good luck deep
it has been one of the biggest sources in improvement in systemic symptoms for me
i was very resistant to the idea at first - having been indoctrinated into the high complex carbs diet mantra of sports nutrition for most of my life - which had worked well for me up until i became ill.
but have been on it for over 2 years now and do not think i would have moved forward without it.
i have not suffered mental health issues with the illness as such - but my my ex fiancé certainly did - and she had a remarkable turnaround after changing to keto.
i have not followed any particular diet guru or writer to get to this point
my ex got the idea from a CFS doctor in the UK who writes about
it and uses it in her patient population.
she was desperate and so she tried it ( i was sceptical ) - for my fiancé the change in her health was so profound i could not deny its effectiveness - and felt i had to do it for myself.
https://drmyhill.co.uk/wiki/the_paleo_ketogenic_diet_-_this_is_a_diet_which_we_all_should_follow i have also since found lots of interesting info regarding its use in mental health
eg this recent podcast CK podcast interviewing a mainstream psychiatrist who now accepts all the current neurotransmitter based drugs are of only limited use - and is offering the alternate hypothesis that most mental health conditions are due to problems with brain energy metabolism - rather than neurotransmitter levels.
made a good deal of sense to me.
( you have to skip past the blatant adverting at the beginning - the guy has gone super commercial in the last year or so - but the guests and scientific basis of what he presents are still good)
https://chriskresser.com/the-link-between-metabolism-and-mental-health-with-dr-christopher-palmer/you could certainly see how factors in lyme and co-infections etc could directly impact cellular energy metabolism in the CNS - just as they do in our other tissues - causing a host of symptoms
the main things i would pass on to anyone tying keto are probably :
1, the first 3 weeks are the hardest - after that your body adapts metabolically to run on fats - and you also form new habits and tastes - and it becomes easier.
2, benefits can start to appear almost straight away - within a few days - but initially are often mixed with reactions to adjusting to the new energy source, can be headaches/ low blood sugar feelings, energy slumps, thirst, cravings - some people also describe "keto flu" - such that people can feel pretty negative about
it and give up - but these reactions are temporary.
3, salt - we seem to need much more salt in our diet when eating keto - easily double what you might normally use. Part of this may be due to no longer eating any processed food - which has lots of added salt.
But the bodies needs do also go up when eating keto - so i found i need to add salt to meals generously to avoid muscle cramps, especially in feet and calves. i tried extra magnesium and potassium - but it seems its mostly just extra sodium that's needed to avoid cramps - so just added more sea salt. both my partner and i had this effect so i think its a general thing. defo drink plenty of water too.
4, one of the most common problems is to find yourself eating way too much meat / protein - but in fact keto is supposed to be a diet where most energy comes from fat and protein consumption is supposed to be much as before. Too much protein can mean that your body just burns this for energy - not the fat - and doing that is a bit hard on your system and not really using the ketone pathway - so does not confer the same benefits. so meals should be a normal portion of meat/protein - then mainly fat and fibre sources (like vegetables)
i found it difficult initially to know what exactly i was eating in terms of fat / protein/ carbs - i am more relaxed about
it now but in the beginning i had no real idea how close to the suggested levels i was eating - so made a spreadsheet somewhere to calculate what my actual macro-nutrient consumption was - I can send a copy if it would be helpful.
all the best