Ketogenic Diet for Type I Diabetes Mellitus. Literature Review and Clinical Experience

Abstract

To date, treating type I diabetes mellitus (T1D) is a difficult clinical task that is based, from the traditional point of view, exclusively on adjusting an insulin dose and monitoring a daily carbohydrate intake. Dietary changes are not considered a type of treatment in T1D patients yet, although this autoimmune disease is accompanied by disorders of carbohydrate metabolism. The article explores the international experience in the use of a low-carbohydrate diet and the features of disease development when putting patients into ketosis on a ketogenic diet. Article discusses the clinical experience obtained during T1D patient management, including ketogenic diet and mitochondrial support, at the clinic “PlanetaMed”. In addition, the article describes the case reports and case studies. According to the clinical experience of “PlanetaMed” specialists, the use of a ketogenic diet results in a decreasing blood glucose level in almost all cases. The average dose of injected insulin was 22.8 units before the ketogenic diet and 6,625 units during the ketogenic diet. The absolute decrease was 16.205 units, and the relative decrease was 70.9%. At the same time, the concentration level of glucose decreased by 39.2%. The decrease in blood glucose level and the injected insulin dose were connected (correlation coefficient: 0.76). Therefore, the studies have shown a significant positive impact of a ketogenic diet on the treatment of T1D patients.