4 ms·

Mice trials don't interest me much. Human trials of various diets for Alzheimer's have been done along with lots of individuals who have tested it on themselves

Mice trials don't interest me much. Human trials of various diets for Alzheimer's have been done along with lots of individuals who have tested it on themselves or family members with positive results. I can't find one of the more comprehensive studies I was looking at before, but a quick search pulls up this video which discusses a recent human trial which showed significant improvement on the keto diet (links to the study in description): https://youtu.be/jK6-r1zWOI0 https://youtu.be/jK6-r1zWOI0

ethbr0 5y ago
That looks like a 12-week keto diet, applied to 21 patients who already have AD. The measured results were cognitive scores on testing, which improved. Consequently, it suggests someone who is already impaired due to AD may be able to improve symptoms from a keto diet (vs a low-fat one). But the general consensus is that reversing or alleviating AD symptoms is a different task than preventing it in the first place. The linked article here is talking more about the latter, and specifically for preventing non-hereditary AD.
- notshift 5y ago
  If the diet can reverse the usual decline and ultimately cure the disease given enough time, surely that would imply it would also prevent onset, no? I'll take a more detailed look into the other resources I've studied and post another reply in a few hours.
  - ethbr0 5y ago
    Alzheimer's research and drug development is littered with decades of ideas that were implied, but didn't bear out. And nutritional research... well, there's a lot of money in food, and that's funded a lot of noise around the signals.
    - notshift 5y ago
      I agree. I'm not talking about a one-off study showing a minor improvement though (which would be likely to not replicate, etc.), I'm referring to a much stronger effect which in principle is addressing the origin of the disease. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6720297/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6720297/ - a review of various studies, concludes that "Keto diet may modulate a broad array of metabolic and signaling changes underlying the pathophysiology of neurodegenerative disorders. Based on the limited animal studies and clinical trials, keto diet has beneficial effects for enhancing mitochondrial function and cellular metabolism. It is associated with improved cognitive performance in elderly adults with Alzheimer's disease. The improvement of the cognitive outcomes depends on the level and duration of ketosis." https://alzres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13195-021-00783-x https://alzres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13195-021... - study from video I linked above, concludes that "patients on the ketogenic diet improved in daily function and quality of life". https://academic.oup.com/advances/article/11/6/1583/5864685?login=true https://academic.oup.com/advances/article/11/6/1583/5864685?... - another review, concludes that "The results underline that, collectively, the efficacy of ketogenic therapy in MCI/AD appears promising, indicating that it is more than a symptomatic remedy (137). Nevertheless, research is still scattered and heterogeneous in terms of study design, intervention, participants, and outcomes of interest." https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15123336/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15123336/ - study on MCT oil which raises levels of ketones, abstract says "Higher ketone values were associated with greater improvement in paragraph recall with MCT treatment relative to placebo across all subjects (P=0.02). Additional research is warranted to determine the therapeutic benefits of MCTs for patients with AD and how APOE-4 status may mediate beta-OHB efficacy." Additionally Alzheimer's is actually referred to by a large number of folks in the field as "type 3 diabetes" & as far as I understand there is a large amount of overlap between the two diseases; we have studies showing that diabetes can be nearly or totally cured by carbohydrate restriction: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29417495/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29417495/ - of 349 participants, 94% were able to eliminate or reduce insulin therapy after 1 year (57% discontinued their prescriptions entirely). The book "The Alzheimer's Antidote" by Amy Berger is a great resource if you are open minded enough to be willing to look at informational resources once step above scientific controlled studies (unfortunately many folks are not).
      - 5y ago

ethbr0 5y ago

That looks like a 12-week keto diet, applied to 21 patients who already have AD. The measured results were cognitive scores on testing, which improved. Consequently, it suggests someone who is already impaired due to AD may be able to improve symptoms from a keto diet (vs a low-fat one). But the general consensus is that reversing or alleviating AD symptoms is a different task than preventing it in the first place. The linked article here is talking more about the latter, and specifically for preventing non-hereditary AD.

notshift 5y ago
If the diet can reverse the usual decline and ultimately cure the disease given enough time, surely that would imply it would also prevent onset, no? I'll take a more detailed look into the other resources I've studied and post another reply in a few hours.
- ethbr0 5y ago
  Alzheimer's research and drug development is littered with decades of ideas that were implied, but didn't bear out. And nutritional research... well, there's a lot of money in food, and that's funded a lot of noise around the signals.
  - notshift 5y ago
    I agree. I'm not talking about a one-off study showing a minor improvement though (which would be likely to not replicate, etc.), I'm referring to a much stronger effect which in principle is addressing the origin of the disease. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6720297/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6720297/ - a review of various studies, concludes that "Keto diet may modulate a broad array of metabolic and signaling changes underlying the pathophysiology of neurodegenerative disorders. Based on the limited animal studies and clinical trials, keto diet has beneficial effects for enhancing mitochondrial function and cellular metabolism. It is associated with improved cognitive performance in elderly adults with Alzheimer's disease. The improvement of the cognitive outcomes depends on the level and duration of ketosis." https://alzres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13195-021-00783-x https://alzres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13195-021... - study from video I linked above, concludes that "patients on the ketogenic diet improved in daily function and quality of life". https://academic.oup.com/advances/article/11/6/1583/5864685?login=true https://academic.oup.com/advances/article/11/6/1583/5864685?... - another review, concludes that "The results underline that, collectively, the efficacy of ketogenic therapy in MCI/AD appears promising, indicating that it is more than a symptomatic remedy (137). Nevertheless, research is still scattered and heterogeneous in terms of study design, intervention, participants, and outcomes of interest." https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15123336/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15123336/ - study on MCT oil which raises levels of ketones, abstract says "Higher ketone values were associated with greater improvement in paragraph recall with MCT treatment relative to placebo across all subjects (P=0.02). Additional research is warranted to determine the therapeutic benefits of MCTs for patients with AD and how APOE-4 status may mediate beta-OHB efficacy." Additionally Alzheimer's is actually referred to by a large number of folks in the field as "type 3 diabetes" & as far as I understand there is a large amount of overlap between the two diseases; we have studies showing that diabetes can be nearly or totally cured by carbohydrate restriction: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29417495/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29417495/ - of 349 participants, 94% were able to eliminate or reduce insulin therapy after 1 year (57% discontinued their prescriptions entirely). The book "The Alzheimer's Antidote" by Amy Berger is a great resource if you are open minded enough to be willing to look at informational resources once step above scientific controlled studies (unfortunately many folks are not).
    - 5y ago