Nitrate-cured meats - things like beef jerky or bacon - have been linked to extensive periods of hyperactivity, insomnia, and attention loss in people experiencing manic episodes.
Research conducted by Johns Hopkins University on patients receiving care for manic symptoms found they were over three times more likely to have ever eaten processed meat products than patients being treated for other psychiatric conditions, such as schizophrenia.
“We looked at a number of different dietary exposures and cured meat really stood out,” says the study’s lead author Robert Yolken.
“It wasn’t just that people with mania have an abnormal diet.”
The exact mechanism behind the link isn’t yet clear, but a follow-up experiment on rats fed jerky with their plain old rat chow resulted in increased movement and altered signalling in their hippocampus.
I was a giant carnivore, meat every meal. My schiz surfaced only after going vegan, I became more “aware” you could say. What’s interesting is many vegan doctor’s believe processed meats cause cancer.
I need… to eat… an animal!
Also, I read the title as ‘early processed meats’ and wondered for a good five minutes about how the body would know when the meat was processed.
Nah, the truth is more like, all doctors knew the added nitrates in meats (which gives it the nice ‘Red’ look) causes cancer.
So did the government, the FDA, hippies- they protested putting the nitrates in hot dogs- many kids favorite food.
But the meat companies were too strong to fight. They said people wont buy their food if they dont have ‘tasty red meat’.’ So they hushed it all up.
Of course, but it doesn’t necessarily disprove causation either. I think it’s sometimes something of a knee jerk reaction to trot out the “Correlation does not imply causation” line.
As for the link between bacon etc and mania- What makes me suspicious is they have taken this long to find a supposed link. Also have rates of mania gone up in line with increased consumption of processed meat ?
I may be wrong, but from what I’ve read I think it may because processed meats are potent sources of both: iron and salts (sodium and nitrates are both salts). Iron when combined with salts are “the best absorbed iron”. Excessively high iron is common in people with manic disorders because iron becomes stored in the hippocampal region of the brain which is both associated with anger and bipolar/schizoaffective.
In fact I think, though I may be wrong, that some antipsychotics have the effect of removing iron from perhaps the hippocampus and other parts of the body where it is stored. The evidence for this is that some people on here (atleast with SzA) have noted a metallic taste in their mouth when on antipsychotics. A metallic taste in the mouth is a sign of iron detoxing (removing iron from the body)
It’s not a knee-jerk reaction to state that a correlation does not imply causation (nor imply causation), it’s a fundamental fact.
The subjects were all being treated for mania when they answered the questionnaire as to whether they’ve eaten processed meats or rare tuna. What percentage of the population has eaten processed meats? What percentage of the population has eaten rare tuna? Also, which came first: the mania or the eating of processed meats?
Lithium improves neuron generation in the hippocampus, perhaps because iron and lithium are both minerals, and minerals tend to compete in the body and the body may take one in place of another if it is not available. This may be why lithium is also so effective over time.
