Every year, around 60 000 instances from Parkinson’s Disease are identified, which affects 13 out of 100,000 residents within the United States. Based on the American Parkinson Disease Association, possible risks for Parkinson’s be due to genetics, environmental causes including extensive exposure to pesticides, certain heavy metals , and frequent head traumas. The age of the patient is a major risk factor for Parkinson’s, since the disease is typically seen in people older than 50 years old.
There are many ways to manage some of the signs and symptoms associated with Parkinson’s Disease, such as treatments that utilize dopamine as an approach to treat the symptoms of shock by enhancing blood flow. Also, new research suggests your diet may play a role in helping to control the symptoms of Parkinson’s. According to studies the ketogenic diet may assist in improving both motor and nonmotor symptoms for those suffering from Parkinson’s Disease.
The study published in the Journal of Movement Disorders Journaldeveloped an initial controlled, randomized study to assess the rationality of, safety, and efficiency of a low-fat high-carbohydrate diet in a clinic for hospital patients suffering from Parkinson’s Disease.
The researchers randomly allocated 47 participants to either a low-fat or ketogenic diet. They then examined the results over eight weeks. Of 44 people who started the diets 38 completed the study. Diets that were ketogenic maintained the physiological ketosis which is a normal reaction to a lack of glucose which provides an additional fuel source to the brain, in the ketones. The ketone bodies work as antioxidants and bypass a defect in the mitochondria (the cells’ powerhouses) to fuel the body’s energy production.
Overall both low-fat and ketogenic diets showed significant improvement in the non-motor and motor symptoms. however , the people who took part with the ketogenic diet had more improvement in a variety of difficult to manage non-motor symptoms like fatigue, pain, difficulty eating and sleeping, as well as cognitive impairments such as issues in planning, attention, memory, and language.
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The study also demonstrated the possibility that the ketogenic diet may serve as a supplement to L-dopa — a disorder that manifests in the onset of childhood or adolescent dystonia that is sometimes linked to parkinsonism in treatments for Parkinson’s. However, more studies that are controlled need to be conducted prior to this being concluded with certainty.
Ketogenic eating has proven to be beneficial for other ailments and neurological disorders too including epilepsy. Since at the age of 500 BCE fasting, as well as other diets have been utilized for treating epilepsy. The 1920s were when physicians of the present attempted to replicate the metabolic process of fasting, and introduced the ketogenic diet an option for epilepsy. In the past 15 years there has been an enormous rise in the usage and interest from scientists of ketogenic eating.
Kayla Garritano
