Hello Health Champions.
Today I want to talk about ketones.
Is ketosis and extreme and dangerous state or are ketones safe and maybe even a superior
fuel for the brain?
Coming right up.
Hello I am Dr. Ekberg a holistic doctor and former Olympic decathlete.
And if you truly want to master health by understanding how the body really works make
sure you subscribe and hit that notification bell so you don't miss anything.
Even though the ketogenic diet and ketones become popular because they help people lose
weight the most significant thing about ketones is that they are an alternative fuel for the
brain and because ketones can fuel the brain when we have a scarcity of food then they
act as a survival mechanism.
It is one of the most important things humans have learned to do to survive whenever there's
a scarcity of carbohydrates or even in a certain low oxygen environment.
Ketones and the ketogenic diet have been called a fad so a lot of people think that ketones
that must be a rather new thing but actually bacteria and something called Arcadia a very
primitive life-form dating back 2 to 3 billion years were using ketones for fuel so Ketone
was one of the foundations of life on the planet.
But how come so many people are still afraid of ketones that something dangerous in the
extreme and the same eating frequent meals and lots of carbohydrate is a good thing well
as long as we have been on the planet humans and every other species the key to survival
has been to find enough food to survive and when we didn't when there's a lack of food
then humans and other species starve to death and then of course when food is available
we want to eat as much as possible and as frequently as possible to put on some fat
so we can survive the next famine fasting and starvation on the other hand whether it's
involuntary or voluntary is when the body makes ketones and when were nearly starving
to death is when the body makes the most keytones.
So then it is easy to make that association that keytones would be something bad and something
extreme that we should avoid at all cost now after thousands of years living in hostile
environments fighting for our survival it's not so strange that we appreciate a little
bit of comfort I mean who wouldn't prefer this nice table over sitting hungry in a damp
cave but maybe we are becoming a little too comfortable interestingly they have found
in research especially in the field of anti-aging and Longevity research then if you struggle
a little bit that's the body becomes a little uncomfortable like if you're starving or if
you're missing a few meals on purpose like an intermittent fasting or if you're running
for your life or if you're doing it on purpose like in high intensity interval training those
are some of the best things that you can do for your health because it activates survival
jeans when your body fears for its life when you punish it a little bit when It suffers
a little bit now it has a reason to get better if up regulates growth hormone upregulates
in unity all of those things that we talked about before with apothogy and so forth whereas
if we have too much comfort now the body has no reason to get better and without any challenges
then the body becomes complacent and we start the process of degeneration most of the organism
issues in the body like heart and lungs and intestines they can use a variety of fuel
they can use things like fat and protein but the brain can’t use fat or protein the brain
can only burn glucose and ketones and when there is plenty of food when there's plenty
of carbohydrates than the brain is going to run on virtually 100% of glucose however when
there is a scarcity now the body has that back up to of the Ketone and they can provide
as much as 75% of the fuel for the brain leaving only 25% to be covered by glucose the brain
is a greedy Master even though everything in the body depends on everything else for
the brain isn't a master in the sense that other things are unimportant the brain does
regulate everything in the body.
I need to make sure that it gets fed first so the brain is only about 2% of your body
weight but if uses 20% of your energy 20% of all the calories in oxygen and fuel in
the body is used up by that small brain for the average person that 20% comes out to about
400 to 500 calories and if we're running on glucose alone that's about a 100grams to 125
grams of glucose because there's 4 calories per gram of glucose where is if we're in ketosis
if we are supplying ketones to fuel the brain we only need 25% of that which is 25 to 30
grams but when were in a ketogenic state or if we are fasting whether we eating less carbs
or not eating anything at all those twenty-five to thirty grams have come from somewhere and
if we're not eating any where do they come from so now the body resorts to something
called gluconeogenesis and that is exactly what it sounds like glucose is sugar, neo
is new and genesis is make.
So it's making glucose from scratch basically and we're not eating anything the body has
two sources to make glucose one is from protein because protein can break down to amino acids
and amino acids convert glucose and the other of course is from fat where the glycerol can
be turned into glucose.
