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I can't help but think "finally" and "told ya so" regarding this news. It's difficult to describe how massively my life changed when I started keto. Like the

I can't help but think "finally" and "told ya so" regarding this news. It's difficult to describe how massively my life changed when I started keto. Like the subject of the article, I've had Bipolar (1 in my case, they didn't specify their version) for most of my life, since way before it's supposed to manifest in late adolescence. I was misdiagnosed here and there since I was a very young child, but I finally got on the right treatment plan at 20 years old. The maintenance of that treatment plan has been taking a medium dose of Lamictal, an epilepsy drug, daily. It worked damn well compared to the regular mania, often culminating in psychosis and occasional full-on can't-even-hold-a-job levels of suicidal depression, but within a week of full-blown ketosis, I was a new person. I found out about it through some documentary disguised as "In Defense of Fat" or something similar, and I was fascinated by the epilepsy cure thing. I had always known there was a connection between my condition and epilepsy, given that I was on seizure drugs and often experienced what I figured were mini-seizures (often described as brain zaps, I think). I couldn't find any information on links except a few random, very weak studies, and sorta just told everyone who naysayed me to fuck off cuz it works for me. I lost 20 lbs of excess covid weight as a very nice side-effect, but I can safely say this is the most effective treatment I've ever experienced for my condition (of the many, many I've tried) and I feel like I have superpowers in comparison. It is very obvious if I get kicked out of ketosis now after a few days or so. I've done it purposefully on vacations or just random cheat times. After a while I feel worse in the head, body, and soul. I make dumb or impulsive decisions (like my old self), or am grumpy in a way I haven't been since starting. I start to have awful dreams again and wake up my wife sleep-talking in distress, and am tired all the time like the old days. It's certainly not the easiest diet to adhere to, it's also surely not the best for the environment unless you're really strict in specific ways like some, and it's potentially disruptive socially, but it's a lifestyle choice that has given me personally a truly new and improved life that I don't ever want to or plan to return from.

