New Analysis Shows Ketosis Improves Most Risk Markers for Heart Disease.

Earlier this month a company known as Virta Health published a study of their patients who are on a ketogenic diet with the help of a highly connected cell phone app that helps their patients stay on track. The study is quite remarkable. It addresses one of the biggest concerns most patients have about low carb diets, namely that low carb diets are bad for the heart. The results of this trial appears to be a resounding "NO!". No it does not exacerbate the known risk factors and markers for future heart diseas, in fact, quite the opposite appears to occur.

• A reduction in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure
• An 11.9% reduction in 10-year ASCVD (atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease) risk score
• A substantial prescription reduction for hypertension medications
• A 39% decrease in inflammation (measured by C-reactive protein)

As you can see, a multitude of markers improve dramatically on the Diabetic patients on the  Ketogenic diet and people who where treated were treated with the current standard of care for diabetes showed mostly across the board declines in health markers.
60% percent of Diabetics saw their disease reversed! They lost weight, as well. They took less medications!!  This raises a big question: Why would anyone treat diabetes by the standard methods? 
The one element that didn't go into go in the direction the medical community at large would like is the LDL-Cholesterol, the so called "bad cholesterol" That went up. As I pointed out in the cholesterol section, LDL-C is all bad. There are sub-fractions of LDL that when they elevate are not associated with heart disease risk and it is this fraction, the large-fluffy fraction that is increasing in patients on the ketogenic diet and not the bad small-dense LDL fraction. The bottom line is that even what appears to be a negative change caused by the diet really isn't when analysed by closer examination by advanced lipid testing,  The ketogenic diet reverses all the elements of metabolic syndrome and lowers inflammatory markers. It remains to be seen if the actual cardiac event rate drops in the Virta patients. We'll have to wait and see as they continue to study their patients. STAY TUNED.

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