Ketogenic diet: how it works and why it is effective in treating neurological diseases

The ketogenic diets increasingly represent a valid alternative to counteract all pathologies with at the base i inflammatory processes often caused by the excessive use of sugars in our diet.

Currently this path diet therapy – Why it is therapy -, is used in numerous areas of the medicine: from the treatment of type 2 diabetes and obesity, to that of polycystic ovary syndrome, drug-resistant epilepsy, but also for migraine, for Parkinson’s disease, for Alzheimer’s disease, for sclerosis lateral amyotrophic, for head trauma, as an adjunct to the therapy of some tumors, as well as to counteract many inflammatory pathologies, even in heart failure.

Scientific studies that have been published in recent years have shown that i chetonic bodies can be considered gods real anti-inflammatory and antioxidant drugs. Hence the need to make a scientific refresh on an increasingly vast and widespread topic in medicine. A necessary situation point, which was made during the G8 of ketogenic dietsheld in early November in Bologna with the patronage of ADI, SIE, SISDCA, SIO and SINut.

For the first time, an important group of academics came together to talk about the ketogenic diet at the highest levels. “The aim was to bring out themes, insights, doubts and explanations on fundamental issues for the treatment of problems that increasingly concern patients”, commented Professor Giovanni SperaEndocrinologist, former Full Professor of Internal Medicine and President of the Ethics Committee of the La Sapienza University of Rome and current President of the Italian Society for the Study of Eating Disorders (SISDCA).

One of the focal points was made on the correlation between ketogenic diet and neurological diseases: how much good can following a dietary therapy of this type to treat Alzheimer’s, senile dementia, migraines and other diseases? We deepened with Professor Cherubino Di LorenzoNeurologist of the Headache Center of the Department of Medical-Surgical Sciences and Biotechnologies of the Pontine Center of the “Sapienza”, University of Rome.

Ketogenic diet: what does it consist of?

“It’s about a nutritional metabolic therapy, not very different from a pharmacotherapy, in which the change of diet involves entering a state of controlled ketosis. Basically, carbohydrates are drastically reduced to allow the body to draw the calories it needs from fat. These fats will be mobilized by the adipose tissue, in the case of ketogenic slimming diets, or by the lipid content taken with food, in the case of the normocaloric ketogenic diets. The protein share is instead that calculated on the basis of the individual’s needs.

So, it is not about high-protein diets, as they are often mistakenly considered. In fact, even proteins, such as carbohydrates, can induce the release into the circulation by the body of theinsulinthe anti-ketogenetic hormone par excellence, so much so that in type 1 diabetes, the total lack of insulin would lead the body into a potentially fatal condition of ketoacidosis, if pharmacologically not intervened by injecting the appropriate quantities of this hormone “.