Interest in the connection between diet and mental health has grown in recent years.
One of the diets under investigation is the ketogenic diet, which consists of a high fat intake and very low carbohydrate intake.
According to The Guardian, Harvard psychiatrist Christopher Palmer described in 2019 two women with long-term schizophrenia who experienced fewer symptoms while following a ketogenic diet for other health reasons.
Descriptions of individual patient cases are considered a weak form of evidence in medical research.
Also read: This happens in your body when you often eat avocado toast
They may point to something of interest, but they cannot prove that a treatment is effective.
Political debate
The discussion intensified when U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stated that a Harvard doctor had cured schizophrenia with a ketogenic diet.
However, Christopher Palmer told The Guardian that he has not used the word “cure.”
He has not declared any patients cured but has described the diet as a possible treatment that, in some cases, may lead to a period without symptoms.
Also read: Your fluid balance affects how you handle stress
According to the newspaper, remission in schizophrenia is relatively rare, which was one of the reasons the two patient cases were published.
Still many questions
There are currently around 20 controlled studies underway examining the effects of the ketogenic diet on conditions including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, according to The Guardian’s coverage.
Researchers are investigating, among other things, how the diet affects the body’s energy use and brain chemistry.
At the same time, experts point out that the diet can be difficult and costly to maintain over a long period.
Also read: New research offers hope for leukemia with less than 5 percent survival rate
The upcoming larger studies will determine whether the ketogenic diet can become a supplement to existing treatment.
Sources: The Guardian.
Also read: New study: Two days of oats can lower your cholesterol