YouSaid · the spoken record

Chris Palmer

lines on the record: 83
first: 2022-11-10
most recent: 2022-11-10
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Who figured it out on your own or talked to great smart people who gave you hints along the way or whatever, I don't know how the hell you figured it all out, but you are a shining example for lots of people. And what I want to say is for all of you who know somebody with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder who are not like Tim Ferris. There is a better way.”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Absolutely. I think that we definitely have a mental health crisis in the world today. I mean, sky high record numbers of people suffering from depression, anxiety, burnout, et cetera. And there's no question that a lot of the strategies that I've discussed in the book will address those easy cases. I think the much more shocking and revolutionary thing is that I'm also talking about things like bipolar disorder, which you are, again, you are a perfect testament to so many people that if you have bipolar disorder, you do not have to be disabled for life from it. You do not have to take pills that are going to make you overweight or obese type 2 diabetic impaired cognitively. You can find other strategies to address bipolar disorder. You are simply a model person.”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“However, I would also encourage you, if you've got type 2 diabetes, type 2 diabetes can be reversed. You can use dietary strategies especially low carb or ketogenic dietary strategies to reverse your diabetes, get off medication, and dramatically improve your health. I have seen it time and again, and I did it with my father. It was nothing short of miraculous for him.”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think the only thing I'd like to add to the last thing you said is that if you've got type 2 diabetes and you're on Metformin, there's almost no doubt Metformin is the best drug for you to probably be taking. I agree. If you need a drug...”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We know that if you improve mitochondria quantity, quality, that even if you're just doing it in the muscle cells, that translates to brain benefits and that you actually get more mitochondria and you actually get more neuroplasticity in the brain as a consequence of improving your muscle size. And probably zone two training is the be-all end-all. If you have enough time to do a lot of different types of exercise, I would absolutely say mix it up. Do some cardio zone two training. Maybe include some high intensity, but also, you know, do some isometrics, try to grow your muscles as large as you can or as large as you want. And sure, do some stretching and stress reduction, yoga, other things. Those can be helpful too.”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And we know that metformin appears to impair mitochondrial function, at least in some people, in many ways. But again, when it comes to psychiatric patients, antipsychotics and others are even more powerful. So with that said, I think the one thing I would say is zone two training. So let me just go to zone two training”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Does not appear to be an effective treatment for mental illness. And I talk about some of the confounding variables in that. And one of the biggest ones is that a lot of medications that impair mitochondrial function Which include a lot of psychiatric medications, but also include diabetes medications and some others. If you're taking medications that in paramitochondrial function, those people do not get the same benefits from exercise as people not taking those medications. And we have decent studies, randomized controlled trials of, you know, older adults, exercising. Half of them get metformin, half of them don't. The ones who did not get metformin had more mitochondrial benefits and adaptations than the ones who got metformin.”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“At this point we don't have great evidence across the board for exactly which one. So there's one large study over a million Americans that looked at exercise as a prevention tool for mental illness or poor mental health. And what they found was that group sports, cycling, gym activities were best. And I think the theme is cardio and pairing exercise with relationships, pairing exercise with social contact. And so you're getting a twofer with that one. You're getting, you know, some bonding and friendships and other things. So I would say those are great. The research on exercise is a treatment for mental illness is actually very, it's a mixed bag. And some meta-analyses have actually found that exercise.”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Disorders and they're certainly different behaviors and they might require different interventions. Like one child might need discipline and another maybe not. But you can solve all of it by feeding them.”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's not like I'm creating this new fanatical theory of what causes mental illness. I'm simply putting all of the foundation together and climbing up on other people's shoulders.”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, F Chris Palmer, we came up with this theory. This is our theory, this is not his theory. And in many ways, I fully respect and acknowledge and am filled with gratitude to all his people. I just climbed up on their shoulders and just added to what they've been doing.”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Enormous support from numerous lines of evidence. This goes to what do these genetic things do? Like people who have these genetic predispositions to bipolar disorder, what are those genes actually causing? They're causing metabolic impairment in the cells. That's what they're causing. They're causing dysfunction at the synapse, which almost always includes mitochondria because mitochondria are hyperpopulated at synapses. And so in many ways, the mitochondrial theory of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression is actually nothing new. And I know those researchers, if this theory takes off, those researchers get pissed.”