Clarke Research — Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics
Oxford University
Investigating physical performance and cognitive function through mild ketosis
In collaboration with the National Institutes of Health in the US, we created a diet containing ketone bodies, which caused mild ketosis. We are testing the metabolic mechanism underlying the effects of the ketone body diet during exercise, with and without ketosis. Endurance and cognitive function, tested in rats using treadmill exercise and a maze test, respectively, were found to be increased by the ketosis. We propose to further test the ketone diet during training, in a double-blind placebo-controlled cross-over trial. Exercise testing, cognitive function and skeletal and cardiac muscle energetics will be followed using physiological testing and non-invasive MRI of brain and muscle during exercise.
Should subjects on the ketone body diet have greater metabolic efficiency, and therefore better physical and cognitive function, during exercise and psychological stress than those on a normal diet, the diet could also be used to treat metabolic diseases, such as obesity, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.
Further information can be found at: http://www.physiol.ox.ac.uk/Research_Groups/Cardiac_Metabolism/
Kieran Clarke