The ketogenic diet is gaining popularity as one of the carbohydrate-restricted diets that avoid sugar, sweet fruits, and general starch-rich foods and consume as much energy as possible from fats such as nuts and butter. However, in an experiment using mice, this ketogenic diet was found to be effective in preventing influenza infection.
The ketogenic diet was developed as one of the treatment methods for epilepsy in the early 1920s as a therapy to avoid carbohydrates as much as possible and consume sufficient protein and large amounts of fat. Recently, it has been attracting attention as a treatment for obesity and as a diet method, but a new study found that mice fed a ketogenic diet had higher immunity to flu than mice fed a high-carbohydrate diet.
This project was conducted by Akiko Iwasaki, Yale University School of Medicine, and Vishwa Deep Dixit, a professor of immunobiology. The research team found that the ketogenic diet inhibited the formation of inflammasomes. Therefore, I was curious about how the ketogenic diet would affect the immune system’s response to pathogens such as the flu, so I started the project.
To verify this, two groups of experimental mice were given a standard ketogenic diet and a standard diet containing a lot of carbohydrates, and an attempt was made to infect them with influenza A virus, which has severe symptoms during the flu. After doing this, seven rats fed the standard diet were all infected with influenza 4 days after the start of the experiment. In comparison, only 5 of 10 rats on the ketogenic diet were infected with the flu. In addition, although weight loss was one of the signs that animals were infected with the flu, one rat fed the ketogenic diet did not show any weight loss.
As a result of the investigation, the research team found that the ketogenic diet activates gamma delta (γδT) cells in the lungs. Gamma delta cells increase the sensitivity of lung cells to disease infection and prevent infection by producing mucus.
The research team describes this research result as an unexpected discovery. Mucus is important to protect the body from pathogens in order to identify them and prevent their spread. Of course, the metabolism of humans and mice is different, but we can think of the possibility that a ketogenic diet could protect humans from influenza virus as well as mice.
One expert cites that vitamin C strengthens the immune system, explaining that the relationship between diet and the immune system has been confirmed so far. Not only vitamin C, but also a ketogenic diet has the potential to improve the immune system to fight infections. Related content this placecan be checked in