Poor nutrition could contribute to mental illness, but are supplements the answer?

By May 2024, Ebony Dupas knew she had a problem. She had started to feel a mild anxiety about her sense of direction and purpose in life earlier that year, but within a couple months, that had spiraled into a paranoia that she could neither shake nor explain.

Referred by her doctor, Dupas began consulting with different psychiatrists, all of whom considered diagnosing her with generalized anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia. Most wanted to put her on medication right away. But one psychiatrist first ordered bloodwork to see if something else might be going on. “I was mostly depleted of magnesium,” Dupas says.

Most people being treated for mental health conditions such as anxiety or depression typically use a mix of just two strategies: medication (usually an SSRI) and psychotherapy. But there’s increasing interest in the connection between food and the brain, and especially how nutrition could affect psychiatric conditions. Researchers have not only found a connection between the gut microbiome and mental health, but also connections between deficiencies in certain micronutrients, including magnesium or choline, and conditions like anxiety and depression.

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