Dominic D’Agostino - Ketogenic Diet Research

Dr. D'Agostino is an Assistant Professor at the University of South Florida College Of Medicine, Molecular Pharmacology & Physiology.

Dominic D'Agostino: - Oxygen Toxicity in Navy divers

The Office of Naval Research has played the key and primary role in sponsoring Dominic's research program to develop and test exogenous ketone esters for mitigation of CNS oxygen toxicity in Navy divers.

Dr. D'Agostino develops and tests metabolic therapies, including alternative energy substrates and ketogenic agents for neurological disorders, cancer and wound healing. While studying the effects of gasses on the brains of Navy Seal divers, he developed an approach for metabolically starving cancer cells through diet and compressed oxygen, replacing chemotherapy, surgery, or radiation.

“I came across the work of Thomas Seyfried,” he says. “I found a large amount of evidence that suggested that cancer was metabolically unique. Genetically, it was very heterogeneous. There are a host of different genetic anomalies in the cancer cells, but one characteristic is that it had this ubiquitous metabolic phenotype, which was aerobic glycolysis.

Even in the presence of oxygen, it was shown that cancer cells continue to pump out lactate, suggesting that they’re fuelling their metabolism from excess glucose consumption.

From my perspective, the only reason cancer cells would be pumping out lactate and deriving energy from glucose at such a high rate would be because they are metabolically compromised with mitochondrial deficiency.”

A mounting body of evidence suggests cancer is responsive to therapeutic ketosis—a natural physiologic state induced during prolonged states of decreased glucose. Nutritional ketosis involves restricting carbohydrates in order to decrease the availability of glucose. Restricting carbs also increases production of ketone bodies from your liver.

Dominic D'Agostino: Metabolic Therapies: Therapeutic Implications and Practical Application

Metabolic therapies that induce a state of mild ketosis from caloric restriction or the ketogenic diet offer neuroprotection against a wide range of pathologies, and continues to be an emerging strategy for the metabolic management of cancer.

Severe dietary restriction of calories or carbohydrates is typically needed to produce a level of ketosis that achieves therapeutic benefits. Interestingly, the strategy to use exogenous ketones as an alternative fuel has not been exploited therapeutically.

When administered orally in controlled dosages, ketone esters and other ketogenic agents can lower glucose and elevate plasma ketone levels comparable to levels achieved by the most rigorous ketogenic diets.

Metabolic therapies in the form of ketone supplementation offer a safe, convenient, and versatile new treatment approach for a variety of diseases, including seizure disorders, neurodegenerative diseases and cancer.

Metabolic-Based Strategies for Neurological Disorders and Brain Health

Dom D'Agostino (69 minutes)

Published by: TheIHMC

This is a very technical presentation, but it does explain very well the many threads of research where various methods of producing ketones are being used for neurological and mental health disorders.