Nutrition and Bipolar Depression

Nutritional psychiatry is an emerging discipline that focuses on the relationship between eating habits and mental health disorders. It is known that diet quality is linked to many diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension and stroke. As a result, health care providers often encourage changes that promote healthy eating habits, both to prevent and treat these diseases.

However, the role of diet in mental health is less known and has received limited promotion among physicians.However, the impact of nutrition on the brain is very clear.

The brain operates at a very high metabolic rate, controlling much of the body's nutrient supply to support structure and fuel body function.Nutritional psychiatry posits that diet may contribute to resilience or risk of mental illness. The effects of diet on major depressive disorder have recently become an area of ​​increased interest study intensely. Two meta-analyses on diet and depression have supported the observation that a Mediterranean-style diet is associated with a protective effect against depression (as well as stroke and cognitive decline), in which a Western diet is associated with an increased risk of depression. In another meta-analysis, Lai and colleagues concluded that diets rich in fruits, vegetables, fish, and whole grains were associated with a reduced risk of depression.These findings suggest that what we eat can influence how we think, or at least how we feel.What diet do patients with bipolar disorder usually follow? Had several cross-sectional studies evaluated the diets of small groups of people with bipolar disorder patients. Jacka and colleagues compared the diets of 23 bipolar women disorder in 691 women with no history of depression. They discovered that bipolar patients had diets with both higher energy intake and blood sugar levels than the control group. Additionally, diet scores indicate higher consumption of a Western-style diet and lower scores for traditional diets (vegetables, fruits, beef, lamb, fish , and whole-grain foods). Elmslie and colleagues examined the food intake over the previous 24 hours of 89 bipolar outpatients, compared with the food intake of 445 age- and sex-matched control subjects. They found that bipolar patients consumed more total carbohydrates, sucrose, soft drinks, sugary drinks, cakes and sweets.

Kilbourne and colleagues, looking at the nutrition of veterans, evaluated the lifestyle reports of 1,945 veterans with bipolar disorder and compared them with 3,086 veterans.

No diagnosed mental disorder. They found no difference in reported fruit and vegetable consumption, but observed that this actually reflected generally low consumption in the general population. What these studies highlight is that bipolar patients tend to have less healthy diets, but it remains unclear how that diet is applied.

And bipolar disorder may interact. It is possible that poor diet quality may play a causal role in bipolar disorder.It is possible that poor diet quality is a lifestyle factor associated with this disease.It is possible that poor diet quality is due to treatment methods.

It is possible that bipolar patients preferentially use sweet and fatty foods as a method of self-medication. It is also possible that diet quality and bipolar disorder interact in some ways. One dietary modification often mentioned for use in bipolar disorder is omega-3 fatty acid supplementation.These polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs) are abundant to health, is very underrepresented in the Western diet and is considered plays an important role in promoting brain health. Docosahexaenoic Acid Omega-3 PUFA (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), which are of marine origin (including fish and algae), are often considered important for brain and mental health trouble.The brain is mainly composed of lipids in proportion to saturated fatty acids, monounsaturated fatty acids, and PUFAs The main PUFA found in the brain is arachidonic acid, an omega-6 fatty acid (AA; 20:4n-6) and omega-3 fatty acid DHA.

Vitamin D and folate are essential for good neuronal functioning and have been shown to be helpful in depression. Low levels of vitamin D have been associated with bipolar disorder; however, there have not been any studies looking at the efficacy of vitamin D treatment in bipolar disorder.