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That the first group of researchers proposed the mitochondrial theory of bipolar disorder. By 2004, numerous other researchers were jumping on the bandwagon of the mitochondrial theory of bipolar disorder. Within a couple of years that quickly segued also to include schizophrenia and within a few more years that quickly also included major depressive disorder. So depression, bipolar and schizophrenia have all had”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“With the energy demands. And so the cell starts using glycolysis as kind of a backup fuel source and spills out lactate into the bloodstream as a consequence. Now that's actually probably a really good thing because the lactate actually can be used as a fuel source for other cells. And so this lactate is a signal of metabolic stress, but it's an adaptive response. So the increased lactate, we don't want to just get rid of it and not address the metabolic problem. But then all of the neuroimaging studies beginning in the 1990s in particular when we had functional neuroimaging studies, the PET scan spec scan, all of the lines of evidence were converging on mitochondria. And oxidative stress or glucose hypometabolism or other things. In 2000, that was the year”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly. They would draw blood from their veins and they noticed that people with these diagnoses had higher levels of lactate in their blood than people who did not have a psychiatric diagnosis. And that if they exercised them, the spike in lactate was even more pronounced. So this difference in lactate production has been observed for 80, you know, 80 years now. And that is a, for those of you who don't know, this is a metabolic marker of stress, either hypoxia, which directly stresses mitochondria, because mitochondria are the only thing in the cell that's using oxygen, or it's a direct kind of indication of mitochondrial impairment, that the mitochondria can't keep up.”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, this goes back again to, in many ways, this is nothing new, folks. Although this may sound new and groundbreaking. So in the 1940s, some of the first biological studies of people with mental illness included actually drawing blood from the veins of people with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. At that time, they were usually labeled the same thing. They were usually just called schizophrenic.”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The wagon gets really sick, needs a quick rescue, maybe exogenous ketones would help that person in that situation. I don't know.”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That in and of itself might be improving the health of your liver and the ability of your liver to send kind of healthier metabolic signals to your brain and throughout your body. You know, the liver plays a profound role in terms of metabolic health. We know that. And there are lots of signals. It gets really complicated really quickly. But the bottom line is increasing mitochondria in cells confers health benefits pretty much across the board as long as they're healthy mitochondria. If you increase defective ones, that's not going to do very much. So I actually sadly think exogenous ketones are not going to be the magic answer. Could they play a role for some people? Probably they might be good, like on an as needed basis, or they might be a good rescue for somebody who's using a ketogenic diet falls off.”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, so one of the things that's happening when somebody's on a ketogenic diet is actually you're getting this thing called mitochondrial biogenesis in the liver, which means that your liver cells are actually making more mitochondria to meet this demand.”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I have to assume that some of these patients with epilepsy gave it a shot. I know with certainty, I've talked with patients with bipolar disorder and other disorders, for instance, who are using a ketogenic diet to control their symptoms, they did try exogenous ketones went off the diet, and symptoms came back sometimes with a vengeance. And I've used it in clinical practice as well with patients, and I've not seen a significant benefit of exogenous ketones. So those observations make me think a couple of things. One is that the ketogenic diet is doing a lot. It's improving insulin, signaling, it's changing the gut microbiome, improving hormones, all sorts of things. But when you force your liver to make ketones, because that's where most of the ketones in the human body are made, and interestingly, they're made by mitochondria.”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Of one child being able to transition off a ketogenic diet to exogenous ketones and maintain the benefits of seizure improvement or seizure freedom. Trust me, thousands of parents and neurologists and others have almost certainly tried it. Do I have documentation of that? No, because they're not reporting it because it didn't work out.”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The real answer is, I don't think anybody knows for sure. A lot of people are really interested in exogenous ketones, and obviously it's so much easier to drink ketones than do a ketogenic diet So, no question about that. The first just fact I want to just share, or the first observation I want to share, is that there are tens of thousands of children with treatment-resistant epilepsy who are using ketogenic diets to control their epilepsy. Exogenous ketones have been around for years. We do not yet have even one case report which”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“If that is working, and especially if it's working in a profound way, then maybe slowly but surely over time, see if you can slowly but surely taper your meds.”