None of this is really that new, and I wish this article was longer, because apparently not a lot of people know about any of this.
It is already known that a wide range of disorders, inside and outside of the brain, are linked to inflammation and also should be categorized as mitochondrial disorders.
Unfortunately, when these two are put together, you end up with an inability for doctors to tell patients they have an inflammation problem: all the tests say negative (I've even met people where this is true, yet they clearly have obvious symptoms of it). However, when you put the patients on a strict anti-inflammation diet and lifestyle, the symptoms go away, as if by magic (and since doctors never recommend regimes that work, patients themselves have to go out and do it themselves; without proper guidance, this has mixed results).
That said, surprisingly common advice works for a wide range of people: avoid foods that interfere with your body's ability to engage autophagy (such as grains and sugars; for some people this means a strict but clean keto diet), regular one-meal-a-day intermittent fasting (helps maintain a state of regular autophagy), stop being overweight (the first two help a lot with this), regular sleep cycles and enough sleep (the previous three help with this), and regular exercise (HIIT is most effective for the results required to prolong life; and all the previous suggestions free up time and energy to fit this into your lifestyle, where for many, it wouldn't have fit before).
I've never seen a doctor in the field ever recommend any of these, yet the past decade of science has been entirely focused on these because of how effective they are to treat common (and dangerous) diseases. There is a disconnect between what we know and what is practiced.
> I've never seen a doctor in the field ever recommend any of these, [...]. There is a disconnect between what we know and what is practiced.
The disconnect has been present since the 1800's (ref: Mad in America [0]), where the Quakers got much better results in their Asylums [1] than the medical asylums. The Quakers were pushed out of the asylum business by doctors, who by the early 1900's thought their patients benefited from getting lobotomized and electrocuted.
2 days ago I saw this article from 15 years ago in /newest:
Someone noticed a link between cortisol and psychosis in the 1950's. Scientists have known since the 1970's that so-called "mental" problems are related to the metabolism, that stress impairs the metabolism, and that "mental" problems resolve with appropriate metabolic interventions. Infections are a type of stress - I think emotional stress is a more important factor for most such patients than actual infections.
But the keto diet is a fad and very dangerous diet, with lots of research and education having taught our doctors the state of ketosis is dangerous and extreme for our bodies. And that the term is associated with severe insulin failure, i.e. it will never be sustainable. Basically you need glucose from external sources to survive and shouldn't forget mama and papa food company or pharmaceutical x when thinking of your solution
Keto was created specifically for people with epilepsy. It works wonders for a subset of those patients, and for them any potential down sides are very much worth it. Some people with migraine (which in some ways resembles epilepsy) have also noticed a reduction of frequency and severity of attacks.
Parts of the two groups mentioned above have been on keto since the 1930s. A diet that's about a century old can't really be categorized as a fad. And while there have been oodles of studies highlighting the dangers of the western diet, which is killing millions, I haven't seen the same for keto.
Of course, there are many confounding factors here. But it's indisputable that keto works in improving epilepsy sufferers' lives.
My personal experience says otherwise. Whenever I have tried to reduce carbohydrate intake my system goes haywire. I suffer constipation, body aches, overall weakness in body during night while sleeping, I sleep worse. I workout every day and I have realized carbs are extremely important (even though I try to take plenty of protein). When I resume carbs most of the problems I cited above, go away.
As my sibling comment says there's something called keto flu. Have you tried sticking to strict low carb for approximately two weeks or more?
I personally have no problems with a keto diet, and I feel much better and less bloated. But people respond differently to it. If you feel it doesn't work for you, don't do keto.
To follow up on this, the reason is that excess protein is converted to carbohydrates in the body. It’s more expensive, and takes work to eliminate urea derivatives, but as long as someone is getting enough protein, they will be okay. There are risks to having too many saturated or polyunsaturated fats, but those risks aren’t inherent in low carb dieting.
I read something recently that a doctor researching causes of treatment resistant depression found there were metabolic abnormalities that show up in cerebrospinal fluid but not in blood tests. Unfortunately, blood tests are easier, so that's what is done.
More than 10 years ago I did HIIT for running. After warm up (20 km walk to the running path) I started with walking 2-3 minutes and then running as fast as I could for 30 seconds. The first times felt like I would die. It was hard to breathe, and a lot of pollen in the air did not help.
The walk and run is 1 cycle. When beginning the training, the cycles start at a low number of repetitions (1-2). The repetitions increase every time when training. So if on Monday I did 4 cycles on Wednesday I would do 5.
I started all this at the beginning of my summer vacation and after my vacation I could run 10 km without a lot of effort (when starting I could not really do even 3 km on one go). It just felt good to run. Then work started to get busy again with other people coming back from their vacations, winter came and all that which made it harder to train and to find time for it, that broke the training rhythm and I stopped.
But I was surprised at how well HIIT worked.
After some time of doing HIIT and improving, I stopped with adding repetitions and just ran in a sane pace, since it felt nice.
It is already known that a wide range of disorders, inside and outside of the brain, are linked to inflammation and also should be categorized as mitochondrial disorders.
Unfortunately, when these two are put together, you end up with an inability for doctors to tell patients they have an inflammation problem: all the tests say negative (I've even met people where this is true, yet they clearly have obvious symptoms of it). However, when you put the patients on a strict anti-inflammation diet and lifestyle, the symptoms go away, as if by magic (and since doctors never recommend regimes that work, patients themselves have to go out and do it themselves; without proper guidance, this has mixed results).
That said, surprisingly common advice works for a wide range of people: avoid foods that interfere with your body's ability to engage autophagy (such as grains and sugars; for some people this means a strict but clean keto diet), regular one-meal-a-day intermittent fasting (helps maintain a state of regular autophagy), stop being overweight (the first two help a lot with this), regular sleep cycles and enough sleep (the previous three help with this), and regular exercise (HIIT is most effective for the results required to prolong life; and all the previous suggestions free up time and energy to fit this into your lifestyle, where for many, it wouldn't have fit before).
I've never seen a doctor in the field ever recommend any of these, yet the past decade of science has been entirely focused on these because of how effective they are to treat common (and dangerous) diseases. There is a disconnect between what we know and what is practiced.