Thread by @KetoCounselor

Thread Alert 🧵: Let's talk about Parkinson's Disease 1/25 #Parkinsons #neurotwitter

In 2005 there was this study that, although very small, showed benefits. "Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale scores improved in all five during hyperketonemia" 2/25
n.neurology.org/content/64/4/7…

It wasn't designed to rule out a placebo effect. But the result should have resulted in excitement and further studies being done. 3/25

It wasn't until years later that researchers again published this study: 4/25
sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

Patients with mild cognitive impairment associated with Parkinson's disease in an eight-week nutritional intervention with random assignment to either ⬆️carb consumption typical of the Western dietary pattern (n=7) or to a ⬇️carb, keto regimen (n=7) for 8-weeks. 5/25

Cognitive performance, motor function, anthropometrics, and metabolic parameters were assessed. 6/25

Relative to the ⬆️carb group, the ⬇️carb group demonstrated improvements in lexical access (word finding; p=0.02), memory (p=0.01), and a trend towards reduced interference in memory (p=0.6).
7/25

The changes in body weight were strongly associated with memory performance (p=0.001). 8/25

Motor function was not affected by the intervention. Remember, though, it was only 8-weeks. Brains take time to heal. 9/25

Here is another small but very recent one. 16 adults aged 36-80 with #PD over 12 weeks using a ketogenic diet. They looked at important health markers, depression, and anxiety scales, as well as Parkinsons-specific ratings. 10/25

"Significant differences between baseline and post-study scores on weight (p ≤ 0.0001), waist measurement (p = 0.0002), BMI (p < 0.000), fasting insulin (p = 0.00018), HgA1C (p ≤ 0.0001), were found for all participants after 12 weeks on the study intervention" 11/25

Statistically significant reductions in anxiety were found over the 12 weeks of the study. No improvements in depression. But that's ok because you know what? Something got better that doesn't usually get better with medication! Can you guess what it was? 12/25

Non-motor symptoms! There was an improvement in symptoms that led to reduced pain, less fatigue, less daytime sleepiness, and improved functional memory compared with baseline scores. HUGE win for these people! Improved quality of life! 13/25
doi.org/10.2217/nmt-20…

But even though these studies are small, it is important to know that we have a pretty darn good understanding of the likely mechanisms by which a ketogenic diet may improve the multiple cellular pathologies of #Parkinsons disease. 14/25

Ketogenic diets have biological mechanisms by which they help normalize energetic abnormalities, reduce oxidative stress and neuroinflammation and provide neuroprotection in Parkinson's disease. Don't believe all this is possible? 15/25

Then you should check in with these researchers who literally wrote a paper all about it in 2019. I keep telling you all. I am not making this stuff up 🤷‍♀️16/25
frontiersin.org/articles/10.33…

Still need more convincing? How about a pilot randomized controlled trial #RCT to compare the plausibility, safety, and efficacy of an 8-week, ⬇️fat, ⬆️carb diet vs. a #ketogenic diet in a hospital clinic of #parkinsons patients? 17/25

This study had an 88% completion rate, with 38 participants completing the study. Ketosis was measured and maintained. 18/25
…mentdisorders.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.100…

On measures of daily living experiences (non-motor) they hit a home run. Both groups significantly decreased their symptoms, but the #ketogenic group decreased more in this area, representing a 41% improvement compared to just an 11% improvement in the low-fat group. 19/25

These are the symptoms that people with Parkinson's report as being the most upsetting to live with, and they are the symptoms that medications simply offer no help with. 20/25

Large between-group decreases were also observed for urinary problems, pain and other sensations, fatigue, daytime sleepiness, and cognitive impairment. All huge quality of life factors for people with #Parkinsons disease. 21/25

Love that we have this treatment for #Parkinsons disease. But imagine how helpful it could be when people start showing the earliest signs. 22/25

You know, when people begin to show less facial expression, stop swinging their arms when they walk, talking very quietly or slurring their speech, or at the very first sign of tremor. 23/25

I think people have a right to know all the ways they can feel better. And for people with Parkinson's Disease, it is clear that a #ketogenic diet is one of them. 24/25

Someone out there is suffering a lot more than they need to. You may want to consider retweeting it. 25/25
#neurotwitter #parkinsons #tremor #neurological #feelbetternow