Ten years ago, at age 19, our son Matthew experienced a manic episode that landed him in the involuntary psychiatric unit at Stanford Hospital for 10 days. He was diagnosed with bipolar 1 disorder with psychotic features, prescribed powerful antipsychotics and spent half a decade in and out of treatment while battling daily symptoms.
Then, in late 2020, we discovered the pioneering work of Harvard's Dr. Chris Palmer, who was using therapeutic ketogenic diets to treat serious mental illness. Matthew began a medically supervised ketogenic regimen soon after -- and it sent his bipolar symptoms into lasting remission.
Now, following new comments from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., public discourse has erupted over whether a ketogenic diet can 'cure' schizophrenia or eliminate a bipolar diagnosis.
While Kennedy's imprecise terminology has certainly caused confusion, what we can't risk losing sight of, amid the viral social media threads and attention-grabbing headlines, is the science itself. While still emerging, early evidence points toward a hopeful new frontier in mental health.
A ketogenic diet -- typically high in fat, very low in carbohydrates and moderate in protein -- is a nutritional pattern that leads to the metabolic state of ketosis. While popular for weight loss, these diets have been used for over a century to treat epilepsy.
Today, promising peer-reviewed pilot trials, case series and personal stories suggest ketogenic therapy can improve bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, and other conditions.
My husband is the founder and CEO of an online gaming platform, so we were fortunate enough to pursue the best psychiatric care for our son. Yet for five years, our son wasn't himself. He cycled through treatment centers across the country, experienced a period of homelessness, was hospitalized three more times for mania, and ultimately, had to withdraw from UC Berkeley. He was prescribed close to 30 medications and treated by dozens of mental health care professionals.
In contrast, Matthew's bipolar symptoms cleared within four months of being in therapeutic ketosis -- and they haven't returned after more than five years following this dietary therapy. He finished college, successfully pursued a tech career and became a mental health advocate.
Inspired by Matthew's progress, we have used our family's resources to fund clinical trials of ketogenic therapy for serious mental illness at academic research institutions worldwide.
Roughly 20 clinical trials are now completed or are underway testing ketogenic therapy in psychiatry, including a randomized controlled trial at Stanford led by Dr. Shebani Sethi that builds on promising pilot trial data.
What is needed now is a commitment to research on a scale that will inevitably require public funding -- that examines the critical connection between metabolic and mental health.
My hope is that ketogenic therapy will be examined as a biological phenomenon and medical intervention -- not be reduced to a political talking point.
For families like mine, the promise is not certainty, but the possibility of meaningful relief for those suffering from debilitating mental disorders with metabolic therapies that are already improving lives.
Jan Ellison Baszucki is president of Baszucki Group and founder of Metabolic Mind and the Coalition for Metabolic Health. A version of this piece was originally published in the San Francisco Chronicle.
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