Is the High-Fat, Low-Carb Ketogenic Diet Right for You?
By: T.J Murphy
Sep 19, 2016
The diet has quietly become the rage among ultra-endurance athletes and elite soldiers, and it’s a surprisingly yummy way to fuel up.
In the past several years, as measured by Google Trends, interest in an unusual style of eating called the ketogenic diet has tripled, and chances are you have a friend or coworker who’s tried it. Early adopters are typically people who run or ride a lot and want a food plan that doesn’t just fill their tanks but also boosts performance. Followers scarf eggs, cheese, and olive oil in hunger-killing quantities, turning their backs on just about every carb other than vegetables. They don’t use half-and-half in their coffee—they use heavy cream. Still, they’re likely to look a little lean, since the ketogenic diet turns them into 24/7 fat burners. (Even while surfing the couch.) And don’t be surprised if they report feeling better and stronger than ever.
Ketones are a type of organic substance that includes ketone bodies, a collective name for the three molecules that are produced naturally by the liver when it breaks down fat for energy, a process that the ketogenic diet jump-starts. Under normal circumstances—that is, if you’re eating a standard, balanced diet—your body gets most of its energy by turning carbohydrates into glucose, which cells then convert to energy. If you significantly reduce carb intake (typically to less than 50 grams per day), your body undergoes a fundamental change: it starts relying on fat-generated ketone bodies as its primary energy source. The brain, heart, and muscles can all burn ketone bodies efficiently if you’ve been eating this way for a month or so. This metabolic state is called ketosis.
A Day in Food on the Ketone Diet
How endurance athlete Patrick Sweeney puts away nearly 3,000 calories a day on the ketone diet.
See more→
Historically used as a driver of weight loss, carb restriction has recently gained favor in ultra-endurance circles and the military’s Special Forces. The idea is to radically crank up fat burning so that athletes and soldiers are in ketosis during grueling, survival-like situations. The biochemistry of how ketone bodies aid performance is complicated, but the processes and benefits are summed up well for laypeople by Dr. Ken Ford, a ketones expert who runs the Florida-based Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC), a nonprofit research outfit that’s funded by organizations like DARPA, the National Science Foundation, and the Army, Navy, and Air Force.
“During ketosis, the liver produces ketone bodies that are converted into substances that feed cellular energy production,” Ford says. “So basically, an athlete in ketosis can access additional fuel. Though there’s no scientific reason to believe that a ketogenic diet would increase anaerobic power or muscular strength, there is reason to believe that aerobic capacity and muscular endurance could be improved when sufficient ketone bodies are present to complement glucose.” The upshot is that for lower-intensity, longer-range exertion, ketone bodies offer the physiological equivalent of solar power.
There’s more. Ketone bodies apparently switch on specific genes responsible for a flurry of molecular upgrades, enhancing health and lengthening lifespan. Scientists are now investigating their use for treating everything from traumatic brain injury to cancer.
This broadband interest is new. The diet itself isn’t. Ketosis got a foothold in medicine in the 1920s, when it was used successfully to treat children with epilepsy who didn’t respond to drugs. Labeled the hyperketogenic diet, the regimen gave patients 90 percent of their daily calories from fat to help prevent seizures. “No one knew how it worked,” Nobel Prize–winning biophysicist Rod MacKinnon says. “They just knew it worked.”
More recently, there’s been a keto buzz among endurance athletes. It started in 2012, when Timothy Olson, a runner who follows a ketosis-friendly diet, broke the record at the Western States 100, the rugged, revered annual trail race in the Sierra Nevada. Last year, Zach Bitter, another ketones-adapted runner, set the American record for 100 miles on a track—11 hours 40 minutes 55 seconds. Data from a study conducted by Ohio State human-sciences professor Jeff Volek showed that during Bitter’s runs, as much as 98 percent of his energy can come from fat and only 2 percent from carbs. Your body can store a maximum of around 2,500 carbohydrate calories. But if you’re carrying around, say, 25 pounds of stored fat, that’s the equivalent of roughly 100,000 potential calories. So a fat-adapted runner can, in theory, chug along indefinitely.
