A team of researchers in the US and Denmark has found that if people suffering from alcohol withdrawal go on a ketogenic (keto) diet the severity of their symptoms will be reduced.
Alcoholics who stop drinking experience withdrawal symptoms of varying severity. Since the alcohol withdrawal symptoms are so unpleasant, many people seek assistance, such as checking into rehab. In this new effort, the researchers have found a new tool to help with withdrawal symptoms and which could possibly reduce the rate of recidivism.
The research was motivated by two observations. The first being that prior studies have shown that in long term alcohol dependency, people’s bodies begin to use alcohol-metabolised acetate for energy, and less glucose. The lack of acetate is associated with alcohol withdrawal symptoms. The second is that on a keto diet, the body has more ketone bodies to metabolise for use as an energy source. Taken together, it suggested that people on keto diets could substitute the acetate as an energy source and minimise withdrawal symptoms.
A ketogenic diet is high-fat, moderate-protein and very-low-carbohydrate. The ratio of these macronutrients are approximately 55% to 60% fat, 30% to 35% protein and 5% to 10% carbohydrates. In a 2000 kcal per day diet, carbohydrates amount up to 20 to 50 g per day.
To test the theory, the study recruited 46 participants newly hospitalised alcoholics, half went on the keto diet and the other half went in a control group. The researchers measured ketone and acetate levels in the volunteers once a week, and also looked for inflammation markers that are common in people in rehab and assessed the amount of medication the participants needed to ease their symptoms.
Taken together, the data suggested that the keto diet reduced withdrawal symptoms in the volunteers. When the researchers conducted a similar experiment with test rats, they observed that the rats on the diet drank less alcohol than control rats.
The researchers said that their results are encouraging, but note that additional research is necessary, particularly with outpatient volunteers.
Source: Medical Xpress
Journal information: Corinde E. Wiers et al. Ketogenic diet reduces alcohol withdrawal symptoms in humans and alcohol intake in rodents, Science Advances (2021). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abf6780
