I posted briefly here.
Basically, as we age, all of us will have a decline cerebral metabolic rate of glucose use, which is symptomatic with neurodegeneration. Being diabetic massively accelerates this curve.
As a way to ameliorate this loss, generating ketones via diet offer mitochondria an alternate fuel source to promote optimal function. Neurons, Astrocytes and Oligodendrocytes all metabolise ketone bodies
Ketones have all sorts of other pro-longevity signalling pathways.
The diet combined with fasting, of course, blunts glucose spike/AUC, already shown to promote longevity in mice, so that’s an additional freebie.
A ketogenic diet extends longevity and healthspan in adult mice
And by default, a ketogenic diet imposes protein restrictions, and we know quite conclusively in plethora of rodent studies, that protein restriction, most especially BCAA, and furthermore, leucine restriction promotes longevity.
Lifelong restriction of dietary branched-chain amino acids has sex-specific benefits for frailty and lifespan in mice
Metabolomics Study of Isocaloric Different Dietary Patterns on the Life Span in Healthy Population
Promoting Health and Longevity through Diet: From Model Organisms to Humans
https://www.cell.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0092-8674(15)00186-5
Decreased Consumption of Branched-Chain Amino Acids Improves Metabolic Health
“We have determined that reduced dietary BCAAs improves metabolic health even in the absence of significant alterations in the dietary carbohydrate:protein ratio”
Daily caloric restriction limits tumor growth more effectively than caloric cycling regardless of dietary composition
Caloric Restriction vs. Animal-Protein Restriction
“The lifespan extension associated with dietary restriction may be due less to a reduction in calories, and more to a reduction in animal protein (particularly the amino acid leucine, which may accelerate aging via the enzyme TOR).”
As for Okinawans/Sardinans, the long lived “islander” cohorts (yet vastly different diets), from all the literature I’ve read, their longevity signal is majority genetic (enriched lineages), but on the specific dietary side, what they do share in common and is pro longevity is…LOW animal protein and mild CR. This would be very consistent with all the rodent longevity literature.
New Horizons: Dietary protein, ageing and the Okinawan ratio
“Such studies in insects and mice indicate that animals with ad libitum access to low-protein, high-carbohydrate diets have longest lifespans. Remarkably, the optimum content and ratio of dietary protein to carbohydrates for ageing in experimental animals are almost identical to those in the traditional diets of the long-lived people on the island of Okinawa. The energy from their diets was derived from 9% protein and 85% carbohydrates”
Healthy aging diets other than the Mediterranean: A Focus on the Okinawan Diet
So being low carb/ketogenic and overlaying OMAD fasting, I get a combination of benefits and hedges, all associated with longevity:
- Low glucose spikes/AUC.
- Low animal protein (classic ket macros 20% protein, 75% plant fats, < 5% net carbs)
- Ketone bodies generation as alternate compensatory brain fuel for aging, lowers inflammation (NLRP3 inflammasome), HDAC inhibitor, lowers body fat, preserves muscle loss.
- Fasting and all the metabolic benefits, lowering fT3 and metabolic rate. Ghrelin spurs brain neurogenesis.
I feel amazing after 6 yrs on the switch, much leaner, no impediments to muscle build, excellent biomarkers. I have super high energy level. My wife tells me my memory and cognitive is amazing.
But a long way to go to a 100…the hill will only get steeper.