Schizoaffective disorder disappears with keto diet

Definition: "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance "

15.02.2025

Schizoaffective disorder is a psychiatric condition that is somewhere between psychosis and bipolar disorder. Symptoms include delusions and hallucinations, but also manic moods and depression. According to case studies recently published in Frontiers in Nutrition, a low-carb diet can provide a solution in at least some cases.

Schizoaffective disorder disappears with keto diet

Study

In the article that will soon appear in Frontiers in Nutrition, Nicole Laurent, a nutrition counselor from the American Family Renewal, describes 2 cases in which she had patients with schizoaffective disorder switch to a low-carbohydrate diet for a longer period of time. This post is about 1 of these 2 cases.

This case concerns a 32-year-old woman who had been struggling with her disorder for 7 years at that time. She survived several attempts to kill herself and took antipsychotic drugs.

Laurent reduced the amount of carbohydrates the woman consumed daily to 20 grams per day. In addition, the woman ate 190 grams of fat and 75 grams of protein daily. The woman ate beef, chicken, eggs and dairy. The fats came from, among other things, avocado, olive oil, nuts, MCT oil and butter.

Laurent supplemented the diet with B-complex, trace elements such as iodine, zinc, selenium and boron, vitamins D, K2 and A and the electrolytes sodium, magnesium and potassium.

The woman also used acetyl-L-carnitine daily. The dose eventually rose to 2.5 grams per day.

Results
After just 2 weeks of the keto diet, psychotic symptoms and mood disorders began to diminish. After 6 months they disappeared completely. The woman was able to stop taking her medication.

Below you can see how a ketogenic diet reduced stress, anxiety and depression. Click on the figures for a larger version.

The effect of magnesium supplementation on HDL levels was stronger when the daily dose was higher than 300 milligrams and the duration of administration was longer than 84 days. The effect was also more convincing when the subjects were over 50 and no longAt the same time, the woman also scored better on the PTSD checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5). This means that she responded better to situations that would normally cause psychological stress.

The patient's body composition improved. She lost a few kilos of fat and gained 2 kilos of muscle mass.er in good health.

Conclusion
"It's hard to think about how my life may have played out differently had I been offered this intervention earlier in the course of navigating my illness", Laurent quotes her test subject.

"I absolutely wish ketogenic therapy and metabolic therapies would have been shared with me as a viable option as early as possible."

Source:
Front. Nutr. (2025) 12:1506304. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1506304.

More:
Keto diet makes psychiatric patients physically and mentally healthier 15.05.2024
This is the effect of a keto diet on Alzheimer's patients 15.09.2021

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