50k-psych: Evolutionary Psychiatry

Evolutionary Psychiatry | Psychology Today

The Gut-Brain Connection, Mental Illness, and Disease

The 100 trillion organisms of our microbiome have an enormous
effect on our immune system, stress response, and resiliency. How well
our gut bacteria work with our immune system can make a difference in
mental health, autoimmune disease, and even cancer. The consequences are
profound, and we are just only beginning to understand it. Read More

Tylenol in Pregnancy and ADHD

Tylenol use during pregnancy correlates with a linear increased
risk of ADHD in offspring. Should the use of Tylenol as a "safe"
painkiller during pregnancy be reconsidered? Read More

Targeted Diet Interventions in Autistic Spectrum Disorders

The autism spectrum disorders are mysterious as they are
devastating, frustrating parents, physicians, and researchers looking
for a cause and a cure. However, a recent paper from Greece gives us
some amazing clues that could open future treatment options for
families. Read More

Raise a Glass to Cooperation and Mutual Trust

The neurotransmitter serotonin is a powerful and sometimes
misunderstood molecule. It is secreted from a tiny percentage of neurons
in the brain, yet it controls mood, appetite, grooming, and even
violent behavior and suicidal tendencies. Read More

Brains, Spirituality, and Depression

A number of heavy-hitting psychiatry journals have published
articles about a lower risk of depression in people who are religious or
spiritual. Could the findings have biologic underpinnings? Read More

The Self-Cleaning Brain

Why is sleep so important? As much as we know about the brain and
the importance of sleep, much of what goes on to make sleep
replenishing and vital remains a mystery. Last week, a new paper was
published in Science, “Sleep Drives Metabolite Clearance from the Adult
Brain” that may give us enormous insight into some of the basic
physiology of sleep. Read More

Depression and a Broken Heart

An intriguing link between mind and body can be found by tracking
the beats of the heart. People struggling with clinical depression
often have an altered heart rhythm compared to people who are not having
symptoms. With proper recovery and self-care, we can undo some of the
ravages of chronic stress and keep ourselves functional and resilient. Read More

Zinc! An Antidepressant?

Zinc is an essential mineral which may be lacking in modern
processed and strict vegetarian diets. Learn how it modulates depression
and immune response and the best foods to keep your zinc levels up to
par. Read More

Coffee and Suicide

Do you ever wake up in the morning and think, hmmm, this would be
a great week to try cutting out coffee.? No? Well, I have some good
news for you. Read More

Folate and Negative Symptoms in Schizophrenia

Folate, found in meat and leafy greens, is an important vitamin
for neuron function. In some cases, it may be even more important for
those whose brains are struggling with energy regulation, such as in
dementia or schizophrenia. Read More

Zoo Humans

How much of our anxiety and psychopathology come from being “zoo
humans?” One aspect of our environment that we do have a modicum of
control over is our diet. It is a worthwhile endeavor to stick to
human-appropriate foods the majority of the time. Read More

A Psychosis Caused By Our Immune System

Over the past several years, it has become clear that some
psychopathology is caused by issues with the immune system, particularly
when the immune system attacks our own body, called autoimmune disease.
Read More

Sunlight and ADHD

What sorts of differences in our modern lifestyle are causing
problems with our bodies and brains that are primarily evolved for a
Stone Age lifestyle? Sunlight exposure and sleep are also extremely
important to our health. A recent study probes a remarkable association
between sunlight intensity in a region and the diagnosis. Read More

Yoga (ba) GABA

One of my standard recommendations for people who have anxiety or
depression is to practice yoga. Part of treating anxiety is to bring
people down from the state of constant alertness. Yoga, through the
process of holding (sometimes) uncomfortable positions and breathing
through the stress, is a direct physical practice teaching you to get
through a psychological stress. Read More

Eat Your Egg Yolks

Recently in the American Journal of Psychiatry, a new paper was
published tying nutrient supplementation in pregnant women to positive
changes in the brains of their offspring and perhaps even reduced risk
of schizophrenia. One of the nutrients that may be less predominant in
our modern diets than in traditional diets is the phospholipid known as
choline. Read More

