I just finished reading a book that supports a sneaking suspicion that’s been growing in me for the last 20 years. Beyond the Pale: Anemia: The Visible Yet Unseen Cause of Mental Illness & Gender Dysphoria is an exploration of a hypothesis which now seems so obvious that I’m shocked I haven’t heard it discussed by any of the other health influencers I listen to. The author is a young, independent researcher named Brendan J Reesor, whom I met after I came across his YouTube videos on his small startup channel, Substitute Professor where he discusses this and other health topics.
His video thumbnail showed images of pink and green haired activists screaming at protests with the caption “Why are SJWs so PALE and ANXIOUS???” I felt the same surge of excitement I had when a glowing upside-down triangle came down over Aunt Jemima’s head in an episode of South Park and I yelled “YES!!!!! Holy mama! The food pyramid is upside down!!!” The euphoria of someone saying something out loud that you have known is true for so long, but no one has said it publicly, is truly invigorating.
I was so excited that I left a comment telling him “I agree 1000% and it tracks with my own experience. I’d love to be on your podcast!” He replied and I did appear on his show. Now, a year and a half later, he has published a book on the topic and I am equally excited to share his findings, and some of my own experience that has led me to agree with him!
First, I want to give a disclaimer that much of what he discusses in the book is speculation, based on the little scientific evidence that exists on a hypothesis that has not been studied nearly enough, plus a lot of tangential and anecdotal evidence. Reesor does not claim that anemia is the only cause of gender dysphoria and mental illness, just one of many possible, treatable causes that has not been properly studied or diagnosed. If you’re not already in the health food and nutrition world you’ll probably have a lot of skepticism.
If, however, you’re like Reesor and me, you know that this is just one of many critically important topics that the so-called “health care” industry has been intentionally under-studying, under-reporting, and under-funding so they can sell more drugs for diseases that can be cured with diet and lifestyle changes. If you’re not willing to accept that the entire medical and scientific community has been at best ignoring important issues, and at worst outright lying for profit, you probably aren’t going to believe a word of this. I will continue for those who will listen.
I will begin by giving you the piece of information that I gained from this book that was most useful for me. For context, my daughter decided to become Hindu about a year ago and went vegetarian. I was extremely concerned. I immediately got her a co-enzymated B vitamin complex, algal DHA and EPA, and the best vegetarian iron supplement that I could find. Still, I felt that she was in danger.
My suspicion that vegetarianism might not be a good idea started in the early 2000’s as I watched my vegan ex-boyfriend become extremely depressed after donating plasma on a regular basis. I had suggested to him that it could be his veganism and plasma donation, so he did stop donating and start eating some roadkill. Sadly, he still felt depressed and broke up with me because I couldn’t help him feel better. I wanted to, but I knew I couldn’t force-feed him liver, so I walked away. I have since noticed a pattern of physical and emotional decline in my vegan and vegetarian friends over the last twenty years. I hoped the supplements would help my daughter, but I still worried that she wouldn’t get enough cholesterol to create hormones and healthy cell walls and that the iron wouldn’t absorb to make enough hemoglobin.
So, after about six months, when she was complaining about feeling tired and getting headaches, I asked her doctor for a blood test for anemia. What they tested for was hemoglobin concentration — the amount of oxygen carrying molecules per unit of blood volume. The results were in the “normal” range. So, I was extremely distraught when Reesor explained two things. One, “normal” is calculated as the average for the population of that age and sex, so, if a significant percentage of that population were anemic it would mean that “normal” is actually sub-optimal. And two, it’s possible that hemoglobin concentration can remain the same even if someone is anemic because the body would compensate by excreting plasma, reducing the total volume of blood, thereby making the concentration the same even though someone doesn’t have enough blood to carry oxygen around their body. AHHHGH!
Luckily, my daughter has decided to start eating meat again. So, I am going to request some more accurate tests, feed her a bunch of beef and liver (I’m ordering a side of beef tomorrow!), and then get her tested again. I will update you with the results in a future blog post.
Unfortunately there haven’t been many, if any, studies of hemoglobin-MASS (total amount of hemoglobin) and physical or mental illnesses. Reesor only found tangential studies that point to hemoglobin-mass being important for health, and anemia being associated with physical and mental illnesses. Reesor quotes one study, Hemoglobin concentration, total hemoglobin mass, and plasma volume in patients: implications for anemia, published in 2017, which showed huge variability in hemoglobin concentration vs mass, possibly giving false diagnoses of anemia for people with high plasma volume and false negatives for people with low plasma volume.
Reesor also quotes sports medicine researchers who found that elite athletes have the same hemoglobin concentration as sedentary individuals but 35% more hemoglobin-mass. If he is correct that the test they most commonly do for anemia is not measuring the right thing, the incidence of anemia could be much higher than our current statistics show.
Anemia and mental illness have been linked in many studies. Reesor cites the study Association between psychiatric disorders and iron deficiency anemia among children and adolescents: a nationwide population-based study, conducted in 2013, which shows 5.78 times higher rates for bipolar disorder, 2.34 times unipolar depression, and 2.17 times anxiety disorder, among other diagnoses. High altitude sickness is very similar to anemia (a lack of oxygen to the brain) and also causes symptoms of mental illness like anxiety, depression, and even psychosis. Anemia has also been linked to hormonal imbalances.
