Another Honest Update
Summary
TLDRHannah provides a two-month update on her experience using the ketogenic diet and metabolic therapy to treat her schizoaffective disorder. She reports feeling incredibly stable with a huge improvement in her mental illness symptoms and capacity to handle stress. Her husband Rob, who is doing the same intervention but doesn't have a diagnosed mental illness, mainly notices physiological changes like faster recovery from workouts. They clarify that this is Hannah's personal medical decision that she is choosing to share publicly, not a recommendation for viewers. Next they plan to explore other metabolic therapies like exercise, sleep, and social engagement.
Takeaways
- 😊 Hannah and Rob provide an update on their experience with the keto diet after 2 months
- 😣 Taking exogenous ketones knocked them out of ketosis temporarily
- 🤔 Hannah believes negative responses to the project may come from people happy with their meds
- 😊 The keto diet is Hannah's personal treatment choice that she's sharing publicly
- 👍 Rob notices faster body recovery times and less inflammation on keto
- 👍 Hannah and Rob haven't gotten sick despite kids getting ill
- 😊 Hannah has greatly increased capacity to handle stress on keto
- 🤔 Rob focuses more on physiological changes from keto
- 😊 People notice Hannah's excessive blinking is diminished on keto
- 😀 Hannah and Rob will explore other metabolic therapies like exercise and sleep
Q & A
What happened when Hannah and Rob took exogenous ketones?
-When they took exogenous ketones, their blood sugar spiked and they were knocked out of ketosis. Hannah started experiencing symptoms of psychosis very rapidly afterwards.
Why was Hannah surprised by some of the negative responses to her keto project?
-Hannah was surprised because she is simply sharing her personal experience trying keto as a treatment option for her mental illness. She is not expecting or telling anyone else to follow the same path.
What are some of the positive effects Rob has noticed from the keto diet?
-Rob has noticed reduced inflammation, faster recovery after workouts, not getting as sick when kids have illnesses, and increased energy levels.
How has the keto diet impacted Hannah's capacity to deal with stress?
-Hannah feels she has much more capacity to deal with intense psychological stress without triggering increased symptoms of her mental illness.
What percentage has Hannah reduced her antipsychotic medication dose?
-Hannah has reduced her antipsychotic dose by 40%. She is now at the lowest dose she has ever been on.
What kinds of metabolic therapies will they focus on next?
-Next they will focus on exercise, sleep, social engagement, and other metabolic therapies for improving metabolic health.
What is Hannah's excessive blinking caused by?
-Hannah's excessive blinking is a form of tardive dyskinesia caused by long-term use of antipsychotic medication.
Has Hannah's excessive blinking changed on the keto diet?
-Yes, people have noticed Hannah's excessive blinking seems to be diminished overall on the keto diet.
How does Rob deal with stress compared to Hannah?
-Whereas stress triggers increased symptoms for Hannah, Rob mainly deals with stress through feeling tired/fatigued and needing to sleep more.
How long have Hannah and Rob been on the keto diet so far?
-At the time of this video, Hannah and Rob were about 2 months into following the keto diet.
Outlines
😊 Introducing the keto project for treating mental illness and initial experiences
This first paragraph introduces the keto and metabolic therapy project that Kristi and Rob have started about 2 months prior. The goal is to see if the keto diet and other metabolic therapies can be an effective treatment for Kristi's schizoaffective disorder. They provide some initial experiences, including tracking ketone levels, accidentally getting knocked out of ketosis, and some initial mental health improvements Kristi has seen.
😊 Clarifying that the keto project is a personal medical choice
Kristi clarifies that trying the keto diet as a treatment for her mental illness is a personal medical choice, and she is not saying viewers need to do the same. She explains it's like a case study she is sharing in case it helps others. Rob also notes this was never suggested by doctors as a treatment option.
😀 Feeling good mentally and physically so far into the project
This paragraph focuses on the positive improvements both Kristi and Rob have seen so far two months into the keto project. This includes mental health and capacity improvements for Kristi, and physical benefits like recovery, inflammation reduction, and lack of sickness for Rob.
