Dr. Chris Palmer
Appearances
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
It's a really important question. And the real answer is I'm kind of wildly guessing. But I'll at least share with you the basis for my wild guess. At best, it's maybe... 20% don't need them who 20% who do need them 80% who probably could get by if we as society take a different
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
stance and use different strategies for human health care integrating physical health and mental health wow and the reason i say that is because the rates of many mental disorders are at all time ever recorded highs the rates of depression all-time highs the rates of anxiety especially in children have tripled in 15 years anxiety disorders diagnosed by pediatricians tripled in 15 years.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
The rates of ADHD have tripled since 2010, 14 years, triple the rates. The rates of autism spectrum disorder have quadrupled in 20 years. The rates of bipolar disorder in adults have doubled in 20 years. In children and adolescents, it's up exponentially because bipolar disorder largely wasn't recognized or diagnosed 30 years ago. So it's up like literally like thousands of percent.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
It's crazy how much that's up. The rates of eating disorder, five-fold increased risk for eating disorders. In case people have been hiding under a rock, Opioid overdose deaths through the roof, five-fold increased risk in 25 years. Five-fold increase in opioid overdose deaths. We've long known how to recognize that kind of thing. There's this statistic.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
So a lot of people are like, oh, this can't actually be true. We're just recognizing all these diagnoses. Well, we knew how to recognize eating disorders and people starving themselves to death 30 years ago. Yeah, we could see it. There was no problem diagnosing that. We knew how to recognize opioid overdose deaths 30 years ago. People were dying. They're dead on the street. the bloodstream.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
It's not rocket science. It's not that we were stupid 30 years ago and didn't know how to recognize it or diagnose it. There's another statistic called deaths of despair, which include the opioid overdose deaths, but includes suicides and other causes of death, alcohol-related deaths. That is at an all-time high, at least since the Great Depression.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
I think we actually just a year or two ago surpassed the Great Depression. And the reason that's important is not because the Great Depression was a lot of metabolic health conditions. The Great Depression was tremendous pain, suffering, despair, lives being destroyed, 25% unemployment rate, people standing in line for food to feed their children, people losing all of their life savings.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
And there was no social security program back then. There were no government resources to make sure people weren't homeless. And when people are facing that kind of monumental despair, their lives are ruined. They go out and drink themselves to death. They kill themselves on purpose. They do all sorts of things. We are nowhere near that level of pain and suffering in theory.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
You look at our economy, there's no comparison.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
We do. And we have safety nets. If nothing else, safety, it's not like you're living a life of luxury with a safety net.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
But you are in a home with electricity, with heat. You're in a home with food. Yes. you're not standing on the street begging people for food so that you can feed your starving child the deaths of despair are higher than that period why what is the root cause as a psychiatrist would you say is the root cause of you know all these different mental health disorders and diseases
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
You know, I think those two statistics and those two periods, Great Depression and now, are really telling because the real story is complicated. I'm not here to say all of mental health is due to eating bad food or people being overweight or diabetic. I'm not here to say that. Because the Great Depression tells us a familiar story that most people know.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
When you lose everything, when you're poverty-stricken, when you lose your life. So these are people who, say, take a man who had a wife and two kids. He's the provider. He loses his job. He can't feed his wife and two kids. The wife wasn't working. She was staying home, raising the kids. They are furious with him because he had $100 in the stock market and lost it all.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
And that was their life savings. And now he's drinking every night. He's now an alcoholic. or maybe using opioids, because we actually had an opioid epidemic back at the turn of the century too. So now he's numbing his pain and his humiliation. It's easy to understand. So those are psychological, social causes of mental illness or mental health conditions.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
Those still exist and those can still cause mental illness today. But again, there's a disconnect We have all time ever recorded highs now, higher than the Great Depression. That doesn't make sense. And what is that? And what I'm saying is that sometimes biology, more than psychology or social factors, sometimes biology can drive mental illness too. Is that a sometimes or a lot of the times?
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
I think it's a lot of the times because I actually think they're all interconnected.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
They're staggering, as everyone knows.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
So right now the statistics are about 70% of adult Americans are overweight or obese. About 40% of adult Americans are obese. The rates in children, it's about 40% of children now are overweight or obese.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
So that's also... And it's even more challenging for parents because even if you're one of those parents who's trying... your hardest to give your kids real whole foods at home at school. They go to school and get pop tarts and Fruit Loops and mac and cheese and chocolate chip cookies and pizza for lunch or their snack or their breakfast or whatever. A lot of those foods
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
The researchers will call them hyperpalatable. Others will call them addictive. Whichever term you prefer, those foods are designed to make people eat more of them than they should. And not feel satiated or full. And so once you start eating those foods, even if you come home to mom who's got...
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
chicken or turkey and vegetables on the table, you look at that, you might even eat it and you're still hungry. And then what do you want? You want a bag of chips while you're watching TV or playing your video games. And your mom is going to probably ultimately give in because you're going to be whining. This kid's going to be whining about how they're still hungry.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
And no parent wants to hear their child say, I'm hungry.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
I'm hungry. Why are you starving me? Every parent wants their children to grow and thrive. That is just an instinctual thing. We feed our children. We make sure they're not hungry. That is an instinctual thing. And so when your kids are getting hooked in other food environments that you have no control over as a parent, and then you're trying to feed them healthy food,
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
It's an uphill battle at best and probably a losing battle for most people.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
The reality is it gets really complicated fast and... There are a lot of mental health professionals who are still skeptical about this field. I'm going to just say that up front.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
And is there research or science that you've seen that's... There is a tremendous amount of research and science clearly documenting these links.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
So let's build on what we were just talking about, obesity and mental health. Because there's a correlation there. Most people understand that nutrition is related to obesity. that what you're eating plays a role in obesity. I don't have to go to, I don't have to fight too hard to convince people of that.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
So if we can assume that that is true, what you put in your mouth day to day plays a role in whether you have obesity or not. Once a child has, or an adult has obesity, they have no history of mental illness at all. They start out with obesity. Once you have obesity, you are at dramatically increased risk for a wide range of mental disorders. Really?
