Gut microbiota as a potential mechanism besides ketone bodies in Ameliorating Parkinson’s disease symptoms with the ketogenic diet

Abstract

Current research indicates that the ketogenic diet effectively alleviates symptoms in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients, presenting a promising novel therapy. The prevailing view attributes the ketogenic diet’s efficacy in PD improvement to ketone bodies. Studies in epilepsy have demonstrated that the ketogenic diet improves epilepsy by modulating gut microbiota. Inspired by this, we hypothesize that the gut microbiota mediates the ketogenic diet’s alleviation of PD symptoms. On one hand, evidence from epilepsy and Alzheimer’s research supports the ketogenic diet’s influence on gut microbiota. On the other hand, PD studies indicate that gut microbiota can influence PD progression. Potential mechanisms may involve the production of neuroprotective metabolites, the modulation of the brain-gut microbiota axis, and the reduction of pathological protein aggregation. This hypothesis can be tested through animal models or clinical experiments. If validated, it could strongly support the widespread application of ketogenic diet therapy in PD and signify gut microbiota as a target for PD treatment, fostering simple and effective therapeutic approaches.