We’re in a global mental-health crisis. People are more depressed, anxious, addicted, and isolated than ever.
There are treatments — medication, therapy, recovery programs — and they work. But not all of the time and not for everyone.
Part of the problem, says Dr. Christopher Palmer — Director of the Department of Postgraduate and Continuing Education at McLean Hospital and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School — is that the origin of mental illness is still largely a medical mystery.
But Palmer doesn’t think so.
“What I’m here to say is we are, in fact, missing the elephant in the room,” he says. “Because mental metabolic problems have been identified in the brains and bodies of people with mental illness for over a century.”
In a talk given at the CrossFit for Health Summit on Feb. 3, 2024, in Austin, Texas, Palmer presents the case for mental illness as metabolic illness, advocating for an integrated approach to mental-health treatment in which CrossFit could play a pivotal role.
“The CrossFit prescription can be a legitimate biological metabolic brain intervention for people with real mental illness,” Palmer says.
CHAPTERS
0:00-3:54 – The state of the global mental-health crisis.
3:56-5:23 – The problem with mental-health treatments.
5:26-10:53 – The great mysteries of mental illness: What is it and what causes it?
10:55-12:55 – The P factor and D factor: The unknown element all mental disorders share in common — and the one they share with physical disorders.
12:57-13:49 – Mental disorders are metabolic in nature.
14:09-16:46 – The bidirectional relationship between mental illness and obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and Alzheimer’s disease.
16:57-21:53 – Mental illness and lifespan reduction: a behavior issue or a metabolic one?
21:58-24:17 – Thinking in complex feedback loops instead of linear relationships.
24:22-26:33 – What is metabolism and what controls it?
26:36-28:29 – Mitochondria as the unifying link for the risk factors for mental illness.
29:14-30:07 – A new approach to treatment.
30:08-36:00 – Exercise and mental health.
36:01-39:08 – The ketogenic diet as a metabolic treatment for mental illness.
39:11-40:43 – CrossFit as a legitimate biological metabolic brain intervention for people with mental illness.
LECTURE SERIES PLAYLIST
Episode 1: Own Your Health, With Nicole Carroll
Episode 2: Exercise for Longevity and Healthspan, With Dr. Rhonda Patrick
Episode 3: CrossFit for Health: Muscle-centric Medicine, With Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
Episode 4: From Obesity to Opioids, How CrossFit Can Save the World, With Dr. Tom McCoy
Episode 5: Simple, Not Easy, Ways To Improve Your Health
Episode 6: Training for Fitness vs. Performance
Episode 7: The Role of Lifestyle in Chronic Disease, With Dr. Kwadwo Kyeremanteng
Episode 8: Metabolic Health Is Mental Health, With Dr. Chris Palmer
Episode 9: The Relationship Between Connection, CrossFit, and Health
Episode 10: Future-Proof Your Brain, With Dr. Tommy Wood
About the CrossFit for Health Summit Spring Lunchtime Series
On Feb. 3, 2024, hundreds of CrossFit affiliate owners, coaches, and healthcare professionals gathered in Austin, Texas, and online for the CrossFit for Health Summit, presented by GORUCK.
CrossFit thought leaders led panel discussions on fitness, performance, and the hard work of health, while renowned experts shared cutting-edge research on longevity, mental and metabolic health, and chronic disease — and how the CrossFit community has the power to transform the landscape of it all.
“It is a wonderful comprehensive strategy to address some of the biggest challenges that we face as a nation right now in regards to healthcare,” Dr. McCoy says. “Being there for each other, connecting on a human level, is something that we do that no other fitness modality does. And this differentiates us and it gives us a power to impact brain physiology in a way that no other fitness modality can.”
CrossFit for Health: Metabolic Health Is Mental Health, With Dr. Chris Palmer