young people today likely committed violent, criminal acts in part due to poor nutrition.  What if they continued those violent acts in prison as the poor nutrition continued?  Reserve judgment for now.  This is science - let's see what the data tells us. Read More

In recent years we have been told to avoid the sun. Anyone reading women's magazines, in fact, will have been advised to put on sunscreen on face and hands "just in case" as those few moments walking from the car to the workplace or grocery store might be enough to cause aging and cancer cells to go nuts in our vulnerable skin. Read More

In my first post on diet and autism, we discussed how gluten-free casein-free (casein is a protein found in cow's milk) diets for treatment of autism had insufficient evidence to recommend them as a standard treatment. However, some new evidence has come out in the last year, with some intriguing biologic findings, which may lead future research in dietary directions.   Read More

The modern prescription of high carbohydrate, low fat diets and eating snacks between meals has coincided with an increase in obesity, diabetes, and and increase in the incidence of many mental health disorders, including depression, anxiety, and eating disorders. In addition, many of these disorders are striking the population at younger ages. Read More

Not too long ago, a friend sent me a paper* that was too good to pass up, Depression and altered serum lipids in cynomolgus monkeys consuming a Western diet. Read More

Over the weekend, I put up my first Zombieland post about phospholipids, primarily phosphatidylserine and phosphatidlycholine. These are delectable and important nutrients nature has supplied most richly in the consumption of brains (though bone marrow and eggs are perhaps more palatable sources). Read More

Part of the possible connection between diet and mental illness is how a bad diet can lead to a generalized inflammatory state. Read More