Nutrition and Mental Health
The Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH) and Baylor College of Medicine's Center for Space Medicine hosted a nutritional psychiatry discussion with Dr. Felice Jacka, OAM, professor and director of the Food & Mood Centre at Deakin University in Australia. Dr. Jacka is also the founder and president of the International Society for Nutritional Psychiatry Research.
Food and nutrition can change your mental health, and astronaut behavioral health is a major concern for long-duration space missions. Over the last decade, Dr. Jacka and her colleagues have made significant contributions to their field by identifying key biomarkers and metabolites used to develop predictive algorithms and guide interventions for mood disorders such as depression. This work has implications for preventing and managing human spaceflight risks.