My brother did a ketamine treatment

#1

I read about it before he went and said I read that it raises blood pressure. To me that means it raises cortisol. His BHB after work last week was 1.1 so he was in ketosis. He ate the same exact diet recently but came to me a week later (about 5 days after ketamine treatment) and his blood ketones were only 0.2. I asked him in detail what he ate to make sure he didn’t get some accidental carbs in.

His wife went to the ER the other day, I told him it could be related to stress of that, is why he isn’t in ketosis. But I am really wondering if it was that ketamine treatment for his “depression”.

I told him he was probably depressed and fatigued because he became severely insulin resistant eating a very bad diet in the last 2 years… went from HOMA-IR of 1.3 to 4.2 in that time frame, which is even more insulin resistant than me and I’m type 2 diabetic. He gained a lot of visceral fat… fast… very thin layer of subcutaneous fat on his belly… all hard firm fat.

We recently had the stress of our mom being diagnosed with stage iv pancreatic cancer and subsequently dying. SO that combined with depression, made him eat so badly… lots of carbs and bad fats.

I really wish he’d just let the diet do the work instead of doing all these weird treatments, like the ketamine which I read raises blood pressure.

#2

I think you are on the right track with stress and blood cortisol being a cause of reduced ketone production.

Ketamine can be quite a pleasant experience due to its dissociative effects, which takes the patient away from any pain experience. Sometimes it’s mixed with benzodiazepines to potential the anti-anxiety effect. But that can create more stress on the liver. And we want our livers busy creating ketones and not engaged so much in detoxifying drug doses.

I wish the best outcomes for you and your brother. Dr. Georgia Ede is an expert who talks about the positive effects of nutritional ketosis on depression and mood disorders in mental health. It’s worth listening to her speak on podcast interviews.

#3

Thanks FrankoBear, I was looking for some good sources on how the ketogenic diet can help with depression.

#4

When somebody is dealing with actual clinical depression I’d go with a treatment that’s been shown to help every time over waiting for keto to possibly help. If it could be maintained/cured/remission by keto that’s great but depression isn’t something anybody should be patient about. One minute people are down on them selves, next thing while waiting for some alternative to work they blow their brains out or take a header off a bridge. Ketone and cortisol levels would be the absolute last thing on my mind.

#5

I’m concerned about him because he’s not eating much and he’s eating a keto diet. And the water weight isn’t really coming off. He’s lost like 4 lbs in the past 3 weeks, which is really unusual… He’s 303 lbs right now with most of his fat being visceral fat. He’s a walking heart attack right now. I was expecting much more water weight loss, to help bring his BP down more quickly. IT’s improved some. He was at a high of a systolic of 180. Now he’s getting about 155.

Another thing his TSH has worsened in the past 2 years. From 2.5 to 3.5 now. I told him he should get a full thyroid panel checking his fT4 and fT3. And talk to doctor about starting on some thyroid hormones to get his TSH more in the 1.5 range. He’s fatigued in the morning even on keto diet and it could be related to his thyroid. Hypothyroidism runs in the family… my mom had it, her dad had it… I have it.

Interestingly, I saw his trigs two years ago were 400 and HDL was 29 yet his HOMA-IR (insulin resistance) was only at 1.3. Two years later his trigs and HDL are about the same but HOMA-IR is 4.2. So it appears trigs/hdl ratio is an indicator of impending insulin resistance, along with the visceral fat he had in his abdomen when his HOMA-IR was only 1.3. The visceral fat has gotten much worse in past 2 years… he’s gained it all there.

I am wondering if he should try fasting for a few days at a time, but I know when I do that I majorly overeat when I am done with fast… and feel awful for days… I seem to do best eating 2 meals per day (about 15g net carb and 60g protein), feeling no hunger and remaining in nutritional ketosis.

If that ketamine treatment is significantly increasing his cortisol to high levels like prednisone might do, then I think it’s a bad thing… very bad thing… there are other options for depression treatment than raising cortisol. He needs to get this abdominal weight down asap. I am so worried about him getting a heart attack. My grandfather died from at a heart attack in his early 60’s and my brother had much more abdominal fat than my grandfather did… My brother is 47 now. I am worried he might die in less than 5 years because his blood pressure , trigs, hdl and visceral fat are so bad.