Bret Scher, MD - Figure 50
What to do about increased LDL?
The other point is that we don't have to just accept high LDL if it occurs. If LDL does go up, we have to weigh the risks of that versus the benefits that someone could be getting from ketogenic therapy. So, if someone's using a keto diet to lose five pounds, as a clinician treating a patient, I would see that very differently than someone who's using ketogenic therapy to put their bipolar disorder, treatment-resistant schizophrenia, or severe depression into remission, when they haven't been able to do it with other standard of care approaches. I'm going to see that very differently and want to keep that person on their ketogenic therapy by any means possible, because of the improved quality of life and overall health that they're seeing. You have to weigh the risks and benefits of the treatment, with the benefits being so profound in some patients: putting their seizures into remission or getting off all their type 2 diabetes medications and putting that into remission. This can happen with ketogenic therapy and is very different from losing a few pounds – not that there's anything wrong with that. But from my perspective, using it as a weight loss diet is very different from using it as a medical intervention.