So when you look over here this is a triglyceride this is how fat is stored on the body and
this is how fat is ingested when you dietary fast then virtually all of that is in the
form of triglycerides so the white squiggly lines here they are this fatty acids they
can be burned as fat give us 9 calories per gram but they cannot turn into glucose at
all however this little back bone that holds the triglyceride together that's the glycerol
and this is a 3 carbon chain and those carbon can go back in and make glucose and why am
I making a big deal out of that what is the huge and enormous significance of that little
tidbit it is that even when you're not eating then you're burning fat and when you're breaking
down fat that glycerol can become glucose so when you are fat adapted and burning in
a fast then you don't have to use amino acids you don't have to break down protein to make
glucose so this is muscle sparing we don't have to use protein for fuel humans are unique
in many ways but the most unique thing about humans is our brain there many different features
the first is that we have one of the largest brains relative to the body size secondly
we have the most folded brain the surface of the brain looks like a walnut and goes
in and out and that's the increase the surface area so that we can fit a larger number of
neuron rain cells on that surface and we can enter connect them with more synopsis more
connection so we can make more complex neural networks and we can do things that no other
species can do we also have a much bigger frontal lobe than any other species in the
frontal lobe is what makes us human that we can do abstract thought and planning and motivation
and we can think forward and about things this big and unique brain also requires a
lot of energy like you said the adult brain uses up 20% of all your energy and this comes
with some challenges because if you have a big brain and there's no food available then
the brain still has to have its fuel so now if you want to survive then you have two choices
you can either shrink the brain sort of devolve or you can get better at making ketones you
can develop an alternative fuel and you can get better at that the only life-form that
uses more energy for the brain than the adult human is of course the baby human and the
body of a baby is only 5% of its adult weight but the brain is already 20% so relatively
speaking the baby's brain is 4 times larger than the adult brain which means that the
infant required 60 to 70% of all the energy consumed to fuel the brain and here we get
even more evidence of how smart nature it's because the baby brain needs that much energy
the baby is born in ketosis and the colostrum the mother's milk for the first couple of
days is much higher in protein and fat than the mother milk a week or two or three in
the process of lactose sugar in milk which is going to be a major source of fuel for
the baby later on takes about 3 days to kick in so in the beginning while everything is
getting established baby is in ketosis and it's using mostly protein and fat.
The baby human is also the fattest species on the planet at birth 15% body fat astronomical
for a baby as a comparison baby seals are born at 10% and most mammals are born at 2
to 3% including monkeys and chimpanzees the very very lean when they're born but the human
is born prematurely is born with a huge brain and it needs some fat reserves it need some
energy reserves just in case there's not an immediate food supply the first two days after
birth so this fat can keep the brain fed and also provide some energy for the rest of the
body to grow and develop the organs now if fasting produces ketones than wouldn’t you
think that the master of fasting the bear with hibernate means it's sleeping for up
to half the year and during that time he eats nothing so on a regular basis it's fast for
6 months do you think that would produce a lot of ketones will actually it doesn't so
for humans when you're less than 0.5 million ketones you're not considered to be in ketosis
and bears do not get over half a milli mole.
Adult humans in comparison can get much higher levels to to 3 milli moles and we don't have
to fast for months to accomplish that 2 to 3 days is enough to get up to those levels
and if we fast for a week or ten days then we can double those level so what about a
baby whose brains are so dependent on fuel well a baby can get up to 2 to 3 milli mole
in a matter of hours 2 to 3 hours of not being fed and the baby is already in a very deep
state of ketosis so where does the bear brain get the fuel?
Well remember this triglyceride that we can break down the fatty acids for energy and
then we have a little bit of glycerol left over that can turn into glucose and it turns
out that they yellow portion the glycerol accounts for about 5% so out of the fat tissue
we can make about 5% of the calories turn into glucose and that is plenty for the bear
because the bear brain it has a huge body using up a lot of fat but the brain is relatively
small requiring less than 5% of the energy in the body so the glucose coming from glycerol
in the bear is more than enough to provide the brain with fuel so it doesn't need ketones.
Humans on the other hand like we said need about 20% of the energy to fuel the brain
so there's no way to get that from glucose alone and therefore we depend on the alternative
fuel to 75 percent of our fuel comes from ketones and then of course the baby which
uses much much more fuel for the brain is even more dependent on ketones so they develop
even faster than are there any other benefits besides survival well dementia end new row
degeneration have been so closely linked to insulin resistant that they often refer to
dementia as type 3 diabetes today.
So what’s going on there?
Well when you are insulin resistant when your tissues in your body becomes insulin resistance
and it goes on for a while then mostly the brain also become insulin-resistant and if
you have a metabolism where you're not making ketones then the brain is 100% dependent on
glucose but if you're insulin-resistant even though your glucose levels in your blood glucose
is high then the brain is still starving it can't get enough fuel because of this metabolic
imbalance so now if you go on a ketogenic diet or if you fast and you become fat adapted
now you can fuel your brain with up to 75percent ketones.
You're providing an alternative fuel that doesn't need insulin to enter the cell so
even if you're insulin-resistant it doesn't affect the Ketones.
It can bypass that insulin resistance and now you can fuel your brain with ketones and
this is probably the mechanism by a lot of people in ketosis notice less brain fog they
notice the improve focus and clarity for some people who do the ketogenic diet to lose weight
they might be surprised that one of the greatest unexpected benefits is that the brain start
working better they also noticed improve memory a lot of times and improve energy so not only
are ketones safe and natural but they have played a key role in helping the human species
survive to this day even more importantly by replacing glucose as the primary fuel for
the brain ketones have allowed brain size to become the most significant factor in human
evolution in other words without developing this ability of producing ketones and using
them for brain fuel humans would never have been able to evolve to who we are today so
if you appreciate your cell phone and your computer and your freezer and your car and
your coffee maker then make sure you thank ketones for that and if you still run into
some well-meaning loving but uninformed person who tries to scare you away from ketones then
just send them a link to this video if you enjoy this video then I think you're really
going to love that one next thank you so much for watching I'll see you next time