A new study suggests that the nitrates in beef jerky and other cured meats could be one of the environmental factors that trigger manic episodes.
First, researchers noticed that patients admitted to a psychiatric hospital for manic episodes seemed to eat 3.5x the amount of cured meats as those in the control group.
Now of course, the researchers controlled for all sorts of factors, because it’s easy to imagine a lot of confounding variables, but it’s impossible to control for everything.
The link, however — based on statistical analysis — was strong enough for researchers to take the study to rats.
So they gave one group of rats beef jerky with nitrates and another group of rats nitrate-free meat.
The difference in behavior was dramatic. The jerky-fed rats had frequent manic episodes, the nitrate-free consumers, nothing.
So why?
Well, scientists think they might have isolated the mechanism involved:
“Yolken and his team then looked inside the brains and guts of the rats. Their brains exhibited gene and molecular-pathway changes that are similar to the kind seen in people with bipolar disorder. What’s more, the manic rats, the ones with nitrate in their diet, had different kinds of bacteria living in their guts than the control rats did.
The researchers don’t know exactly why the nitrates had this effect. Nitrates have antibacterial properties, and Yolken thinks the preservative might have been altering the microbiomes of the rats and the humans. In past research, he and his colleagues found that when people who were hospitalized for a manic episode were given probiotics, they were less likely to be rehospitalized in the next six months.
It’s not totally clear how these microbiome changes affect the brain. According to the researchers, the bacteria might be sending signals through the vagus nerve, which connects the gut and brain. Or they could be releasing chemicals called butyrates that travel through the circulatory system to the brain, where they influence the production of mood-setting hormones called neurotransmitters.”
This is another example of how bacterial changes in the gut affect mental health.
Recently, I posted another study, which is a bit of a smoking gun (at least for mice) on gut bacteria.
Researchers fed mice a terrible diet, but gave one group of mice antibiotics while eating the bad stuff, and nothing to the other group that was eating the bad stuff.
The mice who took the antibiotics while eating the bad diet didn’t show depressive behavior, but the mice who ate the crap without antibiotics showed all kinds of depressive behaviors.
The driving factor, then, seemed to be — not diet — but the health of the gut bacteria profile.
These are just two more bits of evidence showing how significant a risk factor our gut bacteria is for mental health.
Now… bringing it all back to this site’s mission.
The Christian community has often ascribed manic episodes to some kind of demonic influence, or some kind of spiritual defect.
How tragic our condemnation when really we could have just been saying things like, “Hey, do you eat a lot of meat with nitrates?”
Of course, mental health is more than gut bacteria and what we eat. Research has shown a substantial genetic component, as well. And there are circumstantial triggers too.
But as I’ve said before, when counseling those with mental illness, it seems pastors should suggest something like taking more probiotics before they talk a lot about adding an extra hour of prayer. Of course, an extra hour of prayer is great. But prayer is about drawing close to God, not altering the health of our gut bacteria profile.
