Dr. Shebani Sethi, MD MS ABOM, is a practicing psychiatrist and obesity medicine specialist that brings metabolic wellness into her mental health practice. In her words, “metabolic psychiatry focuses on improving metabolic abnormalities or dysfunction in order to treat psychiatric illness.” Dr. Sethi is also the founding Director of the Metabolic Psychiatry Clinic at Stanford University of Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, the world’s first academic metabolic psychiatry clinic and research program.

In her talk at Metabolic Health Summit 2022 on the current and future directions of metabolic psychiatry, Dr. Sethi emphasizes the potential mental health benefits of avoiding consumption of processed foods. She says not consuming ultra-processed foods and following a ketogenic diet, can prevent the food addiction cycle, reducing hunger cravings and the occurrence of binge eating.

In a recent study she and her colleague, Dr. Ashley Gearhardt, published, it was found that even if patients follow a less stringent ketogenic diet, the benefits of lower depression scores, an increase in the protective role of microglia (which may protect against bipolar illness), and weight loss are still prevalent.

While the exact mechanisms of metabolism and mental health dysfunction are still being widely studied and elucidated, Dr. Sethi is confident that improving metabolic dysfunction is also improving mental health disease.

To watch Dr. Sethi’s full presentation (with slides) and more than 40 other lectures, panel discussions, and special interest forums from #MHS2022, please visit www.metabolichealthsummit.com! All content will be available to view through October of this year and CME/CPE credit can be claimed through July 8th.

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