Inositol research & Application to Keto

(Failed) #1

Could we have a discussion of the pros and cons of inositol?

I started taking it (along with choline bitartrate) several times a day on June 14, 2019 before I even thought about doing a ketogenic diet. My goal was to reduce my blood sugar levels by increasing insulin sensitivity. Also hoping for an improvement in my vision which is damaged from diabetic retinopathy.

By June 24th, I had drifted into a ketogenic diet because I simply was not hungry and had no desire for carbs.

On July 15th, I started a 7 day fast, having stumbled onto Dr. Fungā€™s books. It was amazingly easy. No hunger or cravings as long as I kept taking inositol and choline throughout the day.

Here is a list of the sites I used to research inositol.

https://healthsupplementsnutritionalguide.com/inositol/

#2

I havenā€™t looked into inositol before, but apparently there are two types: D-Chiro-Inositol and myo-inositol.

I found a study or two explaining the mecahisms but I havenā€™t read far enough to know if it is still useful or compatible with keto. I think it alters glucose storage more toward hepatic glycogen but itā€™s got complicated acronyms. This may take some time to chase down the cause and effect of how it works.

Inositol has been described as a second messenger system that may exert an insulinlike effect on metabolic enzymes. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20811299

I donā€™t know anything about the neurotransmitter effects, which may be what you experienced?. :woman_shrugging:

I make sure to get an adequate supply of choline by eating extra egg yolks and some liverwurst. I did supplement it for a while, but I chose the lecithin form rather than choline bitartrate.

https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/blog/2010/12/04/meeting-choline-requirement-eggs-organs/
https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/blog/2019/04/17/the-choline-database/

(Bunny) #3

That alone can reverse a fatty liver and pancreas in my opinion and possibly reverse diabetes (even without severe carbohydrate restrictions) and the best natural source (not a man made supplement) for that is steak (the carnitine shuttle/organic grass fed livestock), liver and eggs (lecithin/choline/organic free range {eating bugs and grass not just corn, grain or soybean fed} chicken eggs).

I would be eating a lot of steak, liver and eggs if I had uncontrolled diabetes?

Maybe even invest (to save my life) in raising my own chickens?

(PJ) #4

Hi @DeeCS

So a long time ago I bought this supplement called IP-6 Gold. This was originally produced and co-marketed by a dude whoā€™d been a leading cancer researcher for a long time. Allegedly, research shows the combination of inositol hexaphosphate and just inositol has effects better than either of them alone. (There is ā€œIP6ā€ plain, without the ā€˜goldā€™ brand, available all over amazon.com by the way.)

I took it twice a day for about a week and had to admit it really did increase my energy level, though that was not why I was taking it. For health reasons I had so many other supplements going on at the time, I stopped it, merely from the competition of having to take so damn many things I was sick of drinking powdered stuff all day.

I considered restarting it some time ago but being keto it uses a few carbs. And I could mix it into a protein shake or something but it comes in some flavor like too sweet mango that clashed so I just hadnā€™t bothered.

In any case I had only good from it. There is an FAQ page for that particular brand/product here: https://www.ip6gold.com/faq

Edited to add: here is the amazon product page for one listing, with a lot of reviews.

PJ

(AnnaLeeThal) #5

When I had a consultation with a fertility doctor he told me to take myo-inositol for PCOS. I think it is supposed to work similarly to metformin.

#6

Hereā€™s a study comparing Metformin to Myo-inositol. While the efficacy is similar, the mechanism appears different. Apologies for not digging deeper into it yet, but anything that alters insulin response and glucose metabolism interests me enough to want to understand it better. Question is, will someone see the same benefits after eliminating carbs from the diet? Or does keto render inositol redundant? Or does it depend on whether the person has a deficiency to start with?

Some investigations20-24 suggest that the inositol phosphoglycan (IPP) second messengers cascade could be impaired in PCOS leading to an insulin resistance. Myo-inositol (MYO) is an isomer of a C6 sugar alcohol and it is an insulin- sensitizing agent, previously classified as belonging to the vitamin B complex25. Recent studies demonstrated that MYO has a role in the activation of the glucose metabolism controlling
enzymes26,28, and MYO deficiency was found in PCOS women with IR26. The administration of MYO was found to enhance ovulation, to decrease testosterone and insulin levels in serum, therefore, restoring the metabolic and hormonal profile of PCOS women with IR27,26. https://www.europeanreview.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/077-082-A-comparative-study-between-myo-inositol-and-metformin-in-the-treatment-of-insulin-resistant-women.pdf

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #7

Any studies of KD vs. inositol? I donā€™t suppose so, and I know itā€™s only anecdotal, but a lot of women on these forums have experienced healing from PCOS on just keto alone. If there were an actual study, it ought to have some useful data.

(Failed) #8

I only have my own personal experience and I donā€™t have PCOS, so I donā€™t know how broadly it can be applied. I started low carb 6 weeks ago.

I never intended to go keto or even low-carb; the reason I started inositol is because my blood sugars were so far out of control. After taking it for only a few days, I slowly drifted into low-carb because I simply had no desire for sweets or starches. That, for me, is crazy. Prior to taking the inositol, I preferred to live on popcorn, cookies, jellybeans, anything carby.

Then I read about Dr. Fung and got into IF & EF and am enjoying this life.

If I start to crave carbs, I realize it is not carbs I want, but a mechanism to allow my cells to eat, so I put some inositol and choline in water and drink it. Works. Every . Single. Time.

(Bob M) #9

The ā€œproblemā€ with keto is there are so few studies using keto diets, let alone studies on anything Iā€™d like to see.

This was a study of (ostensibly) sperm quality in men, but the men had metabolic syndrome (MS):

For the markers they took, the men experienced better markers (eg, more testosterone, better HOMA IR score, etc.). Unfortunately, they took the following:

The patients were treated by a dietary supplement administered twice a day containing 1 g MI, 30 mg L-carnitine, L-arginine and vitamin E, 55 Ī¼g selenium, and 200 Ī¼g folic acid (Andrositol, Lo.Li. Pharma s.r.l., Rome).

Some MI (myoinositol) but other stuff too.

Then thereā€™s this:

https://healthybutsmart.com/inositol/

But without going through that evidence, which means spending hours looking into this area, I canā€™t tell how valid those opinions are.

And of course none of these are on keto people.

With all of these, I try them myself and see what I think. For most supplementation, I have been unable to determine a benefit (though there could be one), but can determine detriments. Iā€™ve tried high iodine doses, a liver protocol, both of which I think are suspect (though I still take some iodine, sometimes). You have to try them and see.