12/19/2024
✨ Remarkable Findings in Mental Health Care ✨
A groundbreaking study published in Frontiers in Psychiatry highlights the transformative potential of the ketogenic diet for people with serious mental illnesses, including major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder.
The study showed: ✅ 43% achieved complete clinical remission ✅ 64% reduced medication intake ✅ 100% experienced significant reductions in psychiatric symptoms
These results were achieved in a supervised hospital setting where the only change was the implementation of a whole-food ketogenic diet. Instead of side effects, patients experienced side benefits, such as reductions in weight, blood pressure, blood sugar, and triglycerides.
While this was not a randomized controlled trial, the findings are incredibly hopeful—especially for those who have found limited success with traditional treatments. This research, co-authored by Dr. Georgia Ede and other leading experts, suggests that addressing metabolic health could be a key factor in lifting the fog of depression and improving mental well-being. 🌿
At the Healing Depression Project, we integrate ketogenic nutritional therapy as part of our comprehensive approach to uncover and address the root causes of depression. Could this approach change your life?
🔗 Learn more about our 45-day program via the link in bio.
A teenage boy with epilepsy and autism behaviors switched to a ketogenic diet and saw life-changing results. Seizures stopped, and autism behaviors improved within weeks. Inspired, psychiatrist Dr. Albert Danan offered the diet to 31 patients with chronic, severe, "treatment-resistant" mental illnesses.
The results? Extraordinary.
✅ 100% of patients who stuck to the plan improved.
✅ 43% achieved full remission.
✅ 64% discharged on less psychiatric medication.
✅ Weight loss and metabolic health improvements across the board, despite antipsychotic medications.
These outcomes were so unexpected that Dr. Danan and I collaborated with Duke University obesity medicine researcher Dr. Eric Westman and University of Michigan behavioral medicine researcher Dr. Laura Saslow to publish them in June of 2022.
As a co‑author of this paper, naturally I view its findings in a positive light, but having practiced psychiatry for more than 25 years I can tell you that we never see results like this with standard psychiatric treatments.
Clinical remission is rare, most people leave psychiatric hospitals on more medication, and metabolic side effects such as weight gain are common. In this case, the remission rate was high, and instead of side effects, people were enjoying side benefits: healthy reductions in weight, blood pressure, blood sugar, liver enzymes, and triglycerides.
This wasn’t a randomized controlled trial, so we can’t be certain that the ketogenic diet itself was responsible for the unprecedented improvements we reported.
However, we believe it contributed considerably to these outcomes, as they would otherwise be difficult to explain.
These patients had previously benefited very little from attentive outpatient care, multiple medications, and psychiatric hospitalization— the only difference between this hospitalization and previous hospitalizations was the ketogenic diet.
These observations offer tremendous hope, because they suggest that a ketogenic diet could bring significant relief to people with serious mental illnesses, regardless of the nature or duration of their symptoms.
Ready to learn more? My new CME course on metabolic psychiatry is now available for FREE and is accredited for physicians, nurses, and psychologists, all thanks to Metabolic Mind: https://www.mycme.com/courses/managing-major-mental-illness-with-dietary-change-9616