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
Nicotine use disorder, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression, anxiety disorders, personality disorders, eating disorders, essentially all of the mental health conditions, all of the major categories of mental health conditions that we have are included. So if you have obesity, you are at much higher risk of developing a wide range of mental health conditions. Wow.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
If your parents have obesity, their offspring are at much greater risk of having neurodevelopmental disorders, meaning autism, ADHD, learning disorders, and others.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
So honestly, the real details of that get down to what age is the person? Are they at an age where this disorder is more likely to occur or even be diagnosed or recognized? Sure. But the rates range anywhere from the low end is 50% more likely to have a mental health condition.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
The high end is 350%, 3.5 times more likely to have mental health conditions, including things like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
So we have a really good longitudinal study of children. So researchers followed over 5,000 kids from birth to age 24. So even before they have obesity, they have insulin resistance, which we can measure. The children at age nine who had the highest levels of insulin resistance were five times more likely, it's 500% more likely to develop a psychotic disorder. Holy cow. By the time they were 24.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
Wow. That's bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. The children who gained the most weight around the time of puberty, four times more likely to have major depression by the time they turn 24. You could mix and match those statistics, but those were the statistically significant findings.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
But children who gained a lot of weight around puberty were also more likely to develop psychotic disorders and all sorts of other disorders. And likewise, children with high levels of insulin resistance More likely to develop mood disorders and other disorders But the bottom line is that and a five-fold increased risk.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
I want to be clear When we talk about statistics like oh, maybe eating so much red meat is bad for you Those epidemiological studies at best find 10% 15% increased risk over years We're talking 500% increased risk. This is not trivial. This is like slap in the face. This is a stronger connection than genes, genetics, than family history, than other things.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
I think there's truth in, there are some risk genes that we have identified. And interestingly, almost all of them can be linked directly to metabolism or specifically mitochondria. We can get into the nerdy biology if you want, but almost all of them can be linked to metabolic health.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
I believe we can. Wow. And that is... That's huge. That, in my mind, is the hope.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
There is... So we don't have massive, randomized clinical trials with thousands of patients yet.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
Yes.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
So some will say, you know, until we have a randomized controlled trial of 10,000 people with schizophrenia, we're not gonna believe it. Fine.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
Based on my practice, based on the thousands of people that I'm hearing from, based on the pilot trials that are getting done,
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
yes a hundred percent wow i know this these strategies metabolic treatment strategies can save lives literally can save lives and and these require no drugs yeah if anything the challenge sometimes is getting people off of drugs that they've been on for years or decades so their body can start to heal and and get into a cycle of harmony
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
Yes. Again, because of this, again, I'm not anti-medication. And if somebody is taking medications and is thriving on that medication. keep doing it. I love people thriving. And if somebody is saying, I take a stimulant for my ADHD and I'm thriving now, great, keep thriving.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
If somebody else says, I have anxiety or depression and I take Prozac and it has saved my life and I'm doing great on it and I don't have any side effects, great, keep doing it. But more often than not, a lot of people are not thriving on psychotropic medications. At best, they are managing what they are being told are chronic mental health conditions.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
You're going to be like this for the rest of your life. You just have to accept that, oh, it must be genetic. You know, the researchers and the clinicians who say that I have zero doubt. They actually have such good intentions when they say that. And the intention is, I don't want to blame people. And I want them to know this isn't your fault. This isn't your fault.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
But by telling people it's genetic.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
So I think that's, again, I think that a lot of people think that that's benevolent. I actually think it's harmful because you're making people hopeless. You're telling people that you are defective. That's not good. Your genes are defective. It's not your fault. It's your parents' fault and their grandparents' fault and their parents' fault and their parents' fault.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
But you're going to have to take medicines for the rest of your life. I don't like that. And we're sorry that these meds aren't working ideally. This is the best we got. We're sorry that you're in the hospital every other year. Oh, man.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
We're sorry that you can't work because your depression and anxiety are so bad or because your mood instability is so bad or because your ADHD is so bad or because your learning disorder is so bad. We're sorry you can't work. We're sorry you're not thriving. But that's just the way it is. And you're just gonna have to accept it and accept that you've got this unfortunate condition.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
Again, in the last 25 years, we're telling that to four times more people. Four times more people than we were 25 years ago. And it's not because we're just recognizing it more. people's brains are being impaired. That's what I think. At the same time that we have skyrocketing rates of obesity and diabetes,
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
And we see impairment and appetite signaling and satiety signaling and fat cells and everything else. Obesity is that. Obesity is a biological pathological process. It is not good for you. By and large, I think for most people, it's not their fault.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
If somebody's telling you, eat this food, eat these chips, eat these Pop-Tarts, these are good for you, and you're eating them, and those things are making you sick, I think the first step is somebody needs to inform the person that these are not good for you. These are actually toxic for you. They're harming your health. And so we need to start there.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
And then we need to start with like schools aren't passing out cigarettes. They're not passing out vapes. Why are they passing out other harmful substances to our children?