Suicide and Vitamin D

A while back I wrote a post called Omega 3s and Suicide in the
Military which traced the link between low omega 3 status and victims of
suicide in the US active forces. There is a linear relationship between
the amount of healthy, necessary omega 3 in the cell membranes and the
risk of suicide, and the active members of the armed forces seem to be
quite low. Read More

Three Evolutionary Solutions for 2013

I hypothesize that that psychopathology is caused or exacerbated
by a mismatch between our modern environments and the mostly
hunter-gatherer environment in which we evolved over the past several
million years. Can a few modern lifestyle-friendly changes help our
bodies and minds? Read More

Stress: The Killer Disease

Stress Kills. We’ve heard it before. It’s common sense. But how
does stress kill? As a physician, I tend to imagine stress leading to
high blood pressure and heart attacks and anxiety or depression. But how
could stress, alone, do all that? Sure, there are stress hormones that
get out of whack, but how does stress kill? Read More

You're a Vegetarian. Have You Lost Your Mind?

Entirely vegan diets are unknown among traditional human
cultures. Back in the early part of the 19th century, dentist Weston
Price went looking for vegans, but found only cannibals. Since vegan
diets in nature provide no vitamin B12 and very little in the way of
usable long chain omega3 fatty acids, it is not surprising that humans
have continued to eat animal products. Read More

Diet and Aggression: Trans Fats

Our brains are high energy, fatty powerhouses of sparking neurons
and amazing thought. In order for them to work properly, brains need
the right sort of vitamins, minerals, and the right sort of fat. Read More

Are You Cool Enough for a Healthy Immune System?

Why do we build cities, compose music, or make necklaces from the
teeth of conquered foes? Status. What is blogging for, anyway?
Posturing on the internet, vying for position, trying to prove to others
that we have optimal genetic material in order to further the chances
of our offspring. Read More

Schizophrenia and the Gut

We have found that folks with schizophrenia have a higher level
of gut inflammation and antibodies to gluten and casein than conrols.
Could these vulnerabilities somehow begin in the brain? Read More

Is Fibromyalgia Due to a Mineral Deficiency?

Many thousands of people, mostly women, suffer from fibromyalgia.
It’s a poorly understood disorder to some extent and can be quite
debilitating. Musculoskeletal pain and fatigue (along with poor sleep)
are the primary symptoms, but those afflicted are more likely to have
depression and anxiety symptoms as well. Read More

Depression: A Deal With the Devil?

Clinical depression is a problem that we know affects tens of
millions of people in the United States alone every year. We know there
is a genetic vulnerability to getting depressed, along with
environmental contributors such as childhood trauma and recent stress.
But why are humans vulnerable to depression? Read More

Zinc and Autistic Spectrum Disorders

Autistic spectrum disorders are complicated and most likely
caused by a number of different problems. However, we still don’t know
definitively if something in the diet could influence autism. Could
zinc deficiency be part of the cause, and supplementation part of a
treatment? Read More

Asthma, Autism, and Antioxidants

One of the theories that comes up again and again in the study of
autistic spectrum disorders (and other chronic mental and physical
disorders as well) is the theory that these disorders are a problem of
too few antioxidants. Sounds simple, but as always, the biochemical
processes can get complicated. Read More

Statins in the Water?

I'm going to go an unusual direction today and swerve from my
normal focus on psychiatry to comment on the general direction of
medicine. In some ways, psychiatry, with its drug-heavy focus, is the
forefront of medicine (and not in a good way). Read More

Evolution and Anorexia Nervosa

One of my teachers at Children's Hospital characterized anorexia
nervosa as "a desperate disease." On the inpatient unit where the
(mostly) young women were hospitalized, it was difficult to find one who
would stay still. They were forbidden to exercise, but during groups
would move their legs and fidget constantly to burn calories. Read More

Do Probiotics Help Anxiety?

Knowledge of these colonies of bacteria could lead us to amazing
insights and new treatments for common and devastating diseases. Read More

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Tuesday, 6 May 2014