How Do Ketone Supplements Affect Brain Function in Healthy Adults
Purpose
This study looks at how ketone drinks affect the brain in healthy adults. Ketones are natural substances your body makes when it breaks down fat for energy. Scientists think ketones might help protect the brain and improve how it works.
We want to learn if drinking a ketone supplement changes blood flow to the brain and affects brain chemicals that help with thinking and memory. This information could help us understand if ketone drinks might be helpful for brain health as people age.
If you join this study, you will:
- Come to the research center 3 times over about 1-2 weeks
- Drink either a ketone supplement or a comparison drink (you will not know which one)
- Have brain scans using an MRI machine (like a large medical camera)
- Take simple thinking tests on a computer
- Have finger stick blood tests to measure ketone and sugar levels
You will first come in for a consent visit that take about 1 hour. Then, you will return for two more visits that will take about 3 hours each. You will drink a special beverage twice a day for two days before each scan visit. The study uses MRI scans to safely take pictures of your brain without radiation. We will measure blood flow in your brain and certain brain chemicals before and after you drink the supplement.
This research may help scientists better understand how ketones work in the brain. This could lead to new ways to support brain health in the future.
Could this study be right for you?
Who Can Join:
- Body Mass Index (BMI) between 18.5 and 30
- Able to skip eating overnight before study visits
- Not following a keto diet
Who Cannot Join:
- People who do not speak English
- Currently using ketone supplements or following a keto diet
- Pregnant or breastfeeding
- Allergic to milk protein or lactose intolerant
- History of high blood pressure
- History of alcohol problems in the past 2 years
- History of illegal drug use
- Head injury that caused loss of consciousness
- Brain or nerve disease diagnosis
- Taking medications for mental health conditions
- Current smokers
- Anyone with metal in their body or other reasons they cannot have an MRI scan