A chemical that mimics the effect of very low-carbohydrate diets – such as the Atkins diet – may work to reverse the effects of Parkinson’s disease, researchers have found.

While the discovery has only been applied to mice so far, it suggests that the controversial low-carb diets might eventually be a viable treatment for Parkinson’s disease, a debilitating human nerve disorder.

An unpublished preliminary study has shown ‘very encouraging’ results, according to Richard Veech, a researcher at the National Institute of Health.

Veech said researchers at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York studied seven patients with advanced forms of Parkinson’s. The subjects only ate three grams of carbohydrates per day for a month – an amount smaller than the most restrictive phases of the Atkins diet.

The patients lost a significant amount of weight and reported a 50-percent improvement in their motor skills and tremors, according to Veech. Though he cautioned that the study is only preliminary, he said.

‘Most people who work with Parkinson’s don’t expect that degree of change with the placebo effect alone,’ he said.

The long-term safety of exceedingly low-carb diets is unknown. At this time, doctors do not recommend people with Parkinson’s start the diets without further research.

More than half a million people in the United States suffer from Parkinson’s. An unknown toxin entering nerve cells in the brain brings about the disease when it causes those cells to stop production of dopamine – a chemical messenger that passes information between the brain and the muscles that control movement.

When dopamine levels drop, the chemical messages from the brain to the muscles can become disjointed, producing the tremors, shaky movements and lack of muscle control characteristic of Parkinson’s patients.

Lepodova, the most commonly prescribed drug to treat Parkinson’s, boosts the level of dopamine but does not correct the underlying physiological problem in the nerve cells. As the cells degenerate, Lepodova becomes less effective, requiring higher doses and causing unpleasant side effects, such as involuntary writhing movements.

Researchers at Columbia University found that injecting mice with one chemical, produced naturally when humans do not get enough carbohydrates, reduced Parkinson-like symptoms. Although commercial supplements or drugs containing this compound won’t be available any time soon – human clinical – trials are years away – low-carb diets might produce the same positive effects.

The principle of low-carb, or ketogenic, diets is to deny the body glucose, forcing the metabolism to turn to fat for energy. The chemical used by the Columbia researchers mimics that secondary method of energy production.

Ketogenic diets have been present in science since the 1920s to treat epilepsy, and more recently, some metabolic disorders.

Intense debates about the general safety of ketogenic diets, however, continue amongst scientists. Veech pointed to numerous recent studies showing that high-fat, low-carb diets pose a health risk by significantly raising cholesterol levels.

Jeff Volek, a researcher at the University of Connecticut, disagreed, saying ‘there’s nothing about the diet that is dangerous unless you already have kidney problems.’