Ketogenic Diet Benefits Mental Health

[saevel25]

This diet has had gained a lot of steam over the past 5-10 years. This is a long podcast, but it goes over on how nutrition influences on mental health. 

‎Huberman Lab: Dr. Chris Palmer: Diet & Nutrition for Mental Health on Apple Podcasts

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‎Show Huberman Lab, Ep Dr. Chris Palmer: Diet & Nutrition for Mental Health - Nov 21, 2022

Basically, Chris Palmer, M.D., a board-certified psychiatrist and assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, goes through why he thinks a ketogenic diet can be  beneficial to people with mental troubles. Some, sever mental issues. Right now, anecdotally, a lot of patients were able to drastically reduce the required of psychiatric drugs for their mental condition. There are currently a number of studies going on in this field of diet influencing mental states. His theory is that mitochondria issues are causing these or amplifying these disorders and ketogenic diet helps restore proper mitochondria function.
 

He went into a very interesting description of what mitochondria actual do in the body, and it just isn’t ATP production. They can actually activate neural transmitters in the brain. Instead of looking at them in terms of batteries, they are more like a motherboard.

Also, the origin of the Atkins diet was a way to control epilepsy. Hardcore fasting, no eating at all, was known to control epilepsy going back to Ancient Greece. I’m modern times, they found that ketosis also helped out.

Not saying Ketogenic diet is the best diet. He went onto say that back in the 70’s and 80’s people were eating just as bad as we do now. Yet, obesity was much lower. He believes there is some sort of environmental issue that is causing mitochondria issues, which is causing obesity over just saying it is carbs and sugar. It might be stressors on the body, which can directly influence how our mitochondria function. Lack of sleep alone can jack up mitochondria function. This is why he thinks so many kids are obese now instead of 30-40 years ago. Kids are just much quicker to become obese.

So, it might be beneficial to go on a long term ketosis (6-months to 12-months) if you can. Of course, discuss with your doctors first. 

[JetFan1983]

Been on the diet since April 2019. I take it to prevent cluster headaches, which I've suffered from since age 13. The keto diet somehow stops neurological issues like epilepsy and cluster headaches for some reason. They don't really know for sure how. I suspect it has something to do with an inflammation reduction, at least in regards to the cluster headaches.

There are also some possible benefits for alcoholism, or alcohol use disorder as it's called now.

The Ketogenic Diet May Play a Role in Treating Alcoholism

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This dietary intervention may help with detox and cravings.

The diet's not for everybody though, agreed there. I think a lot of people do great on carbs. I however definitely don't unfortunately. Keto helps me a lot.

[saevel25]

1 hour ago, JetFan1983 said:

There are also some possible benefits for alcoholism, or alcohol use disorder as it's called now.

yea, that was mentioned in the podcast above. You have to be VERY careful when on in a ketogenic state and drinking. Alcohol will actually hit you harder. Like, your normal amount in an evening will be like you drank 3-4x that amount in how you will feel. 

[JetFan1983]

1 minute ago, saevel25 said:

yea, that was mentioned in the podcast above. You have to be VERY careful when on in a ketogenic state and drinking. Alcohol will actually hit you harder. Like, your normal amount in an evening will be like you drank 3-4x that amount in how you will feel. 

I'm going to try to listen to that podcast in the next few days. Looking forward to it. The article I posted is also written by Chris Palmer. 

Yea, I had one drink circa 2020 and pretty quickly went into hangover symptoms. It lasted only like thirty minutes, but it was definitely not fun. That's the only time I've ever had a drink on the diet.

[iacas]

13 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

yea, that was mentioned in the podcast above. You have to be VERY careful when on in a ketogenic state and drinking. Alcohol will actually hit you harder. Like, your normal amount in an evening will be like you drank 3-4x that amount in how you will feel. 

So what you're saying is… keto lets you cheap out on booze to get the same effects!

 

[GolfLug]

A smaller window of food consumption is great to get into a state of ketosis but I know people who fall in to the trap of consuming all they want in the 6-8 hour open window. For these people it seems that over time body wisens up and adapts to make fasting not as effective in weight control.

At the end of the day you still have to consume less than what you spend. No way around it.

[saevel25]

10 hours ago, iacas said:

So what you're saying is… keto lets you cheap out on booze to get the same effects!

I would assume so, lol. 

3 hours ago, GolfLug said:

A smaller window of food consumption is great to get into a state of ketosis but I know people who fall in to the trap of consuming all they want in the 6-8 hour open window. For these people it seems that over time body wisens up and adapts to make fasting not as effective in weight control.

At the end of the day you still have to consume less than what you spend. No way around it.

If you eat healthy, it is very hard to eat that many calories in a 6-8 hour window. Heck, If I have a large lunch, I have no want to eat dinner. 

 

For those who are lean already, keto can be dangerous in that you can get underweight. It is recommended to up the fat intake to get calories while you stay in ketosis. For people who are overweight, definitely live in the calorie restriction zone while in ketosis. Another concern with ketosis is that it can make people feel so good that they will go on short amount of sleep, like 3-4 hours. Even though you feel alert and good, this is still bad. You want to get a minimum 6 hours of sleep. 

I like the podcast definitely went into some cons or concerns with Ketosis. 

 

[Darkfrog]

Bookmarked to listen when I have a few hours of chores to get done.

Totally anecdotal, but I did keto and pretty hardcore intermittent fasting for about 3 years, and those were by far the healthiest physically and mentally years of my middle-adulthood. Once my kids got to a certain age it became much harder to maintain keto due to dietary preferences of wife and kids when preparing family meals, but I have been intending to get back into it.