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Brain Energy: A Revolutionary Breakthrough in Understanding Mental Health--and Improving Treatment for Anxiety, Depression, OCD, PTSD, and More Hardcover – November 15, 2022

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Nautilus Book Awards Gold Winner in Psychology/Mental & Emotional Well-Being

Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Finalist in Health

2023 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist



This is the book that will forever change the way we understand and treat mental health.

If you or someone you love is affected by mental illness, this book just might change your life.

We are in the midst of a global mental health crisis, and mental illnesses are on the rise. But what causes mental illness? And why are mental health problems so hard to treat? Drawing on decades of research, Harvard psychiatrist Dr. Chris Palmer outlines a revolutionary new understanding that for the first time unites our existing knowledge about mental illness within a single framework: Mental disorders are metabolic disorders of the brain. 

Brain Energy explains this new understanding of mental illness in detail, from symptoms and risk factors to what is happening in brain cells. Palmer also sheds light on the new treatment pathways this theory opens up—which apply to all mental disorders, including anxiety, depression, ADHD, alcoholism, eating disorders, bipolar disorder, autism, and even schizophrenia. Brain Energy pairs cutting-edge science with practical advice and strategies to help people reclaim their mental health.

This groundbreaking book reveals: 
 
  • Why classifying mental disorders as "separate" conditions is misleading
 
  • The clear connections between mental illness and disorders linked to metabolism, including diabetes, heart attacks, strokes, pain disorders, obesity, Alzheimer's disease, and epilepsy
  • The link between metabolism and every factor known to play a role in mental health, including genetics, inflammation, hormones, neurotransmitters, sleep, stress, and trauma
  • The evidence that current mental health treatments, including both medications and therapies, likely work by affecting metabolism
  • New treatments available today that readers can use to promote long-term healing
 Palmer puts together the pieces of the mental illness puzzle to provide answers and offer hope. Brain Energy will transform the field of mental health, and the lives of countless people around the world.
Previous page
  1. Print length
    320 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    BenBella Books
  4. Publication date
    November 15, 2022
  5. Dimensions
    6.25 x 1.17 x 9.31 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1637741588
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1637741580
  8. See all details
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  1. High levels of cortisol have been found to inhibit autophagy, slowing down or stopping this maintenance process.
    Highlighted by 928 Kindle readers
  2. Metabolism and mitochondria can explain all the symptoms of mental illness.
    Highlighted by 901 Kindle readers
  3. Metabolism is the process of turning food into energy or building blocks for growing and maintaining cells, as well as the appropriate and efficient management of waste products.
    Highlighted by 873 Kindle readers
  4. Psychiatric diagnoses are all based on the concept of syndromes. A syndrome is a cluster of signs and symptoms that commonly occur together, with a cause that is not yet known.
    Highlighted by 670 Kindle readers
  5. I had developed a unifying theory for the cause of all mental illnesses. I call it the theory of brain energy.
    Highlighted by 294 Kindle readers
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Brain Energy is a dramatic breakthrough in understanding mental illness by a leading Harvard psychiatrist who provides a revolutionary road map for people suffering from depression, anxiety, bipolar disease, in fact, almost any brain disorder."
—Mark Hyman, MD, senior advisor at the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine and 14-time New York Times bestselling author
 
"Brain Energy provides a long-awaited unifying mechanism underlying a vast spectrum of mental illness conditions. And this new paradigm will undoubtedly usher in potent therapeutic interventions for pervasive psychiatric conditions for which standard pharmaceutical approaches have proven minimally effective."
—David Perlmutter, MD, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Grain Brain
 
"Dr. Palmer takes a provocative and insightful look into the origins of mental disorders, which have profound implications for how we treat the disease . . . and for our diet."
—Jason Fung, MD, nephrologist and New York Times bestselling author of Live Life in the Fasting Lane
 
"Not since the foundational theories of psychodynamics (Sigmund Freud) and behaviorism (John Watson) has a bold and potentially transformative new proposition emerged to explain the mounting epidemic of mental illness throughout the world and across the age-span. Dr. Palmer’s ground-breaking theory is that abnormalities in brain energy metabolism are likely root causes of psychiatric conditions and that dietary and metabolic approaches can be exploited to benefit patients, and even the general population at large."
—Jong M. Rho, MD, professor of neurosciences and pediatrics at the University of California San Diego

"Brain Energy calls for a much-needed revolution in how we think about and treat mental illnesses. This book integrates decades of science in mitochondrial biology with clinical experience to provide a rational theory for the origin of common psychiatric conditions, carving a path towards better mental health."
—Martin Picard, PhD, associate professor of behavioral medicine (in psychiatry and neurology) at Columbia University Irving Medical Center

