INTRODUCTION Mental illness is pervasive and effects all walks of life; indiscriminate of age, race, or social-economic station. Such a profound psycho-social pandemic requires a major shift in thinking that recognizes the connection between nutrition, human biology, and mental health.* The preponderance of mental illness is irrefutable; whether mild or severe; intermittent or chronic. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), approximately 1 in 5 adults in the US are affected by mental illness each year. Of those, 4% suffer from serious mental illness to a degree that substantially impairs their ability to function in society, costing $193.20 Billion per year of lost earnings.2 In short, the mental health …show more content…
In the instance of mental health, the new model that includes dietary intervention, could garner promising mental health potential. Shifting the focus and recognizing nutrition’s significant role in the prevention, moderation, and management of the disease, is essential if we are to address the mental health crisis seriously. Quality foods which include the essential vitamins, minerals, omega-3 fatty acids and antioxidants provide the necessary fuel to keep the body in harmony. Conversely, a lack of these nutrients will cause imbalances and malfunction throughout the body and in the brain. By cultivating gut health and thus maintaining homeostatic conditions, the body and mind can not only function, but also flourish.5 The incorporation of nutrition in the scheme of mental health is a logical progression. While conventional treatments have a viable place in the management of mental illness, the idea of using the body’s natural regulating process to heal, through nutrition, provides a sensible solution that been long overdue.
Mental illness is an increasing problem in America. Currently about 26.2% of Americans suffer from a mental disorder. A mental illness/disorder is a medical condition that disrupts a person’s thinking, feeling, mood, and ability to relate to others and daily functions. Mental illness can affect humans of any age, race, gender and socioeconomic status. However the care that is needed to effectively cure and help the people affected by the illness is not equal for everyone here in American, especially for African Americans.
In the United States alone, 57.7 million individuals suffer from mental illness. These illnesses range anywhere from mood disorders to anxiety disorders or to personality disorders and so on (The Numbers Count: Mental Disorders in America). 18 to 25 year olds make up about 30% of these individuals alone (Survey Finds Many Living with Mental Illness Go Without Treatment). These individuals require care from medication to psychiatry or even to confinement. However, of these 57.7 million individuals with mental illness, studies have found that less than one in three of these individuals receive proper treatment (Studies Say Mental Illness Too Often Goes Untreated).
Mental illness is more common than one would like to believe. In reality, one in five Americans will suffer from a mental disorder in any given year. Though that ratio is about equivalent to more than fifty-four million people, mental illness still remains a shameful and stigmatized topic (National Institute of Mental Health, n.d.). The taboo of mental illness has an extensive and exhausting history, dating back to the beginning of American colonization. It has not been an easy road, to say the least.
You must include fresh fruits and healthy soups in your diet plan, it quickly boosts serotonin in the
The Western Diet mainly consists of fried foods, refined grains, sugar, high carbohydrate and fats, and meats (3). It has been hypothesized that having a Western Diet increases one’s chances for developing depression. There has been a great deal of research into why the western diet increase’s one chance of having depression. A common sense reason maybe that the Western Diet consisted of large amounts carbohydrates, fats and sugars which promotes obesity and then causes depression (1). More scientific evidence suggest that having a improper diet like the Western Diet negatively affects peripheral and central dopamine, which are neurotransmitters (chemical which transmit signals across the synapse from the nerve cell to the target cell) directly linked to the mental health of the brain and are negatively affected by high fat diets (4). Research has also suggested that having a poor nutrition status such as lacking folate (a natural water form of vitamin bg which is crucial for many of the bodies processes) and key vitamins like vitamin b12 significantly increases the risk of depression in elderly people (5). Research into the topic of dietary habits and mental health is very crucial with the growing rates of obesity and depression in the United States compared to the rest of the world. Thus, does having poor dietary habits increase the likelihood of having depression? The likelihood of developing depression has been linked to the type of diet one consumes such as the Western Diet, Diets Low in Fat and Carbohydrates and weight control diets like binge eating.
There are so many types of mental illnesses that affect people every day. When some people think of mental illnesses they think of the ones that would cause people to have physical symptoms as well, but that’s untrue, there are many more that you would never know anyone has if you were to see them on the street. As defined by the 2008 encyclopedia “a mental illness is any disease of the mind or brain that seriously affects a person’s ability or behavior. Symptoms of a mental illness may include extreme moods, such as excessive sadness or anxiety, or a decreased ability to think clearly or remember well.” A mentally ill person has severe symptoms that damage the person’s ability to function in everyday activities and situations. Every nation and every economic level can be affected by a mental illness. In the United States alone about 3% of the population has severe mental illness and to add to that number about 40% of people will experience a type of mental illness at least once in their lives. Some cases of mental illnesses can go away on their own, but some cases are so severe that they require professional treatment. There is so much more available to help people recover from their symptoms than in the past.