tmikaeld 3y ago
> It's certainly not the easiest diet to adhere to, it's also surely not the best for the environment I'm able to sustain keto when using Huel Black (17% carbs), but your mileage may vary. And Huel is both vegan and sustainable. (I'm not affiliated, just a user)
- elliotec 3y ago
  Interesting. Is that all you eat in a day? It looks like the lowest carb flavor is unsweetened and unflavored at 65g net for the daily 5x meals/servings (assuming there are no sugar alcohols, which they don't list on the label). That's pretty close to my maximum but definitely doable if I'm active. I could see doing 2 servings or half a day's worth and then continuing with the old eggs, avocados, and meat. Wouldn't be crazy to do vegetarian with something like that. I love the idea - have a vegan keto book too, and let's just say it's hit or miss at best.
  - tmikaeld 3y ago
    Yep, eventually I combine it with - as you say - the standard eggs/avocados/meat. It varies though and I use keto-sticks to check what level I'm at. And like you say, depends on daily activity. I'm not a fan of vegan food in general (hard to get tasty), Huel is what I can tolerate.
    - tudorw 3y ago
      I get on pretty well with Huel, pro-tip, get used to the unflavoured unsweetened version, it's dull like porridge but not unpleasant, if you are going for every day, there's no flavour to get bored of. Also, while the idea of throwing a shot of espresso in there seems appealing and maybe a time saver, no...
      - cududa 3y ago
        How long have you done it for?
        tudorw 3y ago
        As a breakfast replacement, well over 12 months, I would not try it as a 100% food replacement.
      - tmikaeld 3y ago
        I've tried it, but I couldn't handle the cardboard flavor, their flavor mixes are very good and I think that's part of why they're so popular.
golergka 3y ago
In currently taking Lamictal for similar reasons, and your comment really made me curious. Any particular resources you would recommend on how to switch to keto?
- elliotec 3y ago
  Honestly, the subreddit is one of the better places to start. Check out the FAQ here: https://www.reddit.com/r/keto/wiki/faq https://www.reddit.com/r/keto/wiki/faq, and go through the resources in the sidebar on the sub!
MrBuddyCasino 3y ago
The brain likes keto, no question. I'm not sure it is a good to do it for longer periods of time, it supposedly stresses the body [0]. I did it for a year and continually lost weight, and it wasn't for lack of calories. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qcAStYJwpg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qcAStYJwpg
- tmikaeld 3y ago
  How often per day did you eat and did you measure your keto levels? Thing is that if you over-do it and have too high keto-levels, you can get poisoned by it and that certainly have a high level of stress on the body. (The old man points this out in your video) Also, if you don't eat often enough, you may not trigger insulin and thus won't get hungry at all and get to little calories (thus dropping in weight).
  - MrBuddyCasino 3y ago
    > How often per day did you eat and did you measure your keto levels? You mean using a breathalyzer? I did not find them to be very consistent.
    - tmikaeld 3y ago
      They're not, it's better to use keto-sticks, which you urinate on. That's what i use.
      - MrBuddyCasino 3y ago
        I found them to be unreliable, too. The colors would go dark when switching into ketosis, and then while in ketosis revert back, as the body adapts its keton body production and the urine levels would go down again. Which I guess isn't "unreliable", just doesn't tell you that much.
- sph 3y ago
  The brain likes keto because of betahydroxybutyrate, though it's the only organ to require glucose (not a problem in keto as we have gluconeogenesis from fat and proteins) You know what likes keto even more? Your heart. There are studies and research of fatty acids being able to reverse heart disease, and them being incredibly more efficient fuels than glucose is. N=1 placebo, but I certainly feel my heart (in an overweight body) pumping better and with less effort 1+ weeks into very low carb. Adaptation takes a while because our mitochondria are dysfunctional due to standard diets being so high in glucose. Fatty acids are the better fuel for muscles, and mitochondria in general.
jdietrich 3y ago
>I can't help but think "finally" and "told ya so" regarding this news. I don't want to dismiss your personal experiences, but I think that's the wrong conclusion to draw. Common mental illnesses - particularly depression and anxiety - have incredibly high placebo response rates. Everything looks like a promising treatment for depression in an uncontrolled trial. You can pick practically any intervention - including literal sugar pills - and get ~40% remission rates in an open-label pilot study. Many thousands of potential treatments supported by plausible theories, anecdotal accounts, case reports and small uncontrolled trials have fallen flat as soon as they were tested rigorously. The base rate suggests that the chance of a keto diet (or any other intervention with this level of evidence) being an effective treatment for depression is on the order of 0.1%. If keto works for you then you should stick with it. The problem is that it's overwhelmingly likely to be no more effective for other people than a low-fat diet or a low-GI diet or sugar pills or faith healing. Articles like this one do a huge disservice to patients, because they completely neglect the base rate and perpetuate a cycle of hype and disappointment that can ultimately lead to distrust and despair. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7945737/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7945737/
- NotSuspicious 3y ago
  Except OP has noticed that when they go out of ketosis everything gets worse again. They've effectively run numerous trials on themselves.
  - UtopiaPunk 3y ago
    Surely you realize that this not an effective test against the placebo effect. If society wants to determine if X is generally an effective treatment for Y, there need to be robust experiments that involve multiple people as subjects. If, however, one guy feels a lot better doing X, and feels worse they stop doing X, then sure, that person should probably keep doing X. Why does X work for that person? Who knows?
- wouldbecouldbe 3y ago
  Jeez, chill out. You have zero proof & did zero research on this person, yet trying to put someone who down sees profound benefit with the good old: "it's just placebo". Just because there is no direct studies backing it up yet doesn't mean there isn't real effect. Could be keto, could be lack of certain starches or other foods, could be the focus & rhytm, whatever it is let's not discourage someone who is having a great practical benefit. In this case there is literature & studies on epilepsy and keto, and OP was on put on epileptic medicine & describes a link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6361831/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6361831/
gexla 3y ago
When I was on a keto phase, one day I noticed that I was so clear headed and energetic that I thought something broke inside me. It was like a persistent coffee kick without the side-effects. I realized that the feeling was probably how "normal" should feel. It changed my views about a lot of things. I would walk down the road and realize how many business fronts were restaurants, of which I had no desire to enter. I never bothered with any checks for keto, I just ate loads of low carb veggies, a little bit of meat, and coconut oil for added fat. A note on the oil, I had to make sure that I took it with meat, or else I would get sick to my stomach. My lifestyle changed once I got a live-in partner. I need to get back on it.
- wouldbecouldbe 3y ago
  It's same for fasting, your body wants clarity for you to be able to hunt & provide food. After a meal you rest & digest. Take Lions after a meal, even though we are different it's a common pattern.
  - gexla 3y ago
    Also interesting, I was always just a little hungry. Maybe this was my body telling me that I legit needed to get more to eat (or just more carbs.) It wasn't the same sort of hunger people normally associate with the feeling though. It was a low-key feeling that would only crop up when I would get into a distracted state. Like, I was okay if I was just bored. But if I'm stressing out about something, then I think about everything else I might want other than putting focus on the work.
- tarsinge 3y ago
  I have a similar story. I made major lifestyle change. But the thing is, I have got back to eating carbs and retained all the benefits (i.e. clear headless and energy all day long). Bear in mind by carbs I mean whole grain. But still, I wonder if macros are really the culprit and if keto is not placebo on top of something else (at least for me). Maybe it has something to do with insulin and glucose metabolism.
  - 3y ago

