Transform Your Mental Health With Diet & Lifestyle | Dr. Chris Palmer

Huberman Lab

Scicomm Media

Science, Health & Fitness, Life Sciences

4.8 • 26.2K Ratings

🗓️ 31 March 2025

⏱️ 192 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

My guest is Dr. Chris Palmer, M.D., a board-certified psychiatrist and professor at Harvard Medical School. He explains how specific nutrition, exercise, supplement-based, and other factors can improve mitochondrial health and thereby provide relief from adult and childhood ADHD, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and symptoms of autism. We discuss mitochondrial biology, whether vaccines can impact inflammation and mitochondrial health, and the potential ramifications. We also review creatine, methylene blue, and urolithin A, as well as the role of B vitamins and iron in treating depression. By the end of this episode, you will understand the powerful link between metabolic health and mental health, and the lifestyle, dietary, and other factors you can leverage to help overcome common mental health challenges and disorders. Read the episode show notes at hubermanlab.com. Thank you to our sponsors AG1: https://drinkag1.com/huberman Our Place: https://fromourplace.com/huberman LMNT: https://drinklmnt.com/huberman Eight Sleep: https://eightsleep.com/huberman Function: https://functionhealth.com/huberman Timestamps 00:00:00 Dr. Chris Palmer 00:02:15 Integrating Metabolic, Mental & Physical Health; Childhood Trauma & Risk 00:10:46 Sponsors: Our Place & LMNT 00:13:44 Depression Causes, Molecule Model?, Neuroplasticity?; Metabolism 00:22:20 Mitochondrial Functions, Stress Response, Mental Health 00:31:09 Sponsors: AG1 & Eight Sleep 00:33:59 Mitochondrial Health & 6 Pillars of Lifestyle Medicine 00:39:38 Stimulants, Mitochondria, Dopamine; Alcohol 00:45:47 Nicotine; Substance Use, Metabolic Health & Disease 00:52:23 Children, Energy & Metabolic Function; Diseases of Aging & Mental Disorders 00:59:18 Sponsor: Function 01:01:06 Diet & Metabolism; Ultra-Processed Foods, Additives, GRAS 01:09:30 Rebellious Spirit, Ultra-Processed Foods & Food Industry Funding 01:19:14 Ketogenic Diet, Epilepsy, Schizophrenia, Bipolar 01:22:52 Ketogenic Diet, Fasting & Mitochondria; Gut Microbiome, Brain Metabolism 01:30:06 Low-Fat Diets; Tool: Occasional Fasts; Ketogenic Diet; Intermittent Fasting 01:38:40 Nutrition Research, Food Industry Lobbyists; Ultra-Processed Foods, Addiction 01:46:55 Creatine & Mitochondrial Health 01:52:34 Methylene Blue & Mitochondria; Serotonin Syndrome 02:02:58 Urolithin A, Mitochondria Function; Supplements & Appropriate Use 02:11:14 Vitamin Deficiencies, Iron Deficiency 02:16:06 Vitamin B12 & Folate Deficiency, Autoimmune Disorders 02:24:48 Mental Illness & Root Causes 02:29:02 Vaccines, Inflammation, Mitochondria, Autism 02:39:17 Neurodevelopmental Disorder Onset & Follow-Up 02:45:31 Vaccines, Autism, Future Research; Mother Obesity & Diabetes 02:51:23 Father Obesity & Autism; Poor Metabolic Health, Blood Biomarkers 02:56:44 Assessing Metabolic Health & Biomarkers; National Institutes of Health (NIH) 03:02:59 Future Directions, Bridging Mental & Physical Health 03:09:27 Zero-Cost Support, YouTube, Spotify & Apple Follow & Reviews, YouTube Feedback, Protocols Book, Social Media, Neural Network Newsletter Disclaimer & Disclosures

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Huberman Lab podcast, where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life.
0:08.7	I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine.
0:14.9	My guest today is Dr. Chris Palmer. Dr. Chris Palmer is a psychiatrist and researcher at Harvard University.
0:21.6	He focuses on how metabolic health and mitochondrial health in particular can be leveraged to
0:26.6	treat and in some cases cure psychiatric disorders including schizophrenia, autism, depression,
0:32.6	bipolar, and ADHD.
0:34.6	Today we discuss how metabolic health, something we hear a lot about nowadays, is really
0:39.0	about mitochondrial health and the specific lifestyle and other factors that you can use to improve
0:44.0	mitochondrial number and function.
0:46.5	We talk about things like exercise, sleep, sunlight, which you've heard about before, but
0:50.5	we talk about those from a different perspective and we discuss some things that have never been discussed before on this podcast,
0:56.5	at least in light of mitochondrial health,
0:58.6	things such as creatine, methylene blue, nicotine,
1:02.1	and we talk about the key role of specific B vitamins and iron in brain function.
1:06.5	We also have a very direct discussion about vaccines,
1:09.1	and whether or not inflammation caused by vaccines can potentially damage mitochondria, which then leads to mental health challenges.
1:16.0	And of course, in that context, we discuss the vaccine autism debate.
1:20.2	We also discuss public health and what is needed to truly change the way people exercise
1:24.0	and eat and the rapidly changing landscape of the National Institutes of Health
1:27.9	and the CDC. As you'll soon hear, Dr. Palmer gives us a masterclass on mitochondrial function
1:33.6	and how to improve this vital aspect of our health. If you've heard about metabolic health,
1:37.8	you've heard about the obesity crisis, that's important. But looking at all of that and
	...

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