New research highlights the ketogenic diet’s ability to lower overall mortality by 25% while posing no added risk to heart health—ushering in new perspectives on its long-term safety and efficacy . Study: The ketogenic diet has the potential to decrease all-cause mortality without a concomitant increase in cardiovascular-related mortality . Image Credit: Yulia Furman / Shutterstock In a recent study published in the journal Scientific Reports , researchers used a long-term large United States (US)-based cohort (NHANES study) comprising more than 43,775 adults from 2001 to 2018 to evaluate the associations between the ketogenic diet (KD) and all-cause or cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk.
Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression models revealed that while adherence to KD can significantly reduce the risk of all-cause mortality (HR = 0.76, 95% CI: 0.63–0.
9), no significant association was found between KD and increased CVD mortality risk (HR = 1.13, P = 0.504).
Originally developed in the 1920s, the ketogenic diet was primarily used to treat epilepsy, especially in children with refractory seizures. Together, these findings highlight KD’s benefits beyond just its use as an intervention against childhood epilepsy, underscoring the need for further research leveraging KD and similar beneficial diets in the quest for overall human health and longevity. Background The ketogenic (‘keto’) diet (KD) is a dietary intervention that prioritizes low carbohydrate consu.