Metabolic Mind: Baszucki Family and Neuroscientists on Keto and Metabolic Psychiatry
Roblox Founder and CEO David Baszucki and his wife, Jan Ellison Baszucki, share the story of how ketogenic metabolic therapy (aka ketogenic diet) resolved all bipolar symptoms for their son. After four months on the diet, their son’s 5-year battle with bipolar disorder ended and his symptoms went into remission. While medications may have saved his life, nutritional ketosis gave him his mind back. Two years later, he is thriving, with zero signs of psychiatric illness.
David and Jan shared their story as part of the first Metabolic Psychiatry retreat in Santa Barbara in May, 2022. Their family philanthropy, Baszucki Group, has launched the Metabolic Mind initiative to provide education in metabolic psychiatry. The Baszucki Brain Research Fund supports clinical trials of metabolic interventions like nutritional ketosis / ketogenic diets for mental health.
The conference brought together physicians, neuroscientists, dieticians, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and philanthropists to build community in the emerging field of Metabolic Psychiatry. Experts discuss new approaches that have the potential to transform our understanding and treatment of mental illness.
Learn more about metabolic psychiatry and meet the visionary Metabolic Mind Award Winners at
Metabolic Mind™ is a nonprofit initiative incubated by Baszucki Group. Their mission over time will be to provide resources and build community in metabolic psychiatry.
JOIN THEIR MAILING LIST AT
Featured in this video:
David Baszucki – Founder and CEO, Roblox
Co-Founder, Baszucki Group
Jan Ellison Baszucki
President, Baszucki Group
Matt Baszucki – Producer, Roblox
BipolarCast Host
Scientists and Clinicians:
Jong Rho, PhD – UCSD
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Natalie Rasgon, MD – Stanford University
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Shebani Sethi, MD – Stanford University
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Twitter: @ShebaniMD
Cynthia Calkin, MD – Dalhousie University
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Martin Picard, PhD – Columbia University
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Twitter: @MitoPsychoBio
Zoltan Sarnyai, PhD – James Cook University
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Twitter: @ZSarnyai
Chris Palmer, MD – Harvard University and McLean Hospital
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Twitter: @ChrisPalmerMD
Dominic D’Agostino, PhD – University of South Florida
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Twitter: @DominicDAgosti2
Georgia Ede, MD – Harvard-trained psychiatrist, Diagnosis Diet
Twitter: @GeorgiaEdeMD
Lilianne Mujica-Parodi, PhD – SUNY Stony Brook
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Twitter: @MujicaParodi
Ana Andreazza, PhD- University of Toronto
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Twitter: @anacandreazza
Harry Campbell, MD – University of Edinburgh
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Jeff Volek, PhD – The Ohio State University
Keto diet and intermittent fasting has been wonderful for me and my autistic son, I took him out off the medication and now he is like he never have that condition, KETO AND INTERMITTENT FASTING it’s really working.
Im utterly fascinated with the recent uptick in the role of metabolism and mitochondrial health in neurological condtions. Dr. Palmer’s book, this powerful testimony now, and more research than weve had before. Its fantastic that we are gathering funders for this important research, and it gives me hope. I am encouraged to specialize in research like this when I hear such exciting stories.
I wonder, though, the nuances of dietary intervention – I have a treatment resistant mental condition that had been improved, but not put into remission, by the ketogenic/carnivore diet. What other factors about metabolic health can we elucidate from psychiatric conditions? Or is it me?
I am so happy I came across your channel. I am an RN on the Sunshine Coast. I have a very small YouTube channel Jules Cruise Companion. I have been feeling the effects of being a child of the 80s and my cruising has been having on my health and knew I had to get fitter. I have been Keto Carnivore on and off now for a year or so after watching Tim Noakes, Tim Spector, Anthony Chaffey, Thomas DeLauer, Jason Fung, and a lot of others. I have been vlogging my thoughts about adopting the carnivore lifestyle as they are cruise-adjacent. Channels like yours have inspired me to move the Keto Carnivore vlogs to their own channel which I have called ‘Carnviore Cruiser’ which I made live today. Thanx for all the content. Stay Safe Jules
Remarkable! And I’m happy for your family.
As society keeps eating, highly processed food highly inflammatory seed oil’s mental crisis will increase. This is great discovery that with diet all this can be cured thank God for doctors and researchers like these, that we can learn from them and spread the word. God bless.❤
Keto was “that weird thing” I resorted to, after years of pain and failure. 2 1/2 years later it is still “that weird keto thing” that I am “doing”. I am surrounded by visible metabolic illnesses and yet I am muted by the stigma of “that weird thing” that probably saved my life. I try. Conventional medical knowledge and conventional eating patterns dominate. We have a mountain to climb.
So true! I experienced the truth of all this information when I finally scceeded in attaining Ketosis (it was hard to give up so many “pleasures”!) Quite apart from the weight loss that was the original aim, my thinking and reasoning blossomed. I realized that for years my mind had been muddled and I had been so self destructive that I am still ashamed of the way I treated friends and family. My biggest regret is that I didn’t find this out until I was in my seventies. I think that any mental health program must incorporate this knowledge. I definitely see a role for treating addiction as well as many many other problems of modern life.
It’s about time people realized that blood goes everywhere, even in the brain. From the stomach to the heart and the brain.
It makes me so sad to know my dear nephew who had a very similar story as this young man, wasn’t able to access metabolic psychiatry & did take his own life after a long struggle with schizo-affective d/o at age 31… I hope you can save other young ppl from these serious mental illnesses
A truly inspiring and mind blowing story. It is my hope that very soon we will all look back on this period the same way that we look back at the hand washing in hospitals controversy from the 1840’s. It is tragic it has taken this long and incompetent to criminal levels that medical science has continued to blunder on with the idea that diet do anything to a psychiatric condition. Thanks to these people for speaking up and taking the fight to our backwards, broken system.
Hopefully this is the turning point for the field of mental health! We can’t un-know what is now being discovered. Thank you for the work that’s being done.
Could this be the cause of all the ADHD in the children today?
It’s the easy prep crap they get the parents to feed kids. Beautiful, colorful packaging with favorite cartoon characters on it draws them in to future sugar addiction. “Happy Meals” are no better.
Not my expertise, but they could be related.
What a lovely story filled with hope and encouragement! Unfortunately, you will encounter many roadblocks courtesy of BigPham!!
Absolutely the Video I needed at this stage of Mental recovery–Keto
Well put together video with inspiring content!
Thank you so much for posting this video. The best video regarding the ketogenic lifestyle, mental illness and metabolic health. Much appreciated. Greeting from South Africa 🇿🇦
Once we ignore the studies funded by Big Food and Big Pharma and pay more attention to “real life” experiences like ours society will become much healthier in mind and body. Thanks for the discussion.
This lady started by asking what her qualification was to discuss this topic. Her qualification is quite simply the Love of a Mother for her son.
Makes sense, The SAD diet is effecting us in so many ways
What an amazing story of hope and healing!❤