Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you likely know about our current epidemics of obesity and common psychiatric disorders. When events seem to travel together, it often pays to see if they are somehow connected. I’m here to guide you through that process. A recent government study suggested that obesity is associated with common psychiatric disorders, but the authors were clueless when it came to explaining the connection. Does obesity feed mental disorders, or do folks with mental disorders somehow manage to become obese? It would be helpful to figure out how to put the horse before the cart. After all, if we are going to have any hope of successfully managing both problems, we first need to know which one is driving the bus! I believe that I do have an answer to this apparent paradox. In many cases mental disorders and obesity are part of the same disease process. Allow me to explain.
Measure the Right Parameter
I stumbled upon the answer to this paradox years ago at the beginning of our obesity epidemic. The “experts” advised us dummies in primary care to use body mass index (BMI) to diagnose and manage obesity. Even to this day, our government recommends using BMI because it’s “cheap and easy”. I don’t know about you, but in science and medicine, cheap and easy is often not the way to go!
Obesity is scientifically defined as excessive fat accumulation either subcutaneous, visceral or both. So, what does BMI tell you about how much fat is in a person’s body? The answer is zippo! BMI is a size measure that is useless for assessing the body composition of an individual. BMI can be helpful in studying populations, but I treat individuals, not populations, and that also applies to you. If you lose weight, it’s essential to know whether you are losing muscle or fat, or some of both. BMI will not give you this information. In my medical practice decades ago, I purchased FDA-approved equipment to measure body composition (A Tanita scale using bioelectrical impedance and a Futrex 500 unit that uses near-infrared light). Over decades I measured the body composition of every patient at every visit. At the time, I also had an interest in neuroscience, and I belonged to Stephan Stahl’s Neuroscience Education Institute. Therefore I always paid careful attention to my patient’s brain dysfunction symptoms.
The Brain-Body Connection
Over time I noticed a strong correlation between specific common brain dysfunction symptoms and changes in body composition. I also noticed that changes in these symptoms always seemed to precede changes in body composition, suggesting that when it comes to fat storage, the brain calls the shots. This certainly makes sense from an evolutionary standpoint. I also recognized that these symptoms suggested depletion or dysfunction in key monoamine neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin. Next, I tried various ways to improve neurotransmitter functions using low doses of medications and precursor supplements like 5-htp and L-tyrosine. When I got the right mixture, two magical things would happen: the patient’s brain function would dramatically improve, and they would start to lose excess body fat—a true two for the price of one! I later determined that long-term exposure to ultra-processed food was the primary driver of this trainwreck.
It eventually dawned on me that this process fit the pattern of a disease that I labeled Carbohydrate Associated Reversible Brain syndrome or CARB syndrome. Because this disease was missed by the medical and scientific communities, we have been left with a horrible and tragic situation, including an obesity epidemic that continues unabated and a plethora of apparent psychiatric illnesses. I believe that traditional psychiatric disorders and CARB syndrome brain disorders share common symptoms, but they are entirely unrelated conditions. This has created massive diagnostic and therapeutic confusion. For example, major depressive disorder, or classic depression, has been around since the dawn of mankind. CARB syndrome depression is a relatively new condition with a completely different treatment. The medical profession now calls this form “atypical depression.” Bipolar disorder I has also been with us forever, but so-called bipolar disorder II is CARB syndrome, and it has absolutely no connection to bipolar disorder I. If you treat bipolar disorder II with anti-psychotics, they get worse, and one gains weight—not exactly where you want to go!
Diagnose Your CARB Syndrome
If you or your healthcare provider suspect you might have a psychiatric disorder, how do you determine whether you have CARB syndrome versus an actual psychiatric disorder? It’s not that hard to do. Go through the 22 symptoms of CARB syndrome and see how many apply to you. Better yet, take my new CARB syndrome test that will pin down the diagnosis more precisely.
Treat Your CARB Syndrome
If your situation does seem to fit the CARB syndrome pattern, you can’t go to your healthcare provider for treatment because this is a new concept that has yet to penetrate mainstream medicine fully. That leaves you with the only remaining option—self-diagnosis and treatment. It’s not an ideal situation, and hopefully, things will improve with time. The primary treatment parameters for CARB syndrome include:
- Eat a healthy, whole-food diet, and avoid all ultra-processed food, especially seed oils.
- Significantly reduce your intake of sucrose and high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).
- Exercise on a regular basis, including both aerobic exercise and strength training.
- Take enough high-quality omega-3 supplements to get your AA/EPA ratio between 1 and 3. I like OmegaRx2 from Barry Sears. He also sells the omega test.
- Take a maqui berry polyphenol supplement like MaquiRx from Dr. Sears.
- Take a neurotransmitter precursor supplement like CARB-22
Following this plan will dramatically improve your brain function and body composition. Now the ball is in your court, so the next move is up to you. I recommend following my friend and athlete Andy Steinfeldt as he goes in for the dunk! I wish you the best of luck on your journey back to optimal health.