It has never been more clear! The connection between our mental health and physical health is finally hitting the mainstream media. This globe and mail article outlines a case of PANDAS that if untreated can result in mind altering consequences. But as the article also suggests, the infection connection can go way beyond PANDAS. And while studies are being published on a regular basis, outlining the mind-body connection, conventional medicine has been slow to catch on …. until now?
The biggest challenge that conventional medicine will face comes right from the roots of medical education. The reductionist model. Although logically every physician knows that the whole is greater than the sum of it’s parts, in training to become a doctor, memorizing vast amounts of physiology, the information is taught based on a reductionist model. For some reason it is really hard for most physicians to reconsider this training and adapt a more holistic mind set.
Recently I was invited to give a lecture at Lions Gate Hospital. Around the same time I also provided a mental health lecture for the Health Action Network. The underlying topics for both of these lectures were clinical cases that demonstrated a clinical correlation between infection, inflammation in the body and mental concerns, such as anxiety, depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorders.
I see this connection very frequently in practice. Be it an acute infection associated with anxiety, or a chronic infection, like H Pylori or Candidiasis connected to major depressive disorder. Our mental health can also be affected by physical trauma, such as an accident or injury. Once the cycle of inflammation gets started and our bodies don’t recover, our mental health can be affected.
Recovery from this chronic state of inflammation is the foundation of the GAPS diet, which I have been following now for almost 3 weeks!