Nutritional psychiatry: Your brain on food

Posted By Eva Selhub MD On November 16, 2015 @ 9:00 am In Back Pain, Complementary and alternative medicine, Healthy Eating, Mental Health 

Think about it. Your brain is always “on.” It takes care of your thoughts and movements, your breathing and heartbeat, your senses — it works hard 24/7, even while you’re asleep. This means your brain requires a constant supply of fuel. That “fuel” comes from the foods you eat — and what’s in that fuel makes all the difference. Put simply, what you eat directly affects the structure and function of your brain and, ultimately, your mood.

Like an expensive car, your brain functions best when it gets only premium fuel. Eating high-quality foods that contain lots of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants nourishes the brain and protects it from oxidative stress — the “waste” (free radicals) produced when the body uses oxygen, which can damage cells.

Unfortunately, just like an expensive car, your brain can be damaged if you ingest anything other than premium fuel. If substances from “low-premium” fuel (such as what you get from processed or refined foods) get to the brain, it has little ability to get rid of them. Diets high in refined sugars, for example, are harmful to the brain. In addition to worsening your body’s regulation of insulin, they also promote inflammation and oxidative stress. Multiple studies have found a correlation between a diet high in refined sugars and impaired brain function — and even a worsening of symptoms of mood disorders, such as depression.

It makes sense. If your brain is deprived of good-quality nutrition, or if free radicals or damaging inflammatory cells are circulating within the brain’s enclosed space, further contributing to brain tissue injury, consequences are to be expected. What’s interesting is that for many years, the medical field did not fully acknowledge the connection between mood and food.

Today, fortunately, the burgeoning field of nutritional psychiatry is finding there are many consequences and correlations between not only what you eat, how you feel, and how you ultimately behave, but also the kinds of bacteria that live in your gut.

How the foods you eat affect how you feel

Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that helps regulate sleep and appetite, mediate moods, and inhibit pain. Since about 95% of your serotonin is produced in your gastrointestinal tract, and your gastrointestinal tract is lined with a hundred million nerve cells, or neurons, it makes sense that the inner workings of your digestive system don’t just help you digest food, but also guide your emotions. What’s more, the function of these neurons — and the production of neurotransmitters like serotonin — is highly influenced by the billions of “good” bacteria that make up your intestinal microbiome. These bacteria play an essential role in your health. They protect the lining of your intestines and ensure they provide a strong barrier against toxins and “bad” bacteria; they limit inflammation; they improve how well you absorb nutrients from your food; and they activate neural pathways that travel directly between the gut and the brain.

Studies have shown that when people take probiotics (supplements containing the good bacteria), their anxiety levels, perception of stress, and mental outlook improve, compared with people who did not take probiotics. Other studies have compared “traditional” diets, like the Mediterranean diet and the traditional Japanese diet, to a typical “Western” diet and have shown that the risk of depression is 25% to 35% lower in those who eat a traditional diet. Scientists account for this difference because these traditional diets tend to be high in vegetables, fruits, unprocessed grains, and fish and seafood, and to contain only modest amounts of lean meats and dairy. They are also void of processed and refined foods and sugars, which are staples of the “Western” dietary pattern. In addition, many of these unprocessed foods are fermented, and therefore act as natural probiotics. Fermentation uses bacteria and yeast to convert sugar in food to carbon dioxide, alcohol, and lactic acid. It is used to protect food from spoiling and can add a pleasant taste and texture.

This may sound implausible to you, but the notion that good bacteria not only influence what your gut digests and absorbs, but that they also affect the degree of inflammation throughout your body, as well as your mood and energy level, is gaining traction among researchers. The results so far have been quite amazing.

What does this mean for you?

Start paying attention to how eating different foods makes you feel — not just in the moment, but the next day. Try eating a “clean” diet for two to three weeks — that means cutting out all processed foods and sugar. Add fermented foods like kimchi, miso, sauerkraut, pickles, or kombucha. You also might want to try going dairy-free — and some people even feel that they feel better when their diets are grain-free. See how you feel. Then slowly introduce foods back into your diet, one by one, and see how you feel.

When my patients “go clean,” they cannot believe how much better they feel both physically and emotionally, and how much worse they then feel when they reintroduce the foods that are known to enhance inflammation. Give it a try!

Related Information: Healthy Eating: A guide to the new nutrition

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Article printed from Harvard Health Blog: http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog

URL to article: http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/nutritional-psychiatry-your-brain-on-food-201511168626

MBBS - USMLE & practice Medicine in USA as a Medical Doctor

MBBS & USMLE

Lead MY World has now instituted USMLE preparatory classes with MBBS degree program at the International School of Capital Medical University Beijing Peoples Republic of China. It is important to talk about what USMLE stands for, not from the standpoint of the abbreviation but the VALUE of it. It basically brings MBBS (A 6 year undergraduate clinical medicine degree of Bachelor of Medicine & Bachelor of Surgery) graduates to work in the United States, shoulder to shoulder with MD degree holder Doctors if they pass all three steps of the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) with distinction. Here are some informative facts about the USMLE;

United States Medical Licensing Examination is a qualifying test for practicing Medical Doctors in the United States. This examination is endorsed and sponsored by the FSMB - Federation of State Medical Board and the NBME - National Board of Medical examiners

 USMLE is a platform to evaluate and assess the ability to comprehend the principles and methodologies of right diagnoses to treatment concepts. The test is comprised of three major steps   

Step 1

An examination to assess a candidate’s clinical knowledge and understanding of;

·         Scientific concepts basic medicine

·         Principles and methodology or mechanisms of body health, disease, and different modes and options of treatment and therapy.