Google’s parent company Alphabet is setting up a new “bioelectonics” venture with FTSE 100 pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). GSK will own 55% of the new joint venture, c…
Source: The Body Electric
Google’s parent company Alphabet is setting up a new “bioelectonics” venture with FTSE 100 pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
GSK will own 55% of the new joint venture, called Galvani Bioelectronics, while Alphabet’s Verily Life Sciences (formerly Google Life Sciences) will own the rest.
The two companies will invest £540 million in the new UK-based business over 7 years, as well as contributing intellectual property rights to Galvani. Galvani will “enable the research, development, and commercialisation of bioelectronic medicines.”
The release says that bioelectronics is “a relatively new scientific field that aims to tackle a wide range of chronic diseases using miniaturised, implantable devices that can modify electrical signals that pass along nerves in the body, including irregular or altered impulses that occur in many illnesses.”
GSK has been involved in bioelectronics for 4 years and says it thinks diabetes, arthritis, and asthma could all potentially be treated using the new method.
The idea for the joint venture is that GSK can bring its drug and development expertise to the table, while Alphabet can contribute best-in-class tech and analytics.
The Google empire has been mounting a growing push into the world of healthcare in recent years. Google cofounded biotech R&D firm Calico in 2013 and spun out Verily Life Sciences last December. DeepMind, the London-based AI company Google bought in 2014, has also been developing tools for the NHS.
Moncef Slaoui, GSK’s Chairman of Global Vaccines, says in a statement announcing the deal:
“This agreement with Verily to establish Galvani Bioelectronics signals a crucial step forward in GSK’s bioelectronics journey, bringing together health and tech to realise a shared vision of miniaturised, precision electrical therapies. Together, we can rapidly accelerate the pace of progress in this exciting field, to develop innovative medicines that truly speak the electrical language of the body.”
Brian Otis, Verily’s Chief Technology Officer, says in the statement:
“This is an ambitious collaboration allowing GSK and Verily to combine forces and have a huge impact on an emerging field. Bioelectronic medicine is a new area of therapeutic exploration, and we know that success will require the confluence of deep disease biology expertise and new highly miniaturised technologies.
“This partnership provides an opportunity to further Verily’s mission by deploying our focused expertise in low power, miniaturised therapeutics and our data analytics engine to potentially address many disease areas with greater precision with the goal of improving outcomes.”
Galvani will initially employ 30 people and be headquartered at GSK’s Stevenage base. It will have a second research facility at Verily’s San Fransisco offices.
The announcement of the new joint venture comes a week after GSK pledged to invest £275 million in its development network across the UK. GSK shares are up 0.53% after an hour and a half of trade on Monday.
As always, the internet provides a great breadth of information for all of us. Occasionally, one finds misguided or false and misleading information that usually has a transparent or self-serving…
Source: PEMF Technology Points
As always, the internet provides a great breadth of information for all of us. Occasionally, one finds misguided or false and misleading information that usually has a transparent or self-serving nature to it.
I have seen comparisons, “buyers guides” to PEMF, use of clinical science not related to the represented device, and multiple other representations that are not referenced, not supported by PUBMED research, and technically inaccurate information that is, at best, embarrassing to the entire PEMF industry.
Several general points should be mentioned that make for an appropriate understanding of the BEMER technology and its position in the marketplace. The US market for medical devices creates a robust environment for confusion and misrepresentation, however, the European market is more driven by credibility and facts. The European medical market is driven by health management and cost containment because of the social model of medicine i.e. the government(s) promote health maintenance because of the prohibitive cost of disease management through drugs. Prescription drugs, in the US, are used as a primary response to any disease state. Prescription use, as a result, is often 10 fold in the USA vs. any developed country.
The second PEMF consideration is that the European Union medical system does NOT embrace PEMF technology that is widely utilized in the United States. The reason for this fact is that BEMER has advanced their signal technology so far beyond the PEMF units that BEMER is now the standard for improving blood flow and this is directly related to the work of Rainer Klopp MD. Dr. Klopp is THE noted researcher and scientists behind the patents that BEMER technology embraces.
While we respect the need to misrepresent technology or burrow science in a related field, BEMER has no need to do either tactic for the obvious reason that they have produced our own technology and science based on the actual application of BEMER in a clinical setting.