😊 Clarifying some areas of improvement and future plans
Here Kristi and Rob cover some final topics like Kristi's reduced medication dosage, speculation on why she hasn't gotten sick, updates on Rob's digestion, the stress capacity improvements Kristi has seen, and what content is coming up next on the keto therapy journey.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡ketogenic diet
💡ketones
💡metabolic therapy
💡mental illness
💡symptoms
💡medication
💡mitochondria
💡inflammation
💡stress
💡discinesia
Highlights
We are 2 months into trying the keto diet to treat my schizoaffective disorder
I've had drastic improvements in mental health, capacity and wellbeing on keto
I'm on the lowest dose of antipsychotic medication I've ever been on
I was never prescribed a metabolic therapy for mental illness before
The medical system is doing a disservice by not informing patients of metabolic treatment options
I have the right to try emerging treatments like keto rather than just medication
If keto works, it could show new treatment options for mental illness
Keto has reduced inflammation and I recover faster from workouts
We haven't gotten sick since starting keto
My capacity to handle stress has increased dramatically on keto
I'm still stable despite significant life stressors recently
My tic-like blinking seems reduced on keto
We feel solid on maintaining keto, ready to explore other metabolic therapies
We'll look at exercise, sleep, social engagement next
Thank you for following our journey with keto
Transcripts
you know why do you sit so close to me
you know what when when we're sitting on
the couch you need to be like
this this is what you need to be like
yeah and then it's work babe stay
professional hi everyone so we are about
2 months in or maybe a little bit over
two months in now to our keto project or
keto and metabolic therapy project and
you know trying it out as a means of
seen if it's a potential treatment for
my schizo affector disorder and so we
just wanted to take some time to have a
bit of a conversation with you guys and
with each other about how it's been
going up to this point you know what our
experiences looked like um things we may
have struggled with things that are
going well and what we're hoping the
next several months look like as well so
I think that we're through kind of the
beginning phase of this project in terms
of getting started you know figuring out
what it is that we can eat making some
mistakes um and tracking ketones we now
have kind of a good idea of basically
where we're at on average I think for
like ketones you're usually pretty high
like in the fours and even fives and I'm
still like kind of in the high ones we
don't really know why that
is your liver works better than mine at
converting that into a superior specim
yeah you love it my in competitiveness
really comes out when it comes to
measuring ketones and perhaps that's
actually something that is not healthy
is not healthy where I am like I need to
get the highest Ketone levels and my
focus should be more on okay well am I
feeling good how am I feeling which it
is Shifting more into but there was
definitely that little bit of an
endorphin rush of getting high it's not
a competition I'm satisfied with my
Ketone Nels okay well we'll get into how
you're feeling oh later that sounded
like a well you're not feeling as good
as me no no it wasn't like that I mean I
think people you know have been asking
how is Rob doing through all this as
well because he's doing the same medical
intervention that I am as well and so
yeah I want to know more about your
mental health and whatnot as well but we
should probably give a quick update
because we haven't been doing as much of
the vloggy updates as of late and we
kind of just left behind handing after
we were like I made a big mistake with
the exogenous ketones so what happened
with that was got knocked out of ketosis
had well we had the exogenous keton we
had the exogenous keton as sweet as like
a slushie or whatever there was no sugar
in them but they tasted so sweet through
artificial sweeteners that I think our
bodies assumed we had just consumed
glucose and our blood sugar skyrocketed
and our Ketone levels dropped
drastically and so we both got knocked
out of ketosis essentially and
immediately I we took it before soccer
which was in the evening that night and
on the way home from soccer I was
experiencing symptoms and I was feeling
scared that I was in psychosis it was
fast it was extremely fast like kind of
mind-blowing actually how quickly that
happened getting bumped out of ketosis
and
so and it lasted uh I mean you we
recorded the video and I think you
recorded a separate update video the
next day but it lasted a couple of days
a few days you're not feeling great even
though your ketone come back up yeah I
was off and not feeling good for
probably a week following that and
throughout that week my ketones were
kind of all over the place it seemed
like they were kind of trying to
regulate themselves again sometimes they
were almost where I was at normally
sometimes they were really low and they
were just kind of fluctuating quite a
bit so it had a big impact on my body um
but after that week or so it kind of
stabilized again back to where I was
before taking the exogenous ketones and
I have my regular Ketone levels which
are you know threes to fives and I'm
feeling good again I'm feeling stable
again and back to where I was before
taking the exogenous ketones but good
lesson so that's an update on that kurur
fuffle that we shared with you but then
I think it's also worth chatting a
little bit more about the last video we
