Last year, I was fortunate enough to see Dr. Benjamin Bikman at KetoCon, and it was one of the best presentations I’d ever seen. I began following him on Twitter, and was excited to see that his team had published some new research.
He agreed to schedule some time to come onto my business channel, and the result was this massively informative interview where we learned about all kinds of things:
If this is a disease where we gotta control glucose, eat less glucose! It’s mind-boggling!
— Dr. Ben Bikman
- A behind-the-scenes look at being a professional scientist
- insulin resistance
- misconceptions about ketosis
- Type-II diabetics going on the keto diet, and finally
- his lab’s new research showing that exogenous ketones help a muscle cell thrive (full-text and images below).
We finished off with some of his own personal philosophies on training, supplementation and BHB salt usage, and never letting your dietary choices negatively affect your family.
This is a must-watch interview if you’re interested in insulin, diabetes, the keto diet, or ketones in general:
Dr. Benjamin Bikman’s New Research and More: Ketones Boost Muscle Tissue Health
For our regular athletic readers, chart D is the area of greatest interest. BHB seems to improve muscle tissue health in nearly every parameter.
Show Notes
On top of the research above, we covered a lot of other studies. Here are some of them below:
- Dr. Bikman’s team’s initial study that led to the study at hand: β-Hydroxybutyrate improves β-cell mitochondrial function and survival
From the study linked above, BHB Improves Mitochondrial Health
- 10:45 – Gerald Reaven, the “Godfather of Diabetes Research”, study in 1987, where the “recommended diet” by the American Diabetes Association for diabetics made them all worse: Deleterious metabolic effects of high-carbohydrate, sucrose-containing diets in patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus
- 11:15 – 2015 study with two groups of overweight diabetics, with a low-fat, low-cholesterol, calorically-restricted diet. The other group was simply told to lower carbohydrates (started at 20g and then bumped it up — likely in ketosis). 50% improved adherence in the low-carb group, and results greatly favored the low-carb group: Effects of Low-Carbohydrate and Low-Fat Diets: A Randomized Trial
- 15:20 – Duke / Westman Study: When an insulin-dependent type-II diabetic adopts a low-carb diet, they have to half their insulin within 24 hours: A low-carbohydrate, ketogenic diet to treat type 2 diabetes
- Alcoholic ketoacidosis can happen to binge drinkers! Alcoholic Ketoacidosis
The Tweet that started the conversation
New research from my lab reveals how #ketones (bHB) elicit favorable #mitochondria changes in #muscle. https://t.co/Kct2ZGlQrj
— Benjamin Bikman (@BenBikmanPhD) August 1, 2018
The man who single-handedly made me love Twitter again… just clean the clutter out of that feed!
Learn more about Dr. Bikman
After watching the podcast interview above, you’ll undoubtedly realize he is a force of knowledge in the world of insulin, type-II diabetes, metabolic disease, and using a low-carb or ketogenic diet to combat them.
He is a must-follow on social media:
- Twitter: @BenBikmanPHd
- Instagram: @BenBikmanPHd
Also see Ben’s lab website at bikmanlab.byu.edu.