How your metabolism could alter your mental health

In 2009, medical student Shebani Sethi (med.stanford.edu/profiles/shebani-sethi) watched a patient in a weight loss program make a remarkable recovery. The dietary intervention she underwent alleviated her schizophrenia symptoms, something the woman had tried – and failed – to treat with medication for years. That experience sent Shebani down a medical path that would lead her to treating mental health in a radically different way. Today host Emily Kwong (npr.org/people/767284140/emily-kwong) talks to Shebani about the emerging field of metabolic psychiatry and how ketogenic metabolic therapy may treat schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression.

Read Shebani’s article on metabolic psychiatry here (nature.com/articles/s44220-026-00609-5).

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