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It is essential to say. So when I have patients come to me who say, I want to try this ketogenic diet thing, they stay on all their current meds, taking people off their meds is dangerous. Please hear that. And the way that I think about it is it means that those cells are now almost shriveled up. Those cells are struggling because they have been suppressed for so long. So when you take those meds away, they're going to become hyper excitable immediately as energy rushes into those cells. They're going to become hyper excitable. It's like taking a cast off of a broken leg and then saying go run. It's not a good idea. The first step is exactly what you said. Maybe implement some other strategies, dietary change, ketogenic diet, or otherwise. Sometimes it's just let's remove all the junk food and the sugar and some other”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So don't go and just say, Oh, I saw this YouTube video on the internet and it was great. And I think you should do this. If you arm yourself with some of this scientific literature, you're more likely to get a good response from your healthcare practitioner to at least work with you or consider it with you.”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You can go to my website, ChrisPalmermd.com, or you can go to a website that is about to launch BrainEnergy.com. And I will be posting free resources, studies, lay articles. So already on my website, I've got lay press articles. If you just want to better understand these treatments and the science behind them. But I've also got links to the medical peer-reviewed literature. And that's important if you're trying to get your healthcare practitioner to take this seriously and at least have a discussion with you about using this as a treatment option. Even if you can't understand what that article is saying because it's written in medical language, you can print it out and give it to your healthcare provider and that will build some credibility.”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“This, but I just want to say this in case people think Chris Palmer is way too pessimistic, who the hell is this guy? The real answer is that Mental disorders are now the leading cause of disability on our planet. And it's not because people aren't getting treatment. 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.”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They can't think anymore. They can't read a book anymore. They can't hold a job. They can't do school. Those are all signs of metabolic impairment of brain cells. So those are the medications that I would be most worried about. And it can differ among people. If one person is taking a medication and having all of those side effects that I just listed and yet another person is taking maybe a lower dose of that same medication and is finding it beneficial and still able to function in life and still able to do everything they want to do and not gaining lots of weight and not becoming type 2 diabetic, then all the power to that person and all the power to that treatment. And I would be in full support of that treatment. And I'm not at all here to deny that treatments can work for some people. But, you know, I didn't really say this.”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The easy answer is, and I could get into all of the science documenting at the cellular level, how and why this has been supported. But we really don't need that. The easy answer is just look at the human being in front of you. If they are gaining massive amounts of weight, if they feel extraordinarily slowed down and now they're sleeping fourteen hours a day, sixteen hours a day, and they can barely function, and their cognition is trashed?”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And that may very well end up making the illness even worse in the long run. That is the theory. There are lots of people who have been preaching that message for decades who are going to say, duh, Chris Palmer, where the hell have you been? And then there are other people who are going to say Chris Palmer, how dare you say that? That is blasphemy and you are now a dangerous quack. So I know I'm going to get responses from all over the place. If you understand the science, if you understand the basic science and all of the evidence, that is a real possibility.”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So that cell has trouble firing at all. And that means that symptoms of hyper excitability can stop. And so for some people, if you're having a panic attack and somebody gives you a pill and it makes that stop, that can feel really good. You're having a seizure, it can be life saving. If you're psychotic and violent, that can be life-saving. So I'm not trying to say these pills should never be used or they don't have a time and a place because I think they do. But if you take that pill long term, that pill is like putting a straight jacket on that cell. It's suppressing the function of that cell over the long run. And what that means is that that cell becomes weaker over the long run.”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“A hyper excitable brain cell is producing an experienced sensation cognition something that should not be happening when it happens. And that could be anxiety, depression, hallucinations, whatever. In order to stop a hyper excitable cell, there are kind of two strategies you can use. So one would be to slowly but surely restore the metabolic health of that cell through strategies that Tim you've used yourself, exercise ketones, fasting, meditation, other things. Those are going to restore metabolic health to those cells and allow those cells to function normally again. But the other way to stop a hyper excitable cell is to basically put a straitjacket on it. And to stop it from functioning almost altogether. And that's what a lot of the pills that we prescribe are doing. They are impairing mitochondrial function.”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“symptoms. And I'm not here to say all of the clinical trials are a big lie and scam from pharmaceutical companies. I don't think they are. So I had to try to understand what's going on. It kind of does disprove my theory. So I've got to come up with an explanation. And at the end of the day, the explanation is this dichotomous reaction of a cell to metabolic impairment. So when a cell is metabolically compromised, there are some other things that it can do, but the two for our proficiency right now are underactive or overactive or hyper excitable. And what we're really focused on are hyper excitable cells. So hyper excitable cells are producing experiences from your brain networks, but they're producing these experiences at the wrong time or the wrong intensity, or they're not stopping when they should. That's what hyper-excitability does. So a hyper-excitable pain cell causes pain when you shouldn't have pain.”