Written By: Upneet Pansare | Updated : September 11, 2018 7:54 AM IST
You must eliminate bacon and other cured meats from your diet © Shutterstock
You've got be very cautious when you have bacon, salami and hot dogs and keep the consumption of such cured meats to the minimum if researchers from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine are to be believed. These researchers were studying the possible causes, apart from genetics, for manic episodes commonly associated with bipolar disorder and whether exposure to infections such as viruses transmitted through food might be linked to any psychiatric conditions. They were shocked to find that diet was an important factor. Bipolar disorder is a kind of mood disorder where sufferers experience episodes of extreme elation or 'mania' alternating with episodes of extreme depression. Experts say that 80-90% people sufferers usually have one close relative suffering from depression or bipolar disorder.
Linked between mania and cured meat consumption
Researchers found that 'people hospitalized for an episode of mania had more than three times the odds of having ever eaten nitrate-cured meats than people without a history of a serious psychiatric disorder.'This could mean that 'certain diets and potentially the amounts and types of bacteria in the gut may contribute to mania and other disorders that affect the brain.' The lead author Robert Yolken, MD, the Theodore and Vada Stanley Distinguished Professor of Neurovirology in Pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine explained that this could perhaps point to that fact dietary intervention could help reduce the risk of manic episodes in those who have bipolar disorder or who are otherwise vulnerable to mania.
According to the research reports, among people who had been hospitalized for mania, a history of eating cured meat before hospitalization were approximately 3.5 times higher than the group of people without a psychiatric disorder.
Yolken concluded that 'there's growing evidence that germs in the intestines can influence the brain.' It's not just manic disorders, nitrates, used as preservatives in cured meats like bacon, have been associated with cancers and neurodegenerative diseases.
With inputs from John Hopkins Medicine News Release