Reesor’s connection of anemia to gender dysphoria comes from two things. One, an extremely high incidence of visible pallor and other physical and mental illnesses common to anemia in people suffering from gender dysphoria. And two, the high occurrence of late-onset gender dysphoria in teenage girls. He cites six studies that show jaw-dropping statistics. For example, comparisons between transgender Medicare beneficiaries and cisgender Medicare beneficiaries show Anxiety Disorders at 62% vs 20%, Depression Disorders at 67% vs 22%, Asthma at 30% vs 14%, and Schizophrenia or other Psychotic Disorders at 27% vs 5.6%, respectively. Females suffer from most mental illnesses at higher rates than males, which could be an indication that menstruation itself is a contributing factor. While the psychological effects of puberty may be a major cause of gender dysphoria in teenagers, loss of menstrual blood without proper nutrition to replenish it could be a contributing factor.
Anecdotally, both Reesor and I have personal experiences related to anemia, gender dysphoria and mental illness. Reesor says that he was extremely pale, had anxiety, and felt some gender dysphoria before he went on a carnivore diet. Afterward he tanned easily, lost his anxiety, and felt noticeably more masculine. I was goth in high school (using my paleness as a fashion statement), and had symptoms of anxiety and depression before I went on a ketogenic diet five years ago. Now I feel content most of the time, almost never have joint pain or stiffness, my acne is gone, and my energy is consistently high throughout the day. I don’t mean to dog on him, but I also think the fact that my vegan ex-boyfriend was a self-proclaimed asexual, was fairly psychologically feminine, and now has a trans child is an important data point. Reesor and I both became more politically moderate after we changed our diets while my ex is currently expatriated in a more socialist country.
I think the most thought-provoking threads that come out of the book are the links between anemia and sleep paralysis, goth/emo culture, self-harm/cutting, wokeism, and gender dysphoria. Early in the book, Reesor recounts his own experience of sleep paralysis (a disorder where the brain wakes up but the body is completely paralyzed including the ability to breathe) as a waking nightmare of a gargoyle-like demon sitting on his chest. “He starts sucking my spirit out of my lungs, and though there’s nothing I wouldn’t do to stop it from happening, there’s nothing I can do but let it happen. More desperately, I cry out “Help,” but only the faintest murmur is produced. He’s invading my body, breathing his pure evil spirit down my throat, and somehow keeping me paralyzed while doing so. I’ve never felt so vulnerable. I cry out “HELP!” —this time successfully. I gasp for air and roll over to reach for my girlfriend but find my arms empty.”
I recall Billie Eilish’s music video for “Bury a Friend”, a song about her sleep paralysis, where many hands choke her and push her down. She is depicted as very pale and goth in that video. It seems that people suffering from a lack of oxygen to their brain may grasp for some external explanation, like a demon on their chest, cultural oppression, a politically dangerous adversary, or their body being the wrong sex. Then they engage in external signals to show that they are in distress, like wearing pale makeup and dramatic clothing, screaming at protests, making themselves bleed, and mutilating their bodies. These might seem like loose connections based on extreme examples on social media, but I think for at least some people, it explains a lot.
The last thing that I want to talk about is the solution. Reesor doesn’t talk about this in his book, but I have some thoughts I would like to share. I am making a strong connection with eating meat because non-heme (vegan) iron is absorbed at a rate of 2-12%, whereas heme (animal-based) iron is absorbed at 20-40%. Although some cultures have survived being vegetarian for many generations, such as in parts of India, the statistics I saw show a higher incidence of anemia in those areas. I will note that from my observations, people from those areas are typically shorter and skinnier than westerners, which could be caused by multigenerational malnutrition. Perhaps it’s an epigenetic adaptation of the body to offset the negative effects of low iron by reducing the amount of blood and hemoglobin necessary to maintain circulation to the brain.
I can empathize with the desire to not harm animals, however, I have to argue that being vegetarian or vegan does not reduce animal suffering any more than buying animal products from regenerative farmers. Large-scale agriculture (beans, grains, fruits, vegetables) causes the destruction of about 1/4 acre of wilderness per vegetarian, permanently displacing hundreds of wild animals. It also kills millions of insects, trillions of soil microbes, and dozens of rodents in storage and processing facilities every year.
If you ate nothing but regeneratively raised beef you would eat approximately one cow per year, spend about $5000 ($13-$15 per day), and be improving native grasslands, leaving room for many other species, and sequestering carbon. I’m not suggesting a carnivore diet for everyone, but a regenerative organic diet including plenty of red meat is not bad for animals, the planet, or most people. I have seen hundreds of testimonials online and known dozens of people personally, including myself, who have completely healed chronic diseases, mental and emotional problems, and low energy with a keto, paleo, or carnivore diet.
There is simply no solution to most of our physical and mental health problems than eating a natural human diet of real food that is raised in the most natural way possible. Psyche meds, never-ending therapy, and expensive supplements are band-aids and may have negative side effects. Hopefully this simple message will eventually get across to enough people to stop the insanity of our so-called “food” and “health care” systems making people sick to extract money from them. Please read Brendan J Reesor’s book and help us spread the word so we can get more research done on anemia and mental illnesses. To find more about my own journey with the Keto diet you can check out my blog post Why I’m on a Ketogenic Diet.
