Processed Foods and Mental Healthcare Failures Threaten Public Health

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday morning with us today is Dr. Peter Michalos. Live long and prosper is his motto and my motto too, and especially for our listeners. Well, Dr. Peter, tell us what you have in mind this Labor Day weekend.

0:15 Speaker 2 Well, this Labor Day weekend, I want to talk about mental health, and I also want to talk about some of the new studies that came out about some of these artificial sweeteners. And we all hear in the news about these cases of mental health issues and postpartum depression and the woman who had killed her children. And it’s

0:37 really a top issue here in the United States and getting access to care for postpartum depression patients. is a problem getting insurance companies to pay, having the diagnosis codes to cover it. And also a woman is at home, for example, and there’s no family or infrastructure around that affects everything. And even if they get an appointment with

1:00 a psychiatrist and they have a baby at home and let’s say another young child, they can’t even get to that appointment, especially if they’ve had a cesarean section and they are unable to drive. So all these things play a factor. And that’s why, in the opening here, I want to mention the National Mental Health Line, that if

1:20 someone is thinking about harming themselves or harming a child, to call the 800-662-7000. four, three, five, seven, so that they can try to get them the help that they need or try to talk them down from doing harm to themselves or others or a child because it’s a very important issue. And also, there are treatments now. There

1:42 actually is a pill called Zerzivay, which is one a day for 14 days for women who have postpartum depression. And that helps to turn it around because it’s a chemical imbalance. Because when women deliver a baby, some of them are more affected than others. But it’s a giant hormone storm and a shift in hormones. And any kind

2:01 of brain chemistry changes can affect people. Another example of changes in brain chemistry are like the woman who... Stab the people in the street in Manhattan and Times Square. And I tell people that sometimes when they look at the medical record, they’ll find out that sometimes there was a medication change. And because we don’t have inpatient psychiatric

2:25 facilities and when doctors do a medication change with a psych medicine. They should be in patients for three or four or five days just to see how the new medicine reacts because some of them don’t react well to the medicine. Or if they take a new medicine and they feel an abnormal side effect or they don’t have

2:44 compliance and they don’t take the medicine. And if they look deeper into a case like that, I bet you that that’s what is going to happen. They’ll find out there was a medication change or they were noncompliant and weren’t taking their medication. And then they end up doing crazy things. That’s why this bail reform law where people

3:02 get mental illness, they get they don’t even get an appointment with a psychiatrist or follow up and they get released immediately. Those people go back on the street. and commit acts of violence. And in New York State, from the time we started closing up all these psychiatric hospitals, when people went to the outpatient model, people didn’t show

3:22 up to take their medicine in compliance. So that’s a big issue, and mental health is an issue. Another fascinating thing that has to do with living long and prospering is The artificial sweeteners and the mental health and recent studies have found that high consumption of artificial sweeteners was linked to a faster cognitive decline, meaning your brain starts

3:45 to decline. More mood disorders and more cases of depression and irritability, which is fascinating. And not all of them were associated. There is one that’s made from the natural sugars from milk called Tagetoste. which had a lot fewer side effects. And people who are over 60 and people who are over diabetic, they are much more adversely affected

4:09 by high consumption of artificial sweeteners. And the article that you sent me today from the European Cardiology Association presented in Germany showed that xylitol, which is an artificial sweetener, is associated with more heart attacks and strokes And it’s found in our drinks, in our food, in chewing gum, and even in dental care products. That’s why we’re seeing

4:35 now the growth of some of these organic artificial toothpaste and tooth whitening powder, like a new one that just came out that’s 100% organic called Hampton Smile. And it’s a tooth powder made from just natural clay, baking soda, sea salt, and calcium carbonate. So we’re seeing a growth.

4:54 of these types of alternative things to these artificial sweeteners. And we’re finding out that... Dr.

4:59 Speaker 1 Peter, one additional thing. I had lunch the other day with a good friend of mine from Germany. And I told him I put no sweeteners in the coffee, my coffee, and I put no milk in it at all, no dairy.

5:20 And then he says, well, I don’t drink coffee at all because... I did research on how the coffee is made, and they use a lot of chemicals, especially in decaffeinated coffee.

5:33 Speaker 2 Yeah, well, that’s an issue. Decaffeinated coffee is a processed food. And if you get coffee that’s from nature, that’s important. The other thing about coffee that nobody likes to talk about is coffee that’s been sitting around in warehouses or expired dates. You always have to look at expiration because coffee, like peanuts, grows mold. And there are mold-free coffees or

5:56 coffees that are tested for mold. So that’s another issue that is associated with coffee. But you’re absolutely right. Anything that, like you say, if God didn’t create it, it’s a problem. And decaffeinated coffee, they had chemicals to extract the caffeine.

6:11 Speaker 1 In other words, instead of drinking three cups of decaffeinated coffee, you’re better off drinking one cup of regular good coffee.

6:21 Speaker 2 Exactly. And when I go, like a lot of times in these fast food places, they give you two shots of caffeine. I say, can I just have a one shot or half a shot. So you just do a little bit less. But as we said, farm to table is very important and avoiding these processed foods and the

6:39 artificial sweeteners because when it hits the tongue, the body and brain thinks that it just saw sugar and then you shoot out a bunch of insulin, your blood sugar goes low and then you end up being hungrier because you have to feed the body sugar because it thought it got sugar from the artificial sweetener.

6:57 Speaker 1 Peter, thank you for making us smarter and live long and prosper. And we’ll talk again real soon. And we’re going to have a book party for you for the new book that’s coming out any day now.

7:09 Speaker 2 It’s available on Amazon, The Death of Aging, 521 pages on learning how to live long and prosper. And keep listening to WABC for more health tips.