Exogenous Ketone Supplements May

Active on the faculty of the University of South Florida, Dominic D’Agostino focuses on research into ketone ester, muscle function, and related technologies. On the site KetoNutrition, Dominic D’Agostino explores various health aspects of ketone supplementation and the ketogenic diet (KD). One blog article on the site is titled “Aging, Age-Related Neurodegenerative Diseases, and Exogenous Ketone Supplements.”

Scientific observations dating back to the late 1930s indicate that a restricted-calorie diet leads to increased lifespan in animal models. Metabolic-associated pathways are closely linked with longevity, and ketogenic diets are a part of this matrix. An example involves rodent studies that indicate KD as helping to decrease midlife mortality in adult mice and increase their healthspan and longevity.

Many people find strict KD adherence, which limits dietary inputs such as carbs, challenging to maintain. An alternative therapeutic option for eliciting nutritional ketosis involves the use of exogenous ketone supplements (EKS). These generates increased ketosis, which modulates a variety of signaling pathways. These in turn can potentially improve symptoms related to multiple age-related clinical conditions. This is achieved both directly (through pathways mediated by β-Hydroxybutyric acid, or ketone salts) and indirectly (through reduced levels of insulin and glucose). The bottom line is that exogenous ketone supplements appear to play a significant role in addressing health issues associated with aging.

For more information, please visit KetoNutrition.org.

Ketogenic Diet as a Potential Way

Having led extensive research in area such as muscle function and ketone supplementation and technologies, Dominic D’Agostino is a University of South Florida associate professor. Also knowledgeable about ketone ester, Dominic D’Agostino presents findings at the website KetoNutrition. One article brings focus to the potential benefits offered by a ketogenic diet in fighting cancer.

Cancer cells rely on glucose as a primary fuel source and employ anaerobic glycolysis, an inefficient energy process, to survive and spread. In cases where the glucose supply that tumor cells rely on is restricted or limited, their growth is halted.

The ketogenic diet mimics fasting in that a low proportion of calories is derived from carbs, with most calories coming from fat. The body adjusts metabolism from glucose, which is normally the primary fuel source, to fat cells (or adipocytes), which generate ketone bodies. The metabolic state of ketosis is one of high ketone levels and low blood glucose levels, and this also serves to limit the available sugars that many types of tumorous cells rely on.

One use demonstrated in preclinical studies is a ketogenic diet serving as a sensitizing agent for radiation and chemotherapy, which increases the effectiveness of the cancer treatments in eliminating malignant cells while sparing normal cells.

For more information, please visit KetoNutrition.org

Ketogenic Diets Come to the Fore for Health and Appetite Control

An associate professor at the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine, Dominic D’Agostino, PhD, has a focus on ketone research, supplementation, and emerging ketone technologies. Dominic D’Agostino’s ketone ester studies explore mechanisms by which KetoNutrition can fight cancer, preserve muscle, and contribute to overall metabolic wellness. 

Dr. D’Agostino was featured in a recent Men’s Health article, “Inside the Rise of Keto: How an Extreme Diet Went Mainstream,” that brings focus to a diet that strictly limits carbs, fruits, and vegetables. The common misconception is that the ketogenic diet is a high protein diet, but it is often capped at or below 100 grams daily (1 gram protein/kg) with up to 90 percent of calories coming from fat in the form of foods such as eggs, fish, steak, bacon, butter, nuts and coconut oil. The modified ketogenic diet has been gaining more popularity, even clinically, and it is characterized by more liberal amounts of protein that can be as high as 30% of calories. 

This dearth of carbohydrates, low to moderate protein, combined with abundant fat, results in the body entering a state of ketosis, in which fat and ketones, rather than glucose, is primarily burned for energy. Beneficial effects on health biomarkers are seen in blood pressure, blood glucose, triglyceride levels, HDL cholesterol and fasting insulin. Crucially, the diet reduces hunger, as fat and carbs ingested together trigger dopamine release, which provides the brain circuits with extra motivation to consume food. Additionally, the elevation of blood ketones helps to regulate the neurometabolic and neuropharmacological state of the brain towards homeostasis, which not only prevents cravings, but helps to improve moods and preserve a more balance psychological state.

Ketogenic Research Efforts at the University of South Florida

A former research scientist at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Dominic D'Agostino serves as a traveling research scholar for the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC). Also an associate professor at the University of South Florida, Dominic D'Agostino has assisted with research for KetoNutrition, Ketone Technologies, and the development and testing of exogenous Ketone Supplementation (Ketone Esters).

In 2015, the Hyperbaric Biomedical Research Laboratory at the University of South Florida employed a unique combination of ketone supplementation and a ketogenic diet with hyperbaric oxygen therapy for cancer management. The study, undertaken on mice with advanced metastatic cancer, demonstrated that ketosis has beneficial effects against cancer cells, which cannot transform ketones into energy as healthy cells do. Further testing is being done on other cancer models to determine what types of cancer will be most responsive to this treatment. 

Ketosis is the metabolic process whereby the body obtains its energy from fatty acids rather than carbohydrates. In that process, the liver produces molecules known as ketones from the fatty acids. Ketones serve as an alternative fuel for the brain and have important signaling roles on gene expression and suppression (e.g. HDACI) of anti-inflammatory pathways (e.g. NLRP3). 

For the pre-clinical mouse study, researchers divided the mice into one group that received a typical diet high in carbohydrates and another group that received a modified ketogenic diet with ketone supplements alongside hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Those in the second group lived significantly longer than those in the control group and had reduced tumor burden. 

Since completing this initial research, the University of South Florida has continued to pursue research for treating cancer through therapeutic ketosis and ketone supplements. The university's researchers have also partnered with other researchers, including those at Moffitt Cancer Center, in preparing for clinical trials with humans. They collaborated on a rreview paper that was recently published in Seminars in Cancer Biology.

Starving cancer: Dominic D'Agostino at TEDxTampaBay