Dr. Rhonda Patrick

Very, very important.

It also is anxiolytic.

Ketones are anxiolytic, meaning they help lower anxiety.

They help increase something called GABA.

That's an inhibitory neurotransmitter.

So for me, what the ketones do is they sort of calm the extra noise in the back of my brain and help me just focus on what the task is.

And that's really important for that situation you're talking about, like a debate, is you want to be able to calm down the extra noise in the back where you're thinking about all the little things.

That can be distracting, and so you're not on your game.

For that reason, I also take exogenous ketones.

Now, exogenous ketones are something that you can ingest, get those ketones in your bloodstream to have similar effects, but not have to be fasting to get them.

And that is something else I do use.

BHBs?

Yes.

Okay.

And it's something that I used before, like I had some this morning before I came here.

I do that usually in situations where I'm on a podcast, I'm doing a presentation.

Anything public speaking where, like you said, the anxiety does go up.

And even if you've done it a lot, I mean, it's still part of human nature, right?

I mean, the stress response happens.

And so that's something else I do.