Mental Health

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Mental Health

What are mental health conditions and what causes them?
Mental illnesses include a broad spectrum of conditions that can affect how an individual thinks, feels, and acts. Examples of mental disorders include anxiety, bipolar disorder, depression, panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia, and sleep disorders. An underlying cause in all of these disorders is neurochemical imbalances. Neurotransmitters are the chemical messengers within your brain. They remain in a delicate state of homeostasis and disruptions can lead to various mental disorders. For example, depression is linked to low levels of serotonin, bipolar disorder is linked to dopamine, noradrenaline, and serotonin, and schizophrenia is linked to high levels of dopamine and serotonin. These mental illnesses not only impact our moods and attitudes but can be harmful to overall health. Sleep dysfunction, gastrointestinal disorders, substance abuse, arthritis, and cardiovascular diseases are all co-morbidities of mental health disorders.

How can the ketogenic diet help with mental health issues?
The ketogenic diet has been shown to have substantial impacts on physical health, but its effect on mental health may be even more substantial. To understand how the ketogenic diet alters your brain’s biochemistry, think about its original usage. The ketogenic diet was founded in the 1920s to treat epilepsy—which it did by altering neurotransmitter production. Keto promotes the glutamate to GABA transition, whereas GABA is the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter of the brain and glutamate is the primary excitatory neurotransmitter. GABA acts as a mood stabilizer and has been shown to help reduce depression, anxiety, paranoia, and panic. In a 2012 case study, two bipolar women were treated with the ketogenic diet (one for two years and one for three years) and researchers found that the diet acted as a powerful mood stabilizer and was superior to the current medications they were taking. Another 2012 case study found that a 70-year-old schizophrenic woman had significant improvements in symptoms after starting a ketogenic diet and was even completely rid of hallucination from which she had suffered for over 60 years. Several animal studies have shown the ketogenic diet to reduce anxious and depressive behaviors.

The status of your mental health is so important and has tremendous effects on your overall health and wellbeing. Your mental health can also affect your weigh journey and eating habits. That is why so many people are starting the ketogenic diet for weight loss but staying on it for the improvements in their mental health.

Jackie Lauricella

27 year old Jackie Lauricella health professional in the field of athletic training. Her practice specializes in sports medicine care in the athletic population from high school to professional levels. She is originally from Daytona Beach, Florida but currently resides in Apex, North Carolina with her partner, Josh Perry. As former athlete in the sport of taekwondo, Jackie made two USA national teams and medaled at international events all over the world during her 14 years of competing. She began experimenting with the ketogenic diet about a year ago to help with personal anxiety and disordered eating and has recently adopted it fully as a way to change her body composition and gain strength with weight training. She is passionate about sharing the idea of holistic health with her athletes and those around her. “I understand the the idea of well-being is all encompassing. Rest, nutrition and mental health are all as equally important as exercise and training to an athlete’s success.” She encourages high fat/low carb eating when dealing with concussion and TBI management and is an advocate for continued research on how nutritional intervention plays a huge role in healing time.

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Research

Ketogenic Diets for Psychiatric Disorders: A New 2017 Review

Ede, G. (2017). Ketogenic Diets for Psychiatric Disorders: A New 2017 Review. Psychology Today. Retrieved October, 26, 2017.

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The ketogenic diet as a treatment paradigm for diverse neurological disorders

Rho, J. M., & Stafstrom, C. E. (2012). The ketogenic diet as a treatment paradigm for diverse neurological disorders. Frontiers in pharmacology, 3, 59.

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Depression

Oliveira, M. D. A. R., da Rocha Ataíde, T., de Oliveira, S. L., de Melo Lucena, A. L., de Lira, C. E. P. R., Soares, A. A., … & Ximenes-da-Silva, A. (2008). Effects of short-term and long-term treatment with medium-and long-chain triglycerides ketogenic diet on cortical spreading depression in young rats. Neuroscience letters, 434(1), 66-70.

Murphy, P., Likhodii, S., Nylen, K., & Burnham, W. M. (2004). The antidepressant properties of the ketogenic diet. Biological psychiatry, 56(12), 981-983.

Exogenous Ketone Supplements Reduce Anxiety-Related Behavior

Ari, C., Kovács, Z., Juhasz, G., Murdun, C., Goldhagen, C. R., Koutnik, A. P., … & D’Agostino, D. P. (2017). Exogenous ketone supplements reduce anxiety-related behavior in Sprague-Dawley and Wistar Albino Glaxo/Rijswijk rats. Frontiers in molecular neuroscience, 9, 137.

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Mood

McClernon, F. J., Yancy Jr, W. S., Eberstein, J. A., Atkins, R. C., & Westman, E. C. (2007). The effects of a low‐carbohydrate ketogenic diet and a low‐fat diet on mood, hunger, and other self‐reported symptoms. Obesity, 15(1), 182-182.

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Bipolar and mood stabilization

El-Mallakh, R. S., & Paskitti, M. E. (2001). The ketogenic diet may have mood-stabilizing properties. Medical hypotheses, 57(6), 724-726.

Phelps, J. R., Siemers, S. V., & El-Mallakh, R. S. (2013). The ketogenic diet for type II bipolar disorder. Neurocase, 19(5), 423-426.

Brietzke, E., Mansur, R. B., Subramaniapillai, M., Martinez, V. B., Vinberg, M., González-Pinto, A., … & McIntyre, R. S. (2018). Ketogenic diet as a metabolic therapy for mood disorders: Evidence and developments. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews.

A Ketogenic Diet Improves Cognition and Has Biochemical Effects in Prefrontal Cortex That Are Dissociable From Hippocampus

Hernandez, A. R., Hernandez, C. M., Campos, K., Truckenbrod, L., Federico, Q., Moon, B., … & Burke, S. N. (2018). A ketogenic diet improves cognition and has biochemical effects in prefrontal cortex that are dissociable from hippocampus. Frontiers in aging neuroscience, 10.

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