To confirm you are in a state of ketosis, measure your blood ketones and aim for levels between 1 and 3 millimolar, with a minimum of 0.5 millimolar. This helps verify if a ketogenic diet or intervention is effective.
To optimize gut health and microbiome diversity on a ketogenic diet, ensure you include a diverse variety of raw vegetables as carbohydrate sources.
Beyond macronutrient ratios, optimize your ketogenic diet by focusing on the sources of fats, the type of protein, and the quality and type of carbohydrates, as these factors are crucial for individual health and gut microbiome diversity.
When following a ketogenic diet, ensure your protein intake is moderate to low, not high, as many people mistakenly consume a high-protein, moderate-fat diet instead of a true ketogenic diet. High protein can hinder ketosis.
If you plan to try a ketogenic diet, start by consulting a savvy dietitian who can tailor and tweak the diet to your specific needs, as their experience is invaluable.
For a more accessible approach to therapeutic ketosis, consider the Modified Atkins Diet, which is 65-70% fat, 20-30% protein, and 5-10% carbohydrates, allowing for more protein and incorporating medium-chain fatty acids while maintaining therapeutic potency.
Tailor your ketogenic diet to your individual sensitivities, such as avoiding dairy or nuts if you have allergies or intolerances, to optimize your personal health and adherence.
To support gut health while on a ketogenic diet, ensure your diet includes a liberal amount of vegetables, as this has been associated with better gut health for some individuals.
Incorporate vegetables into your ketogenic diet as carriers for fat, as they help slow protein digestion, minimize insulin spikes, and aid in maintaining ketosis.
To achieve a mild state of ketosis with better GI tolerance than liquid MCT oil, use MCT powder, consuming 4-8 scoops daily mixed with water, coffee, or tea.
Even when using ketone supplements, prioritize a whole-food diet free of refined crap and processed foods, as a poor diet will significantly diminish the benefits of ketones.
To promote metabolic flexibility and enhance the long-term effectiveness of interventions, cycle between different dietary strategies like a paleo diet, a low-carb ketogenic diet, and intermittent fasting on occasional days, rather than strictly adhering to one continuously.
Maintain a state of ketosis to leverage its anti-catabolic and protein-sparing effects, which help protect gluconeogenic amino acids and skeletal muscle from degradation.
When on a ketogenic diet, ensure you consume ample amounts of fat, as insufficient fat intake can lead to a more catabolic state.
Utilize ketones to help control appetite, as they have a satiating effect by sending energy to the brain and can shut off hypoglycemic triggers that lead to food cravings or binges.
For potential cancer prevention or post-treatment care, consider a ketogenic intermittent fasting protocol where you consume ketogenic fats and ketone supplements for 20 hours, followed by a four-hour window to eat a well-balanced ketogenic meal rich in vegetables and healthy fats and protein.
Discuss with your doctor the potential of metformin as a preventative therapy, especially if you are at risk for certain cancers like pancreatic cancer, given studies showing a significant reduction in risk for type 2 diabetics taking the drug.
If taking metformin, be aware of potential vitamin B12 deficiency and consider supplementing with a sublingual form or B12 injections, especially as B12 absorption decreases with age.
If taking drugs that need to cross the blood-brain barrier (e.g., chemotherapeutics), consider inducing ketosis through fasting or a ketogenic diet, as this may increase blood-brain barrier permeability and facilitate faster drug transport.
If you have gastrointestinal or liver cancer, avoid supplementing with glutamine and minimize high glutamine-containing foods, as these cancers may utilize glutamine for growth.
If you have impaired GI function due to systemic treatments (e.g., for a brain tumor) and do not have GI or liver cancer, a small amount (5-10 grams) of oral glutamine may be helpful to repair your gut.
A classical ketogenic diet (low to moderate protein) can help lower blood glutamine levels, which may be beneficial in certain cancer contexts.
To further suppress glutamine levels, select protein food sources that are lower in glutamine and consider avoiding glutamine supplementation, opting instead for supplements high in essential amino acids (excluding glutamine).
Consider consuming lauric acid (C12) as it has been shown to suppress ghrelin, a hunger hormone, in the gut.
To achieve nutritional ketosis, a classical ketogenic diet typically involves a 4:1 or 3:1 ratio of fat to combined carbohydrates and protein, often translating to 85-90% fat, 8-10% protein, and minimal carbohydrates, historically relying heavily on dairy fat.
Research suggests that ketone supplementation, even on a high-carbohydrate diet, can reduce tumor growth and proliferation and increase survival time in aggressive metastatic cancer models, indicating potential anti-cancer effects.
Studies suggest that giving mice supplemental vitamin E or N-acetylcysteine (NAC), which potently sequester reactive oxygen species, can actually allow tumors to grow faster, implying caution with antioxidants in cancer contexts.
For a powerful form of exogenous ketones, look for ketone esters (currently in development for human use) which have shown significant effects, such as preventing CNS oxygen toxicity.