— If we had a dollar for every time a psychiatrist has said to us: “Those vitamins and minerals you’re studying—they can’t actually affect the brain, can they?” we’d be able to fund a great deal of research!
Many people find it hard to believe that “just” nutrition could solve mental health problems. This attitude isn’t just wrong. It’s wrong, outdated, and harmful—especially because there have been dozens and dozens of rigorous scientific studies showing that nutrition can be a vital key for preventing and treating mental disorders. But we know why these psychiatrists think this way.
Like them, we’re products of that same type of education. While in graduate school, we were barely taught about nutrition. And the few hours that were spent on it taught us that nutrition was not relevant for mental health, and that psychiatric symptoms were manifestations of chemical imbalances in the brain that could only be corrected with medications. Physicians are no different from the rest of us: for everyone, our knowledge is heavily influenced by the courses we took in school. For the last fifty years, much of that curriculum for physicians, as well as their continuing medical education, has been sponsored by pharmaceutical companies. What does this mean? It means that what they’re taught is that the treatment for brain health must focus on drugs.
It’s frustrating that physicians are usually not taught the very basics of nutrition. In the 2014 call to action entitled “A Deficiency of Nutrition Education in Medical Training” published in the American Journal of Medicine, multiple studies were summarized showing that nutrition was the single most important factor in disability and premature death, and could explain well over half of the cases of cardiovascular disease. In spite of this powerful information relating diet to physical health, medical schools were devoting fewer than twenty hours of their four-year training to nutrition. And what about mental health? Our brains demand a disproportionately large amount of the nutrients we consume, so the need for nutrition education related to mental health is even greater.
The lack of nutrition education isn’t limited to psychiatrists and family physicians. Other mental health professionals usually don’t learn about nutrition either. Teachers don’t learn about it—so their students don’t learn about it in school. As a result, most Americans don’t know that the brain metabolism responsible for the production of neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine is dependent on an ample supply of micronutrients.
Like almost all scientists, we both struggled with the concept of nutritional treatment when we first began our research. Once we engaged with the science, however, its potential was undeniably clear. We now know that there are many people with underlying risk factors, often genetic, that may make them more vulnerable to emotional distress when their diet is poor. Improve and fix their nutritional needs, and many of them can and will get better.
— Marie’s perspective: the following statement was written by Marie, looking back on her mental health over the past twenty years:
I have survived an overwhelming and dangerous journey of treatment, only to discover that what I actually needed was to feed my brain and recognize I was having a normal reaction to trauma and stress. It may sound strange to some people, but the truth is that I am well because I did not do what my doctors told me. I did not accept their diagnoses, labels, opinions, or treatment, and there were many over the years. Ultimately, I did it my way and I’m alive because of it.
The important questions for me are these: (1) Why, when we know micronutrient therapy can help bring mental and emotional wellness, do we continue to ignore it in our system of health care? (2) Why, when we know the possibilities of healing with nutrition, and that it is safe and non-addictive, do we not choose this path of treatment prior to drugs that can be damaging and addictive?
Both questions boil down to the same thing: Why, within a so-called educated society and mental health care system, do we choose to invest in the most dangerous and expensive protocol first? This is the billion-dollar question.
— Effective treatments with diet and nutrient supplements are being ignored in spite of ample scientific support because they do not fit the reigning dogma. The conventional medical model continues to emphasize “Treat with drugs first.” Unfortunately, the drugs don’t remove the disease and the patient often continues to struggle. Therefore, we have to reverse this perspective of “drugs first” with lifestyle changes like nutrition. These take longer, but will ultimately lead to health, not just the absence of some symptoms. Meds will then be able to take their more appropriate place as a supplement.
Our society continues to accept that mental health treatment can bring about only partial improvement rather than recovery. We prefer the slogan of the Foundation for Excellence in Mental Health Care (openexcellence.org): Expect Recovery.
It is realistic, and evidence-based, to demand the following seven policy changes from our governments and healthcare systems:
==> Every expectant mother should be provided with accurate education on what to eat during pregnancy, including nutrient-dense food.
==>Every child (especially) will be treated first with diet and then (if needed) nutrients in pill form before ever exposing their developing brains to psychiatric medications.
==> Every healthcare facility that deals with mental health will implement the educational content described in Step One in Our Vision, and ensure that every patient referred to their facility is offered the opportunity to learn about nutrition and the brain, and how to shop and cook.
==> Every medical school will teach students the crucial role of nutrients in brain metabolism and mitochondrial function.
==> Every psychiatric training program will educate its students about the potential of nutrition-related treatments.
==> Every healthcare system will accommodate the cost of nutrition education, as well as the much less expensive option of treating with broad-spectrum multinutrient formulas rather than medications.
==> Agribusiness will re-examine its widespread practice of sterilizing the earth’s microbiome, and will help our food producers improve the mineral density of our soil.
Will fulfillment of these demands put psychiatrists out of business? Of course not. Many of them would welcome the opportunity of spending more time talking to their patients, helping them through life’s difficult challenges.