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
I don't know. You were lucky or... you were self-medicating i could almost say i mean that the food was self-medication no the exercise that was my medication that you noticed i feel crappy i want to go run and sprint and jump and other stuff and now i feel alive now i feel good yeah and that's why you didn't stop unfortunately other kids get sucked into this
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
pit where it just drains you of all your energy and now you're becoming overweight or obese and pre-diabetic and now you don't have energy to go run. and you're getting more and more out of shape. And it's harder for you to run because you're overweight or obese. And now other people are making fun of you.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
You're not getting any kind of positive reinforcement for anything athletic that you're doing. If anything, you're getting laughed at and made fun of.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
Which makes you then say, well, why am I doing this? I may as well just give up. I'm not a jock. I'm not an athlete. that's for other people. I'll just focus on school or I'll just focus on whatever. And then a few years later, they're getting diagnosed with depression, anxiety, ADHD, whatever, and they're getting medicated. And now they're on that path.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
You know, I want to, I want to come back to this concept of obesity because one of the One of the most strongly kind of recommended remedies to the obesity epidemic is acceptance. Acceptance of what? Acceptance of obesity. It's this movement called body positivity. I was just going to ask you this. Body positivity.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
Let's all be positive. Let's just stop fighting this uphill battle. Let's accept that obesity is around. Some will go so far as to say it's genetic. Again, well-intentioned. It's not genetic, people. We do. We didn't have the rates of obesity 50 years ago that we do now. Anybody who tells you it's genetic is living in a fairy tale.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
It is terrifying for me because, not because I don't want people to be able to be overweight or obese and be happy and healthy and go through life and be accepted and not be made fun of. If somebody can be obese and otherwise healthy and their brain is intact and they are functioning in life and they have friends and they have romantic relationships and everything that they want,
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
and it's all going well, I have no problem with that person. It's free country. Make your choices. We're all different. We've all got our strengths and weaknesses. Leave that person alone. But the statistics we talked about earlier tell a very different story. It's not just their body shape that's at risk. It's not just societal stigma. It's not just fat shaming that is the risk.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
Obesity is a symptom that your metabolism is disrupted. And something is disrupting your metabolism and at the same time it is causing the symptom of obesity. The same time that it's causing your fat cells to just get larger and larger and larger and just unrelentingly.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
larger and larger and larger, meaning more and more weight gain, those same processes are affecting the way your brain functions and putting you at risk for depression, anxiety, burnout, psychosis, bipolar symptoms. And those are the labels that will then ruin your life. And nobody will even think to connect those two dots.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
Nobody will even think those two dots are even related despite the abundance of research that we have. And again, many in the mental health field are terrified to talk about this. Because they know that the pills we're prescribing are causing obesity. We are contributing to this problem. So little Susie comes in, normal weight, with some mood instability and depression,
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
And we start putting her on pills and those pills make her gain 40 pounds. And then two years later, she develops her first psychotic episode. And we think the mental health field right now just says, well, she just had a bad illness. Our treatments, the obesity, none of that had anything to do with her illness. new brain symptoms, it's painful to think about that.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
It's been painful for me as a psychiatrist to think about that.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
I was trained a certain way and I was prescribing those pills and I still prescribe those pills in some situations to patients. And to think that I may have contributed to people's chronic mental health conditions, it goes all the way from I feel guilt-ridden, I feel disgusted with myself, I feel nauseated.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
If I really let myself think about the patients and the level of suffering and pain they experienced, the decimation to their lives, the suicides, the people who are dead, when I really think about that, it's nauseating to think that our current treatments contributed to that or may have contributed to that. And what I'm saying is that the science is finally coming together.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
So if there are any clinicians, psychiatrists, please do your research. Google it, PubMed, search it, do whatever you need to do. Most of your listeners are not psychiatrists and scientists. But what I'm here to tell everyone is that the science has come together. The science is coming together. We have this outline which calls for a paradigm shift.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
A paradigm shift in how we think about mental health and how we treat it. And to put it in the simplest terms, we need to pair and integrate physical health and mental health. All your listeners are gonna say, yeah, duh, of course. Well, then why are we prescribing pills that are causing physical health conditions?
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
Why are we prescribing pills that are causing massive weight gain, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, premature mortality? On average, people with mental illness, anyone, take your pick, any mental illness, people diagnosed with a mental illness are dying early deaths. On average, men are losing 10 years of life. Women are losing seven years of life. And the primary cause of death
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
is not suicide, the primary cause of death are heart attacks and strokes, just 10 years earlier than everyone else. And we are turning a blind eye to this. I'm less concerned, quite honestly, I'm less concerned about the end of life if you die happy at 70 instead of 80, whatever. I mean, to the people who love you, it's a big deal. And I don't mean to minimize that or be dismissive of that.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
If you've got children, I mean, they care. And yes, I want everybody to live long, healthy lives. But what I'm much more concerned about as a psychiatrist is what happened to that person for the 40 years prior to their death. Were they thriving or were they suffering with unrelenting mental anguish? Were they suffering or were they just even just like you described when you were younger?
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
Were they muddling by? They're getting by. They're doing okay. But they constantly chronically feel I'm less than everyone else. I'm not smart like everyone else. I'm not motivated like everyone else. Maybe I just, you know, there's something wrong with me. Maybe I'm depressed or I'm anxious or I've got ADD or whatever. I've got a learning disorder.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
But there are millions and millions of people getting through life feeling like they're not good enough, feeling like they don't measure up.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
I really think it's because You know, I think that movement, again, it's good intention.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
That they think that all of the bad outcomes of obesity are because of fat shaming and societal stigma. And if society would just come around and learn to be kinder and nicer to people with obesity, if everybody could play nice together, we would have a happier world. What I'm here to tell you is that's not true. Obesity is a symptom.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
It's like smoke coming out of your house and ignoring it and saying, let's have a smoke positivity home. Let's just celebrate the smoke coming out of our homes and ignore that there's a fire burning. Wow. that may burn down our foundation, that may burn down our home. What I'm saying is let's not ignore it. It is a symptom of metabolic dysfunction or dysregulation.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
We can understand it and we can do something about it. And again, we can help people thrive. A lot of people quickly then go to Ozempic. Let's just prescribe Ozempic for everybody. Put everybody on Ozempic. That'll save the day. No, that won't save the day. there is still a root cause of the obesity.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
And if we don't address it, if we just ignore it and treat the symptom with Ozempic, and I'm not anti-Ozempic, If people need Ozempic to get a leg up on the lifestyle changes that they need to make, if that helps them get over their addictive cravings for the junk food that they should know they can't eat, then I'm all for it.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
But what I want to be clear is that our dietary advice for too long has been too simplistic. We tell people eat less and that'll solve the problem. So you can have Doritos still, but just eat fewer of them. Instead of eating the whole bag, eat half the bag. You can have your chocolate chip cookies, the ultra-processed kind, not the kind that grandma's making, the ultra-processed kind of chocolate.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
