"Effects of β-hydroxybutyrate on Cognition in Memory-Impaired Adults" (Reger et al., 2004)

"Effects of β-hydroxybutyrate on Cognition in Memory-Impaired Adults" (Reger et al., 2004)

Grace "Is there a study where the keto diet specifically improved memory? A friend of mine has been complaining about word retrieval—she doesn't know whether it's simple forgetfulness or dementia. If the keto diet helps with that, I'd like to share it with her."

Dr. Lee "There is a study that measured sentence-recall ability in relation to dementia. One moment—let me find the file. (opens a file on his computer) Found it. The paper is "Effects of β-hydroxybutyrate on cognition in memory-impaired adults" (Reger et al., 2004). In Alzheimer's disease, the brain's ability to use glucose declines. Building on prior work showing ketones are effective in the brain, the researchers designed this study. They gave medium-chain triglycerides to 20 Alzheimer's patients with memory impairment, then performed cognitive testing and blood sampling at 90 and 120 minutes. As Figure 6-9 shows, the higher the blood ketone level, the greater the improvement in the cognitive measure for Alzheimer's disease."