"After a bipolar episode at age 19, our son was seen by more than forty mental health practitioners and prescribed twenty-nine different medications. But it was not until he started on a ketogenic metabolic therapy under the guidance of Dr. Chris Palmer that he got his mind and his life back. Dr. Palmer’s metabolic approach has the potential to radically impact the world's mental health epidemic."
—David Baszucki, founder and CEO of Roblox and cofounder of the Baszucki Group & Jan Ellison Baszucki, author of A Small Indiscretion and cofounder of the Baszucki Group
 
"Psychiatry will never be the same . . . Christopher Palmer poses the hypothesis, supports it with data, and in my humble opinion nails the treatment—feed the brain what it needs."
—Robert H. Lustig, MD, MSL, emeritus professor of pediatrics at UCSF and author of Metabolical
 
"If you have ever been dissatisfied with the rather hard-to-defend explanations of mental illness, this groundbreaking book is for you . . . An exhilarating intellectual journey to reveal the new beginnings of psychiatry."
—Zoltán Sarnyai, MD, PhD, professor and head of the Laboratory of Psychiatric Neuroscience, James Cook University, Australia
 
"Dr. Christopher Palmer has written a must-read primer for anyone considering understanding and treating mental health. The book will guide you to understand why metabolism and mitochondria are fundamental to keep your brain healthy . . . a call to action to transform mental health treatment." 
—Ana C. Andreazza, PhD, professor of pharmacology and psychiatry, University of Toronto and founder and scientific director, Mitochondrial Innovation Initiative
 
"Dr. Palmer is uncanny in his synthesizing extant literature and providing a prescient thesis on the pathoetiologic and potentially therapeutic role of metabolics of neuropsychiatric conditions. The thesis and framework proffered by Dr. Palmer provides for many prevention and therapeutic opportunities in psychiatry and take us one step closer to disease-modifying possibilities."
—Roger S. McIntyre, MD, FRCPC, professor of psychiatry and pharmacology at the University of Toronto, Canada
 
"Brain Energy is a book that cannot be read and incorporated into policy soon enough: mental disorders are an accelerating crisis, especially among children. This is not rocket science, it’s neuroscience."
—Susan A. Masino, PhD, professor of applied science and neuroscientist at Trinity College
 
"Kudos to Dr. Chris Palmer for penning a thought-provoking and superb book on the revolutionary breakthroughs occurring in psychiatry, a discipline in medicine that has suffered far too long and from too much stigma."
—Sanjiv Chopra, MBBS, MACP, FRCP, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and bestselling author
 
"It is clear to me from clinical practice that what we eat and drink affects our brain function and mental health but I never understood why. Dr. Palmer brilliantly connects the dots to explain why this is true."
—Eric C. Westman, MD MHS, director of the Duke Keto Medicine Clinic
 
"Brain Energy is a book all psychiatric professionals should read as a useful criticism of our field's major deficits. It is a book all people should read to understand how much they can do (and not do) for the sake of their mental health. Basic health is self-evident but takes courage to commit to taking exquisite care of your body and by extension your brain."
—Lois W. Choi-Kain, MD, MEd, director of the Gunderson Personality Disorders Institute and assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School
 
"Dr. Palmer’s Brain Energy seemed to take me by the hand and gently walk me through the most complex of medical journeys—arriving at the most fascinating yet incredibly logical conclusions. Though not a scientist, I was able to follow and actually become riveted during every step of the journey."
—Jim Abrahams, director of The Charlie Foundation for Ketogenic Therapies
 
"Brain Energy, by Dr Chris Palmer, is THE much-needed new perspective on mental health that could revolutionize the way we think about, research, and treat mental health conditions . . . Filled with brilliant analogies, jaw-dropping statistics, fascinating scientific details, and moving patient stories, this book is an absolute must-read."
—Nicholas Norwitz, PhD in neurometabolism (University of Oxford) and student at Harvard Medical School

About the Author

Dr. Christopher M. Palmer is a Harvard psychiatrist and researcher working at the interface of metabolism and mental health. He has developed the first comprehensive theory of what causes mental illness, integrating existing theories and research into one unifying theory—the brain energy theory of mental illness.
He is the Director of the Department of Postgraduate and Continuing Education at McLean Hospital and an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. For over 25 years, he has conducted neuroscience research and worked with people who have treatment-resistant mental illness using standard treatments. He has been pioneering the use of the medical ketogenic diet in the treatment of psychiatric disorders—conducting research in this area, treating patients, writing, and speaking around the world on this topic. More broadly, he is interested in the roles of metabolism and metabolic interventions on brain health.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ BenBella Books (November 15, 2022)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1637741588
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1637741580
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 1.17 x 9.31 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 1,250 ratings

