At 19, our son, Matt Baszucki, was hospitalized for mania and psychosis. A 5 year daily battle with severe bipolar disorder I followed. Full remission for 1.5 yrs on a ketogenic diet. This thread and video tell our story, and neuroscientists weigh in:
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During our 5 year journey through America's mental health madness, Matt was treated by 41 mental healthcare professionals and prescribed 29 meds. He was hospitalized 5 times and was in a dozen residential and outpatient treatment programs.
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Matt was treated with conventional, emerging and experimental treatments, including orthomolecular medicine, functional medicine, rTMS, amino acids, fish oil, family therapy, CBT, DBT, daily rhythm therapy, NAC, NAD & 3 yrs compliance on 5 psychiatric meds.
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He became substance-free, nicotine-free, exercised and meditated daily, used light therapy, managed sleep and saw a psychiatrist and therapist weekly. He became more stable but was not thriving; every day was still a battle with his own mind.
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In January 2020 we discovered
@GeorgiaEdeMD
,
@ShebaniMD
&
@ChrisPalmerMD
, pioneers treating mental disorders with Ketogenic Metabolic Therapy (Low carb high fat ketogenic diet) that has 100 years of evidence of efficacy in treating epilepsy.
@KetoPotterRDN
came on board to help.
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@janellison
I’m so glad your son got better. In early 2020 I had an inkling this might work for my son (age 19). He tried keto but didn’t persist. He was gone by August.
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@JenSmit93016524
I am so terribly sorry to hear this. This can not be much consolation but we hope to prevent the tragedy that your family suffered with this work.
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@janellison
We're 8.5 years in and this gives me hope. How did you manage tapering or getting off meds? I hear it is extremely difficult. My daughter is 29.
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@mstmorris
We ordered tiny doses from a compound pharmacy for each med then tapered .1mg every day or every few days. We only dropped no more than 10% of the current dose every two weeks. And sometimes even more slowly. Even so, the valium taper took 3 years. Easier on keto.
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@janellison
I’m gonna watch it. First thought I have about this is if it could have to do with the exclusion of gluten. I friend of mine told me that her manic depressive problems went away when she excluded gluten and dairy. Oats was also a trigger for her I remember.
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@KThelandersson
For our son, removing gluten helped. But he did not fully recover until he was in ketosis.
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@janellison
Jan, thank you for what you are doing. I’m a psychiatrist in Ojai, CA intending to share this approach with whoever wants it. Let me know if I can do anything to support your efforts.
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@janellison
So glad people of influence are bringing awareness to this. Did a deep dive into ketogenic and carnivore diet and the tangible results are undeniable and even dramatic in many cases. Is it the ultimate panacea for every case? Is any treatment? Reason says no. Essential? Oh Yes.
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@trippinoncrypto
Agree. Definitely not a panacea. Definitely not going to send everyone into remission. What if 30% achieved remission? And what if another 30% saw significant improvement? Those are the numbers for pediatric epilepsy. We have reason to believe we will do at least as well in…
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@janellison
Thank you for sharing, my wife is bi-polar, and I already eat carnivore/keto I will show her your story
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@janellison
@janellison
I hope you and your family can make it out to our Denver conference in February can you direct message me please
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@janellison
Fascinating. So much anecdotal evidence is emerging that low-carb or keto-diets could be helpful for a variety of mental health issues.
Thank you for sharing. Very glad for you and your son that you found something that worked.
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