Supervisors and Projects

Does polygenic risk for mental illness interact with diet to influence risk of cardiovascular disease?

Supervisors 

Rona Strawbridge, School of Health and Wellbeing, University of Glasgow and Cardiovascular Medicine, Karolinska Institute Stockholm

Dr Jana Anderson, School of Health & Wellbeing, University of Glasgow

Joey Ward, School of Health & Wellbeing,  University of Glasgow

 

Summary

Ketogenic-type diets are high fat diets and they have been successfully used in management of drug-resistant epilepsy for many years. Recent evidence suggests that they may improve symptoms of mental illness such as depression, bipolar disorder, autism and schizophrenia and may even contribute to the pathological mechanisms behind these conditions. In contrast, high fat with high sugar is an unhealthy dietary pattern linked to many chronic health conditions, including heart disease, which are prevalent in those with mental illness. There is a well-established link between genetic risk for mental illness and cardiovascular disease which may be driven by common environmental factors like diet or/and genetic risk factors and interaction between them.

This project will address if people born with high polygenic risk score for mental illness (with or without developing mental illness) and ketogenic or high fat high sugar diets have increased or decreased risk of cardiovascular disease, and if this could partly explain the well-known association between mental illness and cardiovascular disease. Diet and dietary sources of fat differ by socioeconomic background and the role of social inequalities will be explored.