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Chronic Schizophrenia Put into Remission with Ketogenic Diet

psychologytoday.com

11–15 of 15 posts

Re: Chronic Schizophrenia Put into Remission with Ketogenic Diet

#11

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.

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?

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.

Re: Chronic Schizophrenia Put into Remission with Ketogenic Diet

#12

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.

It's debatable how much antipsychotics help, but people do become ill in the first place, and do develop brain damage over time independently of the drugs. Psychosis is natural and not healthy.

The problem I see is not that there is a vast conspiracy to push useless drugs, but that the drug industry inherently is geared towards developing the "minimum viable product" which means anything that has a just barely statistically significant effect in studies. Which means everything new is just possibly useful, but quite possibly not.

Re: Chronic Schizophrenia Put into Remission with Ketogenic Diet

#13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

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…

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.

Re: Chronic Schizophrenia Put into Remission with Ketogenic Diet

#14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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 perce…

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

Re: Chronic Schizophrenia Put into Remission with Ketogenic Diet

#15
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm inclined to agree. That being said, having been prescribed zyprexa for type 1 bipolar, anything that leads treatment away from the standard trope of what in my opinion is nothing other than a strong off-label tranquilizer for these symptoms is a positive thing in some regard.

I wonder if Wellbutrin/Zyban/bupropion is underutilized. It's well known that people with chronic mental illness, particularly schizophrenia, tend to smoke, as it seems like nicotine helps somehow. So I wonder if a "quit-smoking" drug is really a good treatment, because it enhances the sensitivity of the brain to whatever normally stimulates those receptors. However, I know a lot of times this and similar drugs seem…

Anything is possible I guess.

It's amazing what medicine can and cannot do. While it's great to think that medicine and diet and exercise arranged in some unique fashion will place Schizophrenia/Bipolar into remission, there are an incredible number of variables in play in mental health and physical health overall, and they seem to vary in everyone.

So I take most of these articles with a huge grain of salt. Perhaps this is a nudge in the right direction, and maybe it will encourage further research into diet and mental illness. Personally I would support this as I'm far from enthusiastic concerning psych meds in general, but unfortunately they're the best we have it seems.

And yes, if you have had manic episodes, taking an anti-depressant should be done with care. Actually I would suggest doing everything possible and would recommend using any psych medication as a last resort for any health related situation.

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