·          Fundamental and scientific knowledge of competent practice of medicine

·         Comprehensive knowledge of System and Processes

  

Step 2

·         In this examination, a candidate is tested on his/her application of knowledge and skills as it relates to the clinical science’s understanding and its supervised application for patient care.

·         Knowledge and skills of human health protection and promotion and disease prevention.

·         Basic rules of clinical sciences and basic patient-centered skills and medical practice.

Step 2 CK- Clinical Knowledge

Clinical Knowledge is based on an integrated material outline that organizes clinical science along two dimensions: Medical Doctor’s practice and disease category.

·         This one day exam is also divided into blocks.

·         The test format can vary with each block.

·         Each block will have a maximum of 45 items which will be displayed in the beginning of the test.

·         Total items of the blocks will not exceed 355

·         A total of one hour is allotted for each block

Step 2 CS- Clinical Skills

This is one of the most important components of the USMLE. In this segment, examinees are tested on their clinical skills ranging from bedside manners to gathering date from the patients, physical examination to communication skills of conveying facts to the patients and colleagues alike. The examiners watch each step of the candidate with a very critical and minuet observation.

Step 3

In this final step of examination candidates are assessed on their ability to apply their CK and CS of biomedical and clinical science.

·         Candidates are observed for the unsupervised practice of medicine.

·         The emphasis of this test is on patient management in an ambulatory setting. 

·         Passing of this exam can lead a candidate to acquiring a license to practice medicine without supervision.

·         The test items are case studies and real patient situations designed by Medical Experts, State Board Members and Medical Academic and nonacademic experts.

·         Evaluation of tasks, Patient’s issues and the severity of conditions, its solution.

·         Patient centered case studies of a clinical encounter and assessment physician’s judgment.

·         Since the applied science and clinical fundamentals have been observed in step 1 and 2, the prognoses justification is assessed in step 3 as it relates to its rational and justification.

Examination format:

·         It is comprised of an 8 hour daily testing for 2 days.

·         First day an examine has to answer 336 Multiple Choice Items (MCI)

·         These MCIs are divided into 7 blocks with 48 items  in each block 

·         Abstract or Pharmaceutical associated items may differ in the number of items per block.

·         2^nd day of testing is comprised of 144 MCI divided into 4 Blocks of 36 items. Total time to complete the tasks is 3 hours for these blocks.

·         There is 12 case simulations with a 4 hour completion time.

National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME)

NBME was founded in 1915. NBME is an independent, non-profit organization, serving through its high- quality assessments of healthcare professionals.

USMLE was developed by NBME and is managed by it. The purpose of licensing exams is to test the core competencies of an individual to practice Medicine in USA. It is important to note that NBME and FSMG co-sponsor the United State Medical Licensing Exams in collaboration with Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG). NBME also sponsor PLAS, Post Licensure Assessment System for evaluation of already licensed Medical Doctors. This extends a new common standard between American and International Graduate Doctors.  

Certification as NBME Diplomat

The requirements for NBME Certification as a Diploma are as follow;

·         Successful completion of USMLE 3 steps or a combination of parts & steps.

·         MD degree from an accredited medical school of LCME, Liaison Committee on Medical Education.

·         Accreditation Counsel on Graduate Medical Education, ACGME’s accredited Internship in Canada

I will be delighted to answer any further questions about USMLE or MBBS program at CCMU so contact me at Najam@Leadmyworld.com

 Najam Hasan

 MBA- one of the most sought after degree programs and especially in Healthcare Administration but when it is an MBA degree in HCAD from USA, it holds it value even higher in an ever-evolving industry. In the old times the healthcare industry was run by Medical Doctors and insurance companies and there was something missing in that picture, perhaps a professional administration that is focused on HCAD’s operational, business and logistical aspects. Great doctors are great at being doctors and the insurance companies can only think as far as claims-payments-denials-pending and “don’t know” so a need for professional who have the knowledge of the subject matter from accounting to marketing strategy, advance quantitative methods of financial management to healthcare strategic leadership, human resource management to insurance and risk management, legal aspects of HCAD to healthcare operations management. That could only be accomplished by developing, launching and offering a master degree of business administration in healthcare administration. And it has arrived.

We have collaborated with the International School of Capital Medical University in Beijing to host and facilitate an MBA-HCAD  hybrid campus program with Valdosta State University, Valdosta, Georgia USA by facilitating the foundation courses and one year of remote campus learning and completing the Degree at Valdosta State University. This gives a unique opportunity for students to study in Beijing, Peoples Republic of China and learn the beauty of this five thousand year plus history country and learn the healthcare business in most advanced learning.

Najam@leadmyworld.com 

g environment in China and USA.