How the Ketogenic Diet Can Prevent Heart Disease and Strokes

Dr. Sal [00:00:00]:

Alzheimer's is a type 3 diabetes, which means that all the sugar that we're consuming in our society today that's why United States has the highest numbers of people per capita with Alzheimer's and dementia. Welcome to the Health Quest podcast, your guide to God's as well for good health. Hello. My name is doctor Sal, and I've been a practicing surgeon for well over 30 years. And my goal for each episode is that you'll be able to have your mind transformed to God's design for your good health and affect the way you eat and the way you live. If you're new here, we release a new episode every week. And if you enjoy the content, would you leave us a good review? And the reason being is because it really helps our ratings, and it hours our show to reach out to more people, and in turn, we can help more people as well. So thank you for your support.

Dr. Sal [00:01:06]:

And on today's episode, we'll be talking about the ketogenic diet. So let's dive right into today's health quest. The ketogenic diet. Well, we talked about this before. We know that obesity is a major problem in the United States affecting 42% of our population. Now 70% of our population is overweight. But when you say 42 percent are obese. That's almost half the population, folks.

Dr. Sal [00:01:42]:

2,800,000 adult deaths are associated with obesity, and It's also associated with a lot of major chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease. Now when you go on a ketogenic diet, it's about 55 to 60% fat, 30 to 35% protein, and about 5 to 10% carbohydrate. So in a 2,000 calorie diet, you're gonna consume about 20 to 50 grams of carbohydrates a day. And bodybuilders usually, use more of the Atkins diet. Of course, doctor Atkins wrote a book, and it was published in 1979. But they've been doing that kind of dieting since 1941 when John Grimock won the mister America and the mister USA competition. And it really uses about 55% protein, 35% fat, and about 10% carbs when you're getting ready for competition. So the difference between, you know, the bodybuilders are close to the Atkins is that we use more protein, of, in less fat.

Dr. Sal [00:02:49]:

But either way, it still gets you in a ketogenic state because that is the objective. Now doctor Russell Wilder first used the ketogenic diet to treat epilepsy back in 1921. And, folks, sugar feeds epilepsy or grand mal seizures, sugar feeds, viral infections. Remember, if you're in a ketogenic state, you can't die of storm as a result of COVID, and sugar feeds cancers. That's the reason why sugar is not a very good thing to consume. The Romans even understood how to treat grand mal seizures. And what they did is if somebody was having a seizure, They would put them in a padded room and let them sit there, and it was basically a fast. It would almost until they burned up all their glycogen bin stores.

Dr. Sal [00:03:38]:

They had no, way of other than to get into a ketogenic state, and their seizures subsided. Now gluconeogenesis, which is the body's his own way of making, glucose in the liver or sugar. Remember that insulin shuts this down when our bodies are working normally of insulin gets to the liver. It's basically telling the liver to stop making sugar. But during insulin resistance or what we see in type 2 diabetes, the liver things that the blood sugars are low and continues making, blood sugar or glucose even when the blood sugars are even elevated, so that even raises the blood sugars up even more. The liver makes the sugar from lactic acid, and lactic acid is what builds up from anaerobic exercise, glycerol from the breakdown of fats, alanine and glutamine from amino acids. So What happens is is that even though you may not be consuming that many, sugars, your body or your the liver will start making the sugar in order to keep that blood sugar level up to at least normal level, which is a100. Now when the blood sugar drops and glucose production in the liver is not able to keep up with the body's needs for energy demands, that's when ketogenesis starts to take place, and it's the formation of ketones.

Dr. Sal [00:05:04]:

And so during ketosis or when we get into that ketogenic state, the insulin levels are low. There is a decrease in fat in sugar storage. Remember, insulin forces fat to get stored. It forces the creation of sugar, but the excess sugar will then get stored as glycogen. And so all of this starts to decrease. Now. There's another hormone that gets secreted by the pancreas, by the alpha cells of the pancreas, and that is glucagon. And glucagon starts to raise, and what it does is it breaks down fat in attempt to keep the blood sugars up.

Dr. Sal [00:05:42]:

So we're breaking down the fat to give the liver something to make sugar with. That's how we start to increase fat breakdown. Now as long as the body is deprived of carbohydrates, metabolism always remains in a ketogenic state. Fatty acids are which is a breakdown of the ads are then metabolized the beta hydroxybutyrate and acetone, which is similar to acetic acid, which is what's in apple cider vinegar. Now when you get on this, it takes a couple of weeks, but God designed the body like a hybrid engine. Okay? Your hybrid engines. Could take gas or could take ethanol. In this case, we're not putting any carbs, so the body starts using fat for a source of energy.

Dr. Sal [00:06:29]:

So the body can use ketones as an energy source for the heart, the muscle, the kidneys, pretty much everything. Ketones also cross the blood brain barrier to provide an alternative source of energy to the brain. Okay? And ketones actually produce more ATP, adenosine triphosphate, than sugar. So you can actually produce more energy with ketones than you can with glucose. Now here's the thing. We talked about it takes a couple of weeks. When you're going into switching over from a sugar diet down to a high fat diet like in the keto ketogenic diet. You're gonna feel a little bit sluggish.

Dr. Sal [00:07:09]:

You're gonna feel a little slow. You might get a headache. But after that, once the body starts converting and using fat for a source of energy, and your body gets acclimated to it. Then you start filling this energy. You're producing more ATMP, and that's why ketones are called the super fuel. So keep in mind that if you're on a ketogenic diet, that You also have to be careful because you can get a false positive breath alcohol test. What that means is that if you breathe into a breathalyzer, it might come back positive as if you were drinking alcohol, and that's only because of fact that, the, ketones that get turned into, acetones can eventually get converted into isopropanol, and that's why it comes back positive. So, you gotta be careful when you're on a ketogenic diet.

Dr. Sal [00:08:01]:

Don't drink too much, which you really shouldn't, and especially if you're driving. So what's the whole clinical significance of all this? There's a the popular belief that high fat diets cause obesity. Well, the studies that were done on animals on high fat diets never really disclosed the amount of macronutrients. They never really talked about how many carbs the animals were taking, how many grams of protein, what types of fats they were consuming, how many calories. So you you they said, oh, it was a high fat diet, but they didn't they weren't specific with all this. But truly specific epidemiologic studies carried out on animals on high fat diets did not show any specific relationship between dietary fat and obesity. On the contrary, very low carb and high fat diets such as keto or Atkins have shown to be beneficial to weight loss. So what's the evidence behind the ketogenic diet? Well, the typical American diet that comprises of about 55% carbohydrates, which range about, 200 to 350 grams of today, but the greater intake of those carbs is a heavy sugary laden food, especially, the high fructose corn syrup.

Dr. Sal [00:09:16]:

And this is associated with 44% increased prevalence of metabolic syndrome in obesity. Now I think that that number's a little conservative, but I'm going with the literature on this. But still, 44% is contributing to this metabolic syndrome, which, as we talked about before, is abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, increased blood sugar, and increased triglycerides, and very low high, density lipoproteins. Remember, low density lipoproteins are the bad, cholesterol. The HDL is the good cholesterol. And about 26% increase in the risk of type of developing type 2 diabetes. So in 2012, a study of all cardiometabolic deaths, heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes in America, half were seated with 10 dietary factors. Okay? The largest mortality was associated with an increased intake of sugary beverages, high salt intake, processed meats, a decrease in nuts and seeds, a a a decrease in omega 3 fatty acids or your fish oils, a decrease intake of vegetables and fruits.

Dr. Sal [00:10:32]:

The lowest estimated mortality was associated data with people that consumed your omega 3 fatty acids and low polyunsaturated fats in unprocessed red meats. Unprocessed red meats. There's a big difference between eating steak that hasn't been processed versus ham of or turkey that's the cold cuts that you get at the markets. Those are processed meats. So eating just a regular steak is not bad as compared to your lunch meats that you put in sandwiches. Low carb diets lead to significantly greater weight loss compared to the low fat interventions. And the reason being is is because when people said, oh, I'm on a low fat diet to lose weight, there was actually more sugar or more corn syrup added to those foods to make it more palatable so you can eat it. Because without fat, there's you know, you're basically eating pure sugar at that point.

Dr. Sal [00:11:28]:

And what ends up happening is these people end up putting on weight because they consume too many carbs. So less glucose improved insulin sensitivity, so your insulin works much better. That's why if you're becoming prediabetic or you become a type 2 diabetic, eating less sugars will over time improve the, the receptors to insulin, and you start to improve your blood sugar levels. Esketosis state sustains itself, so the longer you're on it, the hunger pains eventually subside. You get used to the diet. You don't feel full. You don't feel like a brick sitting in your stomach. And then if you you've been in a ketogenic diet for, let's say, 6 months and you have a plate of pasta, you're gonna feel like that plate of pasta is gonna be sitting in your stomach like a rock.

Dr. Sal [00:12:15]:

You're not used to it anymore. So ketones also decrease free radical damage and enhance antioxidant capacity. Remember, we've talked about this in previous podcast. Anything that these free radicals, they do all this damage. In by in being on a ketogenic diet and enhancing the antioxidant capacity. It reduces inflammation. It supports gut health. It prevents cytokine storm that we talked about earlier, what you get with COVID.

Dr. Sal [00:12:43]:

And so if you're in a ketogenic state and you get this, the likelihood of you dying from a cytokine storm as a result of COVID is almost nil. And it does not feed cancers because, remember, sugars do, and it promotes healthy DNA function. Isn't that something? How you can alter your health by the way you eat your foods. It helps dementia, Alzheimer's. You know, they're now saying that Alzheimer's is a type 3 diabetes, which means that all the sugar that we're consuming in our society today. That's why United States has the highest numbers of people per capita with Alzheimer's and dementia. Well, if you start noticing a family member that's starting to develop, some level of dementia, I'm telling you, put them on a ketogenic diet or the Atkins diet, and you're gonna start seeing improvement. So how does this all work? Well, the body starts breaking down fat there isn't enough sugar or glycogen stores have been depleted too as well.

Dr. Sal [00:13:44]:

So the fatty acids undergo beta oxidation. In other words, they start to break down, which is called beta oxidation, into a molecule called Acetyl CoA. And Acetyl CoA is transferred to the liver, which is then converted into ketones. The ketones are then transported to the brain, to the heart, to the kidneys, to the muscles for that to use for energy. But what ketones also do in the fat cells, is as well as the other organs, is that it increases gene expression to increase mitochondrial biogenesis and uncoupling proteins. Now remember, the mitochondria is the energy producing factory in each and every cell. And so what it does is ketones basically tells your genes to make more of this mitochondria. So you get more mitochondria, which increases, your energy levels, and then the uncoupling proteins increases the mitochondrial respiration, which then increases your metabolism.

Dr. Sal [00:14:53]:

And so what's happening here is is you start to burn more fat. Your metabolism starts to become more efficient. You start feeling more energy. You start feeling better. You're aligning yourself with the way God wants you to be, healthy and happy. So in other words, the ketones modifies your DNA via the epigenetics, which we talked about before to make the energy producing machines, the mitochondria, and the proteins for the mitochondria to use more oxygen and more bones to produce more ATP as well as this whole process is burning more fat. When we're talking about how it affects the the fat cells, usually, the brown cells have the tendency to do this versus the white cells. But now what ends up happening is a process called beisining.

Dr. Sal [00:15:43]:

Beisining, making it beige colored. And it turns the white cells more into a brown cell, which now starts using all this fat to produce this extra energy. This increases your body temperature. This increases your metabolism. Your cognitive skills start to go up. The neurologic system starts working more efficiently. Okay? And not only does it burn the fat at this underneath your skin. It also starts burning the fat that you're consuming in the diet because people used to say years ago, well, where does all this fat go? Well, your body's using it for fuel, and it's burning it faster to create more energy.

