What concentration of Ketones may beneficial?

[Mob0]

Hi everyone. I hope you are having a blessed day...

I am hoping those with much more experience and research under their belt can share their thoughts or point to relevant reference material...

I am currently adhering to 5day/week 18+hour of nightly fast. I eat last meal around 5-6 PM. In the morning, I have the following:

6:00 am .25tsp ceylon cinnamon (simply organic brand) in water

6:30 am coffee /w mct oil (70% c8, 30% c10 - micronutrients organic powder)

(Exercise....)

8:30 C/L 1.5 x 25/100; .5mg pramilexole; 50/200 C/L ER

9:30 am second dose of mct oil and coffee

10:00 am second dose of .25tsp (for total of .5tsp/day) cinnamon...

Eat around 12:00 - something like mind or Mediterranean diet... definitely not keto...

Here comes the question. I use urine ketone test strips to measure my ketone levels.. the max I have registered is something between .5-1.5, after 18+ hour of fasting!

Is there any evidence (scientific or otherwise) that this is getting to the brain and doing any good?

This is a new regiment for me: 3 days into it...

Thank you.

[mitochondria]

Hi Mob0 ,

Welcome to HU forum. Great job on fasting and low carb… for the third day you are doing amazing, given that there is generally a keto adaptation period.

I have been on OMAD (with keto coffee) since 2019 and OMAD with strict keto since 2021 - inspired by Dr Matthew CL Phillips’ Parkinson’s randomized control trial. You can look into his RCTs in Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Case studies in Huntington’s, ALS and worst type of cancer - Glioblastoma on his website at metabolicneurologist.com/. His Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s study patients had an average ketone level of around 1.

Yes, there is plenty of scientific evidence (listed in his papers) and it is growing.

I am not sure if there is an established “concentration of ketone” for Parkinson’s. Ketone and glucose levels may vary depending on the time of the day and time of previous meal/keto coffee/exercise/amount of protein, carb... Initially you may want to measure different times of the day and then stick to one consistent time per day.

Blood ketone monitors may be more accurate and are generally considered the standard. Also Glucose, Ketone Index (GKI) may be a better measure than Ketone by itself. This is from the website of the meter I use:

keto-mojo.com/glucose-keton...

I haven’t been taking keto coffee or exogenous ketones like MCT oil in the last two years.

Dr Matt’s therapy plan with recipes from different cultures/ethnicities is on his website - superb - following the recipes will definitely get good ketone #s.

Best to you.

[Mob0 in reply to mitochondria]

Hi. Thanks for the reply. I suppose you have found keto diet beneficial for at least some of your symptoms, since you have been on it for that long...

I tried keto 3 years ago (for roughly a year), before I started taking L/C medicine. Either it had helped control tremor/progression or thing had not yet advanced as much, after 4 years of diagnosis. The drawback was that my bad cholestrol had shut through the roof and I actually had periodic heart pain... I stopped that diet... Have you experienced any such issues with keto diet?

My latest test involves intermittent fasting, with some MCT oil addition to see if it increases the Ketone levels.... what you said makes perfect sense. I will need to either get over the couch factor and get a blood ketone monitor or realize that the urine test is reflecting ketone levels from 2-3 hours ago.

Thanks

[kaypeeoh in reply to mitochondria]

The human animal has only three sources of energy: Proteins (amino acids). Fat (fatty acids) and Carbs (simple sugars). The capitalized words are what we swallow. The uncapitalized words are the result of digestive enzymes. Enzymes break all ingesta into small enough chemicals that can be shunted into the blood stream, liver, muscles, etc.

When consuming less carbs, the body begins to make ketones. In time the ketones become energy. Ketones become the brain's preferred source of energy. Studies show that children with epilepsy stop having seizures when eating a ketone diet.

In the Parkinson's world, some believe symptoms can be controlled by eating a ketone diet. They may be right, I dunno. I was interested in a ketone diet years ago as a way of losing weight. If you eat a ketone diet--like Atkins--you'll lose weight. At least I did.

But eating Atkins can lead to prostate concerns. At least it did for me. Atkins is a high-fat diet. Typically it's eating 80-90% fat diets. That's been shown to lead to prostate cancer.

So I quit the low carb business. It can be done but prostate cancer goes back three generations in my family. So for me prostate cancer is more of a concern than Parkinson's Disease. Like I said, Atkins can be done but it's not easy if you want ketosis without eating animal fat.

I tried various ways to induce ketosis. Such as eating MCTs. My problem may be that my only Parkinson's Symptom is an arm tremor. Standard medicines control it somewhat but ketone diet doesn't control it any better.

When first diagnosed I went to Dr Google who said an early Parkinson's sign is weight loss. I thought, cool, I'll lose weight.

But three years later I'm 30# heavier.