"Patients say keto helps with their mental illness. Science is racing to understand why."

kshama2001

Yesterday on "All Things Considered," I heard this interesting piece about keto for mental health (mostly for bi-polar but also schizo-affective disorder and schizophrenia.) There are also studies ongoing for depression, anorexia, alcoholism and PTSD.

The title has the positive. Here are some negatives:

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/01/27/1227062470/keto-ketogenic-diet-mental-illness-bipolar-depression

Efficacy:

"...Dr. Drew Ramsey worries the hype has created an unrealistic perception about the ketogenic diet in mental health. For now, he remains skeptical.

"Does it work? It works for some people, which is awesome, but most things work for some people in mental health," says Ramsey, a nutritional psychiatrist."

Compliance:

"...About a quarter of those in Campbell's study withdrew, which he notes is similar to other pilot trials with the ketogenic diet.

Dr. Rif El-Mallakh, a psychiatrist at the University of Louisville, became interested in the diet more than two decades ago and believes it works.

He says he had early success with a few patients, but hasn't had much luck over the years: "I haven't been able to get people to stay on it, so I'm not at all as excited as maybe others.""

sollyn23l2

Frankly, I hate that people scapegoat people with mental illness with straight up crap like this. It's straight up victim blaming and leads people to think "Well, Joe, if you'd just eat keto, you wouldn't be so depressed... or bipolar... or schizophrenic." Poppycock. I hate BS like this. Fight me.

SafariGalNYC

Thanks @kshama2001 for posting.

I’m glad there is research and investigation on the root of mental illness and neurological disease, also the possibility of new interventions. I hope there will be carry over for many diseases.

I think the article offered some basic insight into the research, but it also highlights how much further science has to go.

That is what excites me, the science, the possibilities.

Ketogenic intervention for epilepsy in the 1920s offered a new therapy that is now a standard of care. If one reads about Dr. Russell Wilder from the Mayo Clinic during this era, he was frequently working with doctors all over the country to research ways of eating that could possibly have success with specialized diets.

Dietary interventions were the cornerstones of the Mayo Clinic’s foray into diabetes treatment and insulin management. Without the initial trials for the keto diet, there wouldn’t have been a leap made into modern day treatment of diabetes.

Current research is trying to find out - could the keto/epilepsy connection also fuel groundbreaking insight into other metabolic/ neurological disorders?

So what happened, why did we stop investigating ways of eating and diet? Next we have modern pharmaceuticals in the 20th century -so could it be it sidelined the basics? I don’t know.🤷🏼‍♀️

In recent years I’ve seen more attention paid to the microbiome and gut health, metabolic science is getting a lot more attention. There are major hospitals investing in the microbiome axis as it relates to many health concerns, fertility, neurological issues, etc.

Personally, there are 2 centers that I’ve been following that are digging into how the gut microbiome and metabolic processes influence health-

Stanford in CA and Cornell Weill in NYC. The original article was a nugget, if anyone really wants to dig deeper on the medical pioneers in the field— look into :

Dr. Sethi’s work at Stanford. She founded the first academic Metabolic Psychiatry Clinical program.

She focuses on the integrative study and treatment of metabolic dysfunction and the relationship to mental illness. Her team’s approach to psychiatric treatment incorporates detection and treatment of metabolic abnormalities, principles of obesity medicine, nutrition and metabolism. She posits it is all connected.

Because of her work in dietary interventions and metabolic processes, there is currently a new drug in clinical trials for bipolar disorder.

Equally fascinating - check out the work of Dr. Laura Alonso. Chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism and Director of the Weill Center for Metabolic Health.

They are currently working on many things, but a few I’ve been interested in = how obesity promotes DNA damage, another trial- ketogenic intervention to suppress the levels of glucose, tumor growth.

This is just a few above.. there are so many.. but it all is based in ways of eating, investigating how metabolic processes are influenced by ways of eating and seeing how it can be used as a successful possible mechanism for therapy.

The research that’s going on is exciting. It’s all down to the science. I think we are going to be hearing a lot about metabolic science, gut microbiome, dietary intervention and how ways of eating can be complimentary interventions.

Not a keto evangelist, just finding that the doctors with more medical knowledge than I all have clinical trials pointed in this direction. Interested in following for the outcome.

claireychn074

sollyn23l2 wrote: »

Frankly, I hate that people scapegoat people with mental illness with straight up crap like this. It's straight up victim blaming and leads people to think "Well, Joe, if you'd just eat keto, you wouldn't be so depressed... or bipolar... or schizophrenic." Poppycock. I hate BS like this. Fight me.

I’m not going to fight you, as I’ve seen the damage victim shaming can cause.

BUT - there is emerging evidence that the gut biome can affect the brain; until recently it was seen a bit as woo-woo. Now there’s early evidence that the gut biome could be causing epigenetic changes, leading to conditions including depression.there is certainly evidence that it can help with epilepsy and there appears to be a role in migraines too (although suffers have long known that certain food stuffs can be a trigger).

It’s not as simple as eat keto = no illness, but a change in dietary habits may help to manage some conditions which are notoriously difficult to cure or treat.

There will always be conditions which are situational (depressed because of poverty for instance) which no amount of keto will cure. There will be conditions where a genetic or hormone imbalance causes symptoms and again, keto can’t cure those. But there does appear to some benefit to keto in certain situations.