tmikaeld 3y ago

> It's certainly not the easiest diet to adhere to, it's also surely not the best for the environment I'm able to sustain keto when using Huel Black (17% carbs), but your mileage may vary. And Huel is both vegan and sustainable. (I'm not affiliated, just a user)

elliotec 3y ago
Interesting. Is that all you eat in a day? It looks like the lowest carb flavor is unsweetened and unflavored at 65g net for the daily 5x meals/servings (assuming there are no sugar alcohols, which they don't list on the label). That's pretty close to my maximum but definitely doable if I'm active. I could see doing 2 servings or half a day's worth and then continuing with the old eggs, avocados, and meat. Wouldn't be crazy to do vegetarian with something like that. I love the idea - have a vegan keto book too, and let's just say it's hit or miss at best.
- tmikaeld 3y ago
  Yep, eventually I combine it with - as you say - the standard eggs/avocados/meat. It varies though and I use keto-sticks to check what level I'm at. And like you say, depends on daily activity. I'm not a fan of vegan food in general (hard to get tasty), Huel is what I can tolerate.
  - tudorw 3y ago
    I get on pretty well with Huel, pro-tip, get used to the unflavoured unsweetened version, it's dull like porridge but not unpleasant, if you are going for every day, there's no flavour to get bored of. Also, while the idea of throwing a shot of espresso in there seems appealing and maybe a time saver, no...
    - cududa 3y ago
      How long have you done it for?
      - tudorw 3y ago
        As a breakfast replacement, well over 12 months, I would not try it as a 100% food replacement.
    - tmikaeld 3y ago
      I've tried it, but I couldn't handle the cardboard flavor, their flavor mixes are very good and I think that's part of why they're so popular.

golergka 3y ago

In currently taking Lamictal for similar reasons, and your comment really made me curious. Any particular resources you would recommend on how to switch to keto?

elliotec 3y ago
Honestly, the subreddit is one of the better places to start. Check out the FAQ here: https://www.reddit.com/r/keto/wiki/faq https://www.reddit.com/r/keto/wiki/faq, and go through the resources in the sidebar on the sub!

MrBuddyCasino 3y ago

The brain likes keto, no question. I'm not sure it is a good to do it for longer periods of time, it supposedly stresses the body [0]. I did it for a year and continually lost weight, and it wasn't for lack of calories. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qcAStYJwpg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qcAStYJwpg

tmikaeld 3y ago
How often per day did you eat and did you measure your keto levels? Thing is that if you over-do it and have too high keto-levels, you can get poisoned by it and that certainly have a high level of stress on the body. (The old man points this out in your video) Also, if you don't eat often enough, you may not trigger insulin and thus won't get hungry at all and get to little calories (thus dropping in weight).
- MrBuddyCasino 3y ago
  > How often per day did you eat and did you measure your keto levels? You mean using a breathalyzer? I did not find them to be very consistent.
  - tmikaeld 3y ago
    They're not, it's better to use keto-sticks, which you urinate on. That's what i use.
    - MrBuddyCasino 3y ago
      I found them to be unreliable, too. The colors would go dark when switching into ketosis, and then while in ketosis revert back, as the body adapts its keton body production and the urine levels would go down again. Which I guess isn't "unreliable", just doesn't tell you that much.
sph 3y ago
The brain likes keto because of betahydroxybutyrate, though it's the only organ to require glucose (not a problem in keto as we have gluconeogenesis from fat and proteins) You know what likes keto even more? Your heart. There are studies and research of fatty acids being able to reverse heart disease, and them being incredibly more efficient fuels than glucose is. N=1 placebo, but I certainly feel my heart (in an overweight body) pumping better and with less effort 1+ weeks into very low carb. Adaptation takes a while because our mitochondria are dysfunctional due to standard diets being so high in glucose. Fatty acids are the better fuel for muscles, and mitochondria in general.

