Cutting out carbs found to improve severe mental illness – here’s how

THE KETO diet helps reduce schizophrenia symptoms in people with the illness, a study shows.

The carb-cutting diet — loved by celebs like Halle Berry and Kourtney Kardashian — is normally followed as a means of losing weight.

GettyHealthy lifestyle on ketogenic diet, eating clean keto food good health dietary in heart dish with aerobic body exercise, gym workout training class , weight scale and sports shoes in fitness center[/caption]

But US researchers found it can also help patients with mental health conditions that include bipolar disorder as well.

Dr Shebani Sethi, of Stanford University, said: “It’s very promising and very encouraging that you can take back control of your illness in some way, aside from the usual standard of care.

“The participants reported improvements in their energy, sleep, mood and quality of life.

“They feel healthier and more hopeful.”

Around 685,000 Brits are currently diagnosed with schizophrenia, according to the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

The condition can cause hallucinations, disorganised thinking and fixed beliefs that something is true, despite evidence to the contrary.

Some 1.3million Brits have bipolar — which causes extreme mood swings and changes in energy levels — according to Bipolar UK.

Patients with either condition are often prescribed antipsychotic drugs that help ease symptoms but can cause issues like obesity and insulin resistance.

The ketogenic diet is an eating protocol that involves swapping out carb-heavy foods like potatoes and pasta for higher fat ones like fish, eggs and avocados.

This leads to ketosis — a metabolic state where the body burns fat for fuel instead of carbohydrates.

Previous research has suggested it could help delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.

The latest study, published in Psychiatry Research, looked at whether the diet could help fix issues caused by antipsychotic drugs, and what effect it has on mental health issues as well.

Dr Sethi said: “The ketogenic diet has been proven to be effective for treatment-resistant epileptic seizures by reducing the excitability of neurons in the brain.

“We thought it would be worth exploring this treatment in psychiatric conditions.”

Researchers tracked 21 adults with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder who were taking antipsychotic drugs and were suffering issues like insulin resistance or weight gain.

They were asked to follow a ketogenic diet, with 10 per cent of calories coming from carbs, 30 per cent from protein and the rest fat.

On average, they lost 10 per cent of their body weight and reduced their waist circumference by 11 per cent.

They also had lower blood pressure, body mass index, triglycerides, blood sugar levels and insulin resistance.

They improved 31 per cent on a psychiatrist rating of mental illnesses and gfelt happier and slept better as well.

Dr Sethi said: “We’re seeing huge changes.

“Even if you’re on antipsychotic drugs, we can still reverse the obesity, the metabolic syndrome, the insulin resistance. I think that’s very encouraging for patients.”

Researchers said the encouraging improvements to psychiatric symptoms are likely to have been caused by improved metabolism in the brain.

Dr Sethi said: “Anything that improves metabolic health in general is probably going to improve brain health anyway. 

“But the ketogenic diet can provide ketones as an alternative fuel to glucose for a brain with energy dysfunction.”