Psychiatry is a medical field that deals with the diagnoses, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders. The FDA is constantly approving drugs for psychiatrists to use that are supposed to help with in their practice. For example, Michael Levin-Epstein, who wrote the article “A New Way to Deliver Psychiatric Meds: Drugs for ADHD and Major Depression Now Can Be Delivered with Skin Patches,” shows how pharmacotherapy is continually being advanced by new ideas and approaches. However, Psychiatric drugs are not always the answer. Prescriptions are not a good remedy when it comes to the overcoming of a mental illnesses, because there is not enough information regarding the effects of the drugs, pharmaceutical companies are driven by profits,
Mental disorders affect millions of people around the world, and it is the greatest untreated group of illnesses in the world. Many of the psychological disease are incurable only treatable or suppressed. There is very little research going into mental disorders due to the l...
Studies have proven that a well-balanced diet rich in fruits, vegetables, protein, and whole grains can improve our energy, and this type of eating habit has also been associated with fewer depressive symptoms. A nutritious diet that promotes a healthy lifestyle theoretically should also promote a more positive outlook on anyone’s life. Hippocrates, the father of medicine, said: “Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food”. Even in ancient times medical experts believed that food had an impact on our health and our
The development of the mind is a constant process. It is the ongoing and ever-transforming source of all human knowledge. Everyone grows and learns differently, therefore, it is very hard to find, or even collect, accurate data corresponding to mental health and development on a large scale. However, the easiest place to find information like this is in schools. Students are subject to constant monitoring, and objective assessment on a daily basis, and elementary students in particular offer treasure troves of developmental data that we can use to make inferences regarding a number of independent variables, one of the them being their intake of food throughout a normal school day.
Although the treatment process was often frustrating and challenging, I actually came to enjoy my appointments with the nutritionist in her tiny, cozy office, cluttered with food models and recipes. She taught me the basics of nutrition and helped me form a healthier relationship with food. It took time and quite a few tearful sessions, but I slowly started to view food in terms of the nutrients and benefits it could offer me instead of thinking of food as the enemy. During my recovery, I experienced the powerful impact that proper nutrition could have on overall health. I gained back all the weight I had lost, and my hair stopped falling out. However, the biggest changes were the ones most people could not see just by looking at me; they were the emotional and mental changes that came from properly nourishing my body again. I could concentrate on schoolwork instead of planning out my next meal, and I ...
Mental health is just as important as physical health in a person’s life. Mental health is critical to a person’s well-being, their ability to live a productive life and to keep a healthy family and interpersonal relationships. Mental health does not just affect the mind it also affects people’s physical health. Some physical health diseases can cause a mental health disorder and vice versa. Mental health disorders are associated with the occurrence, development, and outcome of some of the today’s most chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. When people go untreated from a mental health disorder are at a higher risk for many unhealthy behaviors such as alcohol and drug use, violent behavior, and suicide.
Mental disorders are rapidly becoming more common with each new generation born in the world. Currently, nearly one in two people suffer from some form of depression, anxiety, or other mental health problem at some point in their lives (Editor). With so many people suffering from their mental illnesses, steps have been taken in order to get help needed for these people but progress has been slow. In the medical world, hospitals are treating those with physical problems with more care than those with mental problems. Prescription drugs can only do so much helping the mentally ill go through their daily lives and more should be done to help those who need more than medicine to cope with their illness. Mental health should be considered just as important as physical health because of how advanced physical healing is, how the public reacts to those with mental illness, and due to the consequences that could happen if the illness is not correctly helped.
It is deeply alarming that ignoring mental health is systematically ignored as an important part of health promotion. This is shocking because, in theory, mental health is recognized as an important component of health, the close link between physical and mental health is recognized, and it is generally known that physical and mental health share many of the same social, environmental and economic components. We know that facilities dedicated to those with mental health problems are more vulnerable to the resources of physical diseases in many parts of the world, and it is essential that mental health promotion should not be equally affected
Mental illness is the condition that significantly impede with an individual’s emotional, cognitive or social abilities (Savy and Sawyer, 2009). According to (Savy and Sawyer, 2009) neurological, metabolic, genetic and psychological causes are contributing factors for various types of mental illness like depression, schizophrenia, substance abuse and progression of condition. An elaborate system known as DSM-IV-TR gives a classification system that acts to separate mental illness into diagnostic categories based on the description of symptoms of illness (Savy and Sawyer, 2009). The exact primarily causes of mental illness are complicated, however, it seems to occur in a psychologically and biologically prone individual, in the trigger of environmental and social stress (Elder, Evans and Nizette, 2007).