jdietrich 3y ago

>I can't help but think "finally" and "told ya so" regarding this news. I don't want to dismiss your personal experiences, but I think that's the wrong conclusion to draw. Common mental illnesses - particularly depression and anxiety - have incredibly high placebo response rates. Everything looks like a promising treatment for depression in an uncontrolled trial. You can pick practically any intervention - including literal sugar pills - and get ~40% remission rates in an open-label pilot study. Many thousands of potential treatments supported by plausible theories, anecdotal accounts, case reports and small uncontrolled trials have fallen flat as soon as they were tested rigorously. The base rate suggests that the chance of a keto diet (or any other intervention with this level of evidence) being an effective treatment for depression is on the order of 0.1%. If keto works for you then you should stick with it. The problem is that it's overwhelmingly likely to be no more effective for other people than a low-fat diet or a low-GI diet or sugar pills or faith healing. Articles like this one do a huge disservice to patients, because they completely neglect the base rate and perpetuate a cycle of hype and disappointment that can ultimately lead to distrust and despair. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7945737/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7945737/

NotSuspicious 3y ago
Except OP has noticed that when they go out of ketosis everything gets worse again. They've effectively run numerous trials on themselves.
- UtopiaPunk 3y ago
  Surely you realize that this not an effective test against the placebo effect. If society wants to determine if X is generally an effective treatment for Y, there need to be robust experiments that involve multiple people as subjects. If, however, one guy feels a lot better doing X, and feels worse they stop doing X, then sure, that person should probably keep doing X. Why does X work for that person? Who knows?
wouldbecouldbe 3y ago
Jeez, chill out. You have zero proof & did zero research on this person, yet trying to put someone who down sees profound benefit with the good old: "it's just placebo". Just because there is no direct studies backing it up yet doesn't mean there isn't real effect. Could be keto, could be lack of certain starches or other foods, could be the focus & rhytm, whatever it is let's not discourage someone who is having a great practical benefit. In this case there is literature & studies on epilepsy and keto, and OP was on put on epileptic medicine & describes a link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6361831/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6361831/

gexla 3y ago

When I was on a keto phase, one day I noticed that I was so clear headed and energetic that I thought something broke inside me. It was like a persistent coffee kick without the side-effects. I realized that the feeling was probably how "normal" should feel. It changed my views about a lot of things. I would walk down the road and realize how many business fronts were restaurants, of which I had no desire to enter. I never bothered with any checks for keto, I just ate loads of low carb veggies, a little bit of meat, and coconut oil for added fat. A note on the oil, I had to make sure that I took it with meat, or else I would get sick to my stomach. My lifestyle changed once I got a live-in partner. I need to get back on it.

wouldbecouldbe 3y ago
It's same for fasting, your body wants clarity for you to be able to hunt & provide food. After a meal you rest & digest. Take Lions after a meal, even though we are different it's a common pattern.
- gexla 3y ago
  Also interesting, I was always just a little hungry. Maybe this was my body telling me that I legit needed to get more to eat (or just more carbs.) It wasn't the same sort of hunger people normally associate with the feeling though. It was a low-key feeling that would only crop up when I would get into a distracted state. Like, I was okay if I was just bored. But if I'm stressing out about something, then I think about everything else I might want other than putting focus on the work.
tarsinge 3y ago
I have a similar story. I made major lifestyle change. But the thing is, I have got back to eating carbs and retained all the benefits (i.e. clear headless and energy all day long). Bear in mind by carbs I mean whole grain. But still, I wonder if macros are really the culprit and if keto is not placebo on top of something else (at least for me). Maybe it has something to do with insulin and glucose metabolism.
- 3y ago