put out where it was titled are you mad
at me and I talked about people's kind
of difficult feelings with this project
add me I think it's something that we've
been kind of surprised about in general
and I've been struggling with it I've
been struggling with some of the
response to this project now don't get
me wrong I know that there are a lot of
you who are supportive of it and giving
encouragement and maybe even being
encouraged to try some of the things
we're talking about yourselves which is
great but I've been really surprised and
taken aback by the negative
um response to this project as well and
I talked about in the last video how I
can empathize and understand with that
to a degree but I think something that I
really want to clarify here for everyone
is that I am making this decision to
attempt to use the ketogenic diet and
other metabolic therapies as a means of
treating my schizo effective disorder my
mental illness I've done research I've
looked into it I've talked to experts
and I think that it's something that I
think is worth
trying I mean I think it goes even
further than that in that you have
already seen
results yeah but what I'm trying to say
is that this is a personal decision that
I made and I'm choosing to share it on
the internet on the off chance that it
could help other people I'm not at all
saying that if you're watching this you
have to do what I'm doing that is not at
all my Approach here this is essentially
a case study a like singular case study
about trying out the keto diet and
metabolic therapies to treat my skizo
affected disorder and I'm sharing my
experience and what I'm learning with
you all if you want to take that
information and apply it to your own
life great if you don't that's okay I'm
not asking you to do that I'm simply
putting the information out there in the
hopes that it could maybe help other
people as well or even in the hopes that
it could show researchers or people
funding interventions for mental illness
other options than just the typical
medication route and
exploring if there are ways to treat or
manage mental illness that may feel
better to some people you know we've
gotten people saying I'm more than happy
to just take my meds and they working
fine for me and if that's working for
you that's great but I and I know some
other people still experience a degree
of suffering even on these medications
and so to
me I feel it's worth trying something
that may work and it may not work in an
effort to alleviate some of that
suffering Within Myself and perhaps
other people will feel the same about
trying something like this something
that we haven't talked a lot really at
all on this channel is
how you were never ever prescribed to
treatment like this as an intervention
from any of your medical team in the
past and I think that's doing a great
disservice to
um well to you in terms of even just
allowing you to know what all of your
options are like if if this was a
treatment option that was on the table
for you you and you made the decision
like that's not for me I can't do that
because of accessibility or cost or
discipline or whatever there's a there's
there's a lot of reasons why it's more
difficult that would be something but it
was it was a treatment intervention that
was just never even brought to your
attention but I get that a degree of
that is that this is all new and
emerging the gold standard
for you know
trusting uh method of treatment is you
know the randomized control trials and
those don't exist yet they're in the
process of being done currently so I get
to an extent why it's not offered from
the medical system currently but you
know doing my own research and digging
into it it just seems like why wouldn't
I give it a try and you know that was
kind of what I came to this project
thinking you know why not give it a try
if it works amazing my life will be
improved and I will feel better if it
doesn't work is it really really that
big of a deal that I ate differently and
took care of my body in other ways for 6
months no probably not and so it was one
of those things that seemed really low
risk to try yeah yeah and but now you
know two months into
it I'm a little blown away at the
differences that I am experiencing in
terms of my mental health my capacity my
well-being I you know I I feel like I
keep just saying how good I'm feeling
and how much my capacity and wellness
has improved and mental Clarity and
experience of symptoms I don't really
experience symptoms of schizo effective
disorder hardly at all right now and I'm
also on the lowest dose I've ever been
on of my antis psychotic and so it's
kind of wild to me how obvious it is
that this change in my lifestyle through
diet diet and exercise and focusing on
sleep and all these metabolic therapies
is having such a profound impact already
two months in and I feel like it's not
very good storytelling what we're doing
because it's just kind of all like yeah
things are going great this is awesome
like there's nothing wrong I I get that
there's a desire for you know a where's
the drama a conflict uh you know a
struggle or whatever but I think it's a
good thing that that's not existing
and I think that it's really encouraging
for me and hopefully for some of you
watching that uh intervention like this
could be so effective so that's my
experience of my mental health at this
two-month Mark you know I've gone down
on meds 40% I was on 100 milligrams of
my Antico and I'm now on 60 which is the
lowest I've been on and the last time I
was on that low of the dose I ended up
in the hospital and I just feel
incredibly stable and clear of symptoms
