Nutritional tools for managing mood!
I work with a lot of people with depression or bipolar disorder. One of my clients was referred to me by another practitioner. She came to me to help her determine if she really had bipolar disorder and to help her with natural approaches to stabilize her moods.
It didn’t take long to determine that she definitely had bipolar disorder. She told me that a number of years ago she had been taking two medications and didn’t like the side effects. She also struggled with obesity and body aches and had for a long time. She decided to try the Adkins diet.
My understanding is that both the Adkins diet and the Paleo diet are Ketogenic diets, recommending low carbs. This means that the person on the diet eats 0 sugars, 0 grains, and very little fruit. They eat mostly meat and vegetables. The Paleo diet recommends no dairy. The Adkins starts with a ketogenic diet and then gradually increases carbs.
This woman explained that within a month of being on that diet, she started losing weight. Within 2-3 months she noticed she wasn’t crying every morning. Previously her crying had been a part of her daily life, even on an antidepressant and a mood stabilizer. She started to feel better and began to reduce her medication. Within five months, she realized that she had plateaued and was not losing weight still had body aches, and still wasn’t feeling good emotionally, although she felt better than she had prior to the diet.
She reports that someone suggested she was eating too few carbs. She tried a slice of bread in the morning and began crying daily again. She switched it to a potato and the tears stopped. She desired more improvement as she still had body pains.
She switched to a 0-carb diet, meaning all meat and fat. On this diet, all her aches and pains went away. Her mood stabilized and she continued to go off her medication and has been able to stay off.
Before I met her, I never would have believed an all-meat diet could be healthy. I didn’t even believe in the 0-grain diets. I believed that people just needed to cut out white grains. I can acknowledge here that I make mistakes and lack knowledge about some subjects!
So, I began collecting research. I trust my client’s intelligence and her ability to know her own body. I don’t think the same diet/nutritional lifestyle is right for everyone. I would not suggest you go out and try an all-meat diet.
However, I uncovered some really interesting research, thanks to this client. There is a doctor who writes a blog called Diagnosis: Diet. She writes about some research she did with a couple of her clients. This is not a random, placebo-controlled, double-blind study. It is none of those things, but it is impressive and worth experimenting with. She had many clients with Schizoaffective Disorder. This diagnosis has a bipolar mood component. Two of these folks had been on 17 different medications, were still disabled, lived at home, were unable to work or go to school, and could not maintain relationships. The doctor encouraged them to try a Ketogenic diet (under 20 carbs usually), very similar to Adkins or Paleo. Within a relatively short period of time (a couple of months or so), their symptoms were reduced by half or more, and they were able to move out, live independently, and have relationships. One went back to school. The results were life-changing for these clients. When they reintroduced more carbs, their symptoms got worse, when they reduced again to 20 carbs or less, their symptoms improved. That ABAB design allowed them to see that their new nutritional lifestyle was making all the difference.
I imagine that there are as many different nutritional needs as there are different people in the world. If you know someone who struggles with depression, bipolar disorder, or even anxiety, it’s worth sharing this information with them. It’s a challenging change to go through, but if they/you try it, it will be clear if it works and is worth continuing with.
Georgia Ede, MD, from Diagnosis: Diet, explains that Ketogenic diets have helped manage numerous chronic illnesses for many years, including epilepsy. A seizure is similar to a manic episode, except that seizures are more black and white, while manic episodes happen on a continuum. She theorizes that people with bipolar disorder (I wonder about depression and anxiety disorders as well) might get mood stability with more carbs.
If you don’t think doing a ketogenic diet is a realistic step for you, try changing all your white carbs to whole grain carbs, increasing your intake of darkly colored vegetables, and increasing your intake of water or herbal teas. While doing this, focus on “good” fats like coconut, olive, or avocado oils, butter, nuts and seeds, and avocados. Try to increase your intake of good fish: salmon, herring, and sardines, while maintaining daily intake of whole proteins.
Remember your higher self, communicates to you through your bodily responses, and feelings, and it is up to you to listen and discern that you might need to change something to get a different result from your body. Blessings!
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