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Package inserts of these meds so everything I just said is fact, non-controversial. So the logical question from many people is, well, then Chris, your theory must be wrong because these pills work. And if they're impairing metabolism, then that pretty much disproves your theory. How would this make sense otherwise? And quite honestly, this was actually one of the biggest things I struggled with in developing this theory. I kind of was on this path. Metabolism, mitochondria, wow, that seems to be there's connecting a lot of dots. And now is actually one of the obstacles for me was that exact question. Like, how can I understand that? And it's not that I want to deny that the medications do reduce symptoms because they do reduce symptoms. I've seen it work firsthand as a psychiatrist. I've seen these medications reduce.”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Thank you. So, with that said, This is probably going to be the single most controversial part of the theory. Ultimately, what I'm saying is that 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. And yet we know many of our treatments directly impair metabolism. So we know a lot of antisychotics, mood stabilizers, even some antidepressants, and others cause people to gain weight sometimes massive amounts of weight. They can cause type 2 diabetes. They can cause cardiovascular disease and all of the risk factors for cardiovascular disease so they can cause hypertension, they can cause abnormal lipids, which we think contribute to cardiovascular disease. And those are all metabolic problems. That's not controversial at all. They're metabolic problems. These pills are causing these metabolic problems. They are right on the FDA.”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Let me at least preface this discussion with kind of caution up front. So I'm going to say some things that may get people really upset. And especially if you're on these psychiatric medications. And I want to just say for the record, it is really difficult and dangerous to get off psychiatric medications, especially if you've been on them for years or decades. So please do not stop your medication on your own. Please don't taper it on your own. Work with your healthcare professional and do it in a safe way. You're going to hear that I am an advocate of sometimes trying to help people get off medication. But I'm just saying please don't do it in a dangerous way because lots of people end up in the hospital or suicidal or dead.”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's got Cheeto on the label, so it must be okay. And it's filled with soluble corn fiber and sugar alcohols and other stuff that clearly is not necessarily natural and lo and behold takes a lot of people out of ketosis and prevents weight loss and prevents the brain benefits and lots of other things that you want to be achieving. That's probably the single biggest pitfall is all the keto labeled junk food.”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, honestly, there are so many. It's hard to put them into one category. The nice thing about the ketogenic diet is that there is an objective measure of whether you're doing it right or not. And measure your ketones. If you're able to measure your blood ketones, measure your blood ketones, and then do the detective work to figure out why you're not achieving the results you want. And with a variety of patients, so the detective work, which gets to your exact question, like what are the pitfalls? I've seen people eating a lot of keto labeled junk food from the grocery store. Keto brownies all day long.”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“For most people, quite honestly, it's usually a work in progress because everybody has different dietary preferences. Some people like salads, and if they like salads, I'm going to say, okay, have lots of salads, but put some crumbled blue cheese on it. Maybe some almonds in there and avocado in there and douse it with as much olive oil as you can tolerate. And, you know, whatever that is, but vinegar and oil, a lot of oil, that could become a very high fat thing. And some people may love that. Other people hate it. And so other people are going to lean more toward really fatty steaks or they want sweets, in which case, yeah, we're going to be doing fat bombs and whipped cream and ice cream and other things. So there are lots of strategies, which is good because that way we can like figure out what does this person like and let's make it sustainable.”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm usually adding the fat, so low carb is the baseline, and then the protein may need to vary. I want to make sure they're getting adequate protein, but I don't, it's not an all-you can eat meat fest necessarily.”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, great in coffee. It's great if you whip it, and then it's whipped cream. It's delicious You can use artificial sweeteners if you want. I usually recommend something like Stevia or Monkfruit. You can put vanilla in it. You can put cocoa powder in it. And then it's chocolate or vanilla. And you can freeze it and it becomes ice cream. I mean, you can do a lot of things with it to make it palatable and sustainable.”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I know what that means. Yeah. No, when I introduce people to a ketogenic diet and I tell them how much fat I want them eating, they're just like, you've got to be joking. There's no way that's healthy. There's no way I can do that. But yeah, so lots of ways to do it. I mean, you can create like fat bombs, heavy whipping cream is really a great tool. Some people drink it straight and just, you know, they drink it like milk. You can actually put a little bit of water in it to water it down if you want it to be a little more like milk.”