You can have those chocolate chip cookies, but just have two or three instead of ten. The problem is that people can white knuckle it for a few weeks or a few months. They can, and this is the illusion, is that people can white knuckle it. They can white knuckle it and eat less of that crappy food. And sure enough, their weight will go down a little bit.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
And then everybody will say, see, see, it's a willpower thing. But that person will slip back 95% of the time. That's what the statistics tell us. 95% of the time when they lose weight in those ways, they will slip back. Why? Because their cravings will come back. Their cravings actually never left. They were just white knuckling it. And people can only white knuckle it for so long.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
So instead, what I would argue is that people need to be given better advice. And that advice means some foods are going to be healthier for you than other foods. You can't eat bags of Doritos every day and think that you are going to be healthy. You can't eat ultra-processed chocolate chip cookies every day as your treat and think that you are going to be healthy.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
And it's not because those foods are so delicious. So some people will say that. They're just really delicious. Well, grandmas made delicious food 100 years ago. We had Thanksgiving celebrations 100 years ago.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
People weren't obese at nearly the rates that we have now. So it's not just delicious food versus bland salad. That's not the decision point. The decision point is the ultra-processing There's lots of debates about what exactly is happening, but there's a researcher at the NIH, Kevin Hall, who's done some research on ultra-processed foods.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
He basically takes people, locks them up in a metabolic ward and feeds them, explicitly feeds them the exact same macros. So the same protein, fat, carbohydrate. Calories. Calories, everything. Giving them like 6,000, the option of 6,000 calories a day. 6,000, wow. With meals and snacks and then just says eat whatever you want. Try not to lose or gain weight. Just eat whatever you want.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
He did a study that was published over four years ago now, and when he gave them unprocessed foods, same macros, same calorie content, all that, when he gave them unprocessed foods versus ultra-processed foods, on average, the people ate 500 calories more of the ultra-processed versions, and they gained on average about two kilograms, which is about almost five pounds. In just two weeks.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
in just two weeks. When they were given the real whole food, on average, they lost about the five pounds. He just began replicating this study. He's not done with it, but he just published some interim results. The interim results are even worse. When the subjects were given the ultra-processed, highly palatable foods, on average, they ate 1,000 calories extra a day.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
The interesting thing is that he asked the participants through the whole study, how do you like the food that we're giving you? How full are you? How hungry are you? How are you feeling? The ratings on all of the different foods were similar. They were not different. So when people were being given real whole foods, it wasn't that they were complaining saying this food sucks.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
They weren't saying, I'm hungry all the time. They weren't saying any of that. It's just they stopped eating because their metabolism was healthier and their brain told them, you're full, you're done, stop eating. When they were eating the ultra-processed stuff, there are very likely, based on that research alone, I think it's fair to say, there are chemicals added
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
It's about integrating physical health and mental health. And when you put it together, more often than not, you can actually help people heal and recover.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
that just make the foods hyper-palatable or addictive. Now, when I say that, most people are like, well, yeah, we kind of get that. That's probably true. If I'm selling food, if I'm a food company CEO, what's my goal? Sell the most food possible. Get people to eat the whole bag so that they have to go back to the grocery store tomorrow and get another bag. And then the next day, get another bag.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
And then the next day, get another bag. Just keep... Fine, that's good for my profit margin. That CEO doesn't really care about your health. They certainly don't care about your brain health or your child's brain health. And right now we're not even holding them responsible or accountable for what their chemicals might be doing to our children's brains.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
And when your child ends up with a severe chronic mental health condition, at a minimum, we call it failure to launch. Millions of those people out there. All these men more than women, unfortunately, all these guys are sitting in their parents' basements playing video games, failing to launch. That's the minimum.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
The maximum is your kid is going to psychiatrists, trying medication after medication, going to therapists, in and out of hospitals, maybe in and out of jail or prison. Right. Maybe in and out of ERs with overdoses. and the parents are terrified that they are gonna lose their children.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
I think it's linked, so I would go broader, I would say it's linked to metabolism, But yes, there's no doubt. Sleep, movement, sleep. Nutrition, movement, sleep are huge. And so, you know, screens come into it. Everybody's glued to their phone. And what do screens do? Well, one, they prevent you from moving. You're not running outside in the sunshine when you're on a screen.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
And then, sure, the cyberbullying and everything that's going on when you're in that screen, sure, yeah, that doesn't help. But I think it really is more physiological. I think the cyberbullying, the trauma, the stress, all of that is playing a role on our biology. That when you are traumatized, when you are stressed, it is taking a toll on your body. Most people get that.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
And what I'm saying is if you dig deep, it's actually taking a toll on your metabolic health. It's making your blood glucose go up from stress hormones and cortisol. It's making your heart rate go up. It's increasing your blood pressure. And if it's occurring over long periods of time, I mean, those are metabolic biomarkers.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
is the million-dollar question because some people will say, I'm struggling with my mental health, I'm burned out. That is very different than I'm struggling with my mental health because I had a really horrible childhood, which is different than I have a mental illness
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
Like what you just laid out. And I know you're like a shining example of all of this. So you're like everyone's role model for all of this. But yes. And what I'm saying is that you don't have a chemical imbalance that you need to medicate. Yes. And you don't necessarily need to be in therapy for the rest of your life every week. You're not a defective human being.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
that you may have had vulnerabilities, you may have had a less than optimal brain function, and the strategies that you've used allowed you to thrive. Again, does anybody get to perfection? No, we're all human. We've all got our strengths. We've all got our weaknesses. That's just the way it is. And that's never going to change. But you can still have vulnerabilities.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
You can still struggle with reading, for example, like you mentioned a little bit ago. You can still struggle with reading and be quite successful.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
And especially nowadays, and with learning and with education and all of the technology that we do have, if reading's not your thing, you can acquire information or learn in other ways.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
And that's the thing. So some of it is just recognizing what are people's strengths, what are their weaknesses, what are their vulnerabilities. If you're a little overweight, Okay, maybe you're not going to be the super thin athlete. That's okay. You don't need to be. You don't need to be that in order to thrive. Other people may not be good with reading.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
Other people may have trouble sitting still for long periods of time. Other people, you know, whatever. I mean, it's fine. We can help people thrive. It's really strange because... There are people who want to deny all of mental health conditions. There's no such a thing as mental illness. It's all made up. And I'm like, I'm definitely not in that camp.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
So I am in the camp that some people can have pretty significant mental health conditions, mental disorders is what I would call them, mental illnesses, whatever term people wanna use, where their brains are not functioning properly, where they can't pay attention, where they're having psychotic symptoms, where they're having panic attacks for no reason, where their brain is just ruminating on past trauma or past painful events
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
And even though they say to themselves, stop it, stop doing that, stop thinking about it, just go on with life. Like if you could just forget about that, everything would be fine. And their brain won't let them forget. Their brain just keeps bringing it back up. I do think that people can have conditions where their brains aren't functioning optimally.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