like I feel really hesitant to say that
because you know it's been two months
and but it's a it's definitely a
different experience of my symptoms and
my illness than I was having two months
ago so yeah I was going to say what is
your mental health like you're doing the
same medical intervention as I am but
you don't have a diagnosed mental
illness so what is that experience like
for you do you notice any differences
from a mental health
perspective difficult to say maybe a
little bit more like like Clarity if you
could call it that I I think that it's
probably I and maybe it's just cuz
that's where my focus has been but more
like on like how my body has been
feeling like a lot of reduced
inflammation in my body like I don't
like I had talked about knee pain in the
last video and um yeah no knee pain at
all and one thing that I was noticing is
how
quickly um it feels like my body
recovers after a workout so you know we
we'll be in the gym or we'll be doing
like a strength training exercise and it
will be
intense and usually the day after or the
day after the day after there's pretty
intense muscle soreness and I feel like
I think specifically because of Keto but
I'm not sure like that is way less like
our bodies are able to recover a lot
faster I hadn't actually taken account
of that but yeah I haven't experienced
much soreness even though we have upped
drastically how much we're going to the
gym and doing strength training and
doing workouts and yeah that's
interesting and how are your
poops they're okay I think that I had
figured out that the problem was too
much cheese and that like the calcium
does something if calcium and the cheese
has some does some kind of binding thing
I'm not totally sure I kind of
researched Google and then just kind of
threw everything at the wall in terms of
like trying to like fix the problem but
I think what really helped was like
digestive enzymes and this like fiber
four supplement that I like started
taking on a kind of regular basis there
was something going on in your gut
microbiome wasn't happy and I keep
thinking oh yeah now I can eat all the
cheese that I want and no it's like no
there's nothing to do with cheese and so
when I dial it back it's like okay but
I'm a happier person now so he is much
here now that he's got things flowing
again
moving so I guess on the topic of kind
of like like physical recovery another
thing that um I've noticed is and and
part of this could be chance but I don't
think it's totally chance it's that we
haven't gotten sick
like really at all since we started keto
and it could be because at the end of
last year like our house got hit by
covid and the flu and it was kind of
terrible but um over the past 2 months
like I I would say typically we get some
kind of like respiratory infection per
month like a cold or something that the
kids bring home from school or daycare
and and our kids have the kids have
gotten sick um and we didn't which is
pretty weird like usually they get sick
and then it's like oh no you know that
it's coming um and you can't really do
anything about it cuz you're in constant
proximity to them but this time it was
like we saw them getting sick and then
we didn't get sick I I got actually a
little bit of like runny nose and that
was it and that was a pretty weird
response like I think our body did a
much better job of fending that off I
didn't get that but I did feel like kind
of weirdly tired for 2 or 3 days but
that was the extent of it and I think
that was our body being sick on
keto so that's that's cool I mean I like
to think that there's that kind of
immuno response
benefits yeah probably worth looking
into the science behind that but that's
our anecdotal experience of Keto and
being sick I mean I think this might not
have to do specifically with keto but it
might have more to do with um drastic
reduction in Sugar because I think I
think sugar
um was a problem with that in terms of
autoimmune response and so that was kind
of our body handling stress in form of
sickness in a different way or maybe a
better way but also you know we
mentioned it in one of the Vlogs that
we've been
experiencing I was going to call it an
acute but it's turning into a chronic
stressor in our life that has been
really difficult to deal with and that
we've been going to therapy
over agonizing over a little bit and
it's been stressful and hard to get
through and usually a stress of that
magnitude would kind of just derail me
in terms of increased symptoms because
of stress stress is a big trigger for
symptoms for me and so you would be ined
a lot I would I would be ined like
before this all if we were experiencing
the same stressor I have no doubt that I
would be spending hours a day in bed
resting trying to avoid experience of
symptoms I would probably be needing to
speak with my psychiatrist about upping
my dose of meds because I know that my
symptoms would be exacerbated by this
degree of stress but it's been kind of
amazing to me how my capacity to handle
and manage stress like this has
increased I am still able like I'm still
not experiencing symptoms even though
I'm
under stress psychological stress and I
still feel stable through it all I feel
like I have the capacity to notbe not
always sometimes I don't feel like I
have the capacity to deal with it but
that's just because it's stressful I
feel like
ultimately from a dealing with my inless
point of
view it's just not a factor in terms of
managing the stress which
is hard for me to wrap my head around
what do you like you're going through
this stressor too feel
and so I was thinking about how like
when you're like what's the mental
