Short‐term ketone monoester supplementation improves cerebral blood flow and cognition in obesity: A randomized cross‐over trial
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract Adults with obesity are at increased risk of neurocognitive impairments, partly as a result of reduced cerebral blood flow and brain‐derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). Ketone supplements containing β‐hydroxybutyrate (β‐OHB) are a purported therapeutic strategy for improving brain health in at‐risk populations. We tested the hypothesis that short‐term β‐OHB supplementation will elevate cerebral blood flow and BDNF, as well as improve cognition in adults with obesity. In a placebo‐controlled double‐blind, cross‐over design, 14 adults with obesity (10 females; aged 56 ± 12 years; body mass index = 33.8 ± 6.9 kg m –2 ) consumed 30 mL (12 g) of β‐OHB or placebo thrice‐daily for 14 days. Blood flow ( Q ) and cerebrovascular conductance (CVC) were measured in the common carotid (CCA), internal carotid (ICA) and vertebral (VA) arteries by duplex ultrasound. BDNF was measured by an enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay. Cognition was assessed by the digit‐symbol substitution (DSST), Stroop and task‐switching tests. Following 14 days of ketone supplementation, we observed significant improvements in cerebrovascular outcomes including Q CCA (+12%), Q VA (+11%), VA CVC (+12%) and VA shear rate (+10%). DSST performance significantly improved following ketone supplementation (+2.7 correct responses) and improved DSST performance was positively associated improvements in cerebrovascular outcomes including Q CCA , CCA CVC , Q VA and VA CVC . By contrast to one hypothesis, β‐OHB did not impact fasting serum and plasma BDNF. β‐OHB supplementation improved cognition in adults with obesity, which may be partly facilitated by improvements in cerebral blood flow. β‐OHB supplementation was well‐tolerated and appears to be safe for cerebrovascular health, suggesting potential therapeutic benefits of β‐OHB in a population at risk of neurocognitive impairment. image Key points People with obesity are at increased risk of neurocognitive dysfunction, partly as a result of ‐induced reductions in cerebral blood flow (CBF) and brain‐derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). Ketone supplements containing β‐hydroxybutyrate (β‐OHB) reduce postprandial hyperglycaemia, which may increase CBF and BDNF, thereby protecting against obesity‐related cognitive dysfunction. We show for the first time that 14 days of thrice‐daily β‐OHB supplementation improves aspects of cognition and increases cerebrovascular flow, conductance and shear rate in the extracranial arteries of adults with obesity. Our preliminary data indicate a significant positive relationship between elevated CBF and improved cognition following β‐OHB supplementation. This trial provides a foundation for the potential non‐pharmacological therapeutic application of β‐OHB supplementation in patient groups at risk of hyperglycaemic cerebrovascular disease and cognitive dysfunction.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one teacher head, not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".