Brain inflammation. It’s a serious problem that contributes to pretty much every neurological disorder… Epilepsy, dementia, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, depression, suicide — they’re all tied to an inflamed brain. If you’re serious about stopping brain inflammation before it turns into a life-threatening disease, then you have to get serious about your diet… And there’s one particular diet that can keep your brain healthy and inflammation-free…
Keto cuts brain inflammation- You’ve probably heard a lot about the ketogenic diet lately. It’s having a major moment, swearing by its anti-aging, weight loss and health-giving powers. And science shows the ketogenic diet does have a lot of benefits. But perhaps its best benefit is cooling disease-causing inflammation in your brain…
A recent study from the University of California- San Francisco found that the ketogenic diet switches off inflammatory genes and has an anti-inflammatory effect on your body and brain. In case you don’t know, the keto diet requires that you significantly reduce carbs in your diet and replace them with fats. By doing this, you put your body into a metabolic state called ketosis, where it begins fueling itself on ketones (derived from fat) instead of glucose (derived from carbs).
Basically, by stopping your body from turning to glucose for energy, researchers in this latest study found that the keto diet activates a protein that suppresses inflammatory genes. The standard ketogenic diet consists of about 75 percent fat, 20 percent protein and 5 percent carbs. The typical “healthy” diet consists of about 45 to 65 percent carbs, 20 to 35 percent fat and 10 to 35 percent protein. So that’s a big difference…
Now, the keto diet isn’t for everybody. It’s pretty dang restrictive, which means it’s also pretty dang difficult to follow. Once you try it, you may fall in love with how it makes you feel, which could make it easier to stick to.
But the truth is, most of us aren’t going to follow the keto diet in its full form. Luckily, there are different versions you can follow. One less extreme version is kind of similar to intermittent fasting…
It’s called the cyclical keto diet, and it involves following the ketogenic diet for five days and going high-carb for two days.
You can also try a more moderate high-fat, low-carb diet, the Atkins diet or a low-carb Mediterranean diet. You won’t necessarily switch into ketosis with these diets, which means you won’t experience the exact same benefits. But cutting carbs and eating lots of healthy fats has been shown time and time again to have so many benefits for your body and your brain, so it’s worth a try!
The ketogenic diet is not appropriate for people with any stage of kidney disease, or any pre-existing liver, pancreatic or kidney issues or conditions. Some rare conditions such as Muscular Dystrophy and other conditions may complicate and severely distress the pancreas, liver or kidneys.
The diet is not recommended for the following:
- People who are underweight or have an eating disorder.
- Children (under 18 years old).
- Type 1 diabetics and diabetics taking medication for their diabetes (other than Metformin).
- Pregnant women or breast feeding mothers.
- People recovering from surgery.
- Those who are frail or have a significant underlying medical condition should speak to their doctor first, as they would before embarking on any weight-loss regime.
- Those who are not sure about whether it may affect their prescribed medications should to speak to their doctor first.
- People feeling unwell or have a fever.
- People with a history of serious mental health problems.
- Any stage of pregnancy.
- Anyone with decreased kidney function.
- Anyone on medications that decrease kidney or liver function (i.e. metformin). Keto must be discussed with your physician if you are on any kinds of medications or drugs to ensure there are no contraindications with keto.
- Women with irregular menses.
- Anyone with chronic respiratory conditions (COPD and other restrictive lung diseases)
