Patients say keto helps with mental illness. Science is racing to understand why • Hacker News Board

Re: Patients say keto helps with mental illness. Science is racing to understand why

#61

Post by NotSuspicious » Tue, Jan 30, 2024, 10:05 AM UTC

jdietrich wrote: post #43

elliotec wrote: post #4

I can't help but think "finally" and "told ya so" regarding this news. It's difficult to describe how massively my life changed when I started keto. Like the subject of the article, I've had Bipolar (1 in my case, they didn't specify their version) for most of my life, since way before it's supposed to manifest in late adolescence. I was misdiagnosed here and there since I was a very young child, but I finally got on…

>I can't help but think "finally" and "told ya so" regarding this news. I don't want to dismiss your personal experiences, but I think that's the wrong conclusion to draw. Common mental illnesses - particularly depression and anxiety - have incredibly high placebo response rates. Everything looks like a promising treatment for depression in an uncontrolled trial. You can pick practically any intervention - including…

Except OP has noticed that when they go out of ketosis everything gets worse again. They've effectively run numerous trials on themselves.

Re: Patients say keto helps with mental illness. Science is racing to understand why

#62

Post by yurishimo » Tue, Jan 30, 2024, 10:05 AM UTC

m463 wrote: post #17

I've read the book "the glucose revolution" and it is pretty interesting how regulating glucose spikes can affect your mental clarity, energy levels and general health and wellbeing. When you eat carbs, your blood sugar rises. At first it fuels your muscles, then at some point your body has to release insulin to protect itself, keeping your blood sugar low using fat storage. Later, the blood sugar will crash, leading…

Eating things is order really is "life-hack" if you're into low-carb/keto. If do some extended fasting and break it with only meat, I usually have some mild gastric distress side effects. Not really a problem for me, but for some people, it can be a distraction that they would rather not have to deal with. However, if I start eating again by first consuming a large amount of fiber, a big (150g+) salad for example, the effect is much reduced.

Another benefit of starting with fiber, is that your body will begin processing it and sending signals of satiety earlier than if you started carbs. Another hack I suppose is waiting 10 minutes between courses in your meals. Giving your body time to digest can help you feel fuller and prevent overeating. Especially when you grew up with the "clean your plate" form of parenting, learning to break that habit and stop when you're actually full can be a game changer for managing weight and body composition.

Re: Patients say keto helps with mental illness. Science is racing to understand why

#63

Post by wouldbecouldbe » Tue, Jan 30, 2024, 10:06 AM UTC

jdietrich wrote: post #43

elliotec wrote: post #4

I can't help but think "finally" and "told ya so" regarding this news. It's difficult to describe how massively my life changed when I started keto. Like the subject of the article, I've had Bipolar (1 in my case, they didn't specify their version) for most of my life, since way before it's supposed to manifest in late adolescence. I was misdiagnosed here and there since I was a very young child, but I finally got on…

>I can't help but think "finally" and "told ya so" regarding this news. I don't want to dismiss your personal experiences, but I think that's the wrong conclusion to draw. Common mental illnesses - particularly depression and anxiety - have incredibly high placebo response rates. Everything looks like a promising treatment for depression in an uncontrolled trial. You can pick practically any intervention - including…

Jeez, chill out.

You have zero proof & did zero research on this person, yet trying to put someone who down sees profound benefit with the good old: "it's just placebo".

Just because there is no direct studies backing it up yet doesn't mean there isn't real effect. Could be keto, could be lack of certain starches or other foods, could be the focus & rhytm, whatever it is let's not discourage someone who is having a great practical benefit.

In this case there is literature & studies on epilepsy and keto, and OP was on put on epileptic medicine & describes a link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6361831/

Re: Patients say keto helps with mental illness. Science is racing to understand why

#64

Post by OJFord » Tue, Jan 30, 2024, 10:08 AM UTC

spidersenses wrote: post #53

dustincoates wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vegan is decidedly not "normal" if we define normal in the sense that it is common. Only 0.5% of the American adult population is vegan (only 2% vegeterian).[1] Not that there's anything wrong with being vegan! But it definitely a minority position. 1: https://veganbits.com/vegan-demographics/

The “normal” in my comment referred to the average weight and busy life. I am primarily an ovo-lacto vegetarian, only occasionally vegan.

> primarily an ovo-lacto vegetarian, only occasionally vegan

That's like an omnivore saying they're occasionally vegan because not 100% meals contain meat or dairy?

Re: Patients say keto helps with mental illness. Science is racing to understand why

#65

Post by pavlov » Tue, Jan 30, 2024, 10:09 AM UTC

As a counterexample, a dear friend of mine has a cluster of mental illnesses which are clearly made worse by his ceaseless keto diet obsession.

He didn't need an eating disorder on top of all the other issues he already had, but that's where he's ended up by consuming diet advice from the internet.