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“To any limits on protein, and I usually don't have to recommend that they eat more fat or fat sources because they have so much body fat to tap into. And usually in those cases, we want to tap into that body fat because they're usually interested in losing some of it. And so in those people, I'm going to recommend carb restriction. And that's about it. And usually it's pretty easy for them to maintain very high levels of ketones and get the therapeutic brain effects as a result. Once that same person loses enough of that body fat, or if I have a different patient coming to me who's already thin or athletic. That person is going to need to probably, you know, moderate the amount of protein they're eating and consume more fat than they really think they should be eating. I mean, so.”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, and I think you raise a really good point that not everybody should be or needs to be on a ketogenic diet or inkosis long term. But for the patients that I'm working with, they usually have serious brain disorders that almost all of them are disabled by their symptoms. And so like epilepsy where somebody's having multiple seizures every single day, they have a very serious brain disorder that needs immediate and consistent medical intervention. And so if you're using the ketogenic diet in those situations, most of those patients do need it consistently. In a way, I know people want a one-size-fits-all answer. And I have to tell you, I just have to level with you. There isn't one. With somebody who's really obese, say weighs 340 pounds, I might use carb restriction alone. So tell them to just eat less than 20 grams of carbs a day. I don't really even have to get in.”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“For those neurotransmitters. But in fact, researchers have looked at cells and if they take the mitochondria out of the synapse, for instance, but flood the synapse with ATP so it's still got lots of energy. It's got energy available. The neurotransmitters actually don't get released. The mitochondria are playing a direct role in actually releasing the neurotransmitters. And then I'll just share hormones too. So everybody has heard about steroid hormones, cortisol, estrogen, testosterone, progesterone, mitochondria actually control the first step in the synthesis of all of those hormones. And so if they are dysfunctional, if there is a problem with mitochondria, you may have a problem with producing those hormones.”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“To highlight why mitochondria are so important to this theory. So, one, neurotransmitters. Everybody knows neurotransmitters play a role in mental illness. Turns out mitochondria play a critical role in the direct production, but also the release and the regulation of major neurotransmitters, including dopamine, serotonin, gabba, glutamate, and others. So mitochondria actually are taking food, you know, broken down food, whether that's carbohydrates, fats, proteins. They're converting it into two different things primarily. They're converting it into a fuel source. They're burning it all the way down. And then that fuel gets used to create either ATP or heat. So it's fuel or it's building blocks for other things. It's building blocks to make new proteins or make membranes or other things. And the mitochondria are actually producing some of the primary building blocks.”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Hospitalization and the mental disorders were across the board. These kids in the next three months developed autism, schizophrenia, OCD, learning disabilities, seizures, all sorts of problems, which again is consistent with this more unifying model of how to think about mental illness. These aren't discrete entities, but they're obviously discrete symptoms. And symptoms matter. So to maybe follow up and just share, well, I can stop there or I can share two. Keep going. I'll share one or two tidbits.”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Can be too much for them because those brain cells are already maybe operating at slightly reduced capacity or even maybe moderately reduced capacity. And then when you throw an infection on top of it, it just pushes those cells over the edge and then they begin to malfunction. And that results in what we call symptoms of mental illness. It's not just Lyme disease, though. So we've got lots of research, decades of research showing that inflammation especially from infections can result in brain disorders, mental disorders, neurological disorders. We know this with certainty. So one study looked at kids who developed an infection that was serious enough to be hospitalized and they had like an 80-something percent increased risk of developing a mental disorder, most of them within the three months following.”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And specific ones actually impair mitochondrial function and or change mitochondrial gene expression. So we know that that's happening. The most part, that might be a normal adaptive response because, again, your body's mounting a defense for its survival. And so it is allocating resources to fighting off this bacteria. And that means resources need to come away from somewhere else. Some cells are going to suffer as a result of the need to fight off this kind of life-threatening thing. And we have direct evidence that some brain cells have a reduction in mitochondrial function. I think for people who are already on the edge, people who've had depression in the past, maybe people who have a genetic vulnerability or other type of vulnerability, that reduction”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No worries, it's a perfect segue into this. So, the real answer is that mitochondria connect all of the dots of every factor known to play a role in mental illness, whether it's neurotransmitters, stress, trauma, hormones, all of them. I can come back to them if you want, but let me follow up on your story. So you had an infection, high levels of inflammation, those high levels of inflammation are good. They're good for your body because your body is being assaulted by this bacteria. And it's going to kill you if your body doesn't mount a defense. So the inflammation that you are experiencing was good and healthy, but yes, it made you feel like shit. And it impaired your brain function. We have direct evidence that inflammation and inflammatory cytokines”
2022-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #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 · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT