SUGAR effects your mental health: anxiety, panic, memory, concentration, enjoyment 

I have adhd and ocd and had anxiety to the point of wanting to commit suicide . I used drugs and alcohol to battle it . I stopped sugar because I started working out again and bodybuilding but didn’t have time for cardio so I did keto instead of lowering the fat and eating carbs and doing cardio because i wanted to burn fat fast. It changed my life . It killed my anxiety dead cold and took my hdhd away and changed my life

ABSOLUTE connection with carbs sugar and mental health thank you so much for this info

Another expert!

I'm on my first week of carnivore diet...no sugar and no carbs and MY DEPRESSION IS GONE!!! I have such peace, and a clear mind!

As I have gotten into my 40’s I have gotten really sensitive with sugar. I do better when I keep it out of my diet. I recently let it creep back in and anxiety increased. I have to just say NO to sugar no matter what! Fruit doesn’t bother me just candy, cakes etc. from time to time frozen yogurt or sherbet is okay for me.

I have noticed a huge correlation between sugar, simple carbs and my anxiety. When I eat these empty calories, my anxiety is high, I am shaky, I get tired to the point of falling asleep in my chair. I began to take notice just a couple of months ago of the impact that sugar has on my anxiety. I am going to try the keto diet. I will eliminate not only sugar but simple carbs..

Alcohol turns into sugar and sugar turns into fat.

Thank you for this. Sugar has been one of my ways to get dopamine as someone with depression (bipolar) - I am looking forward to cleansing and trying the diet very soon

Thanks Jess and Dr Al. Very interesting discussion.

This is like one of the best videos on RU-vid!

Thanks very interesting!

Excellent !

hello I have reactive/functional hypoglycemia for a long time checked at the hospital and I stay away from anything that is quick sugar, alcohol etc. I can't live like everyone else and the more time passes the more complex it becomes. I understand by listening to you that the many ups and downs in the mountains don't help. I would add to what you say it brings anxiety yes sadness (not being able to be fully physically and mentally) anger, irritability paranoia and also sleep disorders, a stressful world in the end I try to keep myself informed as much as possible about these pathologies, that's why I'm on your channel, thank you for the content!

Something worthwhile to explore

Omg this is great to hear I felt that my food intake and sugar triggers my panic attack. If I eat healthy in morning oatmeal fruits substantial breakfast I feel less lightheaded. Most of my panic happened on empty stomach.

Love all your videos, I have one problem though, they’re all really quiet. You can raise the volume in a basic video editor. Thanks!

Go Jess and Al!

I like sweets but they make me irritable

So awesome that you suggest checking fasting insulin! (I wish I did it years earlier.)

You guys are the shrinks/therapists of the future. Both in attitude and in knowledge. I remember going to therapy for the first time, long ago, when I was very young. I had a lovely shrink. But I remember thinking - my friends that, like me, have a lot of mental health issues, eat junk food and sweets all the time. That can’t be a coincidence. It was disappointing to me that a shrink, who is a doctor after all, does not look into physical causes of depression/anxiety. Not just diet, but also hormonal issues. I’m sure they are quite widespread among patients, especially if you include cortisol and adrenaline, but usually not enough out of whack to be picked up on in blood tests at the GP’s office.

This describes my oroblem😊. I love sugar and can’t have it bc of the anxiety. Not even the least little bit.

this video could have been way shorter but I guess repetition gets it in better for slow learners :)

I didn’t even have to go full on keto to experience drastic changes in my depression/anxiety management (keto does not agree with me). Just cutting refined sugar on weekdays was transformative for me. I started keeping added/refined sugar well below 25 grams a day on weekdays and felt incredible and lost 14 kg in 4 months without being hungry. Noticed I felt like total crap whenever I ate sweets on weekends. Started eating much more sugar again a couple of months ago and my moods have destabilized and my weight loss stalled even though I have another 10 kg to go. I’m definitely getting back on the low sugar wagon. Life is so much better there.

Wow, a shrink who’s knowledgeable about insulin resistance…the times are changing. Really great. Sadly, past winter when I was very, very slowly weaning off citalopram, I did keto, daily exercise, got up early, took cold showers, anything I could think of. But I still circled down the drain until I had to give up and urgently increase the meds. I hate that I was unable to get off those damn drugs.

Has anyone noticed a worsening of mental health at FIRST when cutting out sugar? I noticed when I first started keto things felt worse, ocd ramped up, anxiety heightened etc. I can surmise that this is because the body is used to having loads of carbs coming in and then starting keto takes out the carbs and sugar so your body and brain kind of panic, and has to get used to using ketones. If so, how long until the mental affects start to get better. I had always given up about a week in, because the mental stuff was too much. But then I keep coming across videos, and information about how the keto diet is so good for mental health. So if you have any info, or if anyone else noticed this, and then had the mental stuff subside, how long until that happened and you felt better?

