Why Another Landmark Study on the Ketogenic Diet Deserves Urgent Attention

The Ketogenic Diet Is a Scientifically Endorsed Mainstream Solution for Mental Health

---

Where Is the Media?

I published this important story on Medium and my website as more people need to learn about it for compelling reasons, which I explain clearly here.

Image designed by the author on his website

I apologize in advance — this story is longer than my usual pieces, but it is too important to skim over. Some topics deserve the time and depth to be fully understood, and this is one of them. If your email does not show all of the information towards the end, you can read it from the archive version.

I felt compelled to write this with rigor and passion so anyone reading can take away valuable insights, explore this topic further, and begin meaningful conversations with their medical doctors. The time for silence on this critical subject is over — it is time to bring it into the light.

Imagine a world where nutrition — not drugs — could transform the lives of people battling debilitating neuropsychiatric disorders.

Harvard-affiliated researchers offer precisely that promise, highlighting the ketogenic diet as a potential “transdiagnostic” treatment for a range of neuropsychiatric conditions, including anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia.

Mental health is not a luxury and cannot be undermined. It is a fundamental human right. When research can potentially change lives, the media must spotlight it. Until then, the question remains: Where is the press?

Why I Wrote This Caring and Important Story Today

The media reaction was overwhelming when the American Heart Association blogged about a questionable review study a while back saying that intermittent fasting has a 91% risk for heart attacks.

Mainstream outlets, including the New York Times, turned it into a headline frenzy, confusing the public. I wrote about that “storm in a teacup” at the time, detailing how misinformation can spread unchecked.

Then, the ketogenic diet made headlines in the scientific community in a clinical trial by decisively outperforming the DASH diet—one of the most widely recommended diets by doctors. I wrote about it passionately, eager to share this groundbreaking result. But the media remained silent.

Then, last year, Stanford scientists conducted a bespoke clinical study demonstrating the remarkable benefits of a ketogenic diet for severe mental health conditions. This was a game-changing moment — a ray of hope for countless patients struggling with mental health issues.

Yet once again, mainstream media ignored it. Even open-minded and reliable platforms like Medium didn’t distribute my story. Valuable knowledge, rooted in rigorous science, remained locked in academic journals or hidden in suppressed blog posts.

This is why I wrote this story today. The public deserves access to this critical information. Knowledge like this can change lives, but only if people can read it.

What is new and the issue this time?

Three days ago, a comprehensive study was published in Current Treatment Options in Psychiatry of Springer Nature by reputable scientists, yet despite the groundbreaking nature of this research, the media has been silent.

Where are the headlines? Where are the interviews? Where is the widespread discussion about this potentially life-changing study?

Not a Gimmick, But Hard Science!

Let us be clear here: I am not talking about just another diet fad.

The ketogenic diet is being explored as a legitimate medical intervention with mechanisms that directly target the brain’s energy metabolism, reduce inflammation, and stabilize neurotransmitter systems.

I have studied it methodically for over 30 years and practiced it. The ketogenic diet is not an alternative medicine gimmick. It is rooted in solid science and backed by compelling evidence.

In fact, ketogenic diets in various forms have been used since the 1920s to treat epilepsy, often with remarkable success when medications failed. Even today, this approach is used in many countries for the same purpose, though you’d never know it from mainstream media coverage.

Why? Because the media seems more focused on promoting the most expensive pharmaceutical drugs — options that many people simply can’t afford. Meanwhile, anyone can enjoy a healthy, delicious ketogenic diet that is effective and more affordable than a typical junk food diet.

This paper could reshape how we understand and treat mental health, opening doors for millions of patients who often face limited or ineffective options with traditional pharmacological treatments. It is a message of hope, a call for more research, and an opportunity to challenge the status quo in psychiatry.

So why the silence?

One cannot help but wonder if the media’s priorities are elsewhere. The airwaves are extensively saturated with pharmaceutical advertisements and coverage of the latest drug approvals.

