Joe Hibbeln, M.D., 49, doesn’t fight wars in the traditional sense, but as a psychiatrist and a captain in the United States Public Health Service, he’s been serving on the front lines of mental-health research for the last 17 years. His ongoing mission: to help make America a healthier, happier place. His secret weapon: something he calls "a modern-day Diet of Evolution."
Hibbeln believes that the increase in mental illness among Americans might be the result of our modern diets, specifically an imbalance in the amount of omega-3 fatty acids (the healthy fats found naturally in fish and algae that are best known for their cardiovascular benefits) and omega-6 fatty acids found in vegetable oils, that compete with omega-3s in the brain.
His reasoning: Though our ancestors evolved on about equal amounts of omega-3 and omega-6 fats, today Americans get 10 to 25 times more omega-6s than omega-3s, largely through our dependence on processed food. This matters for mental health, says Hibbeln, because omega-3s alter brain chemicals linked with mood and regulate more than 100 genes involved in transmitting messages between brain cells.
In medical school, Hibbeln learned that the brain is made mostly of fats—some of which our body can’t make from scratch so we have to get them from food. He became interested in how the fats we eat (or don’t eat), such as omega-3s and omega-6s, might change our brains. In the last 17 years, he has published a variety of studies that support his theory—from observational research that shows countries with higher fish consumption have lower rates of depression to clinical trials that contributed to the American Psychiatric Association’s decision, in 2006, to recommend that people with major depression take a daily omega-3 supplement in addition to their regular medications.
These days, some of Hibbeln’s research is focused on military populations. According to Hibbeln, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression in the military affects up to 20 percent of those who have been deployed. "If I can get the military to change their diet, show that it works to reduce depression and suicide there," says Hibbeln, "then there’s a great potential for societal change."
He and Colonel Mike Lewis, M.D., M.P.H., recently received Department of Defense funds to compare blood samples from 800 servicepeople who committed suicide to those of 800 healthy people in the military to see if low omega-3 levels are linked with likelihood of suicide. In addition, the U.S. Army recently awarded the duo almost $1 million to study whether giving omega-3 supplements to a special-operations unit that spends a third of the year in combat might prevent occurrences of depression and suicidal thinking. They’re also looking at whether omega-3 supplements might protect a soldier should he or she suffer traumatic brain injury.
One of Hibbeln’s current pet projects is creating a modern-day "Diet of Evolution." This diet—which he hopes to someday introduce into the cafeteria at the National Naval Medical Center—would boost the ratio of omega-3s to omega-6s in the brain not so much by increasing omega-3 fats but rather by dramatically reducing omega-6 fats. (The typical American diet supplies, on average, 17 to 20 grams a day; the "Diet of Evolution" would deliver 2 to 2.5 grams.)
Eating a traditional Mediterranean-style diet that’s centered on vegetables and fruits, legumes and olive oil, provides plenty of seafood and is limited in meat, will help lower omega-6 intake dramatically, says Hibbeln (see "3 Ways to Bring Yourself into Omega Balance").
Another solution, says Hibbeln, is to replace the high-omega-6 oils the military currently uses, such as soybean oil, with lower-omega-6 oils, such as high-oleic safflower and high-oleic sunflower oil (which have been engineered to have more monounsaturated fats and fewer omega-6s).
If Hibbeln can show that balancing omega-3s in the cafeteria can reduce depression, it might convince the entire military to switch to lower-omega-6 oils. This could open the door to wider-reaching changes—like commercial product reformulations. Hibbeln is already preparing for that. His research team is figuring out how many omega-3s and omega-6s are in many foods sold right in your local commissary: Different brands of salad dressings. Mayo. Peanut butter. Chicken.
"I’m a psychiatrist," says Hibbeln. "If I only practice medicine, I can only affect hundreds, maybe thousands, of people." But by doing the sort of research he’s doing in the U.S. Public Health Service, he says, "I can create useful therapies that could impact millions."
—Rachael Moeller Gorman with Nicci Micco
