48. The Bipolar Diet - Could your diet be causing symptoms of Bipolar to be worse?

Welcome to my podcast. I'm Dr. Nicole Cain, a naturopathic doctor with a master's in clinical psychology and a former anxiety sufferer turned anxiety freedom rebel. Believe it or not, your diet may be contributing to your symptoms of bipolar disorder. Let me start by telling you a story. Several years back, I was working with a young woman, we'll call her sue, who lived in Maine. Sue had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, type 1. And every day she would cycle from major depression into psychotic mania. In the manic state, she would either end up in the jail or in hospital. Her doctors tried medication after medication and still, sue cycled. This is when they called me. One of the most important tenets in understanding bipolar disorder is to identify the root cause and to realize that the body produces symptoms. In an effort to provide data about in what ways it's out of balance. My job as a consultant is to collect as much data as possible so that the doctors can identify the root cause or causes and to create individualized treatment plans. So we did a battery of tests to get to the root cause of Sue's symptoms, among which included genetic testing. Results revealed several amazing findings. One was that her body did not process shellfish. Remember that I mentioned she lives in Maine? Shellfish was a staple of her diet. She ate it almost every day. In addition to the myriad of other interventions, sue cleaned up her diet and completely removed shellfish. Within 24 hours. Sue reported a lessening of brain fog. And over the next year and a half of care, her mood stabilized and her symptoms of bipolar disorder lifted. In this video and the included article, I want to introduce you to the bipolar diet. I go over this in significantly greater detail in my Natural Solutions for Bipolar Disorder course, which you can find at Dr. Nicole Cain. And you can just click on the courses tab and look for bipolar. Research has shown that those with bipolar disorder typically consumed greater amounts of carbohydrates, sugar, desserts, sucrose, alcoholic beverages, and other sweetened things. Those with this disorder were also more likely to eat processed or western foods like pizza, burgers, beer, and other pro inflammatory foods. On the other hand, we've seen an inverse relationship between bipolar disorder incidence and seafood. Of course, unless you have an allergy to seafood right, countries where seafood consumption was greater tended to have lower incidence of bipolar disorder than countries whose residents consumed little to no amounts of seafood. In a study by Noguchi et al, they found that those with bipolar disorder ate less vegetables, soy products, seaweed, and fish products. So the question that is raised is, does diet influence bipolar disorder? Diet influences several biological processes that are dysregulated in bipolar disorder and I'm going to share these with you today. These are monoaminergic activity, immune and inflammatory processes, oxidative stress, mitochondrial activity and neuroprogression. So let's start with the first. Monoaminergic activity. This refers to how certain foods or dietary patterns can directly impact the activity of your neurotransmitters. For example, sugar and carbohydrates can suppress dopamine. But signs of excessive dopamine are those we typically see in mania, for example, intense excitement, euphoria, paranoia and grandiosity. Low dopamine often produces symptoms that are more common for depression, like anhedonia, a lack of drive, absent motivation. And there's many more examples in the course. The next is immune and inflammatory processes. This refers to the relationship between inflammation and bipolar disorder incidence. As mentioned, bipolar disorder risk goes significantly higher if you eat a western diet and your risk of bipolar disorder as well as symptoms of bipolar disorder actually reduces. With an anti inflammatory or more Mediterranean diet. We have a whole course on anti inflammatory eating and you can learn how to heal the gut by going to gut psychology on our website. The next is oxidative stress. Oxidative stress causes damage to the brain and body and this destabilizes brain function. Two of the key oxidative stress markers that we ran on sue were lipid peroxidation and DNA oxidation markers. We see that the western diets are associated with increases in these markers and thus the increased risk of bipolar disorder. Not surprisingly, in terms of oxidative stress reduction, the best bipolar diet is a Mediterranean diet. Your mitochondria are basically the battery for each and every cell in your body, especially and including your brain cells. Your diet impacts mitochondrial activity for the better and for the worse. The most powerful bipolar diet is one that will feed your mitochondria and allow them to power your cells in all of their millions of jobs around your body. Your diet can make your mitochondria more efficient or your diet can destroy mitochondria efficiency, putting you at a greater risk of a manic or depressive episode. Lastly is neuroprogression. Neuroprogression refers to growth and regeneration of your brain's neurons. There are a wide variety of dietary changes that you can make to actually regenerate your brain. We won't go into these here in this article and in this video, but let me give you a tip. The best diet for