It has been just revealed the fact that a pilot study shows that people might have a serious ally in battling mental illness. Check out the latest reports about this below.
Ketogenic diet could fight mental illness
The ketogenic diet, which has been known for its weight loss benefits, could be a crucial factor in dealing with both physical and psychiatric symptoms experienced by people with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Antipsychotic medications that are often used to treat these conditions can lead to metabolic side effects like obesity and insulin resistance.
This can cause many patients to stop taking their medication. However, new research from Stanford University has suggested that the ketogenic diet could be a powerful aid in treating mental illness.
A study was published in Psychiatry Research that followed 21 adults with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. These adults were taking antipsychotics and experiencing metabolic abnormalities.
The participants followed a ketogenic diet consisting of 10 percent carbs, 30 percent protein, and 60 percent fat. To track the participants’ progress, researchers measured their blood ketone levels weekly, which indicates whether the body is burning fat for fuel.
After a period of four months, none of the participants met the criteria for metabolic syndrome. On average, they lost 10% of their body weight and reported improvements in energy, sleep, mood, and overall quality of life. The participants also showed significant enhancements in markers such as blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), triglycerides, and insulin resistance.
“We’re seeing huge changes,” Dr. Shebani Sethi, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Stanford Medicine and lead author of the study, said in a press release.
Despite patients being on antipsychotic medications, the issues of obesity, metabolic syndrome, and insulin resistance can still be effectively addressed and reversed.
“I think that’s very encouraging for patients,” she noted.
According to the research team, the ketogenic diet may offer a different fuel source for the brain which can help enhance brain metabolism and alleviate mental illness symptoms.
The participants of the study also showed noteworthy psychiatric benefits as they improved by 31% on average on a clinician-rated scale known as the Clinical Global Impressions scale.
This scale ranges from 1 (normal) to 7 (extremely severe) and measures the severity of mental illness. It is worth noting that 75% of the participants demonstrated meaningful improvement, indicating the potential benefits of the ketogenic diet.
