The Hidden Link Between Obesity and Mental Health You Can't Ignore | Dr. Chris Palmer EP 887

0:00There are two big things happening at one time that I've never done before. I'm going on a book tour for my new book, Make Money Easy, and I'm doing a podcast tour at the same time. It is going to be big, and I'm going to seven cities in 10 days. Get your friends, get your family, bring everyone you know to these cities. I'm coming to Austin, Texas, New York, Boston. We're going to Nashville. Then we're going to Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco. Make sure to get your tickets right now. Go to lewishouse.com slash tour. Again, bring everyone you know if you're looking to create more financial freedom and abundance in your life and you want to see a massive guest live on the School of Greatness show.

0:45Get your tickets. I can't wait to see you there. Hi, my name is Lewis Howes and welcome to the Daily Motivation Show.

0:59For moms or parents, moms and dads watching right now, parents watching right now, as someone who has studied this for three decades, what is the link between nutrition and mental health? 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. Sure. 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. And what is the link? And then what is the research and science saying about the link between mental health and nutrition?

1:38So 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 fight too hard to convince people of that. 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 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.

2:25Really? 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. If your parents have obesity, their offspring are at much greater risk of having neurodevelopmental disorders. Oh, man. Meaning autism, ADHD, learning disorders, and others. What is the percentage or number of like when someone reaches obesity level, what is the likelihood that they'll also have a mental health disorder or condition?

3:21is there like you're 20 % more likely you're 80 % more likely to have some type of mental health challenge so it it 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 um but the rates range anywhere from the low end is 50 % more likely to have a mental health condition, the high end is 350%. Holy cow. 3.5 times more likely to have mental health conditions, including things like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder. So we have a really good longitudinal study of children. So researchers followed over 5 ,000 kids from birth to age 24.

4:12So 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 that's that's bipolar disorder or schizophrenia the the children who gain the most weight around the time of puberty four times more likely to have major depression by the time they turned 24. You could mix and match those statistics, but those were the statistically significant findings. But children who gained a lot of weight around puberty were also more likely to develop psychotic disorders and all sorts of other disorders.

5:02And likewise, children with high levels of insulin resistance were more likely to develop mood disorders and other disorders. But the bottom line is that a five-fold increased risk, 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. Man, 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.

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6:45Again, have an amazing day, and I'll see you tomorrow with another episode of the Daily Motivation Show.