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Your brain needs glucose
There's too much focus on micros, we need to remember what our body actually needs minute to minute. You can last quite a while without micros, but you cannot survive without glucose, so your body will do all it possibly can to keep levels stable. Even in ketosis your brain is using glucose, and maintaining glucose in the bloodstream, if not you die.
So I completely agree with this doctor who is healing brains using dextrose:
https://youtu.be/J7sG-ePM6Hw?si=gY0W1f2_M5rU5WkO
He said the reason why people may feel better on the keto diet is because it is a more continuous supply of glucose, maybe not enough to recover a brain, but enough you see depression, anxiety and addiction lift.
He claims he has seen type 1 diabetics not need insulin anymore. And if blood glucose goes too high it's transient and will heal as the brain starts regulating it better. (that's from his facebook page which he has his program detailed in videos)
He claims 100% success rate because without glucose your brain can't heal and can't regulate the body well.
Maybe this is why people going on low vit A seem to heal, there's a big focus on starch which is how we have gotten glucose for thousands of years. He said autoimmunity can heal on his protocol.
Sucrose isn't good enough. Fructose can't enter the blood brain barrier, it has to be glucose. So first the body has to split sucrose into half fructose half glucose then it can enter the brain. The fructose is hard on the liver. Glucose isn't toxic at all, excess is peed out.
This could be why Katharine Dalton saw many women get cured of PMS using the 3 hourly starch diet, she may have seen 100% success by loading with dextrose for a period of time until symptoms are resolved and stay resolved. Those who didn't see success just didn't get enough glucose to the brain to completely reverse it.
The brain uses over 130 grams of glucose per day. I think he said it was more like 160 I'd have to go back and hear.
Quote from Jessica2 on June 9, 2024, 12:41 pmDoes the doctor go into proof of excess glucose being peed out? I've literally never heard such a thing before. Conventional wisdom (which I know is not always right) says that excess glucose is turned into fat, that peeing it out can happen but it's not the primary method of dealing with excess glucose.
Glucose is the active sugar in our body, it is fructose that is stored as fat.
Here was his answer regarding diabetes:
"I've treated hundreds of people literally with either type one or type two diabetes and there's an inverse relationship meaning if one's high the other's low if one's low the other's high between our blood glucose and our brain glucose level. So as we've been talking about the brain glucose level keeps lowering as that valve gets turned down with every sympathetic nervous system activation well the brain knows that it must have glucose it also knows that there's a storage of glucose sitting there in the liver and so what it will do is activate the liver to release stored glucose in order to hopefully get some more glucose to the brain but because of the limitation it doesn't get any more glucose to the brain or certainly not enough so then it activates the liver to release more stored glucose into the blood and it doesn't get all of that so it activates the liver to release more stored glucose into the blood and as you can see that just progressively jacks up the blood sugar level. As the brain gets glucose by taking it this way {the dextrose protocol} it has less and less and then no need to activate the liver to release stored glucose so the blood sugar level goes progressively down."
He explains that when the brain gets bumped (or when it senses danger) the sympathetic nervous system is activated and floods the brain with glucose, that can't go on for too long or it would drain the entire body's stores of glucose so it shuts it back down to a more normal level, but with each progressive activation it shuts it down further so you end up getting less and less glucose to the brain after each danger response (this is why repeated brain injuries cause suicidal thoughts which is reversible with glucose).
"None of the glucose that people take like you're taking it and like the people that I work with take none of that gets stored in the liver all of it's going to the brain and is being used by the brain in the moment. I recommend that people take glucose three times three to four times a day and the reason is their brain is burning the glucose they took continuously and so just like if you're on a road trip with your car you need to stop and get gas periodically because the gas level gets low the brain is burning all the glucose you take so you need to replenish that supply so it is not contributing to glucose in the liver at all."
"So as people's brains get fueled they can get off their thyroid medication because their thyroid returns to functioning the way it should as people take glucose male or female hormonal imbalances are corrected and hormonal rest hormonal function is restored. So what happens is and the way I describe it is there are micro interventions and there's a macro intervention so things like taking hormones things like taking medicine um even training that you or I do with people all of those are micro interventions they address a specific system in the body and like you said the brain ultimately controls everything, it controls itself, it controls every single bodily function, so the macro intervention is getting the brain fully fueled then it will fuel every single bodily function and everything in your body will work the way it should.
So kind of a silly example I worked with a guy this has been a few years ago now he was 64 at the time he'd had a migraine headache every single day of his life since age nine and so about three months into taking glucose his migraine stopped and he never had another one but about a month later he said I've got a story that I think you're going to find interesting he said I've always had this split in my thumbnail and he said said it wasn't a big deal I'd ask doctors about it once in a while and they'd say well we don't know what it is but it's not a problem don't worry about it he said I just noticed the other day that split is gone and so even something as remote and kind of seemingly insignificant as thumbnail growth the brain regulates that when his brain got fueled it could address even things as kind of minor as thumbnails so that and everything in between up to memory function up to bodily function heart function lung function all that the brain regulates and when the brain is fueled it restores all of those functions."
About dosing:
"It varies by individual the most anyone's ever taken and this will sound like an astronomic amount but remember glucose cannot be harmful to any part of your body in any way in any amount it's impossible to take enough to be harmful but I worked with a guy he estimated he'd had 50 concussions as a kid, then when he was in his early 20s he went head first through a windshield at 120 mile an hour and was in a medically induced coma for three months then went to prison because he was drunk at the time of the accident and got assaulted there, so when I saw him he's a very intelligent guy loved to read, but he said if I work as hard as I can I can maybe read 70 pages a week and he was having continuous suicidal thoughts and he was angry all the time, he said it's all I can do to not fight everybody I see. So he took glucose he got to 33 tablespoons at a time three times a day so slightly over two cups, again there's no way to take enough to be harmful the worst thing that would happen is if you took more glucose than your brain would need is it would come out in your urine, so that's the worst case scenario but by the time he finished treatment he was reading 700 pages a week he had had zero suicidal thoughts and was not angry at all, but so that's the highest anyone's ever taken. Children obviously they would take a lot less and it varies per child and per diagnosis for example people who are diagnosed with autism children typically need to take more but it it depends on the age so let's just say a 5-year-old I think the most a 5-year-old that I've worked with has ever taken was eight tablespoons at a time. But if people have sensitive systems I might start them off by taking one or even a half a tablespoon per time three times a day and maybe going up by a teaspoon or a tablespoon every week but generally children start at one to two tablespoons adults start at three and then we go up from there until we reach symptom elimination so the guy I was talking to you about at 33 tablespoons then he had no more symptoms so that's where we stopped increasing."
On keto:
"Ketosis is like the third level fueling and it's the starvation safety net so when you're not getting any carbs at all then your body and brain will turn on ketosis but what's happening is burning of ketones actually converts them to glucose so it converts fat to glucose so you're getting a little bit of glucose by doing the keto diet but it's only drops and it's only to sustain you to keep you from starving and so it's also that little bit of glucose produced by the keto diet isn't subject to the glucose limitation {from the repeated activation of sympathetic nervous system} so people are getting more glucose a little bit more but still more glucose when they're on the keto diet and that's why they start to feel better but you can't get enough the brain needs at resting state not doing any activity but just being alive the brain burns 160 grams of glucose every day wow and ketosis can't replace that so you feel a little better but you're not getting enough for your brain to recover for your brain to restore your body function and actually it's kind of funny I have a number of people that they do the carnivore diet while they're taking glucose and one guy he started calling it he says I do the glunovore diet I love that so he does carnivore and glucose so there's no reason you can't do carnivore while you're taking glucose yeah and you'll get some of the benefits of the keto diet but you obviously won't go into ketosis because you're getting carbs but again ketosis was never designed to be a primary live your life fuel system it's a safety net and it's kind of like a spare tire it'll kind of get you along until you can get back to the normal system but it's glucose is the primary fueling system then lactose is secondary and ketosis tertiary or the third level "
Quote from Jessica2 on June 9, 2024, 2:50 pmFructose being stored as fat while excess glucose isn't is a claim not really supported by much evidence. It would be intiguing if true, but again, not much evidence for this claim.
There is also evidence suggesting the brain runs just fine and in some cases people report better brain functioning on ketones rather than glucose.
That's the whole point of this post, brains need consistent fuel and when glucose is becoming limited to the brain due to injury, trauma, and repeated fight or flight activation then sure someone would feel better on ketones than their own limited supply from whatever starch they are eating. This can be completely reversed by taking dextrose 4 times a day. Research says "In AD, Parkinson’s disease (PD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and Huntington disease (HD), glucose hypometabolism in affected brain regions is prominent, which correlates to disease severity" This is exactly what the doctor said is happening, but CAN be reversed. Ketosis doesn't reverse it, as soon as someone goes off the diet their symptoms are back with vengeance.
Similar is happening in diabetes: " fuel shortage is prominent even years before any cognitive impairment may be diagnosed [66], a phenomenon possibly mirroring the insulin resistance seen in obesity and type 2 diabetes where similar reductions in cerebral glucose consumption are seen [67,68,69]." Brain glucose IS LOW, that's the whole point, we need to get more glucose into the brain to heal these diseases. Ketosis doesn't heal it but is a back up plan.
Quote from Jessica2 on June 9, 2024, 4:00 pmWhy, despite abundant glucose availability in modern times, does the doctor theorize that there are glucose shortages though? White flour and rice are staples literally everywhere. Disease like the ones you listed are simply cured with glucose? Why was the metabolism impaired in the first place?
He never mentions food being able to take the place of dextrose. Starch still has to be broken down. But there are many people who were able to get consistent fuel to their brains enough to heal, Grant being one of them. The impairment like I said comes from repeated fight or flight activation, it causes the brain to continually clamp down on glucose more and more each time it happens because when adrenaline floods your system glucose enters the brain at 100% capacity this is dangerous so it prevents that from becoming too dangerous, it basically over responds to the hyperglucose situation limiting the ability for glucose to enter. But with enough glucose the brain can heal.
