Families and Peers

Individuals and families are finding hope and inspiration in the promise of improving metabolism to create mental health.

Video credit: Iain Campbell

Mia's Story

Mia battled bipolar disorder for 41 years, including hospitalizations, disability, and suicidal depressions. After just a few weeks in nutritional ketosis, she put her illness behind her. Watch BipolarCast episode 11 to hear Mia Mendez share her full story.

Filling the Gap

When the Baszucki family first learned about ketogenic diets for treating mental illness, they relied heavily on a few critical but disparate resources.

Our team at Metabolic Mind believes metabolic therapies can be life-changing. We seek to fill the information gap by consolidating credible resources and real-life stories from our collaborators and peers, and by providing practical tools to help you on your metabolic mental wellness journey.

When the Baszucki family first learned about ketogenic diets for treating mental illness, they relied heavily on a few critical but disparate resources.

A Paradigm Shift

Conventional psychiatric treatment typically relies almost entirely on medications to keep symptoms under control. Talk therapy is often prescribed as an adjunctive treatment, but the root causes of mental illness, as well as the lifestyle changes that can lead to healing, are often left out of treatment paradigms.

Metabolic psychiatry seeks to flip treatment for mental illness on its head, putting therapeutic nutrition, circadian rhythm management, and movement as the foundation of recovery and wellness.

How to Talk with Your Doctor

This handout, prepared by Dr. Georgia Ede, provides a helpful overview of the scientific and clinical rationale for using ketogenic diets in psychiatry, including links to published articles. It is something that patients can download and share with their doctors to help explain the rationale for treating mental illness with nutritional ketosis. Or simply send your doctor to the clinician resources section of our website.

Download Guide

Sample Labs to Request Before Starting Keto

Before starting ketogenic therapy, it’s a great idea to request labs that will establish your metabolic health baseline and identify any pre-existing conditions. You could ask your psychiatrist or your primary care provider to order a blood draw, or order them yourself from Own Your Labs. Use this document as an example of laboratory levels to measure before beginning ketogenic therapy.

Download Lab Request PDF

Finding Help

The field of metabolic psychiatry is growing rapidly, but we know it can still be hard to find professionals trained in this approach. If you can’t find a keto practitioner specifically trained in mental health, you could try working with your current primary care physician, therapist, or psychiatrist and finding a keto coach or dietician to provide education and support.

Keto mental health clinician directory

The practitioners listed in this directory offer clinical services that support the use of ketogenic metabolic therapies for the management of mental health conditions. This list is for information purposes only and does not imply endorsement of any provider.

Diagnosis:Diet Clinician Directory

Diagnosis:Diet Directory

Low-carb and keto lifestyle clinician directories

Learn More

Featured metabolic mental health practices

Advanced Ketogenic Therapies

Accord

Mental Health Keto

Ellenhorn

Innovative Psychiatry

IKRT

Advanced Ketogenic Therapies

Accord

Mental Health Keto