There's a kidney disease out there
that plagues a lot of people,
it's called polycystic kidney disease.
And what it is, is
where fluid-filled cysts
form in our kidneys and they grow
until they ultimately
just prohibit the kidney
from functioning in its normal form.
So basically it's this progressive illness
that has these cysts that continue to grow
until you end up on dialysis.
And up until recently,
it was thought to be
completely irreversible,
it was thought to be just this
debilitating kidney disease
that leads people on a
life of despair and a life
of dialysis if they even want
to have any normal function.
So truly just a terrible,
terrible disease.
Now what happens is
these fluid-filled cysts
ultimately end up interfering
with normal kidney function.
They start to envelop most of the kidney
to the point where the actual normal,
functioning part of the kidney becomes
less and less and less and less.
So again, that's why
dialysis becomes important.
But when we start understanding
what's happening there
and we start looking
at some modern science
we realize that there
could be a way around it.
So we're going to discuss
it a little bit more detail
and understand how the ketogenic diet
affects polycystic kidney disease.
I'm Thomas DeLauer with Keto-Mojo.
Let's go ahead and let's
dive into the science.
You see, during normal
filtration of the kidneys
what happens is, waste
concentrates into these crystals
and these crystals ultimately end up
getting excreted out through the kidneys,
basically through what are called tubules.
This is a total normal thing,
we always are going to
have some waste by-product.
But what ends up happening
in people that are
genetically predisposed to
polycystic kidney disease
is these crystals still
get excreted normally
but what happens is the process
of excreting them sort of gets stuck.
Now here's what I mean by
that, here's what happens.
When we have these crystals
and they get flushed out,
there's a dilation that
occurs of the kidney tubules.
So the kidney tubules dilate
in order to flush the crystals out.
Well if that dilation occurs,
and it doesn't retract after dilation
that is how these cysts can form.
So it turns out, the people
that are genetically predisposed
to polycystic kidney disease,
don't have that recoil effect.
So they have the dilation of the tubules
but it stays stretched
out, it stays dilated.
This causes sort of an
over shooting of fluid,
an over shooting in general
that causes a cyst to form.
So you think you have the
tubule opening up and dilating
where it's triggering more fluid,
well it triggers a cyst to
form that is full of fluid.
And in time, it grows,
and grows, and grows.
Now obviously this is a problem
but when we start looking at the science
and we look at a study that was published
in the journal, Cell Metabolism,
we start understanding
things a little bit better.
We start understanding
that there could be a fix.
You see, up until this study,
we really though that fasting
was the only way to improve PKD.
And they thought that fasting
improved PKD simply because,
well you weren't bringing food in,
it wasn't able to grow
the little, the sac,
it wasn't able to grow the cyst.
Well upon further investigation
they found that, wow,
it actually had something
to do with glucose.
Okay, so it turns out glucose
was fueling the fluid in the sac.
The more glucose that was coming in,
the more fluid that would go into the sac.
So it still went in line with the theory,
that food caused the cyst to grow
and the only way to
prevent them was to fast.
However, in this same study,
they found that oral administration
or beta hydroxybutyrate,
the primary ketone body
inhibited the growth of the cysts.
In fact, it actually made them smaller.
In fact, just after five
weeks of oral administration
of beta hydroxybutyrate, these
sacs had shrunk down in size
so much that they were indistinguishable
from regular kidney cells.
So the proof here is
that these little sacs,
these little sacs that form in the kidneys
are metabolically inflexible.
They can only grow and thrive on glucose.
So if we make ketones
the primary fuel source,
then these little suckers
can't live with it.
They can't be fueled off ketones,
they can't grow off ketones
to the point where they
eventually just wither away
and just go back to normal.
Now if you're genetically
predisposed to this,
that means when you do go
off the ketogenic diet,
you could be at risk for them again,
but at least you know that
there is a way for you to live
that isn't just being on dialysis.
Now there's some other interesting stuff
that has to do with kidneys
in the ketogenic diet.
So I want to touch on
that for just a moment.
The Journal of Kidney International
took a look at something
called nephrology.
Which is basically where
kidney cells start to die.
And they found that
through the ketogenic diet
there was an increase in what is called
SIRT-1 or Sirtuins.
Sirtuins are these anti-aging proteins
that have really powerful effects
on all different parts of the body.
But in this case, we're
talking about the kidneys.
So when we fast or when we're in ketosis
and we have a presence of ketones,
we have an increase in
what is called AMPK,
AMP protein kinase.
And what this does, is
it triggers the body
to start using its own
stored energy for fuel.
Now this is all great and it's
great for fat loss and all.
But in that process, AMPK also triggers
a bunch of anti-aging processes as well.
And SIRT-1 being one of them.
Now what SIRT-1 does, is it turns off
these genes that promote aging.
You see whenever cells
or anything like that
are under stress, acetyl
groups get added to proteins.
And I know this is complex,
so I'll make some sense of it.
Basically, these acetyl
groups get added to proteins
as a response to stress.
These acetyl groups
trigger an aging process.
They sort of get tagged.
Well then what happens, is
when ketones are present
and you create an
elevation of these SIRT-1's
these SIRT-1's make it so that
the acetyl groups get removed.
So it basically removes the tag
that says a protein or
a cell is getting old.
So pretty neat.
It basically makes it so we don't have
this aging process that occurs.
Well, where does this come
into play with the kidneys?
Well the kidneys cells will obviously
get tagged with aging
and stress very easily
depending on how toxic
our lifestyle has been.
So we have sort of double-whammy
positive effect here.
The ketones not only can
reduce the risk of disease
and make it so our kidneys live longer
but they can also potentially reverse
polycystic kidney disease.
Now this is just the tip of the iceberg
when it comes down to the
research behind ketones
and the kidneys.
And it all comes down to keeping
elevated levels of ketones.
And when it comes down to
keeping your ketones high,
the only true way that you
can know is by measuring.
And that's exactly where the
Keto-Mojo meter comes in.
and making sure that you're
constantly where you want to be.
Because we are all different,
we all have our own bio individuality
which shows that one
person might have different
ketone levels than another person
eating the exact same diet.
So you need to find what works for you
so that you can control any disease states
but also make yourself as
healthy and happy as possible.
As always, leave the
guesswork out of the equation,
leave that measuring to the meter
and I'll see you in the
next Keto-Mojo video.