This describes my situation so well, I have had many and I mean many fight or flight responses in my life. I have been able to heal a lot just by switching from sugars to starches. Sugar was never healing to me. It was only when I added starches to my diet way back when I was on Ray Peat style eating and also now eating more rice and beans.
He does mention adding in dextrose to a sensitive system could result in bloating, headaches, or acid reflux, so you can go more slowly, but it does clear up.
@janelle525 This is very interesting ! I have noticed that all the bad « detox » reactions are accompanied by sugar cravings. And follow sudden sympathetic activation. We have been calming this with a good glass of vodka, which goes directly to the brain, and more recently with 20 minutes of red light therapy, which seems to have the same effect on the cells, but not on the dopamine.
Also frankfurters seem to have that effect. They are full of dextrose!!!
And ice cream, the water type, is full of dextrose otherwise it would not congeal well! We crave that when detox hits!
It could very well be that dextrose is the missing ingredient for people who suffer the detox set-back reaction!
I was thinking about this in terms of anorexia. What is actually happening during starvation? The brain and organs are not getting enough fuel. It is a vicious cycle, once someone gets in the cycle it is hard to get out of the cycle because the feelings of worthlessness and anxiety just go up and up as the brain continues to lack the fuel necessary to regulate. So then they have to force feed high amounts of rapidly absorbed calories usually in the form of processed food to recover. Unfortunately that comes with a bunch of things you may not want over time. I wonder if someone with anorexia was just given enough dextrose throughout the day their anxiety would decrease and the brain would begin to heal enough they wouldn't want to slowly kill themselves. Many anorexics go on to become type 2 diabetics, it is a much more preferred state than early death! Should they then go on another restrictive diet? No I'd argue not.
I told my husband to take a tablespoon of dextrose yesterday because he was working hard in the 95 degree heat, he immediately had IBS. That is not good sign. So his carnivore diet has already screwed up his ability to tolerate carbs.
Quote from Jessica2 on June 10, 2024, 4:57 amSeems to me if this is true the best thing you can do is stress reduction, meditation, and relief rather than try to get huge amounts of a refined product in your diet.
There is no research I can find claiming that excess glucose is peed out, except for when you have diabetes. This isn't a normal or desired state for the body to be in. Possibly small amounts may be helpful, but I'm super weary of wild claims such as what this doctor is making that have no evidence backing it up except his own words.
Stress reduction is great, but it won't necessarily heal the lack of glucose entering the brain. Which is why we have an epidemic of end of life diseases like dementia. Some say it is actually diabetes of the brain and that's probably correct but the only answer offered is ketosis, but no one is testing whether we can force more glucose into the brain!!! How about test that out first? This doctor isn't in a place to run all the necessary tests to do a study like that. I do want to see the evidence as well. I think his theory is very sound. Blood glucose could be high but the brain glucose may be low, how do you test that as a psychologist? lol He said he wants to be able to do a lumbar puncture but... man that stinks that's the only way. We don't have to though, the science says that's what's happening in these brain problems. Doesn't matter if your blood glucose is high your brain might not be getting enough at all. Get the brain functioning and regulating better and blood glucose may NORMALIZE!
I would like to know more about peeing out excess as well. He did say in terms of the doses used for the protocol it is safe. He was making the point that you can't kill yourself with these doses.
I did hear of a story of a type 1 diabetic a long time ago in the ray peat groups who used a pound of table sugar a day instead of insulin. His brain was clearly super clamped down, the valve was turned LOW, he had to force glucose in to prevent the brain from not being able to regulate his blood glucose. Now I understand why this works. But table sugar isn't the answer, the fructose does clog up the liver over time and fructose cannot enter the blood brain barrier.
Thank you for bringing this to the forum. I know there were times I suffered brain injury as a kid. It is really interesting.
Quote from Jessica2 on June 10, 2024, 7:15 amIt is fascinating for sure, I watched the whole podcast. I know different types of fatty acids can be good or bad depending on the particular type it is, so possibly it works this way with sugar as well. I have difficulty with the premise though that the only way these traumatic states can be cured is with dextrose. There really isn't a source of pure dextrose in nature, since as you pointed out, starches need to be broken down to make it. And the doctor in the video says that honey wouldn't help cure these states even though it's 40% dextrose, which is high for a natural source.
So basically what I took away from that is traumatic States in the past were basically death sentences and now they're not because of dextrose. I'm a little skeptical of that but perhaps with some experimenting and a little more evidence I could be convinced that's true.
You could overfeed honey and possibly get a full restoration. He just believes the other sugars could be toxic (he cites Lustig a huge proponent against fructose that all Ray Peaters made fun of).
It's not that now they're not death sentences because of dextrose it's that the brain now has enough glucose to heal after trauma. If someone wants to try this with honey instead of glucose I'd be interested to see! Grant seems to have healed using rice and beans so I think it's possible. White rice can be rapidly absorbed as well. And now he's doing bread and honey and not getting diabetes! (he may need to be aware of the fructose content over time) I think we need to shift our mindset, it's not that these things cause disease it's that trauma causes the brain to not be able to regulate our blood glucose anymore.