
Chronic Schizophrenia Put into Remission with Ketogenic Diet - daveytea
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/advancing-psychiatry/201904/chronic-schizophrenia-put-remission-without-medication
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motohagiography
Ketogenic diets have been prescribed for people with seizure disorders
("epilepsy") for decades. Given some psychological disorders are also treated
with anti-convulsants, it's speculative, but a high fat diet causes a lot of
physiological and hormonal (testosterone/cortisol leveks) changes that the
possibility of it affecting brain function doesn't seem ridiculous.

Someone with high anxiety who has not tried strenuous exercise with a high
fat/protein low carb diet would seem to be leaving opportunity on the table as
well.

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Kusse
I feel like ketogenic diet is the holy grail of health. Having followed a
"relaxed" version only 3 months now and I can honestly say that I have never
felt better. Depression, anxiety, motivation, sleep, fitness has all improved
for the better.

Having said that, the "diet" really makes you realize how hard it is to avoid
any kind of sugars in food, if you dont prepare it yourself. It is insane!

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astazangasta
This is garbage. Contrary to popular belief, remission is in fact common in
schizophrenia, so n=2 demonstrates precisely nothing. In addition, there is no
evidence that schizophrenics have any brain dysfunction other than that caused
by taking neuroleptics for decades.

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kdmccormick
Yikes. This case study isn't in any way conclusive, but it also doesn't claim
to be. You need a better reason than that to write it off as "garbage".

I have bipolar disorder. My uncle had schizophrenia. YEARS without an episode
AND without medication is an exciting prospect for many people, including
myself. I don't understand why you are so negative towards preliminary
findings that may point to a route of treatment that doesn't require
neuroleptics, which as you correctly point out, can cause cognitive
impairment.

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rhinoceraptor
Also, it's been known almost 100 years that the ketogenic diet has
neuroprotective attributes. There's strong evidence of its efficacy for
epilepsy, and mounting evidence for all sorts of other conditions.

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DoreenMichele
_It is well known that people with schizophrenia are three times more likely
to develop diabetes._

Well. That's significant.

Diabetes is linked to inflammation. So are a lot of brain issues.

I actually came here to note that the brain is 60% fat, so it seems reasonable
to assume that the amount and kind of dietary fat would matter a while lot for
a wide variety of brain related issues.

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perl4ever
Popular antipsychotics cause weight gain and eventual diabetes. I don't think
that's obscure or controversial, so it seems weird to say "people with
schizophrenia are three times more likely to develop diabetes" out of context.
Like, are we talking about a large population of untreated people?

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DoreenMichele
A longer outtake from the paragraph I was quoting:

 _It is well known that people with schizophrenia are three times more likely
to develop diabetes. A common debate in the field is whether the antipsychotic
medications, which are known to cause weight gain and diabetes, are to blame.
Recent research suggests that this is not the entire explanation. Even people
newly diagnosed with schizophrenia appear to already have insulin resistance,
even though most don’t yet have diabetes. This means that their brains may not
be getting enough energy from glucose. Other brain studies have found
metabolic abnormalities, such as higher levels of oxidative stress and
inflammation as well._

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perl4ever
Maybe chronic inflammation causes diabetes.

Recently, it's been observed that the rate of new diabetes cases is declining,
while obesity keeps going up. Nobody knows what's going on, even though we are
bombarded with theories.

I remember (I think) reading a long time ago about how someone had linked
insulin resistance to pain nerves (or maybe taste nerves, I forget) found in
the pancreas - even though you don't perceive with them consciously. I wonder
if anything came of that research.

~~~
DoreenMichele
_Maybe chronic inflammation causes diabetes._

I doubt that it's that straight forward. Inflammation is associated with both
chemical derangement and infection. Probably other things as well, like
allergic reactions.

Insulin resistance has also been linked to inadequate muscle mass more
strongly than to excess fat per se.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8748147](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8748147)

