summary: A new pilot study makes the case that the ketogenic diet is a dual-action treatment for people with serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, who often suffer from the metabolic side effects of drug treatments. An example is presented. This study shows that adopting a ketogenic diet not only reduces these metabolic problems, but also significantly improves your mental state.
Participants who followed a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet experienced weight loss and reversal of metabolic syndrome, and saw a 31% improvement in psychiatric evaluations. This innovative approach highlights the potential of dietary interventions to improve both physical and mental health and offers hope for more holistic treatment strategies.
Important facts:
- The ketogenic diet led to significant metabolic and psychiatric improvements in patients with serious mental illness, challenging the side effects of antipsychotic drugs.
- After the four-month trial, participants lost an average of 10% in weight, showed no signs of metabolic syndrome, and significantly improved their mental health indicators.
- The study, supported by various research funds, paves the way for larger trials and highlights the role of diet in providing alternative fuel to the brain and improving overall brain metabolism.
sauce: stanford
For people with serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, standard treatment with antipsychotic drugs can be a double-edged sword. Although these drugs help regulate brain chemistry, they often cause metabolic side effects such as insulin resistance and obesity, which are so painful that many patients stop taking them.
Now, a preliminary study led by researchers at Stanford Medicine has found that the ketogenic diet not only restores metabolic health in patients who remain on medication, but also improves their mental well-being.
The results were announced on March 27th. psychiatric researchsuggesting that dietary interventions may be a powerful aid in the treatment of mental illness.
“It’s very promising and very encouraging that we can somehow regain control of the disease outside of the usual standard of care,” said Dr. said Shebani Sethi, MD, lead author of the new paper. .
The paper’s lead author is Dr. Laura Saslow, associate professor of health behavior and biological sciences at the University of Michigan.
Establish a connection
Sethi, who is board certified in obesity and psychiatry, remembers the first time he noticed the connection. As a medical student working at an obesity clinic, she saw a patient with treatment-resistant schizophrenia whose auditory hallucinations subsided with a ketogenic diet.
That prompted her to delve into the medical literature. Although case reports of the use of the ketogenic diet to treat schizophrenia were only available a few decades ago, there has been a long track record of success using the ketogenic diet to treat epileptic seizures.
“The ketogenic diet has been shown to be effective against treatment-resistant epileptic seizures by reducing the excitability of neurons in the brain,” Sethi said. “We thought it was worth exploring this treatment in mental illness.”
Years later, Sethi coined the term metabolic psychiatry, a new field that approaches mental health from an energy transformation perspective.
meat and vegetables
In a four-month pilot study, Sethi’s team found that patients diagnosed with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, taking antipsychotics, experienced weight gain, insulin resistance, hypertriglyceridemia, dyslipidemia, and glucose tolerance. The researchers followed up on 21 adult participants who had metabolic disorders such as abnormalities.
Participants were instructed to follow a ketogenic diet, with approximately 10% of calories coming from carbohydrates, 30% from protein, and 60% from fat. They weren’t told to count calories.
“The focus of the diet is on whole unprocessed foods, including protein and non-starchy vegetables, and not on restricting fat,” said Sethi, who shared ideas for keto-friendly meals with participants. They were also given access to a keto diet cookbook and a health coach.
The research team tracked how well the participants followed the diet through weekly measurements of blood ketone levels. (Ketones are acids produced when the body breaks down fat instead of glucose for energy.)
By the end of the study, 14 patients were fully adherent, 6 were semiadherent, and only 1 was nonadherent.
I feel better
Participants underwent various psychiatric and metabolic assessments during the study period.
Before the study, 29% of participants met criteria for metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is defined as having at least three of five symptoms: abdominal obesity, elevated triglycerides, low HDL cholesterol, elevated blood pressure, and elevated fasting blood sugar levels. After 4 months of following the ketogenic diet, none of the participants developed metabolic syndrome.
On average, participants lost 10% of their body weight. Waist circumference decreased by his 11%. And blood pressure, BMI, triglycerides, blood sugar levels, and insulin resistance were lower.
“We are witnessing a huge change,” Sethi said. “It is possible to improve obesity, metabolic syndrome, and insulin resistance even when taking antipsychotic drugs. I think this is very encouraging for patients.”
Psychiatric effects were also significant. On average, participants improved by 31% on a psychiatrist’s assessment of mental illness known as the Clinical Global Impression Scale, with three-quarters of the group showing clinically meaningful improvement. Overall, participants reported improved sleep quality and increased life satisfaction.
“Participants reported improvements in energy, sleep, mood, and quality of life,” Sethi said. “They are healthier and feel more hopeful.”
The researchers were impressed that most of the participants stuck with their diets. “We found that there was more benefit in the compliant group compared to the semi-adherent group, indicating a possible dose-response relationship,” Sethi said.
Alternative fuel for the brain
Sethi said there is growing evidence that mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder result from metabolic defects in the brain that affect the excitability of neurons.
Researchers hypothesize that the ketogenic diet improves metabolism in the brain, just as it improves metabolism in other parts of the body.
“Anything that improves metabolic health in general will probably improve brain health as well,” Sethi says. “However, a ketogenic diet can provide ketone bodies as an alternative fuel to glucose for a brain with energy dysfunction.”
Multiple mechanisms are likely at play, and the primary purpose of small pilot studies is to allow researchers to detect signals that will guide the design of larger, more robust studies. she added.
As a physician, Sethi cares for many patients with both severe mental illness and obesity or metabolic syndrome, but little research has focused on this undertreated population.
She is the founder and director of Stanford University’s Metabolic Psychiatry Clinic.
“Many of my patients suffer from both diseases, so I wanted to know if metabolic interventions could help them,” she said. “They want more help. They just want to feel better.”
Researchers at the University of Michigan. University of California, San Francisco. and Duke University contributed to his research.
Funding: This study was supported by the Baszucki Group Research Fund, the Keun Lau Fund, and the Obesity Treatment Foundation.
About this diet and mental health research news
author: nina bai
sauce: stanford
contact: Nina Bai – Stanford
image: Image credited to Neuroscience News
Original research: Open access.
“Ketogenic Diet Intervention for Metabolic and Psychiatric Health in Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia: A Pilot Study” Shebani Sethi et al. psychiatry research
abstract
Ketogenic diet intervention for metabolic and psychiatric health in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia: A pilot study.
The ketogenic diet (KD, also known as metabolic therapy) has been successful in treating obesity, type 2 diabetes, and epilepsy. Recently, this therapy has shown promise in treating mental illnesses.
We conducted a 4-month pilot study to investigate the effects of KD on patients with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder with pre-existing metabolic abnormalities. Twenty-three participants were enrolled in the single-arm study.
Study results showed improvement in metabolic health, although none of the participants met criteria for metabolic syndrome. Adherent individuals experienced significant reductions in body weight (12%), BMI (12%), waist circumference (13%), and visceral adipose tissue (36%).
Biomarker increases observed in this population included a 27% decrease in HOMA-IR and a 25% decrease in triglyceride levels. Psychiatric measures showed that participants with schizophrenia had a 32% reduction in their Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale scores.
Overall clinical global impression (CGI) severity improved by an average of 31%, and the proportion of participants who started with elevated symptoms improved by at least 1 point on the CGI (79%). Psychiatric outcomes for the entire cohort included improved life satisfaction (17%) and improved sleep quality (19%).
This pilot study highlights the potential benefits of supplemental ketogenic diet therapy for individuals battling serious mental illness.
