Bacon, ham and hot dogs ‘linked to manic episodes’ (John)

How’s that for a clickbait title to a blog. Joking aside this is a genuine article in the British press today. I’ve put a link to it below. It may be pseudoscience or there may be something in it. As it was published in a recognised psychiatry journal I’d go for the latter. Personally speaking it’s 11.20 a.m. and I haven’t had breakfast yet. In all honesty I’m feeling more like having some kind of episode if I don’t have something like a bacon sandwich very soon….with brown sauce…If you don’t add the brown sauce you get depressed. 😉

Here’s the link.

https://www.metro.news/bacon-ham-and-hot-dogs-linked-to-manic-episodes/1147602/

I’ve pasted the article below. 

PROCESSED meats such as bacon, ham, salami and hot dogs may contribute to manic episodes similar to bipolar disorder, research has found.

The chemical preservative nitrate used to cure meat could be responsible for triggering mood states such as mania, scientists said.

It comes as a study found that, among people who had been hospitalised for mania, a history of eating cured meat was 3.5 times higher than among a group without a psychiatric disorder.

Genetic and other risk factors have been linked to manic episodes that characterise bipolar disorder. Yet they have been unable to explain the cause of these mental illnesses, and science is increasingly looking at factors such as diet that may play a role.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, US, cautioned that occasional cured meat consumption is unlikely to cause a manic episode in most people.

Seva Khambadkone said: ‘Our results suggest that nitrated cured meat could be one environmental player in mediating mania.’

Prof Robert Yolken added: ‘Future work on this association could lead to dietary interventions to help reduce the risk of manic episodes.’

A separate study showed when people with bipolar disorder are given probiotics, changing the composition of gut bacteria, they are less likely to be re-hospitalised. Prof Yolken said: ‘Germs in the intestines can influence the brain, and work on nitrates opens the door for studies on how that may be happening.’ Dietary data on 1,001 people collected between 2007 and 2017 was used for the study, which was published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.