The Root Cause Medicine Podcast · Rupa Health

Eating Disorder Treatment: A Functional Medicine Approach: Episode Rerun

·52 min·3 clips

Dr. James Greenblatt says binge eating disorder can completely recover with nutrition plus medication.

1. The Root Cause Medicine Podcast episode centers on eating disorder treatment with Dr. James Greenblatt and Dr. Kate Kresge. 2. Kate Kresge hosts, and James Greenblatt appears as a psychiatrist, chief medical officer at Walden Behavioral, and founder of Psychiatry Redefined. 3. The episode asks what root causes of eating disorders are being missed when treatment focuses only on therapy or pharmaceuticals. 4. Greenblatt says 25 years of treating eating disorders showed him that profound malnutrition is often right in front of patients and clinicians. 5. He argues that vitamins, minerals, and essential fats must be addressed in every treatment program for anorexia nervosa and related disorders. 6. Kresge says she was diagnosed with anorexia at 11 and believes celiac disease should have been checked earlier in her family. 7. Greenblatt says binge eating disorder is more common than anorexia and bulimia combined. 8. He defines binge eating disorder as fast, high-volume eating with impaired hunger and satiety cues. 9. He describes anorexia nervosa as “malorexia,” a term he uses to emphasize malnutrition rather than a purely psychiatric explanation. 10. He gives examples of malorexia pathways including bariatric surgery, celiac disease, and tick-borne illnesses such as PANDAS and PANS. 11. Zinc comes up as the deficiency he sees most often in anorexia nervosa. 12. Greenblatt calls adolescence, genetic vulnerability, and zinc deficiency a “perfect storm” for onset. 13. He says zinc affects neurotransmitter synthesis, stomach acid, taste buds, and pancreatic digestive enzymes. 14. He says patients in treatment often report feeling sick, bloated, or unable to keep eating, and he links that directly to chronic zinc deficiency. 15. Greenblatt rejects the idea that these symptoms are simply the patient’s fault or “just your eating disorder.” 16. He says traditional programs rarely screen for zinc, while his practice uses serum zinc, RBC zinc, hair testing, alkaline phosphatase, white blood cells, and cryptopyrrole testing. 17. He says omega-3 deficiency can contribute to perceptual distortions and body dysmorphia, and he cites brain scans showing differences in anorexia. 18. The conversation also covers starvation studies, paced movement in mice, and the idea that calorie restriction can produce psychological symptoms. 19. The tone is clinical, corrective, and hopeful, with Kate Kresge pressing for practical advice and Greenblatt answering in a teaching style. 20. People with eating disorders, parents, and functional medicine clinicians would likely get the most from this episode, while listeners wanting only general wellness talk may skip it.

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