increasing neuroprogression, you guessed it, is the Mediterranean diet. No surprise, right? In preparation for this video, I asked a bunch of my bipolar disorder warriors and clients some questions that they had so that we could do a Q and A in this video and I want to share some of the things that they asked with you. The first is what is the best diet for bipolar disorder? The quick answer is the Mediterranean diet, but make sure that what you eat is tailored to your body's needs. The second is what food is the best food to eat to relieve bipolar disorder mood episodes? And the answer is seafood, not including shellfish and to focus on fresh water, Alaskan fish. The next question what are the top worst foods for bipolar disorder? And the answer is basically anything on the western standard American diet, like fried foods, alcohol and red meat. The next question is, can diet actually help me heal from bipolar disorder? And the answer is yes and no. Remember, diet is one part, albeit a major part, of your body's wellness. But remember, there are many factors that contribute to bipolar disorder, including genetic, environmental, familial trauma, socioeconomic, and so much more. Remember our story about Sue? We did comprehensive bipolar testing and while her diet was a big factor for her, it wasn't the only one. The next question what is one change I can make to start healing from bipolar disorder? And the answer is to remove obstacles to cure. And this is deconstructed in my gut psychology course and in the bipolar disorder course. Examples of obstacle to cure could just simply be a standard American diet. If you want to learn more and if you're excited to get your life back and to have more control over your moods, the natural solutions for bipolar disorder is basically 10 years of my expertise as a counselor with one foot in the mental health field and the other foot in functional medicine field as a naturopathic doctor condensed into a course that you can do from the privacy of your own home for less than the cost of one visit in a specialist office, you can find this course on my website@drnicolecane.com let me share what this course will deliver to you. This course will offer you clarity. It will tell you what is bipolar disorder and what causes the swings in mood. It will offer you certainty. Identifying the root cause will help you to get to the bottom of your symptoms. This course is comprehensive. Gain access to the most comprehensive course jam packed with integrative resources for bipolar disorder. The from the comfort of your own home and capable feel capable and equipped to immediately implement proven tools to transcend bipolar disorder now and forever. So here's what you'll get for less than the price of one private practice visit in my clinic. You will get a beautiful 44 page book, over an hour of video content, access to our private Facebook community, and a lifetime access to the membership portal. But the real win is finally having answers to be able to take your life back from bipolar disorder. That's my commitment to you and I'm going to show you on this video and on this page a peek into the modules we'll do together. I want you to know being diagnosed is not a life sentence. You can learn to take back control and live the life that you desire. Don't believe me? Look at our testimonials included on the Bipolar page. I have a video where I interviewed a bipolar warrior named Jared whose symptoms were really severe when we started doing consulting together and now he has his life back. Not only are his symptoms significantly better, but he's also able to feel more control over his symptoms so that he can control them instead of them controlling him. So you can check that testimonial out and jump in the Facebook group and get some support right away so that you're not doing this alone. I'm so happy to meet you. My name is Dr. Nicole. You can learn more by clicking in the Notes section in the Show Notes and then also check out our website Dr.nicolecane.com we're also on all of the social media platforms at the handle Dr.nicolecane. thank you so much for watching. I'll see you next time.

The recording you just listened to consists of the personal opinions of Dr. Nicole Caine, a naturopathic doctor with a Master's in Clinical Psychology. While these opinions are based upon literature, her counseling, education, medical training, and clinical experience. This content should not be viewed as the definitive opinion on these subjects. Listening to this podcast is not a substitute for any sort of medical, psychological or other form of treatment. If you are in a Crisis, please call 911-OR call the National Suicide Prevention Line at 1-800-273-8255. If you're in need of counseling, don't hesitate to make an appointment with a counselor in your area. Dr. Nicole Cain is so passionate about people getting their life back. If this resonates with you and you think this podcast would help someone you love, please share it with them. Stay in the conversation with Dr. Nicole Cain about writing the next chapter of your life so that it plays out just the way you want it. Explore your options for working with her at www. Dr. Nicolecane.com that's Dr. D R Nicole N I C O L E Cain C-A-I n.com when you're there, be sure to take advantage of the Free Anxiety Freedom one week challenge. We look forward to seeing you on the next episode of the get your life back podcast. Here's to your next chapter.

Sam.