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Comment by hnracer | Hacker News Reader

Does anyone know unconventional ways to treat depression (or bipolar), that are not widely known, but are nevertheless supported by solid science?

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All-meat diets with a high fat to protein ratio seem to be a panacea to many physical and mental ailments.

Amber O'Hearn is a famous personality and researcher in this space, there are a few accounts of her successful remission from bipolar type 2 with this regimen.

I can give other references and answer any related questions.

[Edit] I'm not aware of any science on all-meat diets and mental health, but there is scientific evidence supporting the role of nutrients in animal foods and brain health, as well as ketogenic metabolism VS glucose metabolism (notably as a treatment for epileptic seizures). Obviously what's good in calming epileptic brains is going to be good for calming all brains.

I heard somewhere that this was good if there is an auto-immune issue underlying the mental health problems - although I could be totally wrong about that. If no such auto-immune issue is present, is this still a valid therapy? Thanks.

I read about keto diets being helpful in schizophrenia and such. It should be easy to find.

I don’t know if this qualifies as “unconventional” but I have had tremendous success increasing my physical exercise daily. I’m not entirely sure if it’s just daily exercise or goal setting (in my case it was the somewhat ambiguous ‘10k steps a day’) or maybe a mix of both, but it evened out my mood significantly and had a strong effect on my depression.

(Edit: studies associated) https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=exercise+effect+on+depr...

I find that daily exercise and keeping a steady schedule of 8~9 hours of sleep is critical to maintaining stability. Sleep is the one thing I can't skimp on. Exercise can slip for a day or two. Food is less critical as long as I'm getting proper nutrition and don't skip meals.

Due to my severity, insomnia (primary), and psychosis, I will likely always need medication but taking care of my body allows me to keep the dosages low enough that I still feel like myself.

I feel like exercise is the standard advice from almost every medical professional for almost everything... but it is often helpful (I mean from the perspective of a type 2 bipolar), and it keeps away things like weight gain, inability to do physical activities, etc. which is usually pretty harmful. Sleep is also important.

In general, taking care of yourself physically (beyond sleep and exercise this includes things like taking showers, brushing teeth, etc., which can be difficult during a slump) makes it easier to take care of yourself mentally since you have more energy and don't need to deal with body problems.

In my experience this stuff is helpful, but not a silver bullet.

RTMS, gaining traction, good efficacy, and no side effects like medication.

Lithium as a supplement to antidepressants, for treating depression. It works very well.

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