And what I'm here to say is, yes, medications, we can still use them. If they can help people achieve remission and recovery and thrive in life, I'm all for it.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
But far too many people are not getting any of those three things. They are not getting remission. They are not getting recovery. They are not thriving. They are being medicated. They're being told you've got a severe, a chronic mental health condition. We will manage it the best we can. And I want those people to hear loud and clear there is a new way.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
which is different than I have a mental disorder or my son has a mental, a severe chronic disabling mental disorder, which is different than I'm neurodivergent. I'm just neurodivergent. People need to accept me. I have a different brain. I'm autistic or I have ADHD or I have a learning disorder. We have these different labels, these different words, And they can mean vastly different things.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
I think ADHD in its classic form is considered a neurodevelopmental disorder, meaning you're either born that way or it's something that's happening to you early in life. There are biological, psychological, and social causes of it. So the biology can include everything we've talked about. Diet, exercise, and those things are way off base and skyrocketing in our population.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
And I think that is a big part of the reason why we have skyrocketing rates of ADHD.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
Again, if your parents have... With the lack of the things we talked about, nutrition, sleep, movement.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
Yes, nutrition, sleep, exercise. That if children are being fed from birth highly processed, ultra processed baby food formula with added sugars and other things... You know, right now the World Health Organization and the American guidelines, dietary guidelines for Americans say that children under two should have zero foods with added sugar. Zero.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
Gerber, if you look at the ingredient list of Gerber baby foods, a lot of them have sugar. It's not all sugar, but a lot of them have added sugar. We are not following these common sense guidelines. And so we're setting these young brains up for not thriving. And again, this is not impossible. Japan does a very different job.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
Wow. Japan knows something we don't. And what they know is that they feed their kids broccoli and seaweed and fish and other things. They're giving them real food. And so that's part of it. Some of the other biology could be infections. If you get an infection early in life, you're much more likely to have a whole range of neuropsychiatric disorders, including ADHD.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
But then psychological and social factors play a role. Trauma, stress, childhood adversity, poverty, those things, yes, they do play a role. So for some kids, you're going to look at some kids who get diagnosed with ADHD, and if they're in a crappy, abusive household, yelling, screaming, shootings on the street, but yelling, screaming in the household. Wow.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
It's pretty clear why that kid is having some mental health condition. And I don't care what it is. It's probably more than just ADHD. It might be PTSD, anxiety, depression, a lot of it. I mean, that's obvious. So I'm not here to take away from those obvious cases. Those situations have not increased in our society. We've had a tripling in ADHD diagnoses since 2010.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
those poverty-stricken abusive households have not tripled so what is the root then of that the root is metabolic dysfunction which means diet exercise lifestyle other things have you seen people who've come in to your clinic or other psychiatrists that you know are working with patients that come in and are diagnosed with adhd that have gone on this
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
So that should not be controversial. The psychiatry field has long said a lot of people will outgrow ADHD. Wow. Other research shows, like I just attended a summit on ADHD with world-renowned experts, cutting-edge research, the ADHD brain just appears to be five years behind other brains. Huh. But that's big when you're in school. If you're five years behind the other kids.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
I might have been like 10 years behind. I was like struggling. You're five years behind the other kids. That's huge. And it's really huge for the teachers. So the teachers see you as a problem. They see you as five years immature. all the way through. But adults are getting it now.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
And yet, they're all interconnected. They can't be separated. And I think that's one of the more complex areas because even the surgeon general is saying things like, we have a mental health epidemic and one of the root causes is loneliness. If we just address loneliness, we'll address this mental health epidemic.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
Well, so that is the thing, is that what I think is happening is that as we have skyrocketing rates of metabolic disorders in humans and adults, 70% of adults are overweight or obese. It impacts their brain function at the same time. We know this. This is not speculative. We have neuroimaging studies documenting this. We have cognitive tests documenting this, controlled trials.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
This is really not kind of up for debate, if you will. If you believe in science, if you believe in research, this is not controversial. Obesity affects the function of the brain. I would argue it goes the other way, that obesity may be a reflection of brain dysfunction, that the appetite centers and our feeding behavior centers are in the brain.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
And when those are dysregulated, that makes people eat more than they should. But that dysregulation doesn't stop at just those two little areas. It goes to the rest of the brain.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
It's all connected. And so at the same time that you have dysregulation in your appetite signaling, you have dysregulation in paying attention, concentrating, motivating yourself, sitting still. And so adults will, I think, rightfully go to psychiatrists saying there's something wrong with me. A lot of times they probably struggled with metabolic health since they were kids.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
So it's not, they're not making it up. Like, yeah, I was eating Captain Crunch and Fruit Loops and drinking Kool-Aid and Dr. Peppers and all that stuff when I was a kid. And yeah, now in hindsight, I realized, yeah, I did struggle in school and nobody knew it. And the psychiatrists today are saying, aha, we've diagnosed ADHD that just got missed. And what I'm saying is, no, it's bigger than that.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
And whether the person had it since childhood, I think some adults are developing it now, newer. We need to put it together. And again, the reason we need to put it together is because we are prescribing more psychiatric pills than ever. We are delivering more psychotherapy than ever. More people are getting psychotherapy than ever before. We are distributing treatments. We are scaling treatments.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
And the rates are skyrocketing. It's a losing battle. The answer is not more pills. The answer is not even better pills. The answer is let's understand the biology of what is happening to the human brain and the human body and let's address it. And at the end of the day, it's not rocket science solutions. It's diet, nutrition,
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
Exercise, movement, sleep, refraining from harmful substance use, and the social stuff, the relationships, the connection, the purpose in life. You've got to have a purpose. You need to have a passion. Everybody needs that. You put those things together. I'm not even going to keep going on. Those are the lifestyle medicine buckets.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
You put those together and you've got a winning package for most people.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
Exactly. There's more to mental health than just loneliness. So yes, I don't disagree with the Surgeon General that loneliness is one piece of the puzzle. I don't think that we have a loneliness epidemic that is driving autism, that is driving ADHD, that is driving bipolar disorder. I don't think the loneliness epidemic is driving all of those things.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
I think that, yeah, so we have, we do have good research studies on this. The real answer is it's complicated. So first and foremost, I wanna say, women have a right to contraception, to effective contraception. We don't want lots of unwanted pregnancies. Let's start there.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
There is. And so there are some women, probably a lower percentage than half, who will benefit from birth control pills. How many percentage? 50%. It's hard to say. I want to say anecdotal. It's more than anecdotal because OBGYNs and reproductive psychiatrists will actually use birth control for women who have really erratic periods or other things. And some women can benefit tremendously from it.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
The bad news is we do have large population studies. If you are a younger woman, less than 20, on birth control, the chances that you might attempt suicide Three times higher. Come on. If you're on birth control than if you're not on birth control.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
Now there are confounding variables in that because if you're on birth control, it means that you're probably dating and maybe some of those suicide attempts are because you know, the love of your life just broke your heart and dumped you or whatever.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
Yeah. And people who aren't dating are being fat shamed and lonely and feeling feeling ugly. Not enough. You can play those lots of different ways. Three times the suicide rate is massive.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
So the reality is estrogen and progesterone have massive effects on the brain and body. Most people think of them as reproductive hormones and they play a role in the ovaries and the way the ovaries function. And yes, they do. And that's why women are taking them for reproductive control.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
And those estrogens and progesterones are affecting the function of of your brain, numerous areas, including mood regulation, attention, cognition. So this is one of the reasons. So we know that estrogen, for example, impacts brain function. I mean, the strongest evidence is later in life. So when women go through menopause,
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
Depending on whether you go through menopause early or late, that will impact your risk for Alzheimer's disease, for example, because estrogen is playing a direct role in brain metabolism. So it comes back to what I'm talking about overall, brain metabolism, It's a hormone. It's a well-known hormone. Everybody knows it.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
So again, this kind of thinking about mental disorders as metabolic disorders is about putting all of the pieces of the puzzle together. It's not about replacing them. But so women will know this. When I talk about this with women, they're like, you're a man saying this? Right, right, right. Either they're angry at me for how dare you even talk about it. You're a man. You don't have any rights.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
Or thank God a man finally gets it and is speaking the truth because we women have been trying to shout this from the rooftops and everybody dismisses us. And we do have brain symptoms. and it's not our fault, and we shouldn't be ashamed of it, and we shouldn't be shunned for it, and people shouldn't be telling us we're hormonal, like we're defective because we have hormones.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
I think there's much more to the equation than that.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
We can use this knowledge, we can use this science to come up with better strategies to be more patient, compassionate with people. Again,
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
people are still going to go through menopause women are going to go through menopause like it or not yeah and you're going to have some decisions to make about do you want to take hormones do you not want to take hormones are they indicated that transition is going to affect your brain whether you like it or not so i'm not here to say that we can make everything perfect
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
and everybody can live perfect lives and not have any struggles and not have any adversity at all. I'm not here to say that. But what I am here to say is that if you understand, you can come up with treatment solutions, you can come up with accommodations, if you will, that if we know that this period is happening, like pregnancy and then postpartum period, that's something we can all anticipate.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
And we can all rally to support that woman to get through the postpartum period. If she's vulnerable to mental health episodes in the postpartum period, we can all rally to support her. And the easiest thing we can do is to make sure she's not sleep deprived.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
And, I mean, there are so many clear common sense things. Again, that's not rocket science. doesn't cost too much money, just needs some supportive husband, boyfriend, family, whatever, to come to the rescue and help her out, knowing that you're vulnerable right now. Because of hormones and other things.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
At the end of the day, it is metabolic dysfunction. And what is metabolic dysfunction? So that even gets really complicated fast. The easiest way to explain it is that most people think of metabolism in simple terms. And they think about it as either you've got a fast metabolism or a slow metabolism, and that makes you lose weight or gain weight.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
Suicidality, yeah.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
So 100%, everything you just said, and maybe even more concretely, or just to add to that,
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
to say if you are a woman and you've chosen to go on birth control and now all of a sudden, a few months later or a year later, you're having mental health struggles, anxiety, depression, suicidality, anything, mood instability, talk to your healthcare practitioner about could this birth control pill be playing a role in my new onset mental health condition
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
And could I maybe go off of this and let's see?
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
Exactly. Let's take the worst case scenario. That's not good. A birth control pill is going to adversely affect a woman's mental health. Yes. She is... 18 years old. We'll make her an adult so we don't piss anyone off. She's 18 years old. She decides to go on birth control. She had never had mental health symptoms before.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
And now at 18 and a half or 19, all of a sudden she starts having new onset anxiety or depression. She goes to her doctor to talk about this. Yes. because she's talked to her friends and all her friends say, oh, you've got to go and get on some Prozac or Zoloft. It really helps.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
So now she goes to the doctor and now the doctor prescribes her Zoloft on top of the birth control pill. The Zoloft maybe kind of sort of works, but then three months later, now her sleep is really disrupted because of the Zoloft or she starts gaining weight. But now her sleep is disrupted. And so what does the doctor do? Well, let's put you on a sleeping pill now.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
Let's put you on a sleeping pill so we can help you sleep. And now she's on three pills all because somebody didn't recognize what the root cause was, which was a bad reaction to a medication. I cannot tell you how many people I've seen that this has happened. Really? My estimation is millions and millions of people are in that situation where they, again, they go on uphill for a good reason.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
She, you know, she's 18. She's dating somebody. She wants to be responsible. She wants to make sure she's not going to get pregnant. And that's our society would say that she's being responsible. That's great. The boyfriend wants her to be on the pill. Everybody wants her to be on the pill. Everybody. So she's on the pill. And now it starts having adverse effects.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
Nobody even considers that possibility. And now she's going down this road where she's getting more and more meds. developing more and more health conditions. Again, she started off a happy, healthy, thriving woman. In love, in a relationship. Now she's got depression, anxiety, whatever. She's got insomnia because of the side effect. Maybe she's starting to gain some weight.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
If the boyfriend does dump her, then she gets even more depressed because of grief. And so what do we do? We increase the dose of your Zoloft or we start a new medicine. We have to add a medicine. We need to do something to treat that.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
Athletes might think about metabolism in a somewhat more sophisticated way. They might talk about VO2 max and some other things. If you've got a good metabolism, a healthy metabolism, a superior metabolism, you can run faster, you can lift more, you can do more. You have endurance. You can run for 30 miles instead of the person who can only make it two miles and then peters out.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
Well, and I am going to endorse that. So I am all for responsible... Family planning. And that means planning when you are going to have a baby. I mean, 50%, for those of you who don't know, 50% of pregnancies in the United States are unplanned. More often than not with married couples, but they are unplanned.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
So there are IUDs, a man can wear a condom. I mean, there are all sorts of other contraceptive methods that people can use. And I'm not here to say there's a one size fits all contraceptive method for everyone. But what I'm here to say is that, as you pointed out, understand that there are risks with contraception. That if you're taking a pill that is impacting your hormones,
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
that impact not just the function of your ovaries, but also impact the function of your brain. So that's unequivocal. I'm not making this up. It's science. Let that sink in. This pill that I'm taking is not just affecting my ovaries, it's affecting my brain. Just let that sink in and then just be mindful of it.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
And if something's happening with your brain function over the next year or two, like you're developing new onset psychiatric symptoms, be open to the possibility that could it be that the contraceptive pill that I'm taking? And be open to at least having that conversation with your healthcare provider Really pushing them, don't let them dismiss this. This is a real thing.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
This pill is affecting my brain and now all of a sudden I'm having new onset psychiatric symptoms. You say that and most healthcare professionals will, if you put it together like that for them, most healthcare professionals will say, yeah, you're right. Let's try a different pill or let's stop the pill. Maybe we could try an IUD or maybe you and your boyfriend could find some other.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
