Why the study?
Glucose hypometabolism and insulin resistance accelerate progression in Parkinson's disease and neurocognitive disorders, prompting investigation into whether ketogenesis can improve cognitive performance in Parkinson's disease patients with mild cognitive impairment.
Does a low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet improve cognitive performance in patients with Parkinson's disease and mild cognitive impairment?
Comparison
Low-carbohydrate, ketogenic regimen vs high-carbohydrate consumption
Design
Controlled pilot trial with random assignment
Key result
A low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet improved lexical access (p=0.02, f=0.76) and memory (p=0.01, f=0.87) compared to a high-carbohydrate diet in Parkinson's patients with mild cognitive impairment.
Authors
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Supports short-term cognitive gains from ketogenic diet in PD-MCI; extends RCT evidence to non-motor symptoms in neurodegeneration.
RCT (n=14)
random assignment
Does a low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet improve cognitive performance in patients with Parkinson's disease and mild cognitive impairment?
Effect estimate: Cohen's f 0.76 (lexical access); f 0.87 (memory)
p-value: p=0.02 (lexical access); 0.01 (memory)
An 8-week low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet improved cognitive performance in patients with Parkinson's disease and mild cognitive impairment.
Krikorian et al. (2019) conducted an RCT in Parkinson's disease with mild cognitive impairment (n=14). Low-carbohydrate, ketogenic regimen vs. High-carbohydrate consumption typical of the Western dietary pattern was evaluated on Cognitive performance (lexical access and memory) (Cohen's f 0.76 (lexical access); f 0.87 (memory), p=0.02 (lexical access); 0.01 (memory)). A low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet improved lexical access (p=0.02, f=0.76) and memory (p=0.01, f=0.87) compared to a high-carbohydrate diet in Parkinson's patients with mild cognitive impairment.