By Free Republic | Created at 2024-11-10 04:11:12 | Updated at 2024-11-16 13:47:28
6 days ago
How the keto diet could one day treat autoimmune disorders by increasing anti-inflammatory compounds
Medical Xpress / University of California, San Francisco / Cell Reports ^ | Nov. 4, 2024 | Robin Marks / Margaret Alexander et al
Posted on 11/09/2024 8:09:12 PM PST by ConservativeMind
Scientists have long suspected the keto diet might be able to calm an overactive immune system and help some people with diseases like multiple sclerosis. Now, they have reason to believe it could be true.
Scientists have discovered that the diet makes the gut and its microbes produce two factors that attenuated symptoms of MS in mice. If the study translates to humans, it points toward a new way of treating MS and other autoimmune disorders with supplements.
The keto diet severely restricts carbohydrate-rich foods, but allows unlimited fat consumption. Without carbohydrates to use as fuel, the body breaks down fat instead, producing compounds called ketone bodies. Ketone bodies provide energy for cells to burn and can also change the immune system.
Working with a mouse model of MS, the researchers found that mice who produced more of a particular ketone body, called β-hydroxybutyrate (βHB), had less severe disease.
The additional βHB also prompted the gut bacterium Lactobacillus murinus to produce a metabolite called indole lactic acid (ILA). This blocked the activation of T helper 17 immune cells, which are involved in MS and other autoimmune disorders.
In the new study, the team looked at how the ketone body-rich diet affected mice that were unable to produce βHB in their intestines, and found that their inflammation was more severe. But when the researchers supplemented their diets with βHB, the mice got better.
Genome sequencing and mass spectrometry, confirmed that the L. murinus they found produced indole lactic acid, which is known to affect the immune system. Finally, the researchers treated the MS mice with either ILA or L. murinus, and their symptoms improved.
Turnbaugh cautioned that the supplement approach still needs to be tested in people with autoimmune disorders.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
TOPICS: Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS:
β-hydroxybutyrate (βHB) helped mice with MS improve.
β-hydroxybutyrate (βHB) caused Lactobacillis murinus already in the gut to make indole lactic acid, which blocked T-cels that are a part of autoimmune disorders, helping symptoms improve.
It is produced while in ketosis, but a similar form of it is available as a supplement or in a salt form.
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2 posted on 11/09/2024 8:10:00 PM PST by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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