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I hope you’re ready for some thick reading. I came across a study at Jimmy Moore’s site titled “Ketogenic diet and astrocyte/neuron metabolic interactions”.

After going through much medical jargon, the authors conclude that (feel free to skip this paragraph):

Though many properties of ketogenic diet have been proposed to account for antiepileptic activity, astrocyte/neuron metabolic interactions (astrocyte/neuron lactate shuttle, glutamate-induced astrocytic glycolysis activation, glutamate/glutamine cycle, astrocyte/neuron ketone body shuttle) also appear to be affected in dictinct degrees by ketogenic diet and in some way to contribute to anticonvulsant protection. In normal feeding, astrocyte/neuron metabolic interactions result in supplying neurons with lactate and/or glucose as a metabolic fuel. In high fat diet, ketone bodies represent the main metabolic fuel for neurons. Although ketone bodies are available from the blood stream in ketogenic diet, local astrocytic genesis of ketone bodies from fatty acids of blood origin which also are available in large amounts might be the preponderant mechanism for neuronal supply in ketones. Neuronal ketone metabolism has been proposed to generate acetyl-CoA in a way mobilizing oxaloacetate more intensively than when acetyl-CoA is formed during the course of lactate and/or glucose metabolism. This enhanced mobilization of oxaloacetate in the Krebs’cycle influences neuronal glutamate /aspartate transamination reaction in favour of glutamate formation, and hence increases neuronal GABA production (by decarboxylation of glutamate). On the other hand, if more glutamate provides more neuronal GABA in brain upon ketogenic diet, less glutamate is however available for glutaminergic neurotransmission as a result of a astrocytic leak from the glutamate/glutamine cycle of either glutamine or glutamate which are more abundantly than normally removed in blood or consumed consequently to an increase in blood leucine or in brain to blood ratio in alanine. Along with the antioxidant activity of ketones [25] and modifications of NADH-related signaling pathways recently described for glucose deprivation associated to ketogenic diet [26] all the presently reviewed impacts of the diet on the neuron/astrocyte metabolic interactions may be concluded to be convergent at the point-of-view of anti-seizure activity, making by otherwise the mimic of modifying these interactions a valuable goal for pharmaceutical intervention.

Now what does that mean to you and I? If you’re like me, you’re better off reading the layman’s version on Jimmy’s page with this much easier to digest conclusion (although I am fascinated reading the “heavy” version at the parts that I understand):

Glutamate is an excitatory neurotransmitter. The ratio of glutamate/GABA is important for seizure control. High ratios favor seizure production. Low ratios favor seizure inhibition.

The ketogenic diet produces lower levels of glutamate and higher levels of GABA. This lowers the ratio and acts to prevent seizures.

Globally speaking, the ketogenic diet, by limiting brain glycolysis (metabolism of glucose) and increasing its dependence on fat (ketone bodies), produces a beneficial change in the ratio of glutamate/GABA that favors less excitation and hence better seizure protection.

Here’s an interesting piece from the full study:

The prototype nutritional profile of the Dr Atkins diet slightly differs in composition from ketogenic diet and is composed by 60% fats, 30% proteins and 10% hydrates of carbon. The Atkins’diet has now also proven efficacy in animal models and in human epileptic patients [7, 8]. In contrast to ketogenic diet, cooking preparations compatible with the Atkins’diet may be found in restaurants and cafeterias, and this is a factor which may help patient to comply the diet.

Dr. Atkins was right yet again.

So there is it…another benefit of a low-carb diet. It makes sense that a low-carb diet would aid in returning the body to its normal state. A low-carb diet is the diet that our bodies are evolved to handle. Our ancestors, lacking a global distribution network that allows pineapples to be shipped to Maine in January, were forced to eat only readily available produce and animals. For much of the year, fruits and vegetation were either unavailable or very hard to come by, forcing abundant consumption of protein- and fat-rich animal flesh. And they didn’t shy away from eating fat and didn’t worry about saturated fat, yet somehow they were (and hunter-gatherer groups continue to be) healthier on the whole than Industrialized folk.

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