I think the anecdote could be a complete coincidence. Who is to say we didn’t get better at screening and surgical treatment? Or that in that particular hospital there was just a coincidental amount of cases? No offense to the person who said that, it’s just that it is easy to see correlation when we are looking at things strictly through our own perspective.

Additionally I think the issue is so complicated that we are still just beginning to scratch the surface. What if statin treatment works really well for some people and not so well for others? It could also be possible that statin treatment causes other effects that are unintended and reduce risk of CVD.

Personally I think at this point all we really know is that in most people dietary fat is not the culprit, and sugar is. Even though in my master’s nutrition program they are still preaching a low fat diet -_-

Master’s of Nutrition and Dietetics student weighing in……

The only way to find out is to test it. You’re measuring your glucose and ketone levels so I’d suggest doing your prolonged fast and testing your levels periodically, especially after taking supplements (not immediately, give them some time to metabolize).

Foods effect everyone differently, one food may not raise someone else’s glucose but may dramatically raise yours, at this time there really is no known reason as to why this happens. I’d assume a supplement would not change your glucose, but the science is not fully understood so test it out and see what happens.

Remember that there are several goals of fasting, one is to maintain a low glucose and get into ketosis. This can happen even while still eating. As long as the glucose is low enough, you can avoid triggering insulin. Another goal is to increase autophagy, if you’re in ketosis, you’re doing that, maybe not to the extend you would without supplements, but as you stated, we don’t really know yet. Lastly, if you’ve followed Dr. Satchin Panda, you know he suggests fasts only include water. The reasoning is that consuming any metabolite will begin internal clocks, and could mess with circadian rhythm but, this also is not fully understood. The last goal is to be healthy! As you have an illness, you need your supplements to remain healthy. So yes, in an ideal world you’d take no supplements during a fast, but that does not mean that taking supplements makes the fast useless. You will still get many benefits.

Lastly, I’d suggest, is possible perhaps take all supplements at the same time or within a specific time window, like 6 hours. This would still give you an 18 hour fast each day. Again, you’ll want to test, because taking them all at once may effect blood sugar more than spreading them out. Remember that fasting for any period of time is better than not doing it, so even if you can’t get your 100% ideal fast, you’re still getting positive benefits.

Again, I’m a student. But I follow Dr. Patricks work pretty closely. I am very interested in the science of time restricted eating and long term fasting. Hope that helps!

Wait… what now? That is definitely disheartening to read. Anyone else hoping there is some crazy flaw in this paper that is glossed over?