Does ketogenic diet improve mental illness? Study sheds light
For people living with serious mental illness like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, standard treatment with antipsychotic medications can be a double-edged sword. While these drugs help regulate brain chemistry, they often cause metabolic side effects such as insulin resistance and obesity, which are distressing enough that many patients stop taking the medications.
Now, a study led by Stanford Medicine researchers has found that a ketogenic diet not only restores metabolic health in patients with severe mental illness as they continue their medications, but it further improves their psychiatric conditions.
The results, published in the journal Psychiatry Research, suggested that a dietary intervention can be a powerful aid in treating mental illness.
In a four-month trial, Sethi and her team monitored 21 adult participants with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, taking antipsychotic medications, and experiencing metabolic abnormalities. They followed a ketogenic diet, comprising 10% carbohydrates, 30% protein, and 60% fat, without calorie counting The research team tracked how well the participants followed the diet through weekly measures of blood ketone levels, with 14 fully adherent, six semi-adherent, and one non-adherent participant by trial's end.
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