Hi I am new here. Thanks for your supporting forum.Since hearing about the the potential of keto for mental health and M.E., both which affect me, I have studied and learned the science behind this diet, and have recently started keto. My question is for those who have some experience with sick people. I have an illness (M.E.) that prevents me from vigorous excercise that I love to do, confines my activity level to about 20% to 30% of one year ago, and forces me to rest often. The mechanism of my illness is poorly understood, but it is certain that my mitochondrial function has deteriorated. For this reason I am using keto. As I chart my keto course I am curious if my sedentary lifestyle would dictate a lower protein intake or lower carb intake than is generally accepted as normal? My ketones are presently about .5, and I need to chart a course to put them above 2. Thanks for your help.
Keto For Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
If you’re at 0.5 and need to get to 2, you don’t have many options. Higher fat might work. MCT oils will help. Lower carbs should help, but you might get to “zero” carbs and still not be hitting a higher ketone level.
Longer fasts can help too.
I don’t THINK the amount of exercise is that relevant for ketones, but I don’t know.
Have you also tried exogenous ketones to see if they help? (NOTE:keto machines only test one type of BHB, either D or L, I forget which one. But some of the exogenous ketones might use the other one, meaning that your actual BHB level will be higher than what the reading says.)
Thanks for the suggestions. I am starting to use MCT oil, and also exchanging protein calories for olive oil. I am experiencing the benefit of a rise in ketones to 1mmol/L, but am still unsure about how much actual protein I am eating. I am doing keto on a budget, so I am trying to make the fundamentals work for me, and avoid the extra expense of exogenous ketones, but thanks for the suggestion. Could you give me some information about fasting? At what point when starting keto is fasting recommended? I am 60 years old and my body does not handle stress well, so I will have to go incrementally. Thanks for your help
Don’t worry about protein, so long as you are abstaining from sugar, starches, and grains and are keeping the rest of your carb intake minimal. Fat “burns” more cleanly in the muscle cells, with a great deal fewer reactive oxygen species and no advanced glycation end-products. This will allow your mitochondria to heal and to produce healthy new mitochondria.
As much as possible, avoid mitochondrial toxins, such as industrial solvents, tobacco smoke, air pollution. Try to keep calm, since chronically elevated stress hormones can also damage mitochondria (acute stress that doesn’t last is fine; it’s ongoing stress that is the problem). Keep your alcohol, BCAA (branched-chain amino acid), and fructose consumption as low as you can, because they, too, are mito-toxins in any kind of quantiy.
Bear in mind that athletes generally notice a drop in their endurance when they start a ketogenic diet. Normal people often don’t notice, but you might, with your condition. Fear not, this is a temporary situation. After years of damage from the standard Western diet, the mitochondria in the skeletal muscles have mostly shut down their ability to metabolise fatty acids and they have to heal and re-activate metabolic pathways in the cell that are also needed. In the meantime, they limp along on ketones. Once they are fully fat-adapted (also called keto-adapted), they prefer to metabolise fatty acids, passing up glucose and ketones for the bodily cells that really need them.
Your serum ketone level is primarily an indicator that your insulin has dropped to a level low enough that ketogenesis in the liver is possible. It is the drop in serum glucose and serum insulin that is the real goal here, since hyperglycaemia and hyperinsulinaemia are both damaging to the body.
Do not fear whatever happens to your cholesterol levels. Cholesterol is essential to the proper functioning of many important systems in the body, from the brain and nervous system to the immune system. It is the precursor chemical from which many very important hormones are made, and it is a necessary part of the membranes that keep every cell in your body intact.
I appreciate your thoughtful answer PaulL. Its the biochemistry of past chronic stress that has done mischief.; I can fully validate your statement “Try to keep calm, since chronically elevated stress hormones can also damage mitochondria”. The keto diet and associated biochemical therapy is the only path I see to mitochondrial restoration. I am thankful for this therapy.