20 Ways to Feel Emotionally Better

Introduction to nutritional psychiatry 0:00

Hey, I am Dr. Uma Naidu. I'm a harbor trained nutritional psychiatrist and I will give you 20 ways to feel emotionally better. So listen to my video.

Metabolic health and diet quality 0:13

Firstly, only 12.2% of US adults are metabolically healthy and this has been shown in research. This highlights the urgency of addressing how we eat in mental health. Healthy dietary patterns, for example a Mediterranean diet, are consistently associated with reduced risk of depression. Now interventional trials show that diet changes, like a mediterranean based diet or a mind diet can reduce depressive symptoms in clinical populations.

Anti-inflammatory diets and depression risk 0:39

Diet quality also influences depression risk across the lifespan, including children, adolescents and intergenerational individuals, which are, for example, how a maternal diet can affect a fetus. Now, inflammation is elevated in about 25% of people with mood disorders, and pro-inflammatory diets worsen this.

Oxidative stress and antioxidant nutrients 1:12

We know that the standard American diet or Western diet is a very pro inflammatory diet, leading to a lot of inflammation. So therefore, anti- inflammatory diets rich in whole foods Plants, omega-3 fatty acids, polyphenols are lowering systemic inflammation and reducing depression risk. Cytokine treatments, for example interferon alpha, can induce depression-like symptoms linking immune activation to mood disorders as well.

Gut microbiome and the brain 1:44

Oxidative stress markers like lipid peroxidation or DNA damage are elevated in depression and reduce after antidepressant treatment. That standard American diet called SADD for a reason, also called the Western diet, is high in fat, the unhealthy fats, as well as refined sugars, which both increase oxidative stress and worsen mental health outcomes. Antioxidant nutrients like vitamin C, E, selenium, zinc and compounds like N-acetylcysteine and polyphenols can actually improve depressive symptoms.

Tryptophan, mitochondria, and mood 2:16

The gut microbiota regulate brain and mood through the microbiotic gut-brain axis or the gut brain connection or gut, brain romance as I like to call it. High unhealthy fats, Western diets both alter gut microbial. increasing anxiety-like behavior and impairing cognition, certainly in animal models.

BDNF, neurogenesis, and omega-3s 2:48

When you add in prebiotics, these restore beneficial microbes and normalize stress-induced behaviors in animals studies. The tryptophan-kinurone metabolism links diet inflammation and serotonin availability. Imbalances are implicated in depression. Then there is mitochondrial dysfunction which is connected to oxidative stress, poor energy regulation and all of these occur in depression.

Epigenetics and metabolic dysfunction 3:18

Neurogenesis and BDNF or brain derived neurotrophic factor are diet sensitive processes essential for resilience and mood regulation. Eating omega-3 fatty acids in foods can enhance neurogenesis and antidepressant responses, particularly in people with baseline inflammation. Epigenetics is influenced by diet. Nutrients and bioactive compounds can alter gene expression relevant to depression. Obesity and metabolic dysfunction exacerbate inflammation, oxidative stress, and depression risk, creating a feedback loop.

Future research must focus on clinical populations with depression to better identify which dietary strategies work best, for whom and through what mechanisms. This is one of the main reasons that personalization and precision medicine are very much part of nutritional lifestyle and metabolic psychiatry. in clinical practice and in research.