Robert Lustig explains why ketones might help brain disorders like Alzheimer's. Ketones bypass damaged mitochondria, reduce oxidative stress, and don't require insulin. Dale Bredesen supports using ketogenic diets for Alzheimer's, though formal testing is still needed.
Chapters
That's one of the reasons why the ketogenic diet might work, is because you don't need insulin. So ketones can substitute as a CNS energy source even when the mitochondria are dysfunctional, even when they're not working right. They will work better on ketones than they will on glucose, because getting from glucose to acetyl COA is its own process, which can be affected negatively, whereas ketones B, bypass that and go straight to the Krebs cycle. Okay. And you'll get less oxidative stress, less reactive oxygen species when you're burning ketones over when you're burning glucose. And it's been shown that the ketogenic diet can improve cognitive parameters in Alzheimer's disease. Maybe every patient with Alzheimer's should be on a ketogenic diet. Well, Dale Bredesen, who wrote the End of Alzheimer's, thinks that that's true. Okay. Now hasn't been tested in a formal fashion. Needs to be.