Jan Ellison Baszucki: The Role of Diet in Mental Health Treatment

When Jan Ellison Baszucki's 19-year-old son Matt had a manic episode at UC Berkeley, it started five years of hell. Psychiatric hospitals. Twenty-nine different medications. Therapy after therapy. Nothing worked.

"I thought we'd lost him," Jan says. Matt wasn't the energetic, intellectual kid they knew. He was barely functioning, even when he wasn't manic or depressed.

Then they tried something radical: a ketogenic diet. Within four months, Matt was in remission from bipolar disorder.

Jan, who runs the Baszucki Group and founded Metabolic Mind, has spent the last few years diving deep into the science of metabolic psychiatry. Her message is simple but revolutionary: your brain needs the right fuel to function properly.

In this conversation, Jan gets real about what it's like to watch your child disappear into mental illness—and what it feels like to get them back. She talks about the emerging research showing ketones can stabilize mood in ways medications often can't. And she shares practical advice for families who feel stuck in the traditional treatment system.

This isn't about ditching medication or therapy. It's about understanding that sometimes the brain just isn't getting what it needs to heal. For some people, changing how they eat changes everything.

If you're dealing with mental health issues in your family, or you're curious about this growing field of metabolic psychiatry, this conversation will give you a lot to think about.

Jan Ellison Baszucki is a Silicon Valley executive turned mental health advocate whose family's story is helping pioneer new approaches to treating serious mental illness.

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