Optimize Your Brain: The Science of Smarter Eating | Dr. Drew Ramsey

It's official - it's a food intervention. Psychiatrist Drew Ramsey is going to be supportive, but he's also going to tell you to clean up your diet, and eat right for brain health. Ramsey's latest book is "Eat Complete: The 21 Nutrients That Fuel Brainpower, Boost Weight Loss, and Transform Your Health" ().
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Transcript - We know that brain health depends on proper nutrition. And so when we see people who have nutritional deficiencies, maybe, for example, having not enough vitamin B12 or missing certain fats like the omega-3 fats in their diet, we see that there's a vastly increased risk of illnesses like depression and anxiety. We also know that in clinical trials we can use those nutrients to actually treat brain illnesses like depression and dementia.
So every good psychiatric evaluation involves some lab testing just to make sure that the basic physiology, things like your thyroid, your B vitamin levels, the amount of potassium and sodium in your body that those are normal. And for a lot of people they are but for some people they aren't. And those are instantly reversible deficiencies. For example, if you have an iron deficiency you're going to be sluggish; you're going to have a brain fog. You're not going to feel well. It's interesting that we sort of start with evaluation in labs when really part of my work has been how do we get food into the conversation. And so I can assess you with a lab test, but, for example, if you never eat wild salmon or mussels or any good fatty fish that are a good source of those long chained omega-3 fats, we know that your levels are going to be low. So really we can learn a lot about someone's nutritional status just by asking them simple questions. It doesn't require expensive testings. In our clinic we simply ask people what they eat for breakfast lunch and dinner. Read Full Transcript Here: .