USING PRUVIT KETONE SALTS IN THE ELDERLY AND PEOPLE WITH MEDICAL CONDITIONS

by Mary T. Newport, M.D.

I receive emails and Facebook messages from many people who are using or want to use ketone salts for themselves or their loved ones, many of whom are elderly or may have medical conditions and want to make their life better.  Here is some guidance for how to get started with ketone salts:

HOW KETONES COULD HELP

Pruvit ketone salts are nutritional supplements and have not been evaluated or approved by the FDA to treat any medical condition.  On the other hand, there is plenty of scientific evidence that raising ketones can provide alternative fuel to the brain, reduce inflammation, and burn fat.  Many people report increased energy, endurance, focus and mental clarity, improved mood and sleep, fewer aches and pains, and fat loss.

TALK WITH YOUR DOCTOR

As with any nutritional supplement, it is important for elderly people and people with medical conditions to consult with their physician before using ketone salts.  The doctor could monitor your blood pressure and check blood levels of electrolytes, glucose and minerals (calcium, phosphorus, magnesium) before you get started and after 3 to 6 weeks or so.  Pruvit ketone salts are the first product marketed widely to the public that contains the actual ketone body betahydroxybutyrate attached to the mineral salts sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium.  Many people need to watch their sodium intake, may be on diuretics that may cause loss of minerals from the body, and/or may be taking potassium.  Keto//OS 2.1 and 3.0 have 1400 mg to 1600 mg per serving packet (or full scoop if you have a can of product).  Keto//OS 3.0 (chocolate swirl) also has 490 mg of potassium, compared to just 47 mg in Keto//OS 2.1 (orange dream). 

                

Another option to reduce sodium and potassium intake with ketone salts is to use KetoMax, which contains much less sodium per full serving at 925 mg and minimal potassium at 75 mg.  Another great reason to use KetoMax is that it contains a higher percentage of the circulating form of betahydroxybutyrate and may be even more effective than Keto//OS.  I recommend KetoMax especially for people with medical and neurologic conditions such as Parkinson’s, dementia, and Alzheimer’s. It costs more but the value is there. Your doctor or a dietician can help you factor the mineral salts into your diet and adjust, for example, your potassium supplement to account for the amounts in ketone salts.

                

People with diabetes taking medications and/or insulin need to be aware that raising ketone levels with ketone salts may result in a significantly lower blood sugar along with a drop in the amount of insulin the body produces. To avoid abnormally low blood sugar, I recommend that you monitor your blood sugar closely and work with your doctor to make changes in your medications.  Many diabetics report that they are able to reduce their medications, including insulin, rather quickly over days to several weeks, especially if using ketone salts is combined with a low carbohydrate diet. Pruvit ketone salts contain minimal sugar and are sweetened with stevia and/or erithritol, a sugar alcohol.

Regarding diabetic ketoacidosis, this is an abnormal condition that occurs with very elevated blood sugar and inadequate insulin.  Levels of ketones are many times (20 to 50 times higher) than the levels you would get by taking a serving or two per day of ketone salts.  The risk is extremely low, but could be a problem for someone on the brink of diabetic ketoacidosis.   Ketone levels can easily be monitored with a Precision Xtra or NovaMax glucose/ketone monitor using ketone strips, available online without a prescription.  Ketone salts usually produce betahydroxubutyrate levels in the 0.5 to 2 mmol range, compared to 10 to 25 mmol in diabetic ketoacidosis.

START SLOWLY AND INCREASE AS TOLERATED

While it is tempting to start with a whole serving in hopes of seeing maximum benefits right away, I recommend in elderly people and those with medical conditions, to start with 1 or 2 level teaspoons per day, which would be equal to about 1/8 to 1/4 of a serving, and if there is no issue, such as intestinal distress, you could increase by the same amount every few days until arriving at ½ to 1 full serving per day.  The total amount could be divided into smaller portions throughout the day.

                

Also, it is very important that the person taking ketone salts take plenty of water and other clear liquids.  Ketone salts can have a dehydrating effect in some people, especially in the beginning.

                

Ketones can suppress appetite, which is great if you need to lose weight.  If you are very thin you might consider adding more calories to your diet with calorie dense foods such as coconut oil, olive oil, butter, cream, avocado and nuts.

BRING THESE GUIDELINES TO YOUR DOCTOR

Ketone salts are so new that most doctors don’t know about them yet much less the potential of ketones to provide alternative fuel to the brain and other organs, reduce inflammation, and burn fat.  I suggest that you take a copy of these guidelines to your doctor.  Many doctors decide to pass this information on to other patients when they see improvement in just one of their patients.  Some doctors may even decide to help their patients by providing ketone salts as samples or ordering them through their office.

                

For more information see:  www.coconutketones.com and www.marynewport.pruvitnow.com. 

Dr. Suzanne de la Monte and Dr. Oz Show: Nitrites and nitrates in food may cause Alzheimer's

On April 7, 2011, a former surgeon general and Dr. Suzanne de la Monte appeared on the Dr. Oz Show entitled, "A Revolutionary Breakthrough in Alzheimer's Disease," (can be watched on his website) where she presented her important research. She is the doctor who coined the term "type 3 diabetes" in reference to Alzheimer's disease.She found by accident that giving a nitrosamine compound called streptozotocin, used to deliberately produce diabetes, caused Alzheimer's in her lab mice. She learned that the brain produces its own insulin. She further found that this compound causes production of toxic lipids in the liver that cross the blood brain barrier and damage certain cells such that the brain develops insulin deficiency and insulin resistance. Nitrites and nitrates, found in very many processed foods, are nitrosamine compounds and could very well explain the epidemics of Alzheimer's, autism, diabetes, MS, Parkinson's and ALS, along with other neurodegenerative diseases that have insulin resistance, decreased glucose uptake as part of the process. These diseases have all been on the increase as processed foods have taken over our diets. I will add Dr. de la Monte's references to the website http://www.coconutketones.com/, in the very near future. These nitrites and nitrates are in most bacon, ham and other meats, deli meats, whether pre-packaged or cut at the counter, processed cheeses, cereals, breads, pretzels, crackers, white flour and anything that contains white flour, certain beers, scotch and some other whiskeys. Now something that has caught my attention for newborns and children: I found one of these offending compounds, thiamine mononitrate, in the Carnation infant formulas, some of the jarred baby foods, especially the junior combinations, cereals and other infant prepared foods such as macaroni and cheese. The government requires that certain vitamins such as thiamine are added to enrich foods that have been stripped of these nutrients by processing, most notably white flour and other grains. Thiamine mononitrate is a synthetic source of vitamin B1, rather than a naturally occurring vitamin, and is added to very many foods. Just look at the ingredients labels. Most people eat something with thiamine mononitrate in it for nearly every meal. Naturally occurring Vitamin B1 (thiamine) is usually water soluble, meaning that if you eat an excess of it, you will pass it out in the urine; however, thiamine mononitrate is fat soluble and the excess accumulates in the liver and fat cells. The FDA regulations (21 CFR 184.1878) say that thiamine mononitrate may be used in food "with no limitation other than good manufacturing practice" and that it "may be used in infant formula". These compounds could slowly kill off insulin producing cells in the brain and other organs, and when enough cells have been effected symptoms will begin to emerge. This could explain the classic development of autism in children at 1 1/2 to 2 years of age who were previously thought to be normal. And in Alzheimers' it is believed that the disease process begins at least 10-20 years before symptoms appear. Animal studies need to be done to determine if thiamine mononitrate produces Alzheimer's disease, autism, type 2 diabetes and the other diseases mentioned above. In the meantime, it would behoove us to read the labels and eliminate anything from the diet that includes nitrosamines, nitrites, nitrates; look for these words alone or in combination with other words, such as thiamine mononitrate. What is left for us to eat? Stay away from packaged and other processed foods and eat whole foods: organic whenever possible, vegetables, fruits, eggs, dairy, goat milk and cheeses, nuts, legumes, whole grains (without added nitrates) grass fed beef, free range chicken, "natural" deli meats that have nothing added (they can be frozen to prolong use). I thought we were adhering very closely to a whole food diet until learning that many of the foods we were eating, such as deli meats and some "whole grain" breads and cereals, contain nitrites or nitrates. this could explain some of the deterioration we have seen in spite of everything else we are doing. Most important to our newest generation, mothers can avoid this problem by breastfeeding their babies for as long as possible. Nitrites and nitrates are just one group of compounds we need to worry about for our newborns and toddlers. Also, consuming foods with medium chain fatty acids, such as coconut oil and MCT oil, can at least partly bypass the problem of insulin resistance by providing an alternative fuel to glucose for brain cells. And how could this possibly be related to the herpes simplex issue that I have written about? I found a 1977 article from the lab of Dr. George Cahill, Jr. ("Studies of Streptozotocin-induced insulitis and diabetes", Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 74(6): 2485-2489, June 1977), in which he used streptozotocin to produce diabetes in mice by destroying the beta cells of the pancreas-- an unexpected finding was an increased production of a type C virus in the beta cells that survived. Could it be that the virus is involved as part of the process that destroys the cell after exposure to nitrosamines, or is an opportunistic infection that takes over the damaged cells, which further complicates the Alzheimer’s disease process? The bottom line is to avoid any foods that contain nitrites or nitrates or any ingredient in which one of the words appears.

Direct link to 6 part interview series

Instead of going to YouTube, the six part series of Steve and I with Ken Lightburn can now be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iScs0uzQZFk