Numerous studies, Healthline, AARP… Look around and you’ll find a flood of articles probing the possibility that the popular Supraketo Keto Pills Diet has brain health benefits - and even, possibly, the ability to help address Alzheimer’s and related dementias. The supposition is based in science: Some research indicates that Alzheimer’s may stem from trouble processing glucose, which is typically the brain’s preferred source of fuel. It is known that as we age, less glucose is able to cross the blood-brain barrier in order to fuel the brain. Researchers and brain health diet experts, like nutritionist Ed Blonz, know that ketogentic plays a role in that dynamic - and it could bring potential problems. Addressing Alzheimer’s with a diet is tricky - firstly because the cause of the disease is still unknown, and secondly, because studying the link between diet and the disease’s symptoms or progression is a tall order. Like so much with Alzheimer’s, while we know certain foods are better for the brain than others, nothing is definitively proven about the relationship between what we eat and neurodegenerative disease.
All this considered, we wanted to take a closer look at the science behind this popular idea of taking up the keto diet for brain health or dementia prevention, so we sat down with Ed Blonz, Ph.D., a nutritionist and assistant clinical professor at the University of California, San Francisco who studies nutrition and brain health. Here are some of the takeaways from our 2018 conversation. What is the Keto Diet? You’ve maybe heard of the keto diet - a diet named for the fatty acid molecules in our bodies that fuel metabolism and support muscle function. It’s high in fats, low in carbs and moderate in protein. A ketogenic breakfast, for example, might involve mixing your coffee with coconut oil, heavy cream and butter, and scrambling eggs with cream cheese, with a side of smoked salmon for protein. All these fats force your body to make and rely on the ketones that the body makes when you aren’t taking in enough carbohydrates.
Ketones come from the breakdown of fat when there are not enough carbohydrates to keep the blood glucose within normal limits. What about the Keto Diet for Alzheimer’s? While the keto diet can indeed provide a non-glucose source of energy for the brain, and ketones may have potential to affect the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease, there are metabolic costs and nutrient sacrifices associated with this method. In other words, sticking to a ketogenic diet might provide your body with a needed alternate source of energy, but doing so could deprive the body and brain of many other essential nutrients that play a role in your overall vascular health-a key issue associated with the overall risk of Alzheimer’s disease. The body treats ketones as a limited asset with associated risks. There are enzyme systems designed to prevent the blood level of ketones from getting too high. This can be a problem on a ketogenic diet, because the body cranks out a lot of ketones.
Ketones affect the pH (the acid-base balance) of the blood. We normally have a higher (less acid) pH, Supraketo Keto Pills but ketones are acidic, and if present at elevated levels, Supraketo Keto they can lower blood pH, which can seriously mess with our metabolism. The condition called ketoacidosis, which occurs in out-of-control diabetes, can also occur in a poorly composed and monitored ketogenic diet, and this can be serious-even fatal. On a biochemical level, using ketones as a source of energy for the brain does make some sense. In fact, the body relies on this alternative source of fuel when there is not food available-likely an evolutionary advantage for when the food supply is less stable. However, a person does not need to adopt a ketogenic diet to produce ketones. In addition to messing with the body’s acid-base balance, carbohydrates get cut out of a keto diet, or down to a minimum, and this pushes many healthful foods-fruits and healthy grains-off the plate.