First of all, wow. I’m blown away by the response to last week’s post, which was a series of quick takeaways from the recent Symposium for Metabolic Health, hosted by LowCarbUSA.
Doug Reynolds and Pam Devine were kind enough to share it in the LowCarbUSA newsletter. Anna Vocino and Vinnie Tortorich spent a whole episode talking about it on their wildly popular Fitness Confidential podcast.
So a big WELCOME to all the folks who subscribed this weekend, and thank you! I’m so glad you’re here, and I hope I can make it worth your while.
old-timers
I just learned today is Grandparents’ Day — which has apparently been a thing since 1978. My own grandparents all passed away long ago, but it’s nice to take a moment today and remember them.
My Grandma Moore, in particular, was an amazing person. Born in 1908, she was a lifelong New York City schoolteacher. A true New Yorker, she had a sharp tongue that could set your head spinning any time you came at her with one of those annoying kid-questions or kid-complaints.
Kid: “What’s for dinner?”
Grandma: “Stewed Keggigies.”
Or,
Kid: “How much does that cost?”
Grandma: “A dollar-five-eleven.”
Or my personal favorite:
Kid: “I look so stupid in this outfit!”
Grandma: “Oh, who’s looking at you anyway?”
Her comebacks were legendary, and my siblings and I still crack each other up remembering them. So it was extra sad when, in her final years, her wit was stolen away by the disease that takes more and more of us every year: dementia.
That’s why I was so interested in a talk at last week’s conference by Amy Berger titled “Ketogenic Therapies for Neurological & Neurodegenerative Disorders.” In it, she gives some eye-opening insights into the relationship between food and brain health, and how diet may be a treatment for Alzheimer’s and other brain disorders.
energy on the brain
Berger begins her talk with an inconvenient truth and a provocative question. Despite years of development, Alzheimer’s drugs don’t really work. (The reason why is a fascinating and scandalous story, which I hope to cover in a future post).
The standard of care for Alzheimer’s and neurodegenerative disease, she says, is “Take your meds and say your prayers. Is this really the best we have to offer people?”
Berger then goes on to highlight emerging research from the worlds of Alzheimer’s, dementia, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, ALS, and Huntington’s disease that may point to a better way. With all these diseases, she says, there’s one common theme: energy.
Berger quotes a 2013 study in the journal Trends in Neuroscience: “Neurons are largely intolerant of inadequate energy supply, and thus the high energy demand of the brain predisposes it to a variety of diseases if energy supplies are disrupted.”
In other words, these diseases are signs of an fuel shortage. In Alzheimer’s, a person may have plenty of glucose in the bloodstream, but there’s some problem getting this fuel into the brain. Likely, it has to do with the brain cells becoming resistant to insulin. That’s why some researchers have taken to calling Alzheimer’s “Type 3 Diabetes,” or “Diabetes of the Brain.”
This is where the ketogenic diet comes in. When the body burns fat, it produces molecules called ketones, which the brain uses as fuel. Ketones keep working, even when glucose metabolism is impaired.
Think of it this way: if your brain is a plug-in hybrid, then carbohydrates are gasoline and ketones are battery power. By cutting the carbs, you can still get around on an electric charge, even when the gas tank is empty.
Photo credit: Croteau, E., et al., A cross-sectional comparison of brain glucose and ketone metabolism in cognitively healthy older adults, mild cognitive impairment and early Alzheimer's disease. Exp Gerontol. 2018 Jul 1;107:18-26.
Several recent studies have shown promise in using the diet for Alzheimer’s, cognitive impairment, Parkinson’s and MS — at times slowing the progression of the disease, at times improving symptoms, and sometimes even delaying the onset of disease at all.
Berger’s final question is one that rings true to me: “Why not try ketogenic therapies?” The more I learn about the ketogenic diet and its benefits for gut health, metabolic health, heart health, and yes, brain health, I can’t help but say the same: why not?
podcast time!
I had the good fortune of sitting down with Amy last year for a live YouTube event. We talked Atkins, weight loss, brain health, and many other topics. Amy’s specialty is what she calls “keto without the crazy” — cutting through all the maddening, conflicting advice to keep the diet simple and sustainable.
One of my favorite quotes: “The shift that cascades into all these beneficial health effects comes from lower blood sugar and lower insulin — from having a fat-based metabolism. It doesn’t come because your food is organic, or because your beef is grass-fed, or because there’s no soybean oil. Period. The research shows this very clearly: none of that stuff is really an issue, because none of that has been part of the protocol in any of the studies. So don’t let that minutia trip you up. The biggest bang for your buck is going to come from ditching the carbs.”
As a bonus to accompany this post, I’m putting out the audio from that interview as a podcast. You can click the Play button above, or find it on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify, among others. Hope you enjoy!
amy berger on keto for brain and body health