Chronic Schizophrenia Put into Remission with Ketogenic Diet
psychologytoday.com
psychologytoday.com
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.
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!
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.
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.
However, I know a lot of times this and similar drugs seem to stimulate impulsive, almost manic behavior when they are first started. A family member of an acquaintance took Chantix to quit smoking and nearly wrecked his life through uncharacteristically reckless behavior.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.