Can nutraceuticals help mental illness?

“ Nutrients such as fish oil, B vitamins, and vitamin D have all been shown to interact with multiple pathways in our body that are can affect mental illness. These include pathways such as inflammation, an imbalanced gut microbiome (learn more about the gut here), a reduction in the growth of brain cells (also called neurogenesis), and the production of free-radicals. Furthermore, some people might be more susceptible to mental illness because they have in-born errors in some of these pathways which could result in an increased need of certain nutrients in order to prevent malabsorption and/or deficiencies. ”

Gut microbiota and diet: an introduction

“ Over the past decade, interest in the gut microbiome has grown as efforts to measure its composition and function have developed. We now know that we have more bugs within and on us than we do human cells, and some consider us more bacterial than Homo sapien. The gut microbiome can be thought of as an ecosystem much like a rainforest, where bacteria, fungi and viruses thrive – some good, some bad. It is recognised that although the gut microbiome alters throughout the lifespan, its major composition typically stabilises in the first few years of life. Many factors affect our gut microbiome, including (but not limited to) our environment, genetics, and antibiotic interventions. ”

SMILEs Trial: Treating major depression via nutrition

“ We've known for some time that there is a clear association between the quality of people’s diets and their risk for depression,” Professor Jacka

“ This is the case across countries, cultures and age groups, with healthy diets associated with reduced risk, and unhealthy diets associated with increased risk for depression.”

“ However, this is the first randomised controlled trial to directly test whether improving diet quality can actually treat clinical depression.”