Legacy Health and the National College of Natural Medicine are teaming up to study whether an extremely high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet has any benefit for Parkinson's patients.
Legacy and NCNM are recruiting 12 participants with Parkinson's with a goal of starting the 12-week trial in early January.
The exact proportions of the 'ketogenic' diet are 80 percent fat, 15 percent protein and 5 percent carbs. The typical American's diet is 30 to 35 percent fat, so this trial is calls for a big leap.
'It's such a complicated diet for people to follow,' said Angela Senders, assistant director of research at NCNM and a licensed naturopathic physician. The college is handling the dietary piece of the trial, while Legacy will monitor the results.
The ketogenic diet has been used successfully to treat epilepsy in children since the 1920s. Dr. Alar Mirka, Legacy's director of clinical research at Legacy Health Institute, became interested in doing the trial after a colleague mentioned a small study of the effects of the diet on Parkinson's patients.
The diet forces the body to burn fats, rather than carbs, that are turned into ketones and replace glucose as the brain's energy source. The diet raises levels of the molecule adenosine, of which the nerve cells of Parkinson's patients have a deficiency. The previous study was smaller, shorter and not as rigorous as the one Legacy plans, Mirka said.
Senders said there are many ways for participants to get needed fats without eating a steady diet of bacon or red meat. A breakfast could consist of a hard-boiled egg, half an avocado, sauteed green beans in olive oil. Lunch could be a big green salad, sauteed asparagus, smoked salmon, chicken crumbled feta and a fatty salad dressing. Cream cheese and nuts make for good snacks on the diet.
Elizabeth Hayes covers health care for the Portland Business Journal. Entities 0 Name: NCNM Count: 2 1 Name: Legacy Health Count: 1 2 Name: Elizabeth Hayes Count: 1 3 Name: Dr. Alar Mirka Count: 1 4 Name: National College of Natural Medicine Count: 1 5 Name: Portland Business Journal Count: 1 6 Name: Mirka Count: 1 7 Name: Angela Senders Count: 1 8 Name: Legacy Health Institute Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/YvlPew Title: Why Are We So Fat? The Multimillion-Dollar Scientific Quest to Find Out | Magazine | WIRED Description: Adam Voorhes In January of this year, the first subject checked into the metabolic ward at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, to participate in one of the most rigorous dietary studies ever devised. For eight weeks, he was forbidden to leave. He spent two days of each week inside tiny airtight rooms...
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