health benefits for you I think about
how that like the stressor is in our
life right now and it's kind of
difficult to deal with um there's always
like stressful things that kind of pop
up in your life and you're trying to
deal with it and um I'm just trying to
imagine like what would our life be like
if we had no stressors to deal with um
and would my mental health feel a lot
better and um maybe it's hard to say but
do you feel that you have had increased
capacity to deal with kind of intense
stress over the last several weeks or
how Rel it's been you know I I think the
one of the ways that I deal with stress
is like like my uh physiological
response is my body feels really tired
and I nap like I I will sleep in the
middle of the day kind of thing and I
haven't I I felt like I have more energy
so perhaps less of like psychological
and more of just like a physical res
yeah Rob doesn't explore his feelings
it's just all
physical I go to therapy you work stuff
out you know I think that you are
looking for some kind of response that's
just like taking keto for when you don't
have a mental illness is like that
Limitless movie where you're like you
take a pill and you're just like you
start to see formulas and stuff it's not
like that it's not it's not like me
being on keto without a mental illness
is like all of a sudden my world is like
changed I feel good I feel like this is
the healthiest that I've been in a long
time and there is a there's a level of
like confidence that comes with that and
there's a level of like um like like
Clarity and and wanting to figure out
how how can I do more how can I like
you know go farther I think what you're
describing is really just the benefits
you get from taking care of
yourself and you can do that a multitude
of different ways and I think I think
maybe what I'm trying to
like see if there's any difference here
is like I have a mental illness and so
according to this you know brain energy
Theory and the metabolic Health theories
is that I had increased metabolic
dysfunction over you
and so it makes sense that an
intervention that is addressing
metabolic dysfunction or repairing
mitochondrial health and whatnot is
going to be is going to make drastic
changes to my experience of my metabolic
dysfunction my mental illness that makes
sense you don't have that mental illness
and metabolic dysfunction so I was just
wondering you know like what is that
experience them for you what yeah yeah
and I think that's why where I'm coming
from is maybe more noticing the like
physiological changes the like faster
recovery more energy not needing to
sleep as much less uh less colds and
respiratory infections um that kind of
thing less less bodily inflammation and
no like it being at a level where you
notice it it's not like uh I think this
might be happening it's like all of
those things are very like wow I see how
this is having an effect on my body and
my life and I'm experiencing all of
those things too
but just the magnitude of how my
experience of my mental illness has
changed kind of eclipses all of that
even though it is still a very big and
noticeable change the magnitude of the
improvements I'm seeing in my mental
illness is
just huge and is what I obviously am
noticing the most so something that a
lot of you have actually been pointing
out in the comments is that you are
noticing or feeling like my excessive
blinking has diminished and just to kind
of explain I've explained it in other
videos but my excessive blinking that is
often comes about in videos is a form of
of discinesia that has resulted as
that has come as a result of prolonged
use of my antic psychotic medication so
that sucks maybe we'll put a clip in of
like some of the videos no don't we're
not going to do that no I hate it but I
don't know I'm doing doing it but um we
noticed that it and like it did seem
like it was greatly reduced and I don't
know you look at me every day do I blink
a lot still or I'm starting to be more
aware of it now because people are
commenting and it's like sometimes it's
lower and sometimes it's regular and I
think that um we just posted an
interview with Dr breter check that out
if you haven't yet I was really tired
and a little bit off that day and so my
blinking in that video is kind of back
to being excessive at times and so I
think that it is a degree of you know
when I'm more tired the of
discinesia comes out a little bit more
pronounced but generally I do think it
actually has been improving so I've
never heard of that before the keto diet
or metabolic therapies improving
something like of discinesia but
perhaps yeah just by having reduced
anticho medication well I don't know if
it works that way if you know let us
know so that's kind of a general update
of how things have been going over the
last two months things we've been
struggling a little bit with or things
we wanted to clarify for you um where
we're going to be going next in this
series of videos is getting more into
the other types of metabolic therapies
so like Rob was saying we're feeling
pretty solid now in terms of knowing
what we need to do to follow the
ketogenic diet and to stay in ketosis
and so now we're going to be doing kind
of a deeper dive and more of a
concentrated focus on things like
exercise on things like sleep on things
like social engagement and Diving deeper
into the different kinds of other
metabolic therapies that go into
improving metabolic Health as well so
thank you for watching and as always
wishing you and your loved ones good
health we'll see you in the next video
bye bye
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