Help with ketone levels

#1

This is the first post I’ve started here.

Am in my 5th plus month of a 9mth clinical trial for preventing and reversing cognitive decline. It’s a multimodal approach that includes being keto.

Here’s where I can use some help/feedback.

I’m struggling to maintain levels at or above 1.0 (which is what they want)

I exercise a lot (mostly dance/Pilates/hiking) and I’m finding that for me, my levels are higher when I test just 1 hr post eating.

As examples: This morning I had 2 eggs, salmon, 1/2 avocado w/Tbs O Oil, and jicama sticks with mixed nut butter. After 2.5 hrs of exercise, my level was just 0.3. (I didn’t have an opportunity to test earlier)

Yesterday at lunch : Chicken Kale soup w/2 Tbs O Oil, whole avocado, jicama w/nut butter Ketone level: 0.9

Any suggestions would be appreciated. I’m ApoE4 positive (the gene that predisposes one to Alzheimer’s disease) so they want me to limit the use of saturated fats like Coconut Oil and MCT oil as they are inflammatory for me so I’m using avocado oil and olive oil in abundance w/nut butters, nuts, etc.

#2

You against exogenous ketones? Sounds like you wouldn’t need much. Given your situation you’re actually one of the few that could directly benefit from higher levels, that and trying to stay away from MCTs which are great for raising them I’d say it fits. Dumping the Jicama may help, easy to overdo.

#3

Thanks Ifod14-I sent a note to my nutritionist associated with the study asking if that’s a good fit for me and if so what brands he’d recommend. Re: the jicama, I have at most 4 small sticks at a time-great prebiotic food I’m told, drenched in mixed nut butter. I can’t imagine that amount would be too much but maybe it is?

(Kristen Ann) #4

Calling @KetoCancerMom… I believe she has experience with keeping ketones high/GKI low for fighting cancer.

‘Fasting’ with HWC makes my ketones increase above the 1.0 level.

(Allie) #5

I would lose the nut butter and jicama personally and see what effect that has, especially as it mixed nut butter, assuming with oils - cooked how, what nuts, which oils?

(Jane) #6

Sadly, she lost her fight with cancer.

:cry:

(Kristen Ann) #7

That’s heartbreaking… I’m so sorry for her family. Thank you for sharing. :cry:

#8

4 small sticks, probably not. Nut butters take people out all the time though. I can’t even been in the same room as one or that crap is GONE!

(Candace) #9

I’ve been reading a lot about preventing and helping cognitive decline. Out of the two books I’ve read, one said to be plant-based, the other was using a form of ketosis, but wanted people to be mostly plant-based, no dairy, no gluten, some whole grains and use meat as a condiment. So the idea that there is a trial suggesting keto makes me happy!

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #10

The point of the ketogenic diet as an aid to cognitive function is not that it be vegetarian, but that it be ketogenic. The food source is irrelevant, so long as your liver is producing ketone bodies. The ketone body β-hydroxybutyrate is a great source of fuel for the brain.

Researchers into Alzheimer’s disease have started calling it Type III diabetes, because they consider it to be the result of insulin resistance of the brain. As I understand matters, even when the glucose-metabolising pathway in brain cells has been damaged, the pathway that metabolises β-hydroxybutyrate can still work just fine. The amyloid plaque and neurofibrillary tangles that used to be considered the causes of Alzheimer’s disease are now understood to be the results of the disease, and a ketogenic diet has been shown to be helpful for helping clear them up. Apparently cognitive decline can be reversed in its early stages, but past a certain point it becomes irreversible. Though a well-formulated ketogenic diet, and possibly some exogenous ketone bodies, can help keep the decline from worsening.

Moreover, since cholesterol is an important component of brain cells and is essential to the proper functioning of neurons and synapses, cholesterol-lowering drugs would not seem to be appropriate for people experiencing a cognitive decline.