Each year, about 60,000 new cases of Parkinson’s disease are identified, affecting 13 of every 100,000 people in the United States. According to the Parkinson’s Disease Association of AmericaCauses of potential risk factors for Parkinson’s may include genetics, environmental factors such as significant exposure to pesticides or certain heavy metals, and repeated head injuries. Age, however, is a major risk factor, as Parkinson’s disease is more commonly found in adults. over 50 years old.
There are ways to help control the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, such as drugs that use dopamine– a way to treat the symptoms of shock by improving blood flow. There is also new data suggesting that what you eat may play a role in helping to control Parkinson’s. According to studies, a ketogenic diet may help improve motor and non-motor symptoms in people with Parkinson’s disease.
The study published in Journal of Movement Disorders developed a pilot randomized controlled trial to compare the reasonableness, safety, and potential efficacy of a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet versus a ketogenic diet in a hospital clinic for patients with Parkinson’s disease.
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The researchers randomly assigned 47 patients to the low-fat or ketogenic diet and studied the results over the course of 8 weeks. Of 44 patients who started the diets, 38 completed the entire study. The ketogenic diet group maintained physiological ketosis, a normal response to low glucose availability that provides an additional energy source for the brain in the form of ketones. Ketone bodies work as antioxidants and bypassing a defect in the mitochondria (the powerhouses of cells) to power the body’s energy production.
Overall, both the low-fat and ketogenic diets significantly improved motor and non-motor symptoms, however, the group on the ketogenic diet showed major improvements in many of the most disabling non-motor symptomsincluding pain, fatigue, sleeping and eating problems, and cognitive changes, such as problems with attention, planning, language, and memory.
The research also showed that it is possible that the ketogenic diet may play a complementary role alongside L-dopa, a disorder characterized by childhood or adolescence onset of dystonia, sometimes associated with parkinsonism, in the treatment of Parkinson’s . However, more controlled studies are needed before this can be stated with confidence.
The ketogenic diet has been shown to help other diseases and also neurological disorders, such as epilepsy. From at least the year 500 a. fasting and other dietary regimens have been used to treat epilepsy. In the 1920s, modern doctors attempted to mimic fasting metabolism by introducing the ketogenic diet as a treatment for epilepsy. In the last 15 years, there has been a huge increase in both the use of and scientific interest in the ketogenic diet.
Kayla Garritano
Kayla Garritano is a staff writer for Eat This, Not That! She is a graduate of Hofstra University, where she majored in Journalism and double majored in Marketing and Creative Writing. read more
