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[jhelms]

I use a cyclical ketogenic diet while I try to cut weight. Basically no carbs during the week and carbloading on the weekends. Any thoughts on how doing may affect my mental health. Or longterm health issues?

[DR01D]

Ketogenic and CR diets alter biology in some of the same ways. It is believed that a Ketogenic diet protects the brain because it elevates the level of 3-beta-hydroxybutyric acid (3-OHB).

Recently scientists discovered that they could reverse kidney damage (nephropathy) in mice by placing them on a Ketogenic diet.
Reversal of Diabetic Nephropathy by a Ketogenic Diet

"Together with evidence suggesting that the ketogenic diet produces a prolonged exposure to 3-OHB, these data suggest that the ketogenic diet may prevent and even reverse pathologies associated with diabetes. One manipulation that produces a chronic elevation in 3-OHB levels is caloric restriction, and we have hypothesized that this elevation in 3-OHB may mediate many of the protective effects of dietary restriction."

"In contrast to previous studies in which good glucose control prevented, but did not reverse, nephropathy in a model of Type 1 diabetes, in the present studies the ketogenic diet reversed nephropathy, as reflected by albumin/creatinine ratios, after it had developed in models of both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. The reversal of functional nephropathy was associated with robust normalization of expression of genes induced by oxidative and other forms of stress."