The ketogenic diet, by contrast, does not have a billion-dollar marketing budget. It cannot buy prime-time slots or full-page ads. And while drugs have their place, the overemphasis on them often eclipses non-pharmaceutical approaches that deserve equal attention.

This lack of coverage is not just an oversight but an injustice to the public. The ketogenic diet represents a low-cost, accessible intervention that could benefit countless people. Yet, without mainstream visibility, this knowledge may remain confined to academic circles, far from those needing it most.

We have seen the media rally around less substantiated trends and unproven wellness claims, but when it comes to a rigorously researched, peer-reviewed study by Harvard professors, there is only silence. This silence robs people of the opportunity to make informed decisions about their health.

This is a call to action for the press, for health professionals, and for the public. We must demand that innovative, evidence-based approaches like a well formulated ketogenic diet for mental health receive the attention they deserve.

The conversation about mental health cannot afford to ignore potential breakthroughs simply because they do not fit into the traditional profit-driven framework.

I have been practicing ketogenic diets for a long time and have written many articles about them. Although I follow a keto-carnivore diet myself, I also see the great value in keto-omnivore and keto-vegan diets, which can appeal to a broader audience.

As an advocate of nutritional biochemistry, I am diet independent as long as the nutrition we get has a ketogenic capability, such as producing BHP, signaling molecules for our cells and genes going beyond alternative energy sources.

Now that I have got that off my chest let me summarize this valuable paper for you.

The simplified review of a new outstanding paper on Springer Nature, “The Ketogenic Diet as a Transdiagnostic Treatment for Neuropsychiatric Disorders: Mechanisms and Clinical Outcomes.”

Three days ago, famous Dr. Christopher Palmer (Harvard Psychiatrist) and his team dropped a scientific bombshell on Springer Nature, showing us the true science behind ketogenic diets, which are no longer fad diets but represent nutritional biochemistry for the brain and other vital organs.

This valuable study highlights the potential of the ketogenic diet as a transformative treatment for various mental health disorders. Unlike traditional approaches, which target specific symptoms or neurotransmitters, the ketogenic diet addresses underlying metabolic dysfunctions that are common across many neuropsychiatric conditions.

Using my science background, I’d like to touch on the science behind the diet to give you some perspectives. The ketogenic diet operates on a deep biological level, targeting the core mechanisms that contribute to mental health disorders. These include the following five mechanisms affecting metabolic and mental health:

1 — Mitochondrial dysfunction: Supporting cellular energy production.

2 — Oxidative stress: Reducing harmful free radicals.

3 — Inflammation: Lowering chronic inflammation linked to mental illness.

4 — Glucose hypometabolism: Providing ketones as an alternative brain fuel.

5 — Glutamate/GABA imbalance: Stabilizing the brain’s excitatory and inhibitory signals.

What Disorders Could Benefit from Keto Diet?

This new paper and recent findings suggest that the ketogenic diet may offer therapeutic benefits for mental health conditions, including schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, depression and anxiety, Alzheimer’s disease, autism spectrum disorder, eating and somatic disorders, and alcohol use disorder.

Why does a keto diet matter for mental health?

Psychiatric disorders share metabolic pathways that exacerbate symptoms. The ketogenic diet tackles these root causes, offering hope for non-pharmacological treatments.

By improving symptoms like depression, anxiety, mania, psychosis, and cognitive decline, the diet holds the promise of reducing the global burden of neuropsychiatric conditions.

This research is a call to explore new horizons in mental health care. If the ketogenic diet can ease symptoms and restore balance, it could revolutionize how we approach treatment — empowering patients with an option that is both natural and evidence-based.

I explained the details in a previous story titled Insights from a New Clinical Study Showing a Ketogenic Diet That Improved Bipolar & Schizophrenia. It is the summary of a pilot study (clinical trial NCT03935854) by Stanford University on humans for metabolic psychiatry, giving promise for the keto diet on metabolic and mental health.

Enough Science — Let’s Get Practical!