Oh, btw, I’m never depressed again (though still severely anxious) since taking s-adenosyl-methionine. Works only for somewhat over half of depressed people, and makes it worse for others - but you know within a week. It is an incredible antidepressant that would be in every doctor’s tool box if it were patentable. (That’s not really an attack on the pharmaceutical industry; it’s an industry and it can’t carry out tests without recouping money invested. But it would be nice if doctor’s thought out of the box a little. A university in the Netherlands is currently testing s-adenosyl-methionine and has found it works especially for patients with childhood trauma. Something to do with DNA methylation going awry due to heavy childhood stress.) NB I wrote to an American professor who was the first or one of the first to advocate for SAMe, to ask if it could be combined with an SSRI. He said yes, no problem, won’t give you serotonin syndrome. Have used it for 15 years with high SSRI dosages. Wish everyone knew this, it’s even suspected of having anti-cancer properties.

OMG the cutting each other off is killing me!🤦🏽

Thank you. I discovered a couple years ago that I have anxiety. So I panic about dying. And I recently changed my diet. Cut out all sugar all caffeine. I leave my coffee. But I only drink water daily and juice once a week. And my anxiety has been through the roof! I was driving the other day and I felt my throat was weird So naturally I’m like “can’t breathe gonna die, check your heart rate. Watch said my heart rate was 100BPM so I panicked more I saw the ER and pulled in to calm myself and my heart rate jumped to 120BPM driving my truck. So I stepped out of my truck and breathed in air, and calmed myself. Telling myself well if I pass out from no air the ER is right here so they will help me… and that calmed me down. I’m assuming Sugar cut made me this way and I need to let it play out until I relax. It’s hard… but I’m hoping it will level. And I mean I used to drink 2-4 sodas a day driving to my job sites. I was eating 20-26 Oreo cookies after dinner every night and I just dropped it all. No weening off just dumped it. I feel my body is trying to get used to my new diet. This video helped me calm down. I wake up everyday right now with allot of stress feeling I can’t breath in good until about mid day.

Good video and I listened through the whole of it. However this was a bit frustrating. Got all volumes set to 100% and volume was still low. You might want to work on that a bit.

I think the rate of blood glucose dropping may be more impactful than the actual level. I can now stay under 2.5 mmol/l for days with no side effect or problems, and actually enjoy enhanced cognition. (but my ketone levels will be quite high if blood glucose is low for a prolonged period)

Hi 👋 anyone knows how low blood sugar affects mental health. (PTSD) anxiety and depression? I think when my blood sugar is low, something weird happens to me ... I feel really bad. I eat thee dates and feelings much better now.

Recently I’ve been having the feeling of anxiety every time I drank energy drink. Now I cannot even eat sweets like pies or cakes without feeling it. It’s really bothering me because I didn’t have a problem like that before. It just appeared few months ago and I feel like it’s worsening. I’m not even eating much sweet food which is why I don’t really understand it. Maybe I’ve got more sensitive towards sugar.🤷‍♀️

I've been having terrible anxiety for a couple months now. Started with health anxiety and it has morphed into a terrifying fear. I was diagnosed as a pre-diabetic and it has turned my life upside down. I'm down over 30lbs but my blood sugar is a little high in the AM. I am thinking it's a combination of just not eating enough calories, poor sleep and late night sugar/carb eating. I just felt bad. Like I hadn't slept or eaten in forever. That spiked my anxiety. Now, I've just been eating earlier (before 8pm) and it's normalized my blood sugar and helped me feel better. I don't know what really happened to me as I was fine a couple months ago and now I've been spiraling into my own personal hell.

Can exercise help with the low and highs of sugar?

I thought the thumbnail said sugar Carlos

Plain water helps anxiety?

Mars bar isn't jsit suagr though, it's fat and sugar. Eat fat free carbs, complete game changer. Sugar isn't to be feared without fat present

I think regular checking of you blood glucose levels are more important rather than on checking of what kind of sugars/carbs ur going to eat. The amount of breakdown would still be the same on the portion of intake.Thus, it is not relative to the amount of anxiety on the classifications of food.

I could understand about 3/4 of the words in this video. I know you are speaking English, but it was difficult to get the information extracted. I may have to listen to it again. But I do believe it will be worth the effort. Thank you both.

Funny story I came here looking to raise my suger levels safely because I came out of a diet with low to almost none sugere and guess what your body can find other sources for glucose like fat but your brain cannot so imagine me having panic attacks axiaty and depression because of a lack of glucose So be careful folks