Ketogenic Diets for Bipolar Disorder - Two Clinical Cases

Last week I read a clinical report of two women using prolonged ketosis for managing their Type 2 Bipolar Disorder symptoms. This is a clinical report, and not a randomized double blind trial and it should be taken as such. Also, n=2 is a very small sample size.

However, this clinical report and countless anecdotal reports from people all over the world should somehow spark the interest of using dietary alterations for such conditions. The authors of the report suggest that the underlying mechanism of the success of these women with ketosis might be the acidification of plasma and the lowering of intracellular sodium and calcium - which are often the therapeutic targets of prescription drugs.

In short:

• n=2, one women 69-year old, another 30-year old
• maintained ketosis for, at least, 2, respectively 3 years
• they might have maintained ketosis even after the publication of the report
• they tracked urine ketones almost daily
• they experienced no side effects.

Yes, these seem to be remarkable results. The authors however are careful to mention that ketogenic diets (if not formulated well) can lead to a whole host of negative side effects. They also discuss how they might have counteracted these side effects, the focus being on renal health. They conclude by saying that:

“At minimum, these patients’ experience suggests that a ketogenic diet, diligently pursued, can act as a mood stabilizer in patients with type II bipolar disorder.” [source]

If you're interested, you could read the full study here or read a lengthier review that I wrote on my personal blog about it:

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Cristi Vlad Self-Experimenter and Author