The ketogenic diet is a dietary pattern that is very low in carbohydrates, high in fat, and moderate in protein. Since then, clinical and animal studies have continued to report on the efficacy of the ketogenic diet in the treatment of epilepsy. Initially studied for its effects on epilepsy, the keto diet has now been shown to improve many potential health problems.
Health Issues That a Keto Diet Can Improve
Here is a wealth of scientific evidence that the following conditions can also be reversed or greatly improved by a keto diet:
Aging
A keto diet reduces inflammation by inhibiting free radical activity and downregulating certain inflammatory markers. The result is a slowing of the aging process in humans.
In 2017, two recent studies on cells were published, using rats as subjects and focusing on a low-carbon-high-fat diet and its effects on lifespan, memory, risk of death, etc. in rats.
In 2018, another weighty study was published in the cell, finding that keto diets and fasting produce ketone bodies and that BHB prevents vascular aging and resists the aging process.
Insulin Resistance, Metabolic Syndrome, Prediabetes
These conditions are directly related to chronic hyperglycemia and the effects of insulin, which leads to insulin resistance (IR). In addition, IR can cause fatty liver, polycystic ovary syndrome, and other related disorders. Low-carbohydrate, high-fat diets have been used in studies to treat and reverse the metabolic disorders associated with IR.
There are evidence-based guidelines for keto diet interventions for type 2 diabetes. The 2019 Chinese Keto Diet Interventions for Type 2 Diabetes Expert Consensus suggests that diets rich in high energy, fat, and fructose are important contributors to elevated levels of triacylglycerol in the human liver, and epidemiological studies suggest that low-carbohydrate diets can improve cardiovascular risk factors, particularly plasma lipids such as triacylglycerol, total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and HDL cholesterol.
Heart Failure
Risk factors for heart disease improve when blood sugar and insulin levels are lowered through dietary changes.
A study on the keto diet and heart failure published in October 2020 in a sub-issue of the top scientific journal Nature found that the keto diet group showed almost normal heart size and function on echocardiograms at 10 and 16 weeks of age, while the low-fat group showed severe cardiac insufficiency. In addition to this, the scientists found that damage to the heart muscle of the mice could be reversed by feeding the keto diet for only 3 weeks.
Neuropsychiatric Disorders
Including multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, depression, autism, etc.: Studies have shown that ketone bodies have a protective effect on the nervous system and can slow down the development of neurological related disorders.
Professor Nicholas G. Norwitz from the University of Oxford, UK, shared a review in this regard. Explain to us the pathological basis of the keto diet to improve disease and the current evidence from clinical trials. The keto diet is an epilepsy treatment that has been shown to have profound effects on brain metabolism and neurotransmitter function.
Mitochondrial Encephalomyopathy
The keto diet provides mitochondrial support and may improve metabolic energy disorders.
Cases of mitochondrial encephalomyopathy (MELAS) treated with a keto diet have been reported. A clinical observation of a keto diet for MELAS has been published. It was found that the keto diet may be used as an adjunctive treatment for MELAS, particularly in lowering blood lactate levels and reducing clinical convulsions.
Tumors
According to the hypothesis proposed by Otto Warburg in 1924, malignant tumors rely on the oxidative breakdown of glucose (also known as glycolysis) to produce ATP as the driving force for proliferation. In contrast, due to mitochondrial dysfunction in tumor cells, the levels of enzymes required to metabolize ketone bodies are downregulated, which results in cancer cells lacking the ability to metabolize ketone bodies.
Thus, providing a keto diet in cancer therapy can lower blood glucose levels and induce ketosis, which leads to a lack of energy in cancer cells and thus inhibits tumor growth. However, normal cells can survive under such dietary conditions by adjusting their metabolism to use ketone bodies. Given this unique metabolic heterogeneity, the keto diet has caught the attention of cancer researchers.
The results of a study on the keto diet published in the journal Cell Reports are even more surprising! The purpose of the study was to examine the effects of the keto diet on cancer. The purpose of the study was to study cancer. Researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas found that a keto diet can prevent cancer. The keto diet was shown to be effective in controlling tumors in mice with a type of lung cancer called squamous cell carcinoma or esophageal cancer.
Weight Loss
The Keto diet for weight control is already a hot topic. 2019 Clinical pathway for keto treatment of simple obesity re-released: introducing the clinical rationale for keto diet interventions in simple obesity.
2019 Consensus statement from the Italian Society of Endocrinology (SIE). Very Low-Calorie Keto Diet in Metabolic Diseases (VLCKD) states that: the very low-calorie keto diet is increasingly used for weight loss and treatment of obesity-related complications. The consensus focuses on the risks and benefits of VLCKD and provides recommendations to guide weight loss and management of the metabolic disease.
Conclusion
With more than 3,000 reports on the keto diet searched in medical databases, the feasibility and promise of this revolutionary diet are no longer limited to its use in epilepsy but are being refreshed and recognized in chronic diseases, and oncology.
