Shifting the Mental Health Paradigm: Exploring the relationship between psychiatric well-being and the biosphere

The Ketogenic Diet in Medicine and Psychiatry

Christopher Palmer, MD

It has long been known that people with chronic mental disorders are much more likely to be overweight or obese, have Type 2 diabetes, have cardiovascular disease, and die earlier than people without mental disorders. Most people assume these are due to people with chronic mental illness not taking care of themselves (e.g., overeating and not exercising) or due to the effects of their prescribed medications. Although both of these are true to some extent, neither explanation fully accounts for the observed health disparities. Could problems with metabolism account for some of these observations? And could a metabolic treatment, such as the ketogenic diet, play a role in not only improving metabolic health, but also mental health?

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Learning Objectives:

At the end of this presentation, you will be able to:
1. Describe the ketogenic diet and different versions of this diet;
2. Make evidence-based dietary recommendations for weight loss using low carbohydrate or ketogenic diets; and
3. Outline the scientific rationale for using the ketogenic diet in diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder.

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Suicide Redefined: A Functional Medicine Model for Prevention and Hope

James Greenblatt, MD

Suicide is a public health issue of critical importance, one which merits our best, most focused efforts towards treatment and prevention.  This webinar will introduce a biologic framework for suicide prevention, one in which the concept of suicidality as the result of underlying nutritional, genetic, and psychosocial risk factors is explored.  Scientific research supporting significant associations between malnutrition, essential fatty acid deficiencies, lithium deficiency, low cholesterol, and suicidality will be reviewed.  Studies illustrating the benefits of targeted nutritional augmentation to mitigate risk factors will be presented; evidence-based interventions will be described; and a prevention model centered upon objective biologic measurement and a concept of biochemical individuality will be elucidated.

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Learning Objectives:

Upon completion of this session the participants will be able to:
1. Identify biologic factors associated with suicide and the pathways through which they alter brain function;
2. Explain how systemic inflammation negatively affects neurotransmission and immune response; and
3. Describe the mechanisms through which lithium confers neuroprotection and explain how lithium may be utilized as part of a biological approach to suicide prevention.

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Nutritious and Delicious! Nutritional Psychiatry and Culinary Coaching

Marni Chanoff, MD

Research suggests that the frontier of psychiatry is the mind-body connection. Eastern approaches used globally for thousands of years have honored this connection — through diet and lifestyle — to heal physical and mental disorders. With developing research in nutritional psychiatry, we now have evidence to support the use of food as medicine to help improve mental health and offset the side effects of psychiatric medications and sedentary lifestyles experienced by so many with mental illness. Culinary coaching, using motivational interviewing and SMART goals, can help clinicians translate this promising research into active steps to empower those we serve to learn about nutrition, gain confidence in the kitchen, and take achievable steps toward healthier living. This presentation will introduce an integrative approach that combines nutritional psychiatry and culinary coaching with Western psychiatry and psychodynamic psychotherapy. To illustrate this integrative approach in the real world, a case study will be shared.

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Learning Objectives:

At the end of this talk, participants will be able to:
1. recognize the evidence supporting the role of nutrition in mental health;
2. describe the gut microbiome’s role in mental health and how to care for it;
3. describe practical steps to help people feel more comfortable and motivated when cooking at home.

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Neuroimmune Masqueraders of Psych

Brian Wise, MD, MPH, ABIHM, ABoIM

Most often, patients are referred to us for treatment of their mental health symptoms.  But what about when the cause is not mental in origin?  Or the mental overlay is due to an undiagnosed physical condition?  In medical school, we were trained under the dictum: “When you hear hoofbeats, think horses; not zebras.”  However, the zebras are making themselves known in many ways as they come into our office with a variety of “treatment-resistant” disorders.  When medicine turned to separated silos, our patients got caught without a health home.  Many diseases have been either forgotten, ridiculed as implausible, dismissed as nonsense, or outright relegated to “functional” disorders reserved for mental health providers to manage.  I will provide background on when to think zebras, what some of the more common zebras are, some of the pathophysiology underlying these disorders, and provide cases to illustrate these points -- including mold toxicity, Lyme and co-infections, and mast cell activation syndrome.

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Learning Objectives:

At the end of this presentation, attendees will:

1. identify warning symptoms that may point to a medical cause of psychiatric symptoms;

2. recognize the inflammatory processes at play associated with psychiatric symptoms; and

3. indicate the role that mycotoxins and Lyme can play in neuropsychiatric symptoms.

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The Role of Electrosmog in Mental Health

Magda Havas, PhD

Since the 1950s, with our growing reliance on wireless technology, our exposure to microwave radiation has been increasing exponentially. Thousands of studies have documented the adverse biological and health effects of microwave radiation at levels of exposure well below federal guidelines.  In addition to cancers and reproductive problems, many of the symptoms are neurological and/or hormonal.  Dementia, depression and anxiety disorders are on the rise, as are ADHD, autism and addiction.  All these illness have been linked to microwave exposure in both human and animal studies.  Knowing what generates electromagnetic pollution, how to assess someone who has been injured by this exposure, and how to help them recover are topics covered in this lecture.

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Learning Objectives:

At the end of this talk, participants will be able to:
1. recognize the sources of electromagnetic pollution (commonly referred to as electrosmog);
2. quickly diagnose someone who is particularly vulnerable and adversely affected by this type of pollution (Monday morning diagnosis); and
3. assess the appropriate types of treatments based on the patient’s history, symptoms, and exposures.

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