The more we understand how our mental and emotional lives are affected by the world around us—specifically the food we eat—the better we can treat and support our mental health and the mental health of our loved ones.
Despite the various diagnostic names we give to mental and emotional distress, symptoms overlap and people receive multiple diagnoses. Brain Energy: A Revolutionary Breakthrough in Understanding Mental Health—and Improving Treatment for Anxiety, Depression, OCD, PTSD, and More explains why. There’s something much larger at work: the metabolic system. Metabolism, in the most basic terms, dictates the chemical changes in our bodies that determine if we’re healthy or ill—physically, mentally, and emotionally.
Dr. Chris Palmer is the director of the Department of Postgraduate and Continuing Education at McLean Hospital and an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He’s shaking up psychiatry and how we think about mental illness in the best way.
Until now, the biomedical model of mental illness has reigned. It says that mental illness exists solely in the brain. Chris repositions this theory by arguing (very, very convincingly) that it’s a metabolic disease that affects the brain.
The brain energy theory explains so much, such as why categorizing mental illness under various labels is unsatisfactory and doesn’t lead us to get the best care and recover.
Dr. Palmer has been on many podcasts—from The Tim Ferriss Show to The Huberman Lab—but I like how he breaks it down on the Better! podcast.
To give you a taste of the brilliant work he’s doing, here’s an outtake from his interview on The Tim Ferriss Show:
Read all available chapters of Cured.
Find more resources for mental health recovery.
Read the prequel to ‘Cured,’ ‘Pathological’ (HarperCollins):