Good morning from Arizona. I’ve had a few people ask about how gut health relates to a ketogenic diet. This is a great question and one that I think can be answered best by taking a closer look at my natural koi pond and learning a little about pond scum.
So, sit back and look at the similaries between your gut and how nature balances a pond system: Katch.me
Or you can watch the video below:
The four tenets of health that we touch on above that are essential to understand before you can understand gut health:
The body is a unit and works as such with all parts enhancing the whole
The body is capable of self-regulation, self-healing, and health-maintenance
Structure & function are reciprocally interrelated
Rational treatment of the body must be based upon understanding the principles above and assisting or augmenting those principles
Keys to gut health and pond balancing that we touch on:
Remove the toxins from entering the system like:
Antibiotic overuse
Caffeine
Artificial Fat
Artificial Sweeteners
Repair the system and it’s ability to balance the system
Takes time
Provide structure for the bacteria to which it can bind
Provide essential vitamins and minerals like KetoEnhance & Omega-3 fatty acids
Periodic Fasting
Restore the bacteria or flora of the system
Prebiotics (fermented foods like sauerkraut, kimchi, Japanese natto, etc.)
Probiotics like Dietary KetoBalance (can be purchased in the office)
Replace the salts and pH balance where necessary
Replace electrolytes
Limit things that shift the pH balance
Hope this gives you a starting point for your New Year!!
KetoTalk with Jimmy & the Doc (the legendary podcaster Jimmy Moore from Livin’ La Vita Low Carb and his newest co-host, your’s truly, Dr. Adam Nally) makes its debut this Thursday, December 31st, 2015 on iTunes. You can see the show notes at KetoTalk.com (will be up and live on January 1st, 2016).
Throughout the exciting month of January, we will be airing a brand new episode of this 20-minute show each Thursday and a special bonus episode available on Sundays just to wet your ketogenic appetite and to kick off the podcast in its first month. Then, in February we’ll settle in to our regular Thursday time slot each week.
New podcasts can take a few days to assimilate into #iTunes, so don’t get discouraged if you don’t immediately see it up on iTunes. However, you can always find them at KetoTalk.com. Jimmy and I look forward to being your go-to, Ketogenic Lifestyle source for the latest and greatest in treating the diseases of civilization!
Get a sneak peek of our new show on tomorrow’s (Wednesday, December 30th) episode of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show” where you can hear my interview with Jimmy as a preview what is sure to be a big hit in the #keto community. Thanks in advance for supporting our new podcast!
It is well know that one of the most profound complications of diabetes is damage to the kidney and the very small arteries within the kidney acting as your body’s filtration system. The kidney begins to lose the ability to adequately filter and retain microscopic protein progressively over time. As the blood sugar and insulin levels continually rise over time in the patient with diabetes or pre-diabetes, damage to the delicate filtering system of the kidneys occur. This very common and progressively damaging problem is called “nephropathy.”
We knew in 1972 that patients with diabetes had thickening of the basement membrane or endothelium of the small tubles within the kidneys. In fact, 98.6% of diabetics tested had thickening of this area of endothelium and tubules also called the renal glomeruli (1). This allows the glomerulus or filtration system of the kidney to become more “leaky” and microscopic protein loss begins to occur through the kidney. This loss of important proteins in the blood is called “albuminuria” or “micro-albuminuria.” It is a flag that further damage of the kidney can and will occur without making significant changes to lower the blood sugar and the insulin. As of today, it is not totally clear how the basement membrane is damaged at the microscopic level, however, there is some evidence that elevated insulin has both a physical and immune type effect that stimulates oxidative stress, atherogenesis, immunoglobulins, as well as the formation advanced glycation end products leading to endothelial wall damage (2).
Recent research reveals that a ketogenic diet effectively repairs and/or completely reverses the albuminuria (3).
Evidence in my office of the significant improvement in micro-albumin can be seen in the one of a number of case studies below:
72 year old male with history of diabetes, diabetic nephropathy already treated with full dose statins, ACE inhibtors, metformin, and Januvia. (Remember, microalbumin should be <30 mg/g)
Date Microalbumin HbA1c
8/12/2010 2264 mg/g 6.4% Started carb restriction <30 g per day.
10/01/2010 1274 mg/g 5.2%
1/08/2011 1198 5.8% Admits to cheating over holidays
12/26/2013 2434 mg/g 6.8% Returned from 2 yr travel-off diet
2/27/2014 399 mg/g 6.3% Restarted carb restriction <20g per day
6/20/2014 190 mg/g 7.0% Traveling – no carb restriction
The patient began following a ketogenic diet in 2010. After improvement he moved out of town for two years and “fell of the wagon.” Upon returning h restarted his carbohydrate diet and was only partially following it. As you can see, he also admitted to some cheating on the carbohydrate restriction over the holidays. In light of this, carbohydrate restriction decreased his albuminuria from 2400 to 97 mg/g within a period of 18 months.
References:
Siperstein MS, Unger RH, Madison LL. “Further Electron Microscopic Studies of Diabetic Microagniopathy.” Early Diabetes: Advances in Metabolic Disorders, sup 1. New York: Academic Press, 1972, p261-271.
Nasr SH, D’Agati VD. “Nodular glomerulosclerosis in the nondiabetic smoker.” J Am Soc Nephrol. 2007;18(7):2032.
Poplawski MM, Mastaitis JW, Isoda F, Grosjean F, Zheng F, Mobbs CV (2011) Reversal of Diabetic Nephropathy by a Ketogenic Diet. PLoS ONE 6(4): e18604. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0018604
This evening on PeriScope, we talked about the 10 things you can do to stay motivated on your low-carb lifestyle. A number of great questions were asked including:
How much carbohydrate should be restricted?
What labs should you be monitoring regularly?
What’s a normal blood sugar?
Why is Dr. Nally freezing in Denver?
Is fermented food good for you?
Why should you eat pickles and kimchi even when you’re not pregnant?
And, much much more . . . It’s like a college ketogenic course on overdrive . . . for FREE!!!
You can see the PeriScope with the comments rolling in real-time here: katch.me/docmuscles
Join me as we chew the phat of ketogenic lifestyles PeriScope style and answer many questions like, “Why do I get ‘hangry’?” What causes hypoglycemia? How many times a day should I eat? and many more . . .
We talk briefly about why 60% of people with insulin resistance may need methylated folic acid to help with B vitamin absorption/use and where it can be found. (See me recent article about this called The Power of a Good Vitamin.)
You can see the whole PeriScope conversation on Katch.me/docmuscles with the comments scrolling or you can see the video stream below: