The secret to refueling a failing heart

After decades defending the positives of ketones in the blood (and on the breath), I’m pleased to report that modern American medicine may finally be catching up. (Instead of trying to shut me up.) 

In fact, a recently published review found that ketone bodies may be protective for patients with heart disease … 

Harness the power of ketones 

Ketones are formed when you eat a ketogenic (“keto”) diet—a low-carb, high-fat diet. Eating this way puts your body in a state of ketosis, where your body burns fat for energy—in the form of ketones—rather than sugar.    

But ketosis isn’t just highly effective for weight loss. It’s super healthy for your body in general, too. 

When you fast—which is what your body thinks you’re doing on a ketogenic diet—your insulin-to-glucagon ratio lowers. In turn, your blood sugar improves. (Insulin lowers blood sugar and glucagon raises it—that’s why it’s important to keep them in balance.)  

This causes the fatty acids in your tissues to release, which your liver then turns into ketones (like acetoacetate, β-hydroxybutyrate, and acetone).  

As I mentioned above, these ketones are able to provide energy to your body. Simply put, when you get rid of sugar, your body will stop storing fat and start using it for fuel instead.  

The results are not only beneficial to your waistline, but also to your heart—and for patients with heart disease, in particular.    

Here’s why: Cardiovascular diseases are linked with a loss of metabolic “flexibility.” In other words, your heart muscle becomes less capable of switching fuel sources (usually from glucose) to another. This makes it more difficult for your heart to get the energy it needs to function, leading to heart failure.  

But as heart failure progresses, your heart becomes able to use ketones as a source of energy. (A much more efficient fuel than glucose.) Plus, harnessing ketones as fuel also helps lessen oxidative stress, boost blood vessel health, slash inflammation, and balance blood pressure. 

Supplementation isn’t “superior” 

Of course, ketogenic diets aren’t the only way to harness the power of ketones in your body.  

For example, a new class of heart failure drugs called SGLT2 (sodium glucose co-transporter 2) inhibitors use ketone bodies to deliver their benefits. And other studies show that exogenous ketones (which originate outside the body) can boost heart function in patients with heart failure.  

These drugs are also having amazing results for weight loss, by the way. Which only makes sense, considering they’re really just mimicking the state you would achieve through a ketogenic diet.  

But because the powers–that–be can’t seem to wrap their heads around a diet that they have spent decades trying to debunk as being unhealthy, don’t expect them to acknowledge that connection anytime soon—if ever.  

Instead, the authors of this latest study suggest that taking exogenous ketones might be a viable and (wait for it) superior alternative to ketogenic diets as a way of boosting ketone levels.  

So… the cardiologists behind this study would rather their patients achieve ketosis by consuming ketones orally through nutraceutical supplements. And then, of course, they lean on the usual nonsense about restrictive fad diets being too hard to maintain. (In other words, your typical American medical response.)  

Now let me be clear—I fully support ketone supplementation. (I even use raspberry ketones as a premier ingredient in one of my very own fat-burning formulas.) But this conclusion is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard.  

I don’t know about you, but I regard my fellow Americans—and certainly my patients and readers—as people who can do anything they set their mind to. Whereas the mainstream medical community tends to appeal to inherent laziness over inherent spirit.   

Allow me to remind you that there are a lot of ketogenic diets out there—including my very own A-List Diet. And most all of them are easy, delicious, and beneficial.  

So whether you want to ward off heart failure or just drop a few pounds, do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of my A-List Diet book today. It may not be the first diet you’ve ever tried. But I can guarantee you that it will be the last.  

P.S. Taming chronic inflammation is the closest thing we have to a silver bullet against disease. That’s why I’m hosting a Combat Your Inflammation Summit this Sunday, May 9th at 3 p.m. (EDT). But demand for this exclusive, online event will be high. So please, click here to reserve your FREE spot ASAP! 

Source: 

“Ketone Supplementation: A Novel Intervention for CVD?” Medscape Medical News, 03/01/2021 (medscape.com/viewarticle/946647)