Posted by desolationrower on March 13, 2009, at 21:35:40
In reply to Re: Natural anticonvulsants? » SLS, posted by garnet71 on February 24, 2009, at 12:22:03
oh, don't know how i forgot about this one:
ketogenic diet.
there are probably some identical pathways to benefits from fasting, but obviously for full anticonvulsant benefit you need it constantly). the thing that sucks about ketogenic diets is its a bit harder to gain muscle (well, and you can't eat lots of tasty food), and you can't train quite as hard. but not a huge drawback. Also until you adapt you can feel crappy, which means it might take a few weeks before you would actually want to drop the ssri, since that ALSO will make you feel like sh*t. I've never done the diet, it woudl probably be mostly some low-carb nut varieties and coconut and olive oils with salad leafy greens, with some meat.
i think the anticonvulsant effect is from one of the ketones directly, so it wouldn't take too long to become 'effective' but i haven't looked into it too closely.
-d/r
some interesting things about about ketosis though. for instance:
Med Hypotheses. 2007;68(2):268-71.
Low-carb diets, fasting and euphoria: Is there a link between ketosis and gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB)?Brown AJ.
School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences,
The University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia.
Med Hypotheses. 2007;68(2):268-71.ABSTRACT
Anecdotal evidence links the initial phase of fasting or a low-carbohydrate diet with feelings of well-being and mild euphoria. These feelings have often been attributed to ketosis, the production of ketone bodies which can replace glucose as an energy source for the brain. One of these ketone bodies, beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB), is an isomer of the notorious drug of abuse, GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyrate). GHB is also of interest in relation to its potential as a treatment for alcohol and opiate dependence and narcolepsy-associated cataplexy. Here I hypothesize that, the mild euphoria often noted with fasting or low-carbohydrate diets may be due to shared actions of BHB and GHB on the brain. Specifically, I propose that BHB, like GHB, induces mild euphoria by being a weak partial agonist for GABA(B) receptors. I outline several approaches that would test the hypothesis, including receptor binding studies in cultured cells, perception studies in trained rodents, and psychometric testing and functional magnetic resonance imaging in humans. These and other studies investigating whether BHB and GHB share common effects on brain chemistry and mood are timely and warranted, especially when considering their structural similarities and the popularity of ketogenic diets and GHB as a drug of abuse.
poster:desolationrower
thread:881348
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20090204/msgs/885244.html