About the author

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Christopher M. Palmer MD

Christopher M. Palmer MD

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Christopher M. Palmer, MD, is a Harvard psychiatrist and researcher working at the interface of metabolism and mental health. He is the director of the Department of Postgraduate and Continuing Education at McLean Hospital and an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. For more than two decades, he has held leadership roles in psychiatric education at Harvard, McLean Hospital, and nationally. He spent more than fifteen years conducting neuroscience research in the areas of substance use and sleep disorders. On top of these academic pursuits, he has continued to practice psychiatry, working with people who have treatment-resistant mental disorders using a variety of standard treatments. He has been pioneering the use of the medical ketogenic diet in the treatment of psychiatric disorders—conducting research in this area, treating patients, publishing academic articles, and speaking globally on this topic. Most recently, he has developed the first comprehensive theory of what causes mental illness, integrating biological, psychological, and social research into one unifying theory—the brain energy theory of mental illness.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
1,250 global ratings
A book of hope for Doctors and Patients
5 Stars
A book of hope for Doctors and Patients
I met Dr. Palmer at a medical conference in 2017. I was trying to understand exactly how and indeed if diet had improved my depression. I came away convinced I was on the right track and with a Low Carb / Keto diet lifestyle. Now over 6 years later I remain depression free on no meds following that lifestyle.In this book Dr. Palmer presents an answer to how diet cured my depression while presenting a unifying theory of mental illness. Psychiatric symptoms are metabolic disorders of the brain. Those metabolic disorders can have multiple root causes. Some people have more than one root cause stress, trauma, poor diet and many more.Patients can find hope in this book especially if they believe they have tried everything and nothing worked. New treatment interventions they have not tried are found in this book.Doctors need to read this with an open mind as it points towards a new path in treating mental illness. A path that addresses the root cause and ultimately leads to the most powerful intervention in many many people. Fixing diet and lifestyle.
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Top reviews from the United States

Cschriner
5.0 out of 5 stars Life Changing
Reviewed in the United States on April 14, 2024
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Very readable for anyone…interested layperson, MD or other healthcare professional. This book literally changed my brain and healed the years of the standard American diet food pyramid poisoning and killing the mitochondria in my brain cells. I am now almost med free and have never had such a clear mind/thinking ability
8 people found this helpful
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Katy Cryer
5.0 out of 5 stars super interesting, breezy read given the topic
Reviewed in the United States on March 10, 2024
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I almost didn’t read this book because I’d listened to the author in a couple of podcasts, and I thought he would be pushing the keto diet, which I’m not interested in. He doesn’t at all. What he says makes perfect sense and encourages simple, doable changes. I’ve been intermittent fasting for awhile and seen amazing changes in my health, although what’s improved have been physical markers, not so much my mental health. Now I understand much better why it’s so helpful, and can imagine that my mental health is better too, that’s just much harder to gauge.
15 people found this helpful
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Thomas P. Stinson
4.0 out of 5 stars A physiological explanation for mental disorders
Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2023
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What if ALL mental disorders are due to mitochondrial metabolism malfunction? Quite fascinating.
13 people found this helpful
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Erik Kobayashi-solomon
5.0 out of 5 stars The most important book on mental health
Reviewed in the United States on December 19, 2023
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This book is incredible! I have been recommending it to everyone after our family was confronted by an occurrence of mental illness.

The insights in the book are simple, yet profound:

1) The brain makes up around 2% of a typical human's body weight yet uses 20% of a typical human's caloric intake. It makes sense that something related to dysfunction of energy processing might throw off the proper functioning of the brain.

2) Mental illnesses tend to be co-morbid with one another (e.g., different presentations of mental illness morphing unexpectedly into other presentations... depression >> anxiety >> OCD >> BDD >> etc.) and co-morbid with other metabolic diseases. The book discusses studies showing that diabetes patients start to demonstrate depressive symptoms months before being diagnosed with diabetes, for instance, and that people diagnosed with metabolic diseases are more likely to show symptoms of mental illness.

3) Incidents of metabolic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease have been on an upward trajectory as rapid and notable as the trajectory of serious mental illnesses.

4) Psychiatrists have a very hard time explaining how the drugs they prescribe actually act on a patient to make them better. Drugs tend to "work" on some people and have no effect on others. Once on medication, it is hard to ever get off, no matter what the side-effects are.

