Clinical psychologist, Julia Rucklidge, delivers an enlightening TED Talk on the importance of nutrition and its role in mental health. Julia reminds us of a time when Dr. Semmelweis was ridiculed and dismissed for suggesting that doctors wash their hands before touching pregnant women. She compares the radical reaction that doctors had then, to the reaction some doctors have now, about the idea of nutrition being more effective than medicine when treating patients with mental illnesses, such as ADHD, depression, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder.
Dr. Rucklidge advises us that despite the array of medications on the market, mental illness continues to rise, and she asks, “If current medications are effective, should a mental illness be decreasing rather than increasing?”
Medical doctors from around the world have admitted that they learned little to nothing about nutrition during medical school. Dr. Rucklidge herself, was hesitant to believe that nutrition alone could benefit patients because she was taught that nutrition was trivial when it came to the treatment of mental illness. However, she has been conducting research over the past decade and has found that “nutrition is a safe and viable way to avoid, treat and lessen mental illness.”
Listen to her amazing TED Talk in the video below: