BHB + C8 in Autism, a Work-in-Progress



The potential benefit of the ketone BHB in autism was covered extensively in earlier posts.  It looks like different people may benefit for entirely different reasons and some may not benefit at all. 

Some MCT oils, taken as precursors to BHB, can actually make people worse.


Measuring ketones and glucose in blood


Click for a summary of the previous posts.

I know that some readers of this blog have found that BHB/C8 does indeed provide a benefit in their specific type of autism.  The benefit seems to vary, but given all the biological modes of action of the ketone BHB that is not surprising.  Increased speech is a frequently noted benefit.
My initial combination of Ketoforce plus C8 continues to be effective.
Substituting a cheaper MCT oil containing both C8 and C10 (Bulletproof XCT oil), was less effective and after a matter of weeks produced a negative effect. It appears that C10, after a while, can produce mild anxiety and agitation in some people. In our case this goes away when stopping the C8+C10 MCT oil and then reappears restarting it.
When it comes to C8, it appears that not all food grade 98% C8 products are actually what they claim to be. This is a recurring theme with all supplements, they lack the quality control you get with pharmaceuticals.
Our reader Yi did at one point raise the issue of BHB causing diuresis. We also experienced this and much more so with the “mixed” C8+C10 MCT oil, rather than the “pure” C8.
The combination of increased diuresis and all the sodium, magnesium, potassium in the BHB salts may very well create an issue with electrolyte levels. Potassium does seem to be the most critical one to monitor.
Different BHB products contain very different amounts of sodium, magnesium, potassium and so it is unwise to simply substitute one for another.
Our reader Agnieszka did experiment with different BHB products and found that, based on urine testing, Ketoforce was the most effective. I also think this is likely the best choice.  Ideally you would measure BHB in blood and devices are available (see above photo).
For people living in Europe, BHB products have fallen foul of EU legislation that requires new supplements to be approved before they can be sold in the European Union. As BHB is a recently introduced supplement, it cannot legally be sold in the EU until someone pays for it to be approved. This means that in EU countries that strictly apply the rules, like the UK, you cannot buy BHB, but in other EU countries you still can.
The same legal status regarding BHB in the EU also applies to Agmatine.
Another oddity is that Melatonin is banned as a supplement in the UK, but not other EU countries; it is a very popular supplement in North America.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

mTOR – Indirect inhibition, the Holy Grail for Life Extension and Perhaps Some Autism

Image
  Not cheap at about $1,000 for just 140mg Life extension may come as a surprise, but it is interesting because it is well studied and, in mice at least, easy to measure.  Most research into mTOR relates to cancer, but this is a very complex condition. With various feedback loops it means that sometimes the actual effect is the opposite of what was predicted.  For example, a substance that can help prevent cancer can actually become harmful later and promote its growth. Direct inhibition of mTOR with Everolimus and similar drugs (variants/analogs of Rapamycin , all called Rapalogs) has not been as successful as hoped in cancer research.  Trials of direct inhibition of mTOR will shortly start in one rare single gene type of autism ( TSC ).  The drugs are so expensive that many providers do not want to pay for them. As you will see mTOR is just one process in a cloud of interrelated processes.   Almost everything has a role/effect:- growth factors, cytokines,...
Read more

Zinc, Hedgehog Signaling, Shank2/3, NMDA/AMPA Inactivation and Autism

Image
I am gradually tying up the loose ends in this blog. Today several issues are dealt with that are all connected by zinc. Some are extremely complicated and I will skip over the details. Not that kind of hedgehog 1.      In those rather complicated graphics in the literature that explain signaling pathways, you may have noticed something called hedgehog signaling. This is a basic pathway present in all bilaterians - creatures with a head and tail/feet and a left and right. So flies, yes; but jelly fish, no.   In autism there is excessive hedgehog signaling.   Zinc deficiency is linked to activation of the hedgehog signaling pathway 2.      One of the commonly used models of autism is called Shank3; there is another one called Shank2.   Shank proteins are scaffold proteins that connect neurotransmitter receptors and ion channels to the actin cytoskeleton and G-protein-coupled signaling pathways.   Mutations in these genes are ass...
Read more

Bravo Monty! Academic results in Autism

Image
  Some risks are worth taking, however long the journey Academic results are part of most people’s life, whether you love them or loathe them. Most children diagnosed today with autism will do just fine at school, but this was not always the case.   Those born 20 or 30 years ago and diagnosed in early childhood with autism are usually in a much less fortunate position. Today’s post is about level 3 autism and what the Lancet Commission want to call Profound autism. The new idea is that if by age of 8, a child with autism still has severe intellectual disability or minimal language then he/she can be best described as having Profound Autism. In other literature the term SDA (Strictly Defined Autism) was proposed.   I t means what was called autism back in the 1990s and earlier. You can have severe autism with any level of IQ, which I think many people may not be aware of, or even accept.   Monty and his Academic Results The “bravo” for Monty comes from Dr Ben-A...
Read more