[Rhonda]: So on the self-experimentation topic, you've been self-experimenting for many years
and I was wondering if throughout your years of experimentation if there are three or four
biomarkers . . . so, you typically measure blood biomarkers routinely.
If there are three or four really important ones that you think are important that you
routinely measure and if they have anything to do with performance or mental acuity or
perhaps aging.
[Tim]: Yeah.
There are a few . . . well, there are many blood markers that I look at.
I had a fun conversation with Pete Attia on the podcast not too long ago about this.
But my markers, the markers that I'm following right now are number one, my millimolar concentration
of ketones.
So I have a device just on the counter over there, a Precision Xtra device by Abbott Labs
that allows me to use both glucose strips and ketone strips.
So I can look at my fasting or waking fasting glucose level and then ketone level and monitor
that after certain types of, say, exercise when the ketone level can drop and so on and
so forth.
Because I've identified for myself, part of the reason I have fat in my tea, is I operated
best mentally at around 1.1 to 1.7 millimolars and I only figured that out by tracking.
[Rhonda]: Very interesting.
[Tim]: Some people, for instance, perform much better the higher concentration.
The higher the concentration of ketones, the better they feel.
I don't fall in that camp.
I was having a conversation with a scientist a few days ago about this.
He said, "Well, really," and this is not a new observation, "But your blood level of
ketones can be gained or increased in many different ways."
So you can just eat a meal that's full of medium chain triglycerides or eat a meal that's
just full of fat in general and you can spike your ketone level.
That's not necessarily indicative of an endogenous production of ketones or you could be fasting
and like deep fasting after five or six or seven days.
In my particular case, I think you also want to look at--and this is true, a lot of very
smart people like Pete Attia, Dom D'Agostino, very, very smart guy, Dominic--would say likely
that it also could be some people utilize ketones better than others.
[Rhonda]: Yes.
[Tim]: So just because you have a high level of ketones, doesn't mean you're necessarily
doing a lot with it.
So in my case, a high level of ketones, my hypothesis is well maybe past a certain point,
my kind of machinery gets very inefficient or gets damaged.
So between 1.1 and 1.7, my brain operates functions at a level reminiscent of pre-Lyme.
That's a whole separate thing.
I kind of knocked out normal cognitive function for nine months due to severe Lyme disease.
But when I am focused on at least a nominal amount of ketones, I feel like my old self.
[Rhonda]: It's interesting.
You mentioned the ketone thing.
I just want to briefly give you my story.
[Tim]: Yeah.
[Rhonda]: So I've never noticed, really, any extreme mental benefits or mental acuity changing
when I consume large amounts of MCT on empty stomach, on whatever.
I found out that I have one ApoE4 allele.
And of course, at that point, I became terrified of Alzheimer's because it increases the risk
for Alzheimer's by two-fold and I'm writing an academic paper on this right now and getting
into all the mechanisms--diet, lifestyle, things like that.
But what I found really interesting are the studies that they've done where they give,
for example, people who have dementia or people in the early stages of Alzheimer's, they give
them beta-hydroxybutyrate, which is a ketone body.
And there's improvement.
[Tim]: I have some synthetic jet fuel in the freezer if you want to try it.
We'll probably both vomit on my couch.
So let's do it later.
[Rhonda]: Yeah.
I've heard it's disgusting.
So people who were ApoE3 responded very well.
So they had improvements in learning and memory.
[Tim]: With a supplemental MCT?
[Rhonda]: With beta-hydroxybutyrate.
They gave them beta-hydroxybutyrate.
But what was interesting to me and also very discouraging was that people with ApoE4 allele
did not have those benefits.
If you look at Alzheimer's, people with Alzheimer's, between 65 and 80% of all people who have
Alzheimer's have one allele of ApoE4.
[Tim]: Oh, well I bet I have that on both sides of my family, then because I have Alzheimer's
on both sides.