Dr. Palmer discusses these issues, provides references to solid academic studies showing the linkage between metabolic dysfunction and mental disease, and makes a strong case for treating mental illnesses with protocols that improve metabolic functioning. He also provides some inspirational stories of severely mentally ill patients that were able to live fulfilling, sensible lives after making changes to lifestyle that impacted their metabolic function.

This book has been my family's North Star over the past year. It is the one resource to which we keep turning time after time. We have become Dr. Palmer groupies as well--listening to every podcast he is on and every presentation he does.

If you or someone you love is suffering from mental illness, I invite you to read this book and seek out a support team that will help you start to implement the suggestions.
55 people found this helpful
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Karine Norman
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book.
Reviewed in the United States on April 1, 2024
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Great medical book that is easy to read. My doctor recommended that I read it,
2 people found this helpful
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Thomas P Seager, PhD
5.0 out of 5 stars Practical insight that will improve your mental health
Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2023
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While the pithy Editorial Reviews from academics and clinicians describing 'Brain Energy' are accurate, they might not speak to the average reader who is struggling with low mood, depression, or unresolved trauma.

In this regard, 'Brain Energy' can help.

Part 1 deconstructs the DSM-5 and describes the way that current practices in psychiatry and psychology result in a confusing myriad of overlapping diagnoses that often leave patients feeling neglected, misdiagnosed, and overlooked. The metaphor of 'mental illness' suggests that maladies of the mind can be treated as if they were infectious diseases -- e.g., with pills. If you're a patient with a DSM-5 diagnosis, you may have experienced years of changing diagnosis, misdiagnosis, and unsuccessful medications that left you feeling increasingly hopeless and misunderstood. Dr. Palmer suggests that the reason so many of the DSM-5 mental disorders are so similar is that they all have a common foundational cause in the metabolism of the brain. While he is careful to acknowledge that schizophrenia, anorexia, and Alzheimer's are different diseases (for example), by the end of Part 1 you will understand that mental disorders are often accompanied by physiological comorbidities relating to metabolism. The implication is that there can be multiple expressions the same energetic dysfunctions.

Part 2 builds a convincing case that disorders of brain metabolism are the critical, overlooked risk factor in mental (or psychiatric) disorders. By itself, this is not a novel assertion. For example, we have known for decades that a ketogenic diet will control epileptic seizures. However, ketosis (or endogenous ketone ingestion) has an undeserved reputation as some kind of dangerous, radical fringe diet adopted by only by 'biohackers' and conspiracy theorists. Dr. Palmer advocacy for ketogenesis from his position at Harvard University (notorious for advancing now discredited theories of diet and nutrition such as the cholesterol-heart hypothesis) may in fact be revolutionary. Originally popularized by Dr. Robert Atkins as an effective strategy for weight loss, Dr. Palmer (a practicing psychiatrist) accidentally discovered improvements in mood among patients who adopted keto for weight loss.

Although the discover was accidental, the mechanisms of action are not. When the body ingests more carbs than it burns, two things happen: 1) fat gain, and 2) insulin resistance. The later is a condition in which insulin in the bloodstream -- responsible for shuttling glucose across the cell membrane -- becomes increasingly less effective. That is, the cells resist the action of insulin, resulting in higher concentrations of glucose (sugar) in the blood. Although the evolutionary reasons for insulin resistance are unknown, it may be that lower concentrations within the cell walls give the mitochondria inside more time to process the carbohydrate without production of excesss reactive oxygen species. Overworked mitochondria can be more prone to damage by ROS, and damaged mitochondria in the brain are less effective for powering essential cognitive processes.

Ketosis is a proven remedy for insulin resistance, and may rejuvenate the mitochondria throughout the body, including the brain. When your brain's mitochondria function better, you will feel a boost to both your mood and your mental energy. For example, ketosis has been shown to have an anxiolytic effect (which means it reduces anxiety) and consequently it has been used with some success in the resolution of anorexia nervosa.

Part 3 expands the description of 'metabolism' beyond diet to include sleep, light exposure, exercise, drugs, and alcohol. The implication here is that the brain and body act as a complex system, and consequently systemic approaches to health will be more effective than focused strategies. While this is true, the unfortunate outcome for some readers, already discouraged, maybe to conclude that it is all impossibly complex, difficult, and too ambitious to fix.

That's not true.

The most important critique of Dr. Palmer's otherwise fine text is that the prescriptive section 'Developing Your Metabolic Treatment Plan' is too general. It lacks specificity and actionable recommendations that readers can implement immediately on their own. Instead, it funnels readers towards professional clinicians -- despite the fact that by Dr. Palmer's own description the vast majority of his colleagues are unwilling or unqualified to act on the type of science 'Brain Energy' describes.