Dr. Sal [00:16:25]:

So it turns your body into a higher, more efficient fat burning machine. Now what's happening at the level of the pancreas? The pancreas starts to put out more glucagon. Okay? The best stimulant for this glucagon release from the pancreas is eating proteins and fats. Sugars will increase insulin. Fats and proteins will get more glucagon out, and that eventually breaks down the fat to allow the liver to make more sugar to keep up the blood sugar levels and make certain that they stay normal. So we start with, let's say, strict keto or Atkins diet. We get into a ketogenic state, and then within a couple of weeks even some more depending on how you feel. We start adding the vegetables, the low glycemic fruits as in you would see in the paleo diet.

Dr. Sal [00:17:20]:

We start consuming more of the nuts, which are fats, and they're a great thing to snack time as a part of the ketogenic diet or the paleo diet or even the Atkins diet. Stay away from the chips and the candy bars and the cookies. 30 more almonds and and hazelnuts and walnuts, pistachios. I wanna let you know that, you know, we think, wow, that's a lot of fat. Well, this is what I want you to keep in mind, okay, is that heart disease and strokes are unheard of in the Inuit or the Inuit, which is the Eskimo population. Alright? These are people that eat whale fat all day long, and I've been with these people before. They're the only cultural group that can hunt whales because whale, whale hunting is pretty much against the law worldwide except for the Inuit population. And let's say, you know, a small town, they'll be they'll be allowed to hunt, let's say, 26 whales.

Dr. Sal [00:18:24]:

They bury it in the in the ground where it freezes over so it refrigerates them. And then when a burium and they cut them open. They start eating the whale fat. They use the whale fat for practically everything. So they're basically as a result defeating all that well fed. They consume about 14 to 15000 milligrams of omega 3 fatty acids or fish oil a day. Fourteen to 15000 milligrams. You know, it's kind of interesting because I met this 92 year old man that goes into the vitamin shop or get my fish oil, but you gotta make certain that you get there before he does of because what he'll do is he'll buy all the fish oil from the shelf, and he drinks like a bottle of the fish oil a day.

Dr. Sal [00:19:09]:

He's 92 years old, and, of course, he's ripped. He's got veins all over the place. Perfectly in great shape for 92 years old. So I'm not saying that you gotta go out and drink a bottle of fish oil a day, but, what I'm saying is is that for a society that has no heart disease or strokes, and these people are eating this fat. It's showing you physiologically how our bodies are using the good fats to keep us from developing these diseases. We talked about this, in one of our previous podcasts about good fats versus bad bad fats that doctor, Kumaral doctor Fred Kumaral, who lived to be a 102 years old, was talking about the trans fats or the oxysterols, which then oxidizes the bad cholesterol or, you know, the cholesterol in our body, which makes it bad, and that's, detrimental to our cells as well as the arteries, and this is how we end up with cardiovascular disease. So just like doctor Kumar, doctor Fred Kumar, he made some suggestions to the federal government to try to get things changed, and that could be a big challenge. And sometimes what we really have to come to the realization is is that, as Jesus said, I love you.

Dr. Sal [00:20:25]:

I hate your ways. And the real key is is not having government to change because they're not they're not gonna do anything. Don't rely on them. Don't rely on anyone else. You've gotta rely on your ability to start changing your ways. Match your will with that of god's. We talked about ways to getting yourself healthy. Objective here.

Dr. Sal [00:20:47]:

Stay away from the excess sugars that you don't need, the bad carbs, the bad fats. With that, I wanna thank you so much for joining us on our show today. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave us a review and visit our website and social media months to connect with us more. And if you like to see any of the sources of research in this episode, it'll be available in the show notes in description. So until next time, have a great day, and god bless.