Re: Patients say keto helps with mental illness. Science is racing to understand why

#66

Post by elliotec » Tue, Jan 30, 2024, 10:10 AM UTC

jdietrich wrote: post #43

elliotec wrote: post #4

I can't help but think "finally" and "told ya so" regarding this news. It's difficult to describe how massively my life changed when I started keto. Like the subject of the article, I've had Bipolar (1 in my case, they didn't specify their version) for most of my life, since way before it's supposed to manifest in late adolescence. I was misdiagnosed here and there since I was a very young child, but I finally got on…

>I can't help but think "finally" and "told ya so" regarding this news. I don't want to dismiss your personal experiences, but I think that's the wrong conclusion to draw. Common mental illnesses - particularly depression and anxiety - have incredibly high placebo response rates. Everything looks like a promising treatment for depression in an uncontrolled trial. You can pick practically any intervention - including…

I’m not drawing any conclusions or promoting it for anyone else. I’m expressing excitement that there is clearly _something there_ that other people see too and are willing to put through research rigor. It’s validating to see that others might have found treatment this way in their own vacuum and is worth looking into.

Regarding placebo - they do touch on this in the article. I have pretty high confidence it’s not placebo for me. But that’s the point, we just don’t know yet and all I’m saying is I’m glad we will soon know more based on my experience.

Re: Patients say keto helps with mental illness. Science is racing to understand why

#67

Post by wouldbecouldbe » Tue, Jan 30, 2024, 10:10 AM UTC

saiya-jin wrote: post #58

ilitirit wrote: post #51

I don't think you really need keto, but I think many people could benefit from just training themselves to eat fewer times a day, and developing an aversion to sugar and unhealthy food in general. I don't eat breakfast - haven't done so for more than 20 years. It doesn't affect my enerygy levels or mood. It always made me wonder why we even had it in the first place. All I have is a cup of black coffee, no sugar. Som…

You must realize the world and humanity is bigger than you. Some people with low blood sugar would be very weak without breakfast (ie my wife and most of her family, tested repeatedly under various real world situations ie in wilderness). Some thrive like that. Some, like me, don't care if they have or don't have breakfast, nothing visibly changes for me (unless I want to bulk a bit from ie weightlifting or generally…

It's not really clear that black coffee causes inflammation in the stomach; some believe so, others don;t.

Re: Patients say keto helps with mental illness. Science is racing to understand why

#68

Post by marginalia_nu » Tue, Jan 30, 2024, 10:10 AM UTC

jdietrich wrote: post #43

elliotec wrote: post #4

I can't help but think "finally" and "told ya so" regarding this news. It's difficult to describe how massively my life changed when I started keto. Like the subject of the article, I've had Bipolar (1 in my case, they didn't specify their version) for most of my life, since way before it's supposed to manifest in late adolescence. I was misdiagnosed here and there since I was a very young child, but I finally got on…

>I can't help but think "finally" and "told ya so" regarding this news. I don't want to dismiss your personal experiences, but I think that's the wrong conclusion to draw. Common mental illnesses - particularly depression and anxiety - have incredibly high placebo response rates. Everything looks like a promising treatment for depression in an uncontrolled trial. You can pick practically any intervention - including…

It's questionable whether it's placebo, or whether the placebo intervention itself is a non-placebo intervention.

To partake in a study you need to get out of the house, go somewhere new, talk to new people a few times, do something new, get some daylight, etc. Those are all things we know has a positive effect on depression.

Big part of treating depression is to make people do those sorts of things, despite their bodies and mind screaming stay in bed, it's not worth it.

Re: Patients say keto helps with mental illness. Science is racing to understand why

#69

Post by eurekin » Tue, Jan 30, 2024, 10:11 AM UTC

For all wanting to try out, please consider a dietician consultation first. They typically recommend cutting on gluten and dairy first as a protocol.

For me it was enough to significantly alter the quality of life. You might not need the full keto, only the "autoimmune exclusion protocol", which can help after long time stress adaptations

Re: Patients say keto helps with mental illness. Science is racing to understand why

#70

Post by tmikaeld » Tue, Jan 30, 2024, 10:12 AM UTC

MrBuddyCasino wrote: post #41

elliotec wrote: post #4

I can't help but think "finally" and "told ya so" regarding this news. It's difficult to describe how massively my life changed when I started keto. Like the subject of the article, I've had Bipolar (1 in my case, they didn't specify their version) for most of my life, since way before it's supposed to manifest in late adolescence. I was misdiagnosed here and there since I was a very young child, but I finally got on…

The brain likes keto, no question. I'm not sure it is a good to do it for longer periods of time, it supposedly stresses the body [0]. I did it for a year and continually lost weight, and it wasn't for lack of calories. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qcAStYJwpg

How often per day did you eat and did you measure your keto levels?

Thing is that if you over-do it and have too high keto-levels, you can get poisoned by it and that certainly have a high level of stress on the body. (The old man points this out in your video)

Also, if you don't eat often enough, you may not trigger insulin and thus won't get hungry at all and get to little calories (thus dropping in weight).