Disclaimer - I’m a self-confessed carbie. Keto is my idea of hell!

NotGvnUp_EJ

I think diet and mental health go hand in hand and for many keto or even just lower amounts of carbs can really help the brain and ward off whatever it is that effects the mind.

Keto is hard though, sometimes unrealistic to stick to. The only time I did it with ease and not even on purpose,was after I had done a fast and reset my tastebuds. Then all I craved was healthy foods (huge salads) and less bread.

NotGvnUp_EJ

Btw if the "patients" are reporting the benefits there must be something to it.

sollyn23l2

claireychn074 wrote: »

sollyn23l2 wrote: »

Frankly, I hate that people scapegoat people with mental illness with straight up crap like this. It's straight up victim blaming and leads people to think "Well, Joe, if you'd just eat keto, you wouldn't be so depressed... or bipolar... or schizophrenic." Poppycock. I hate BS like this. Fight me.

I’m not going to fight you, as I’ve seen the damage victim shaming can cause.

BUT - there is emerging evidence that the gut biome can affect the brain; until recently it was seen a bit as woo-woo. Now there’s early evidence that the gut biome could be causing epigenetic changes, leading to conditions including depression.there is certainly evidence that it can help with epilepsy and there appears to be a role in migraines too (although suffers have long known that certain food stuffs can be a trigger).

It’s not as simple as eat keto = no illness, but a change in dietary habits may help to manage some conditions which are notoriously difficult to cure or treat.

There will always be conditions which are situational (depressed because of poverty for instance) which no amount of keto will cure. There will be conditions where a genetic or hormone imbalance causes symptoms and again, keto can’t cure those. But there does appear to some benefit to keto in certain situations.

Disclaimer - I’m a self-confessed carbie. Keto is my idea of hell!

🤣 I was being sarcastic. But yes, I agree some people can feel better eating in a given way (vegan doctors will claim that they've cured patients of alzhaeimers and cancer. I'm not against anyone eating a certain diet because they feel it helps them. I'm just very against making any kind of medical claims based on any diet.

xbowhunter

Is it a dumb idea if it works!

Corina1143

I'm not keto and never will be. I love veggies, fruit and dairy way too much. I don't have diagnosed mental illness. I have seen a mental health professional only after cancer diagnosis for depression.
I KNOW from experience that what you eat affects how you feel. My personal experience is that almost any pure food makes me feel better than almost any processed food. So of course I wonder how much of the keto diet effect has to do with eliminating most grains, which are very often highly processed. That also makes me wonder how much all the "keto-friendly" breads, etc. will affect newer studies.

neanderthin

It's based on ketones which is a secondary fuel for the brain which also bypasses the glucose pathway, supplying mitochondria fuel for ATP which most studies show an improvement in neurological function, which is well documented. The connection with insulin resistance and diabetes and the effect it has on the brain, often referred to as diabetes 3, is also well documented, which negatively effects those same neurological functions, basically ketones restore energy facilitating these improvements.

The keto diet happens to be the only diet that produces ketones as the primary fuel and consequently can on a scientific level be studies, which can't be said for any other diet, but it's a diet that doesn't get a lot of respect....isn't it the worst diet every year.....mostly because it's a lot of animal protein and forgoes most of the popular and promoted foods and people will apparently forgo health to continue to eat these foods that are associated with metabolic dysfunction. It will be interesting how this field of study progresses over the next decade or 2.

https://ketonutrition.org/

Lots of information here from Dr. Dominic D’Agostino, Ph.D

He is also a Research Scientist at the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) to assist with their efforts towards optimizing the safety, health and resilience of the warfighter and astronaut.

The main focus of his lab over the last 10 years has been understanding the anticonvulsant and neuroprotective mechanism of the ketogenic diet and ketone metabolite supplementation. The shift in brain metabolism (from glucose to ketones) reduces neuronal hyperexcitability, oxidative stress and enhances brain energy metabolism. This approach can be used to treat a wide variety of pathologies linked pathophysiologically to metabolic dysregulation, including cancer. Other areas of interest include researching drugs that target cancer-specific metabolic pathways. He was a research investigator and crew member on NASA’s Extreme Environment Mission Operation (NEEMO 22) and has a personal interest in environmental medicine and methods to enhance safety and physiological resilience in extreme environments. His research is supported by the Office of Naval Research (ONR), Department of Defense (DoD), private organizations and foundations.

neanderthin

Corina1143 wrote: »

I'm not keto and never will be. I love veggies, fruit and dairy way too much. I don't have diagnosed mental illness. I have seen a mental health professional only after cancer diagnosis for depression.
I KNOW from experience that what you eat affects how you feel. My personal experience is that almost any pure food makes me feel better than almost any processed food. So of course I wonder how much of the keto diet effect has to do with eliminating most grains, which are very often highly processed. That also makes me wonder how much all the "keto-friendly" breads, etc. will affect newer studies.

Yeah, I forgot to mention at the time that, even though I'm on a ketogenic diet I consume lots of veg, consume berries and diary but I do understand what you mean, these need to be monitored and eaten in low amounts, but a little goes a long way when a ketogenic diet also delivers the health benefits that have been alusive with other dietary options.