Dr. Klopp is the author of the medical textbook on microcirculation and is the established expert on the topic at numerous international medical conferences. His inventive mind produced the ONLY device that actually proves the inferiority of PEMF technology vs. the BEMER signal.
PubMed establishes real science on BEMER technology which has been inappropriately used by countless PEMF marketing tactics including our relationship with NASA.
FAQ AquaRX® Humic Fulvic Earth Mineral Blend
What are Humic Substances?
“Humic substances (HS) are major components of the natural organic matter (NOM) in soil and wateras well as in geological organic deposits such as lake sediments, peats, brown coals and shales.They make up much of the characteristic brown color of decaying plant debris and contribute to the brown or black color in surface soils. They are major components of NOM in surface waters and at higher concentrations can impart a dark color, especially in brown fresh water ponds, lakes, and streams. In leaf litter or composts, the color may be yellowish-brown to black, depending on the degree of decay and concentration.
Humic acids contain a vast array of naturally occurring bio-chemicals, including, but not limited to, supercharged antioxidants, free-radical scavengers, super oxide dismutases (“SOD”), nutrients, enzymes, hormones, amino acids, natural antibiotics, natural antivirals, and natural fungicides.
What are Fulvic Acids?
A Fulvic acids are the smallest, lightest molecular-weight components of “humic acids”; They are
acid chains/conglomerate molecules.
Professor Dmitry Orlov, a world-renowned Russian specialist of Soil Sciences, fulvic acids are a part of, and are very closely related to humic acids, they are NOT independent fractures.
Isolating the smaller lighter humic molecules (creating “Fulvic Acid”)
What are the human and animal benefits of AquaRX® Earth Mineral Blend?
More and more scientists and doctors worldwide are recognizing the extraordinary potential of fulvic acid, an important component of humic acid. For millennia, human beings have received beneficial amounts of fulvic acid complexes through their consumption of plants, just as nature intended. Unfortunately, modern use of pesticides and fertilizers, along with inadequate agricultural practices, erosion, and mineral depletion, have contributed to decreased microbial activity in the world’s soil deposits. As a result, adequate quantities of fulvic acid have been missing from our food crops for generations. Why is this an important health issue to address? Because fulvic acid derived from humate usually contains 60 or more minerals and trace elements that are nutritionally essential for cell health and balance (including cell growth and replication). That’s not all. In addition to helping transport minerals to living cells, catalyzing vitamins within cells, and metabolizing proteins, RNA, and DNA, fulvic acid also acts as:
•A Powerful Organic Electrolyte: Electrolytes are used by the body’s cells to maintain voltages across cellular membranes and to convey electrical impulses to other cells. Fulvic acid helps cells achieve a vital electrochemical balance across and among the body’s cells.
•A Free-radical Scavenger and Antioxidant: Fulvic acid can react with both negatively and positively unpaired free electrons to render free radicals harmless, changing them into new useable compounds or eliminating them as waste. Fulvic acid also promotes oxidation-reduction reactions of transition metals that can damage the body’s cells and tissues.
•A Natural Chelator and Pollutant Detoxifier: Fulvic acid is effective in transforming metals and minerals into readily absorbable forms. It can also bind with organic pollutants (pesticides, herbicides) to form new types of metal ions, catalyze the breakdown of toxic pollutants, and weather and decompose silica to release essential mineral nutrients.
•An Aid in Increasing Nutrient Bioavailability: Fulvic acid’s low molecular weight helps render cellular walls more penetrable by reducing their surface tension, thus allowing cells to more easily and efficiently respirate, hydrate, absorb minerals, amino acids and other nutrients, and eliminate waste.
Where does Aq8uaRX® Fulvic Substance come from?
I two words “Virgin Humate”
AquaRX® Earth Mineral Blend is a magnificently sourced ancient earth bed located in North America. The region is unpopulated and a natural and pristine mineral deposit from layered plant material that is both rare and robust in necessary nutrients for human health.
The absolute best fulvic acid comes from ancient deposits of lush plant matter that were buried and naturally composted over millions of years; resulting in the purest most concentrated form of organic matter referred to as Humates. Humic acids are an all-natural (pure organic) substance that is the nucleus of these deposits of organic humate; created by natural beneficial microbial activity. Its function is to dissolve, and convert the metallic and mineral molecules in soils, into a form that is readily usable by plants, animals and humans.
