What Is the Potential Problem With a Keto Diet for Alzheimer’s?

While a ketogenic diet can indeed provide a non-glucose source of energy for the brain, and ketones may have potential to affect the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease, there are metabolic costs and nutrient sacrifices associated with this method. In other words, sticking to a ketogenic diet might provide your body with a needed alternate source of energy, but doing so could deprive the body and brain of many other essential nutrients that play a role in your overall vascular health—a key issue associated with the overall risk of Alzheimer’s disease. The body treats ketones as a limited asset with associated risks. There are enzyme systems designed to prevent the blood level of ketones from getting too high. This can be a problem on a ketogenic diet, because the body cranks out a lot of ketones. Ketones affect the pH (acid/base balance) of the blood. We normally have a higher (less acid) pH, but ketones are acidic, and if present at elevated levels, they can lower blood pH, which can seriously mess with our metabolism. On a biochemical level, using ketones as a source of energy for the brain does make some sense. In fact, the body relies on this alternative source of fuel when there is not food available—likely an evolutionary advantage for when the food supply is less stable. However, a person does not need to adopt a ketogenic diet to produce ketones. In addition to messing with the body’s acid-base balance, carbohydrates get cut out of a keto diet, or down to a minimum, and this pushes many healthful foods–fruits and healthy grains—off the plate.