Ketones May Protect Attention in Severe Hypoxia 🧠
Ketones for cognition at altitude.
Effect of Acute Ingestion of a Ketone Monoester on Psychomotor Vigilance During Acute Severe Hypoxia Exposure
Study Details
This new study recruited 16 healthy young men to test whether acute ketone monoester ingestion (650 mg/kg x 2) could protect sustained attention and vigilance during severe hypoxia 😮💨
Participants completed a 15-min severe hypoxia exposure at 9.7% oxygen (equivalent to ~6,096 m altitude) 🏔️
Key Findings
🧠 Severe hypoxia impaired every measured component of psychomotor vigilance compared with normoxia
🧪 Ketones rapidly increased blood β-hydroxybutyrate above 3 mmol/L
⚡ Ketones significantly reduced the hypoxia-induced decline in mean reaction time
⏱️ Mean reaction time worsened by 38.7 ms with ketones compared with 64.2 ms with placebo
🚀 During hypoxia, reaction time was ~25.5 ms faster following ketone supplementation than placebo
⚠️ However, ketones did not significantly improve the number of major attentional lapses, slowest reaction times or total errors
Conclusion
These findings may be due to ketones supporting brain function by providing an alternative cerebral fuel when oxygen-dependent glucose metabolism is compromised 🧐
Acute ketone monoester ingestion partially preserved sustained attention during severe hypoxia, supporting its potential as a cognitive-resilience strategy under extreme environmental stress ✅
These findings may therefore be particularly relevant to rapid altitude exposure, aviation, rescue and military operations rather than normal endurance competition🏔️
Reference
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42560222/
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