title: Treatment of diabetes and diabetic complications with a ketogenic diet.
abstract: Accumulating evidence suggests that low-carbohydrate, high-fat diets are safe and effective to reduce glycemia in diabetic patients without producing significant cardiovascular risks. Most of these studies have been carried out specifically restricting carbohydrates, which tends to lead to increased protein intake, thus reducing the ketosis. However, diets that limit protein as well as carbohydrates, entailing a composition very high in fat, appear even more effective to reduce glucose and whole-body glucose metabolism in humans. In animal models, low-carbohydrate, high-protein diets do not produce ketosis or reduce glycemia but rather cause obesity. However, limiting both protein and carbohydrates as in a classic ketogenic diet remarkably reduces blood glucose in animal models of type 1 and type 2 diabetes and reverses diabetic nephropathy. Future studies should assess if ketogenic diets would be effective to reverse diabetic complications in humans.
authors.affiliation: The Graduate School of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10028, USA. charles.mobbs@mssm.edu
authors.forename: Charles V
authors.initials: CV
authors.lastname: Mobbs
authors.forename: Jason
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mastaitis
authors.forename: Fumiko
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Isoda
authors.forename: Michal
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Poplawski
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000378:metabolism; D048909:Diabetes Complications / Q000178:diet therapy*; D055423:Diet, Ketogenic / Q000379:methods*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004734:Energy Metabolism; D006801:Humans; D009765:Obesity / Q000097:blood / Q000178:diet therapy*
chemical_list: D001786:Blood Glucose
keywords: low carbohydrate; nephropathy; type 1 diabetes; type 2 diabetes mellitus