Or whatever. Maybe, yeah, we can find a new solution. And I really would strongly push that the new solution should not be let's add an antidepressant to the mix.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
I just see it go wrong too often.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
And the reality is metabolism is those things and is related to those things and does largely influence those things. But metabolism is so much more than just those things. You know, the simplest definition is probably it's a process that all living organisms use to take food, oxygen, and some other critical ingredients like vitamins and nutrients and turn those into food.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
No, I mean, this is really helpful. I want to thank you so much for, I mean, serving me is serving people who are struggling with their mental health.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
Yeah.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
Because there are millions of them. Yes. So if we can help those people, I love the idea of sending this episode to a friend or family member. And then I would actually just add, follow up with them. Yes. Say, how are you doing? And when they, after they give you their polite answer, I'm fine.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
I'm fine. How are you really doing? Yeah, yeah. I actually sent this to you because I really sometimes worry about you or I've noticed this, whatever concern you had about them that made you send this to them. And ultimately what that's about is I want you to just be a really good friend and resource to people.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
Even if you yourself are struggling with your own mental health, you can be a rock for someone else. Just let them know. Like I'm here for you.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
Yes.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
I've got your back. We can get through this together. And, um, that, In extreme cases, that can save a life.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
energy or building blocks for cells and that that is what fuels our bodies it's how our bodies grow it's how our cells repair themselves but it's also how our cells end up making hormones it's how they make neurotransmitters it's how our muscles move in a way metabolism is biology So in that sense, it's like this overwhelmingly complicated thing.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
Depending on where in the body it's occurring. Yes. When your, when your biology is off or when your metabolism is off, you are likely going to have signs or symptoms of a problem somewhere in your brain or body. And that could be high blood pressure, high blood glucose in the form of prediabetes or diabetes. It could be obesity.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
It could be depression or anxiety or ADHD symptoms or seizures or Alzheimer's disease. It spans all of those. Again, not because metabolism is simple, but because metabolism is ridiculously complicated and all-encompassing when it comes to biology. So in that sense, some researchers will even push back on me and say, Chris, come on, that's not very helpful.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
If you're saying that all of this is related to biology, then that doesn't really help us much. But once you see this big picture and you see these different puzzle pieces and how they all fit together, you can actually come up with shockingly revolutionary treatments sometimes for people with mild mental health conditions all the way to severe, crippling, disabling mental health conditions.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
And at the same time you're helping them improve their mental health, you can help them achieve a healthy weight and lower their blood pressure and live longer and live healthier.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
That is exactly right. That's the way most people think of...
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
You're a shrink and you lay people on couches and you talk to them about their dreams and their past and their childhood and everything else. Or you're focused on these chemical imbalances, all these neurotransmitters, and you're prescribing pills. Lithium, Prozac, Zoloft, Xanax, Klonopin, Depakote, whatever. You're just prescribing pills. to try to modulate the brain activity.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
I think that is... You know, what you just said is 100% correct. And what you just said, when you say it like that, it sounds so obvious. Most people are going to think, well, duh. But we in the mental health field, I just want to make clear how disruptive this is to the current paradigm. We in the mental health field prescribe pills that cause obesity. That cause it. Cause it.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
We give people pills and they gain 100 pounds in one year. Really? At the same time, they have dramatic increase in cardiovascular risk factors. They develop prediabetes or diabetes. And at least in the elderly, some of the medications we prescribe cause premature death. Wow. And this is not like conspiracy theory stuff. These warnings are all listed on the package inserts issued by the FDA.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
They take it anyways because that's what the doctors are telling them they need.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
They're desperate. Yeah. They're desperate. And they are, you know, in extreme cases, lives are ruined. Families are ruined also. Families are, like, lives are ruined. So this broken, vulnerable family, whether it's your parents, your spouse, your children...
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
take this vulnerable human being to a doctor and say please I'm begging you help us right and the doctor says we're gonna issue we're gonna use these pills and these pills are gonna help your symptoms they are antipsychotics they are mood stabilizers they are antidepressants they are whatever And again, not all of the pills have the same side effects.
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
So I'm not here to berate psychiatric meds altogether. I think psychiatric meds can save people's lives. I think some people really benefit from them. So I can play both sides of that fence. But the most disruptive part about linking physical health with mental health
Serialously with Annie Elise
238: The Facebook Killer: Murder or Self-Defense? | The Twisted Case of Derek Medina
are linking metabolic health with mental health, is that so many of our standard treatments are doing exactly the opposite of what we want to do. And that needs to change. And it needs to change as soon as possible because lives are at stake and human beings are suffering.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 201: Harvard Psychiatrist Reveals The #1 Foods You Must STOP Eating To Heal Your Brain
And it also might provide an avenue of hope and healing and recovery. And I use the word might as the scientist in me, as the clinician in me. I know without certainty it can heal and recover people who have had chronic, horrible, debilitating mental illnesses.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 201: Harvard Psychiatrist Reveals The #1 Foods You Must STOP Eating To Heal Your Brain
And I know from my own personal story, when I was in medical school and residency, I'm still suffering from low-grade depression, OCD, other symptoms. But I also developed what's called metabolic syndrome. I developed high blood pressure, high cholesterol. pre-diabetes. And I wasn't really overweight. I was exercising.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 201: Harvard Psychiatrist Reveals The #1 Foods You Must STOP Eating To Heal Your Brain
I was following a low-fat diet, mostly of processed foods because they're cheaper. But that was the diet that was touted as a healthy diet. It was low in fat. And as long as it was low in fat, that was supposed to be good for us. And my metabolic syndrome just kept getting worse and worse. And so at some point,
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 201: Harvard Psychiatrist Reveals The #1 Foods You Must STOP Eating To Heal Your Brain
In order to treat my metabolic syndrome, I changed my diet to essentially a low carbohydrate diet. And within three months, my metabolic syndrome was completely gone. But the thing that just dumbfounded me was that my mental health was better than it had ever been in my entire life. And I just couldn't believe what I was experiencing. I didn't know that I could be that kind of a person.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 201: Harvard Psychiatrist Reveals The #1 Foods You Must STOP Eating To Heal Your Brain
I didn't know that I could be happy and positive and energetic and confident. I had no idea. I didn't think that was in me. And by changing my diet, all of those things happened.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 201: Harvard Psychiatrist Reveals The #1 Foods You Must STOP Eating To Heal Your Brain
Most people have no clue that diet plays any role in mental illness or mental health. 95% of mental health clinicians think it's laughable that anybody would suggest that diet can play a role in mental illness. They think it's laughable. What do you think? I think if you do a deep dive into the science... all of the science that we have accumulated over the last 100 years and longer sometimes.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 201: Harvard Psychiatrist Reveals The #1 Foods You Must STOP Eating To Heal Your Brain
100%.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 201: Harvard Psychiatrist Reveals The #1 Foods You Must STOP Eating To Heal Your Brain
So I actually don't have a one-size-fits-all prescription. Okay. And so I want to say that up front. So I would want to know who am I working with and how is their mental and metabolic health now? Me. So you. Yeah. So I would want more details. Are you having symptoms of any mental health condition?
