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Scientists are learning that certain foods – either because of their natural ingredients or because of the addition of chemicals – can have significant effects on health. One way that food can exert this influence on health is inflammation, which is triggered by the immune system and can impact the risk of developing a number of chronic conditions.
Many foods contribute to inflammation, from sugar to saturated fats. But in a new study, salted meats are under surveillance. They usually contain nitrates, a group of chemicals used as a preservative to cure meats, meat sticks and hot dogs, and nitrates have also been associated with inflammation and disease, including the cancer and brain disorders
. Robert Yolken, professor of pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and his colleagues have studied how exposure to certain environmental factors, including nitrates, could affect psychiatric disorders. In a study published in Molecular Psychiatry he and his team studied 1,101 people, some of whom had psychiatric disorders and some who did not, who had also completed questionnaires to find out if they had eaten different types of food. (The survey did not collect information on how people consumed food or how much they ate, but Yolken says most people have responded based on their recent diets.) were interviewed on salted meats and Among people hospitalized for psychiatric disorders, people who ate dried meat, which included salami and various forms of dried and jerky meat sticks, were 3.5 times more likely to be sick. To be admitted for mania, compared to people living on the street. control group, which had no psychiatric disorders. Mania, which is a state of abnormally alternating mood swings, is most often associated with bipolar disorder. Some types of deli meats, including beef and turkey stuffed with meat sticks, had the highest risk of mania, while those who consumed prosciutto and dehydrated meats had no increased risk of mania.
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Yolken says that the association with nitrates only hits that with mania; the chemicals do not seem to be related to a significant increase in other psychiatric disorders such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia or major depressive disorder. But, he notes, this may simply be due to the small number of people in the study affected by these conditions. He says more research in larger populations is needed to determine if nitrates are related to other psychiatric illnesses, and to confirm the association with mania.
He also says that the data does not suggest eating foods rich in nitrate manic episodes. In the study, some people with no history of psychiatric disorders also consumed meat with nitrates. What the findings suggest, however, is that nitrates could be one of many factors that could contribute to mania, says Yolken. If that's the case, controlling the exposure can be a way to reduce the risk of episodes, he says.
How nitrates contribute to manic episodes is not clear from human data, but Yolken also conducted studies on rats how chemicals could affect the brain. When he fed rats either normal food or fortified food with a piece of commercial dried beef, animals eating jerky began to sleep irregularly and become hyperactive within two weeks. In addition, he worked with a jerky manufacturer to develop a jerky without nitrate, and when he fed the animals this jerky, they did not develop hyperactivity or sleep disorders – although rats fed mercury commercial with nitrates
He also analyzed intestinal bacteria in animals, since the composition of intestinal microbes can affect the body's processes such as inflammation. In fact, animals eating the nitrate-enriched diet had different populations and bacterial profiles than those not exposed to chemicals . (It is not known, however, what this bacterial change could mean.)
If nitrates in the diet affect inflammation by intestinal bacteria, says Yolken, and if this inflammation plays a role in psychiatric conditions like mania, so it's possible that adjusting intestinal microbes with things like probiotics could be a way to affect the risk of psychiatric illnesses. In a previous study, Yolken and his team showed that people with bipolar disorder who were receiving certain probiotics were less likely to be rehospitalized after a manic episode than people not treated with probiotics.
determine the relationship – if there is one – between salted meats and psychiatric disorders. But Yolken is encouraged by what all the data taken together could mean. "The question is how do we understand and control inflammation, and diet can certainly be a way," he says. "This is part of the general question of how we are trying to help people with mania and other psychiatric disorders – and one of the ways could be to reduce their exposure to HIV / AIDS. ;environment."
