Earlier this year at a Mental Health Training for IM doctors, 3 practitioners (myself, a doctor & a psychiatrist) walked into a bar…not really, but we did each present a case study of challenging patient & in whom we had some great outcomes. All 3 patients presented happened to have Gilbert’s Syndrome. Just in case you’re wondering if there was a secret Gilbert Syndrome Conference you didn’t get an invite to, no. Or that perhaps there was premeditation and intention on the organisers behalf for a bit of sub-theme and focus, no. While this was purely coincidental it does speak rather loudly to a couple of things though.
Patients with Gilbert’s syndrome are likely to be over-represented in our client base especially among those presenting with psychiatric and/or gut issues (and both presentations frustratingly for them, very hard to diagnose, define, pigeon hole etc) and secondly, even though their genes underpin their biological susceptibility to such health problems, great outcomes are really possible.
One of the challenges comes from the medical dismissiveness of this genetic issue as simply ‘benign hyperbilirubinemia’. This has lead to a lack of diagnosis in patients affected and when it is incidentally picked up on routine bloods, a lack of follow up education about what having approx. 30% less phase 2 glucuronidation activity, in their gut and their liver, is really likely to mean, not to mention radically altered bile composition and digestion (!) and how they can make better choices in light of this. Similarly this year in our Mental Health Specialist Mentoring Group, the issue of reduced efficacy and tolerance of psychiatric medications, in those with Gilbert’s, raised its head over and over again. Given that so many drugs within the psychiatric class add at the very least to the ‘substrate load’ of the UGT system, if not frankly inhibit some members of this enzyme family, as this paper (check out Table 2…superb!) shared by my colleague, Kate Worsfold, points out, it actually shouldn’t come as a surprise.
But there is a change a’coming with an influx of research leading to improved understanding of this seemingly mercurial malady, resolving many riddles, identifying new key ways to help these patients and at last….some exceptionally good news for those with Gilbert’s.
For example, when I started this conversation back in 2013 with the Update in Under 30 Gilbert’s Girls, that was in response to seeing so many women at the time presenting with significant imbalances in both their sex hormones and their neurobiology as a result of their UGT impairment. But of course it was never meant to imply GS is just a girl thing! In fact there is a 3:1 dominance of men with this condition and some very good reasons as to why: more red blood cells and more testosterone…the former being the primary source of bilirubin and the later a terrifically powerful UGT inhibitor. The news from the research frontier is nothing short of thrilling, rewriting our thoughts on what medications and supplements (!!) are the most problematic, improved dietary management, how to track their progress more accurately and why completely normalising their bilirubin is not the goal…hey did someone say…longer telomeres?! 😉
The latest Update in Under 30 has landed: Gilbert’s – New Goals and Good News and my team has gone all out in producing a brilliant desktop reference to go with this recording that aids better understanding and clear treatment aims for your GS patients.
You can purchase Gilbert’s: New Goals & Good News here.
If you are an Update in Under 30 Subscriber, you will find it waiting for you in your online account.
**But if you’re just joining us & this important conversation now,
ideally get the basics and backstory first and purchase all 3 key episodes in ‘A Guide to Gilbert’s Package’
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We now suspect that many of the drivers behind PCOS are heritable components – a genetic vulnerability passed from parents, possibly one but often both. This growing understanding has identified a phenomenon referred to as ‘PCOS families’ i.e. a family in which at least one female has confirmed PCOS.
Being a primary biological relative of someone with PCOS, it would seem, suggests a shared risk, even if you are a son, or brother or father.
So beyond the very high rates of undiagnosed PCOS in sisters of someone already diagnosed, there is much talk now about a male PCOS phenotype equivalent.(more…)
As we head rapidly towards the change over of our calendars we would like to offer you a special on the very best educational recordings from 2014 – buy 2 CDs before Jan 31st and receive one complimentary Premium Audio Recording of your choice OR purchase 4 CDs and receive a 3 month Premium Audio subscription for free.
It’s been a busy year during which Rachel has delivered 7 very successful new seminars in the area of mental health and beyond, most notably fortifying her role as a leader in the field of diagnostics and pathology interpretation. This has included collaborations with ACNEM, Biomedica, Health Masters Live, MINDD and Nutrition Care, however, each recording is classic Rachel – full of fresh perspectives on diagnosis & treatment, colourful analogies & humour. In case you missed some of these this year or want a copy for keeps – here’s a quick summary of the 2014 recordings included in this end of year offer: (more…)
We’ve all heard about the higher incidence of mood disorders (depression, anxiety etc.) in women and chances are we’ve all seen this reflected in the dominance of female clients who present seeking help but what’s this really telling us? Many of us are aware that men are more likely to ‘self-medicate’ with alcohol and other substances, as a maladaptive way of dealing with the psychological stressors, however, the lesser talked about fact is that substance induced (i.e. cannabis etc.) psychotic disorders are significantly more prevalent in men and occur at younger ages than women (Bogren et al 2010) and substance use & abuse is commonly not sufficiently explored or adequately diagnosed in general practice amongst male patients. Oh dear…what else do we need to know?
The results of a large English survey on mental health and help-seeking behaviour published in 2005 found that men were less likely than women to say that they would seek help (OR=0.78, 95% CI 0.72–0.88,P<0.001). The preferred reported source of help was friends or relatives with 63.1% saying they would seek help from this source. In addition to this and somewhat, more alarmingly, the WHO reports that “doctors are more likely to diagnose depression in women compared with men, even when they have similar scores on standardised measures of depression or present with identical symptoms.” https://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/genderwomen/en/ So even when males do finally present for help, often, the mental health problem is being overlooked or missed.
One theme that keeps coming up in research is the ongoing associated stigma for men with mental health issues. A study published in 2008, conducted by two National Institute of Mental Health postdoctoral fellows in mental health care policy at Harvard Medical School, investigated the effect of gender, race and socioeconomic status on psychosocial barriers to mental health care and found that white males were most likely to mistrust the mental health care system and were also likely to perceive mental illness as a stigma and therefore avoid formal mental health care https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080908125123.htm
In my practice we actually have a high proportion of males presenting with mental health concerns, admittedly, our practice specialises in this area so that may be a key reason for this and in many instances the appointment has been instigated or driven by a concerned mother, a wife etc. Regardless, I’ve found that many men really struggle & it’s made somewhat more complicated by the role they are expected to play in society. I think the key message is not to reinforce gender based stereotypes on our patients, have the confidence to explore mental health with male patients, their vulnerabilities, concerns etc. as much as you would your female patients. Make sure you thoroughly assess their substance use and take heart there is a lot we can do for these individuals, the first step is recognising there’s a problem.
Rachel will be speaking on Young White Men & the Mental Health Challenges They Face at the MINDD International Forum in Sydney June 14-15th. For more information and bookings check out: https://mindd.org/forum/mind2014.html
