Ketone Drink May Help Diabetics

Obesity and type 2 diabetes have grown to reach epidemic levels globally, such conditions are associated with high blood sugar that can damage vessels that supply blood to vital organs and increase risks for stroke and heart disease.

Infusing ketones into the bloodstream has been shown to reduce blood sugar levels. This study shows that a single drink of ketone ester supplement enabled better control of blood sugar by reducing spikes in sugar levels which was demonstrated by researchers from the University of British Columbia and the University of Oxford.

20 healthy subjects on 2 occasions consumed either a placebo or ketone monoester supplement after a 10 hour fasting period, 30 minutes after subjects consumed a drink containing 75 grams of sugar, over the entire 2.5 hour protocol for glucose, hormone, and lipid analyses blood samples were collected every 15-30 minutes.

As this study was conducted on healthy young individuals additional studies are required to reduce the confounding influence of insulin resistance, medications, and beta-cell dysfunction to determine whether it will apply to individuals with obesity, prediabetes, and type 2 diabetes, and to gain better understandings of the physiological mechanisms underpinning improved blood sugar control. Control drinks had to be made to mimic that of the ketone supplements to blind the subjects, the ketone supplements were noted to not taste good.

Should the same responses be seen in other subjects with or at risk for type 2 diabetes it may be possible that ketone monoester supplements could be used in interventions to help lower glucose levels and improve metabolic health; additional studies are currently underway to investigate.