LifeOmic Health Roundup: Keto Diets, Guts and Brains
This week at LIFE Apps: What are the potential benefits of ketogenic diets? Can your genes determine how your brain heals? Does intermittent fasting affect reproductive cycles?
I’ve got Keto on the brain
Through learning and researching about the ketogenic diet, I found a lot of great science-based information, but I also found a lot of misinformation. I’ve also found that a lot of people know HOW to do the diet but they don’t understand the WHY behind it. — Kristie Rice, LIFE Apps
This week LifeOmic introduced a new blogger, Kristie Rice, who will be covering the science behind ketogenic diet for LIFE Apps. Kristie has a Master’s degree in microbiology and immunology and a keen interest in nutrition and wellness, partly driven by her own journey with an autoimmune disorder. Follow Nourish My Gut at lifeapps.io to learn more about keto and its impacts on gut health, brain health, immune function and more.
On the topic of keto, a study published this week in the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism investigated the production and metabolism of ketone bodies in the brains of 34 patients with traumatic brain injury. Ketone bodies are compounds produced during the metabolism of fats and particularly associated with a state of ketosis for fat burning.
The researchers found that brain ketones were significantly elevated in the acute brain injury phase, while patients were still in a fasted state, and decreased with intermittent feeding and decreased further with stable feeding. Why is this important? The brain can use and may even prefer to use ketone bodies as an alternative source of energy when glucose availability is low (for example in the aging brain) or when the metabolism of glucose in the brain via glycolysis is impaired following brain injury. The metabolism of ketone bodies in the brain produces fewer reactive oxygen species than the metabolism of glucose does. Metabolism of ketones may also suppress activation of inflammatory processes that can harm brain cells if overactive.
In addition to their role as brain energy fuel, accumulating evidences demonstrate that KB have several neuroprotective effects, including anti-seizure activity, improvement of cognitive function and motor performance, protection against oxidative stress and decrease in traumatic and ischemic cerebral damage. — Modulation of cerebral ketone metabolism following traumatic brain injury in humans, 2018
Brain injury and genetic risk factors of Alzheimer’s disease
Approximately 65 million people worldwide suffer a traumatic brain injury every year. In the U.S., 5% of affected individuals die and over 40% suffer long-term disability. Mechanical force from a trauma (e.g., motor vehicle accident, fall, sports injury, blast injury) can bruise the brain and damage the blood-brain barrier. But did you know that depending on your genes, brain injuries put you at more risk for Alzheimer’s disease?
We know that individuals with an ApoE4 variant of Apolipoprotein E, a protein that controls the transport of fats in the body, also alters inflammatory responses in the brain and predisposes certain people to Alzheimer’s disease. Based on a new study, the APOE4 gene variant may also contribute to Alzheimer’s disease risk by delaying repair of the blood-brain barrier following brain injury.
Do you wear a helmet when you ride a bike or play sports? If you have the APOE4 gene variant, this could be even more important to protect your brain from neurodegenerative diseases. A ketogenic diet or diet rich in other energy alternatives may also be beneficial, as ApoE4 appears to be associated with poor glucose update and metabolism in the brain.
To learn more about brain injuries, APOE4 genotype and Alzheimer’s disease, check out our latest LIFE Apps blog post by Raeesa Gupte, PhD, “Can your genes determine how your brain heals?”
How keto diets and intermittent fasting may impact your period
As intermittent fasting becomes more popular, women who fast regularly might have questions about how fasting could impact their reproductive cycle, hormones and reproductive health. While there is limited research on how intermittent fasting or ketogenic diets may impact reproductive cycles in humans, we can take some clues from research involving other metabolic and lifestyle traits and behaviors such as weight, exercise and caloric restriction. Learn more at lifeapps.io.
