Is nutritional psychiatry the future of mental health treatments?

( Natural News ) Mental health problems are notoriously tricky to treat, with many sufferers reporting that they’ve gone through several different psychiatrists and medications before striking on something that manages their condition to at least some degree. However, it’s starting to look like seeing a conventional psychiatrist for mental health problems might be a bit like going to a cardiologist for a skin condition; an emerging specialty, nutritional psychiatry, holds a lot more promise when it comes to successfully conquering mental illness . That’s because scientists are increasingly finding that poor mental health is caused in many cases by a lack of essential nutrients. Some of the mental illnesses associated with improper nutrition include depression, anxiety, ADHD, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. As more information emerges pointing to this important connection, the field of nutritional psychiatry is really taking off. It focuses on using food and supplements to address mental health issues. For example, inflammation in the brain is the basis of many mental health problems. The inflammatory response behind it actually starts in the gut and has been linked to a lack of nutrients like vitamins, minerals, omega-3 fatty acids, and probiotics. Food supplements like vitamin D, B complex, omega-3, magnesium and zinc have all been shown to improve mood. Meanwhile, taking probiotics daily has been associated with a significant reduction in anxiety and depression. It makes sense that nutrition plays such an important role in your mental health. After all, your brain is always “on” and it needs fuel to do its work – and giving it premium fuel in the form of high-quality, nutritious foods is understandably ideal. In Harvard Health, Dr. Eva Selhub takes the analogy even further, pointing out that when you use low-quality fuel, like processed food, your brain’s performance suffers just as […]

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