Ketones may unlock a healthier brain

Bipolar disorder update

When you eat three square meals a day (and fill your plate with representatives of each of the four food groups) your brain burns sugar. Glucose, to be precise, and boatloads of it. That’s all well and good, because your brain runs on heavy fuel. It vacuums up two out of every ten calories you consume. If you’re swaying in the hammock under a shady tree and contemplating life’s mysteries (or having a vivid daydream) that percentage may rise to an even fifty. When your blood sugar dips, your ever-voracious brain commands your body to produce an alternative energy source (ketones).

I don’t have much of an opinion about what a ketogenic diet does for your waistline. But I venture to say that ketones benefit your brain. Ketones promote a process called metabolic switching, during which the brain switches back and forth from burning glucose and ketones as its main fuel. The switching acts as a mild metabolic stressor, which scientists have found increases brain resiliency and strengthens brain circuitry.

Ketones also have powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects. In 2025, Mexican researchers reviewed the medical evidence to explain how a ketogenic diet positively impacts neurological scourges, like epilepsy, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease. It turns out that ketones reduce brain inflammation and protect brain cells in part by improving mitochondrial function (the powerhouse of all aerobic cells) and facilitating neurotransmitter flow (the signal molecules between brain cells).

In 2025, a team of Scottish scientists reported some fantastic news for people who suffer from bipolar disorder. The researchers recruited more than twenty patients who’d been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and placed them on a two-month-long ketogenic diet. First of all, the participants lost weight (on average, the participants dropped about ten pounds) and their blood pressure numbers improved. What’s more, psychological testing demonstrated a significant improvement in mental health, especially in the domains of mood, anxiety and impulsivity. Interestingly, magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging of the brain revealed changes in the metabolism of the cingulate cortex (an area of the brain that integrates executive functions (neocortex) and emotion (limbic system).

Want to learn more? Check out https://brain2mind.substack.com/p/ketones-may-be-the-key-to-unlocking-0b5 and