Thus, readers reaching the end of the book may be disappointed or confused about where begin their 'Brain Energy' approach to healing.

An outstanding companion to 'Brain Energy' is Ben Bikman, PhD's book on insulin resistance called 'Why We Get Sick.' Professor Bikman explains insulin resistance in greater detail in a way that will help readers understand how to reduce their risk of heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, and cancer, as well as improve their mental health.

My own advice is to begin by eliminating refined sugar and flour (e.g., bread, pasta, rice) from your diet. Bikman gives some suggestions (e.g., Stevia) for sweeteners that will not spike your blood sugar. And Dr. Paul Saladino is well-known for advocating for honey and maple syrup as healthy sweeteners. Dr. Palmer doesn't mention these sweeteners specifically, but there's nothing in his 'Brain Energy' book that contradicts or is inconsistent with the Bikman & Saladino recommendations.

More difficult is the elimination of seed oils. Called "vegetable oils" by the industry that invented them, these are cooking oils extracted from soybeans, corn, cotton, peanut, and other seeds. Unlike fruit oils (olive, avocado, coconut) the seed oils contain a type of fat that interferes with the proper function of cell membranes, and can result in insulin resistance. It's more difficult to eliminate them because they are cheap and ubiquitous. But you can reduce their intake by avoiding margarine, Crisco, soybean oil (e.g., in salad dressings) and fried potatoes.

Finally, it sounds crazy to most people, but deliberate cold exposure (e.g., ice baths) is a proven method for increasing insulin sensitivity and resolving metabolic disorders. The cold will clear glucose from your bloodstream and recruit brown fat that helps modulate your thyroid function. As a bonus, winter swimming and ice baths have been shown to stimulate production of dopamine, which makes it impossible to stay in a low mood.

In summary, Dr. Palmer's 'Brain Energy' book presents a convincing case that metabolic syndrome is a critical disorder that impinges upon mental health. Because this fact is overlooked by most, if not all, mental health professionals, it's easy to see why rates of recovery associated with mood-stabilizing pharmaceuticals and talk therapy are so low. Without fixing your metabolism, your efforts to fix your mental health will be challenged by a brain that is working without the energy it needs to perform demanding tasks like cognitive reframing and the executive functions necessary for mental well-being.

However, once you and your mental health professional are convinced by Dr. Palmer that metabolism is at the core of your dissatisfaction, you will likely need to seek other sources to develop a successful metabolic treatment program.
570 people found this helpful
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prime focus
5.0 out of 5 stars The key to resolving your struggles with recurring mental illnesses
Reviewed in Canada on April 14, 2024
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I was intrigued by this book because like many other people with behavioral health issues, I was not diagnosed with one mental health problem but a dozen or more of them over the years. My diagnosis was always a shifting target but it seemed to begin with bulimia and end out with schizophrenia.

This book unifies all of those diagnoses and states they are in fact the same thing with the same root cause. The issue is poor diet, which causes mitochondrial malfunction which causes mental health disorders. Palmer's argument is well-written ad well-supported. He says the ketogenic (keto) diet heals. I have not been able to put a fill keto diet on the menu because of time and of the time and expense. I am working on it. I believe in what Palmer is pitching, it only needs to be tested on a wider scale.

The book maybe a bit of a tough row to hoe for someone who did not take say grade 10 science in high school. Otherwise it is friendly and approachable and I found it sucked me along as a read it.

I highly recommend this book for medical professionals along with Anna Lembke's Dopamine Nation which reminds you to enumerate and ameliorate alllllll of your addictions at once when battling addiction instead of trying to pick off additions one by one while seemingly benign addictions gnaw on parts of your brain.
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Cliente Amazon
5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome!
Reviewed in Brazil on March 21, 2024
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Very instructive and with a lot of insights about mental health. Highly recommendable to every health practicioner despite the area
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Daniela Rodrmguez
5.0 out of 5 stars Excelente libro
Reviewed in Mexico on April 10, 2023
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Interesante contenido, bien explicado.
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Alessio
5.0 out of 5 stars Grazie Christopher
Reviewed in Italy on March 20, 2024
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Grazie a lui sono riuscito ad uscire dalla depressione invalidante con l’aiuto di una cosa che non avevo mai provato: la dieta chetogenica. Nel libro ne parla come approccio e ne parla anche in un video con Huberman che consiglio assolutamente di vedere. Che dire. Mi ha salvato la vita per davvero.
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Amazon Kunde
5.0 out of 5 stars satisfied
Reviewed in Germany on February 14, 2024
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Wonderful book
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