Eine fettreiche Keto-Diät kann Menschen mit schweren psychischen Erkrankungen helfen

A ketogenic diet consisting of low-carb, high-fat foods may ease the symptoms of serious mental illness and reduce weight gain and other side effects from the drugs used to treat it, new research shows.

A [clinical trial](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165178124001513?via%3Dihub), led by researchers at [Stanford Medicine](https://www.metabolicpsychiatry.com/), recruited 23 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder and instructed them to follow a diet consisting of 10 percent carbohydrates, 30 percent protein and about 60 percent fat.

The medications prescribed to treat serious mental illness can cause “major metabolic side effects,” such as insulin resistance and weight gain, researchers say, and all of the patients studied suffered from at least one of these conditions.

After four months on a ketogenic diet, 79 percent of participants showed a “clinically meaningful improvement” in psychiatric symptoms.

The study was small and relatively short, so more research is needed to determine if dietary changes can have a meaningful, long-term impact on patients with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. But the findings are part of a growing body of research suggesting a powerful link between brain health and diet. The ketogenic diet has also been studied in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and epilepsy.

Researchers theorize that the diet may improve psychiatric symptoms by correcting metabolic issues.

“The working theory is that we’re providing energy to the brain that circumvents these metabolic deficits,” said [Shebani Sethi](https://profiles.stanford.edu/shebani-sethi), a clinical associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford Medicine and the lead author of the study.

Read more here: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2024/04/02/ketogenic-bipolar-mental-diet/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com](https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2024/04/02/ketogenic-bipolar-mental-diet/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com)