Plant life assimilates these powerful humic/fulvic substances, along with the dissolved or chelated minerals, and passes them on through the food chain; which is to say that fulvic acid can be obtained from nutrient rich food, provided of course the soil is rich with these substances in the first place and not severely depleted as is more and more typical with today’s over farmed and over fertilized soils.
It is a well known and publicized fact that our soils are depleted from poor agricultural practices. The sterile soil conditions brought on by the overuse of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and erosion prohibit microbial activity and the formation of fulvic acid; making it nearly impossible to obtain sufficient amounts of fulvic acid through our food source. Fulvic acid and mineral rich supplementation is an excellent way to counter the deficiencies found in our foods today.
Are all minerals the same?
NO! and the secret is in the source and the molecular weight. As a gross example, copper and iron are necessary minerals that the body requires. If you eat a iron and copper coin it will pass through the body untouched. Interestingly, many mineral supplements, even in liquid form will have a similar effect of non-absorption. Just because you eat something does not necessitate its’ absorption. Plant sourced minerals that are labeled the same as “natural” are absorbable due to their molecular weight. It’s that simple.
Pure organic plant source minerals are derived from lush nutrient rich plant matter from the prehistoric era, which decomposed through millions of years in various areas throughout the world; whereas these minerals were preserved and concentrated within the organic matter in large deposits; often containing as much as 70 minerals or more in varying degrees of percentages or parts per million (ppm).
All minerals are “natural” by definition; however all minerals are not in the form that is most absorbable by the body. Most mineral supplements will simply pass through the digestive system, with little or none being absorbed.
Minerals derived from plants (organic plant source minerals) are the absolute best source for optimal health, especially if grown organically in nutrient rich soil, as they are smaller molecules than metallic or rock based minerals; therefore being bio-available or more easily absorbed by the body with the help of Fulvic Acid.
Fulvic acid is the healing miracle of the 21st century. Fulvic acid is called the “missing link” to good health and the “miracle molecule” as it has been shown in numerous medical studies worldwide to significantly improve our health. Fulvic Acid benefits particularly when coupled with organic plant derived minerals and healing clay, include the following:
1. It assists in sustaining and reinforcing our body’s immune system and reversing immune system disorders.
2. It bolsters the immune system’s capability of resisting Viruses, Pathogens and Bacterial Infections of all Varieties; including HIV.
3. It defends against toxic substances including heavy metals & dangerous chemicals, from being absorbed into the body; and filters out substances already present.
4. It helps to balance body cell life.
5. It assists in Enzymes production.
6. It improves blood circulation and increases endurance.
7. It aids in the body’s ability to control high blood pressure
8. It helps to structure hormones.
9. It controls inflammation by acting as an anti-inflammatory agent.
10. It stimulates body metabolism and re-mineralizes the body.
11. It regulates the Thyroid Gland and the Thymus Gland; and reduces Thyroid tumors.
12. It helps to Super-Oxygenate the hemoglobin of Blood that regulates the immune system and protects itself against unnatural Oxidation.
13. It assimilates Macro and Micro Elements and improves Memory & Brain Function.
14. It acts as Catalysts for Enzyme Reactions and cleanses, Neutralize, and removes Toxins from vessels.
15. It revitalizes Libido (sexual function and desire) by strengthening & supercharging the body.
16. It helps to repair, regenerate, & restore Cells including the skin & nails.
17. It provides Vital Electrolytes and other Vital Elements.
18. It enhances our internal healing abilities by gently and naturally detoxifying our bodies
19. It reduces acid reflux symptoms
20. It protects our cells from viruses
21. It slows down our aging process
22. It relieves arthritis symptoms
23. It counteracts the damage from nutritional deficiencies and imbalances
24. It prevents and/or inhibits cancer cell growth
25. It prevents and/or relieves asthma symptoms
26. It maintains optimum Alkalinity ( pH Levels ), and defends against Cancer, Diabetes, and other Diseases.
Re-mineralization of our bodies without fulvic acid (that actually should be in the plants we eat), has little benefit. People are sick with degenerative and deficiency related illnesses now more than ever.
Source: NORP vs ORAC Explained
Bill Sickert 