Nitrates used to preserve deli meats like beef jerky, salami, hot dogs, and other processed meat snacks can help trigger mania, an abnormal mood state associated with bipolar disorder.
Analysis of a cohort of more than 1,000 people showed that nitrates – chemicals used to preserve deli meats like jerky beef, salami, hot dogs and other processed meat snacks – may contribute to trigger mania, an abnormal mood state associated with bipolar disorder. Mania is characterized by hyperactivity, euphoria, and sleeplessness.
The results were published on July 18 in Molecular Psychiatry. Specifically, the researchers found that people hospitalized for an episode of mania were three times more likely to have ever eaten nitrate meats than people without a history of severe psychiatric disorders.
Dietetic interventions
Experiments in rats by the same researchers showed manic hyperactivity after just a few weeks of a nitrate-enriched diet. “Future work on this association could lead to dietary interventions to help reduce the risk of manic episodes in those with bipolar disorders or who are otherwise vulnerable to mania, ”says lead study author Robert Yolken, professor of pediatric neurovirology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Mania, which can last for weeks or even months, is typically seen in people with bipolar disorder, but can also occur in people with schizoaffective disorder. Manic states can lead to dangerous behavior and hospitalizations.
3.5 times higher
Between 2007 and 2017, Robert Yolken and his colleagues collected demographic, health and dietary data from 1,101 people aged 18 to 65, with and without psychiatric disorders (those with psychiatric problems were recruited into a specialized hospital service). Among people hospitalized for mania, the history of consuming treated meat before hospitalization was approximately 3.5 times higher than in the group of people without psychiatric disorders. The researchers, however, were unable to draw any conclusions as to the exact amount of dried meat that increases the risk of mania.
Nitrates are used as preservatives in processed meat products, and have recently been linked to certain cancers and neurodegenerative diseases.
7% of the population
Bipolar disorder is a mood disorder (previously titled: manic-depressive illness). It is characterized by an abnormal variation in mood: alternating periods of excitement (mania or hypomania) and depression, even deep melancholy, interspersed with periods of stability. The term “bipolar” evokes the two poles mania and depression, between which the mood oscillates.
Classic bipolar disorder affects approximately 0.4% to 1.6% of the adult population in France in all social categories, or approximately 600,000 people. By including types II or III, one obtains significantly higher figures, being able to go up to 7% of the population while including all the bipolar “spectrum”, that is to say all the related disorders.
According to figures from Public Health France, 163 to 190 women per 100,000 presented bipolar disorders between 2010 and 2014, against 104 to 120 men per 100,000. “In total, between 2010 and 2014, 80,000 people, on average, were treated annually in mainland France for bipolar disorders, and 300,000 people for depressive disorders. Stable rates were observed for the management of depressive disorders while an increase was observed for that of bipolar disorders “, indicate the authors of the report.
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