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 201: Harvard Psychiatrist Reveals The #1 Foods You Must STOP Eating To Heal Your Brain
And so I would want to know, do you feel like you have anxiety for no good reason?
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 201: Harvard Psychiatrist Reveals The #1 Foods You Must STOP Eating To Heal Your Brain
But you think of something adverse or stressful? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the one thing I would say about that And we could get into a lot more details, which we probably don't want to do now. I don't mind. Podcast. But my strong guess, based on just what you've said, is that that level of stress and anxiety... is quote unquote normal.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 201: Harvard Psychiatrist Reveals The #1 Foods You Must STOP Eating To Heal Your Brain
If you do a deep dive into all of those neuroimaging studies that we've been doing, all of the genetic studies we've been doing, all of the neurotransmitter and hormone studies and trauma studies and adverse childhood experiences studies, if you do a deep dive into the science, And you understand what is happening in the brains and bodies of people as a consequence of those things.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 201: Harvard Psychiatrist Reveals The #1 Foods You Must STOP Eating To Heal Your Brain
Because you are sensing, I have to go do something that's really scary right now. Or I have to go do something that's going to ruin someone's life or that might threaten my success. It is normal and actually healthy to have anxiety and stress in those situations.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 201: Harvard Psychiatrist Reveals The #1 Foods You Must STOP Eating To Heal Your Brain
The anxiety and stress can sometimes be quite helpful and adaptive because it can make you pause and reflect on, is this really what I want to do? As opposed to being overly confident and just proceeding. Your own personal history almost certainly informs your level of stress response. And again, so if you go back to your own traumas,
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 201: Harvard Psychiatrist Reveals The #1 Foods You Must STOP Eating To Heal Your Brain
you're going to remember when I'm facing a situation like this, it's helpful to be on hyper alert. It's helpful to be hyper vigilant. And your body and brain will remember that helped you navigate this safely and effectively.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 201: Harvard Psychiatrist Reveals The #1 Foods You Must STOP Eating To Heal Your Brain
Yes. I think yes. We've got... there's no way we will ever be able to do a human randomized controlled trial to test that precise hypothesis. But we have large epidemiological studies that strongly suggest that people who eat a lot of ultra-processed food have higher risk for developing depression, anxiety, and other mental disorders.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 201: Harvard Psychiatrist Reveals The #1 Foods You Must STOP Eating To Heal Your Brain
And based on the science, the granular science, based on animal models, so we can do that to mice and rats. And in fact, that's exactly what we see in mice and rats. We feed them an obesogenic diet, which is usually high in fat, high in carbohydrates, ultra-processed foods. Some researchers have fed rats and mice cafeteria diets where they feed them a lot of delicious junk food.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 201: Harvard Psychiatrist Reveals The #1 Foods You Must STOP Eating To Heal Your Brain
And those mice develop higher rates of obesity, but also higher rates of Diabetes and prediabetes. And oh, by the way, also higher rates of depression and anxiety. Because those are the two things that we can kind of measure in mice and rats. We can't necessarily measure ADHD symptoms. It's really hard to actually measure psychotic symptoms.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 201: Harvard Psychiatrist Reveals The #1 Foods You Must STOP Eating To Heal Your Brain
But we can measure depression and anxiety symptoms pretty well in animals. And so in animal models, we know that that's unequivocally true.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 201: Harvard Psychiatrist Reveals The #1 Foods You Must STOP Eating To Heal Your Brain
Yes. And insulin resistance at age nine. increases your chances of developing a psychotic at-risk mental state, which is like meaning you're at high risk for developing schizophrenia or bipolar disorder 500%. And Alzheimer's? All mental disorders are associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease. Anywhere from the lowest is 50% increased risk and the highest is 2000% increased risk.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 201: Harvard Psychiatrist Reveals The #1 Foods You Must STOP Eating To Heal Your Brain
Or what could be causing those things. If you put it all together, you come to this soundbite that mental disorders are metabolic in nature. And there is no reason. questioning whatsoever it is incontrovertible that diet plays a massive huge role in metabolism and therefore i believe very strongly that diet might be playing a role in the mental health epidemic that we are seeing
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 201: Harvard Psychiatrist Reveals The #1 Foods You Must STOP Eating To Heal Your Brain
Metabolism. And at the end of the day, you have to talk about mitochondria in order to understand metabolism. Only 7% of U.S. citizens have no signs of metabolic health problems, meaning 93% or so of U.S. residents will have at least one of the biomarkers of metabolic syndrome.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 201: Harvard Psychiatrist Reveals The #1 Foods You Must STOP Eating To Heal Your Brain
meaning they have prediabetes or abnormal lipids or high blood pressure or abdominal obesity or abdominal fat, excessive abdominal fat.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 201: Harvard Psychiatrist Reveals The #1 Foods You Must STOP Eating To Heal Your Brain
So those people, diet interventions would absolutely be a part of a healing strategy. a part of it, not the only strategy. I would wanna know about their sleep. I would wanna know about substance use. I would wanna know about medications, lots of things. But for dietary interventions, I would wanna meet them where they're at and just find out, well, where are you at? What are you eating?
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 201: Harvard Psychiatrist Reveals The #1 Foods You Must STOP Eating To Heal Your Brain
Do you have preferences or demands for what your diet should be?