Because our audience is so hungry, tell me what to do. Dr. Palmer, tell me what to do. I know ever since your work has become public and the institute at Harvard and McClane has been announced and you've been appearing on podcasts, I know that people from around the world are calling and begging you to work with them, and you are under an avalanche of people who just I just want your help. I understand why. Because you are offering something that feels accessible. You are offering stories of hope. I realize that this is not medical advice, But given that you've got thousands of people that call you every week begging you for medical advice, is it possible for you to give a broad stroke recommendation for people to follow for one month for 21 days?

For people who are suffering from mild to moderate disorders, their safety is not in danger. They have not been suicidal. They haven't tried to hurt themselves or anyone else. They're not hallucinating or delusional. If I had to give generic advice, what's the highest bang for the buck? I would say, Try a ketogenic diet for three months, and then we'll see how it goes. We actually have a tremendous amount of science on the ketogenic diet. Most people know the keto diet as a fad diet, a weight loss diet, a dangerous diet. Unbeknownst to most people, the ketogenic diet was developed over 100 years ago by a physician for one and only one purpose. It was not weight loss. It was to actually stop seizures. The ketogenic diet is a Now an evidence-based treatment. We have lots of randomized controlled trials. We have gold standard meta-analyses in the medical literature proving that this is effective, it is reputable, it is legitimate. The ketogenic diet is an evidence-based treatment for treatment-resistant epilepsy. What that means is that if somebody has seizures and medications don't stop their seizures, or even brain surgery doesn't stop their seizures, the ketogenic diet can often work in a way that medications and even brain surgery may not have worked for those people.

Why?

And so that's the beautiful thing for my research. So we have decades of research looking at the ketogenic diet, trying to figure out how on earth does this diet stop seizures when our great pills didn't? Like, what What is going on here? We know that the ketogenic diet is having profound effects on the brain function. It's changing neurotransmitters, it changes gene expression, it decreases brain inflammation and body inflammation as well. Central to my thesis, it actually improves mitochondrial function, which in a nutshell means it's improving metabolism, And in particular, brain metabolism. One of the great things about the ketogenic diet, like when it's used for epilepsy, is that people don't have to do it for life. Most often people only need to do it for two to five years.

That actually, quote, unquote- That sounds like a long time, honestly. Two to five years of a. But what is it? Because you guys say keto this, keto that, keto ketosis or whatever the hell the words are. What is the keto? What am I eating? Walk me through a day of being on the keto diet.

So the keto diet in a nutshell is very low in carbohydrates, moderate in protein, and high in fat. So what you would eat if you were doing a ketogenic diet, Again, I want to even set the stage. There are vegan versions of a ketogenic diet, vegetarian versions, omnivore versions, where you're eating both animal-sourced and plant-sourced food, and even carnivore versions of this diet, where all you're eating is meat and eggs and stuff like that.

So this is very inclusive, everybody. But let's just say you and I are going to breakfast, lunch, and dinner today.

What are we ordering? So what I might eat if I were eating a ketogenic diet, I am an omnivore. I eat both animal-sourced and plant-sourced foods. I would wake up and I might have eggs and bacon or sausage or some meat.

Let's go. Sounds like Sunday brunch, Dr. Palmer.

I might add extra butter. If I need more fat, I might add extra butter to the eggs. So some people might look at me making my eggs thinking, Why are you putting all that butter in your scrambled eggs? And I would say, Because I need the extra fat. For lunch and dinner, similar meals, I would probably have a protein source. So that could be steak, chicken, salmon, poultry. And I would have low carb vegetables. So that could include broccoli, spinach, any lettuces, cauliflower, cucumber, pickles, pickles, things like that. I would take my pick. When I prepared those vegetables, I would put extra sources of fat on those vegetables. So I would put olive oil and plain vinegar. So that might be my I might emphasize nuts and avocados because those are very high in fat and typically thought of as healthy sources of fat.

So how long would you suggest Can you ask that somebody, if they're going to start with the ketogenic diet, how long should you try it and what would you look out for Dr. Palmer to know that it's actually impacting you in a positive way?

I would recommend getting some information on a well-formulated ketogenic diet. So you want to do it right. You want to include enough healthy types of foods. People sometimes need extra electrolytes, like sodium, potassium, magnesium, when they get started on the diet. And nonetheless, there's this thing called the keto adaptation phase or keto flu. So the first week or two in particular can be very rough. I'm just going to let people know. People can feel weak, hungry, hungry, dizzy, irritable, other things. Really? Why? Because they're basically withdrawing from sugar or carbohydrates. More importantly, their body is trying to do this shift from burning primarily on carbohydrates to running on a combination of carbohydrates and fats as fuel sources. And for some people, that can be an easier transition For others, it can be a more difficult transition.

Let's just say you get the keto flu. We're now on the other side of the keto flu. We're starting to perk up, what are you going to feel and how do you know if it's working?

The first thing that most people will start to feel is an antidepressant effect. They will start to notice that they just feel lighter. They have a little more energy. Their brain starts working a little better. Some people might notice that their sleep is feeling more restorative. So if there's somebody who usually has to use an alarm, push the snooze button several times, they might start to notice that it's easier to wake up in the morning. They get going faster than normal. Some people will notice, if you're a power lifter, for instance, or a weight lifter, you will notice a decline in your ability to lift weights for about two months, and it will come back. For people using this for mental health, it's usually not a lifelong diet. What? A lot of people will do it for one to five years. They actually reinvigorate their metabolism. Or most importantly, what that means to me is that they're improving their mitochondrial health.

Yeah.

And that actually can then persist so that you've actually done some healing work on your body. And so that if you go back to a wholefood, still a healthy diet, I'm not encouraging people to go back to a junk food diet with a lot of processed foods. But if they start adding back carbohydrates, even complex carbohydrates, whole grains or potatoes and other things, they They may do extraordinarily well. And again, I want to be clear, I don't necessarily recommend the ketogenic diet for everyone. Not everybody needs it. Some people can just get rid of the junk food and the processed foods. Some people can just get rid of the extra sugar in their diet and do spectacularly well. So they might do well on a paleo diet or- Whole30. Whole30 or a vegetarian or vegan, whole food plant-based There are lots of options.

Okay, great. So eating healthy. What's the next step in your brain energy protocol?

Try to exercise a little more than you're currently doing.

Is that all I have to do? If I'm doing zero, are you talking one day of resistance training is enough, or would you want to see me out three days?

If you're doing zero, do anything. So if you did one day of resistance training a week, but you did most of your major muscle groups, and you did it to the point of failure, that would be more than enough. 50% of US adults currently has prediabetes or diabetes.

50%?