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Home > NewsRelease > Chris Palmer, MD, of Harvard Medical School — Optimizing Brain Energy for Mental Health, The Incredible Potential of Metabolic Psychiatry, Extraordinary Case Studies, and Harnessing Mitochondria for Anxiety, Depression, OCD, PTSD, and More (#633)
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Chris Palmer, MD, of Harvard Medical School — Optimizing Brain Energy for Mental Health, The Incredible Potential of Metabolic Psychiatry, Extraordinary Case Studies, and Harnessing Mitochondria for Anxiety, Depression, OCD, PTSD, and More (#633)
From:
Tim Ferriss - Productivity, Digital Lifestyles and Entrepreneurship Tim Ferriss - Productivity, Digital Lifestyles and Entrepreneurship
For Immediate Release:
Dateline: San Francisco, CA
Thursday, November 10, 2022

 

“Mental disorders are metabolic disorders of the brain, and so that means metabolic impairment in the body and/or brain can result in mental symptoms.”

— Dr. Christopher Palmer

Dr. Christopher M. Palmer (@chrispalmermd) is a Harvard psychiatrist and researcher working at the interface of metabolism and mental health.Dr. Palmer is the director of the Department of Postgraduate and Continuing Education at McLean Hospital and an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. For over 25 years, he has held administrative, educational, research, and clinical roles in psychiatry at Harvard. He has been pioneering the use of the medical ketogenic diet in the treatment of psychiatric disorders—conducting research in this area, treating patients, writing, and speaking around the world on this topic.

He has developed the first comprehensive theory of what causes mental illness, integrating existing theories and research into one unifying theory—the brain energy theory of mental illness. You can learn more in his new book Brain Energy: A Revolutionary Breakthrough in Understanding Mental Health—and Improving Treatment for Anxiety, Depression, OCD, PTSD, and More.

Please enjoy!

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Brought to you by Levels real-time feedback on how diet impacts your health, Athletic Greens all-in-one nutritional supplement, and LinkedIn Marketing Solutions marketing platform with 800M+ users.

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#633: Chris Palmer, MD, of Harvard Medical School — Optimizing Brain Energy for Mental Health, The Incredible Potential of Metabolic Psychiatry, Extraordinary Case Studies, and Harnessing Mitochondria for Anxiety, Depression, OCD, PTSD, and More

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Want to hear an episode that explores the ketogenic diet in greater depth? Have a listen to my conversation with Dr. Dominic D’Agostino here in which we discuss muscle and strength gain in ketosis, the diet’s impact on type 1 diabetes, tricks for adhering to the diet in polite company outings, vegetarian and vegan options, exogenous ketone efficacy, and much more.

#172: Dom D'Agostino — The Power of the Ketogenic Diet

What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

SCROLL BELOW FOR LINKS AND SHOW NOTES…

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

  • Connect with Dr. Christopher Palmer:

Website | Twitter | Instagram

SHOW NOTES

Note from editor: timestamps will be added shortly

  • The story of a woman who had chronic paranoid schizophrenia for 53 years.
  • The backstory of Brain Energy‘s dedication.
  • Chris’ thoughts on DSM-5 diagnostic categories.
  • Chris’ first exposure to the ketogenic diet.
  • Metabolic psychiatry.
  • How ketosis affects the human body (e.g., sleep, mood, weight).
  • Examining the mood elevation of ketosis on a bio-cellular level.
  • When ketosis can be dangerous.
  • How mitochondrial dysfunction can trigger a host of ailments.
  • Dietary methods for sustaining ketosis over the long term.
  • Common ketosis mistakes.
  • Psychiatric medications, metabolism, and controversy.
  • Indications that a medication impairs more than improves a patient’s condition.
  • Resources to share with doctors open to conversation about these issues.
  • Why quitting psychiatric medication cold turkey is a bad idea.
  • Thoughts on the efficacy of exogenous ketones.
  • Ketogenic diet as treatment for schizophrenia.
  • Why you need to take radical ownership of your own health advocacy.
  • Physical exercise for optimizing mitochondrial health.
  • A cautionary note for people using medication for off-label results.
  • Parting thoughts.

MORE CHRIS PALMER, MD QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW

“Mental disorders are metabolic disorders of the brain, and so that means metabolic impairment in the body and/or brain can result in mental symptoms.”
— Dr. Christopher Palmer

“Mental disorders are now the leading cause of disability on our planet. And it’s not because people aren’t getting treatment. A lot of those people are getting treatment, and it’s because our current treatments fail to work for them. That is a fact, and that is why I am so passionate about this work, because I want to help those people who are being told, ‘There’s nothing more we have to offer you. There’s nothing more we can do. Just take your pills and stop complaining.’ I want to help them.”
— Dr. Christopher Palmer

“Right now, the mental health field says, ‘This child has block-throwing disorder.’ ‘This child has grumpy disorder.’ ‘This child has handwriting disorder,’ and ‘This child has defiant disorder. He spoke back to me in a really poor manner.’ We label those different things and then we assume they are different disorders. They’re certainly different behaviors and they might require different interventions; one child might need discipline and another maybe not, but you can solve all of it by feeding them.”
— Dr. Christopher Palmer

“What I want to say is for all of you who know somebody with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder: there is a better way.”
— Dr. Christopher Palmer

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Name: Tim Ferriss
Title: Author, Princeton University Guest Lecturer
Group: Random House/Crown Publishing
Dateline: San Francisco, CA United States
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