What is Beta-Hydroxybutyrate (BHB) & Here’s What You Need to Know

Beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) is one of three major ketone bodies produced by the liver during periods of low carbohydrate intake, fasting, or prolonged exercise. The other two ketone bodies are acetoacetate and acetone. BHB is the most abundant and efficient ketone body, allowing it to play a vital role in the body's energy metabolism, especially when glucose is scarce. Beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) is a powerful ketone body that plays a vital role in energy metabolism, especially during ketosis. Its benefits go beyond energy production to provide cognitive, weight management, and anti-inflammatory benefits. Whether you are following a ketogenic diet or looking to enhance your metabolic health, it is important to understand BHB and its functions.

What is beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB)?

Beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) is one of three ketone bodies produced by the liver when there is a lack of carbohydrates. (It is also known as 3-hydroxybutyrate or 3-hydroxybutyric acid or 3HB.)

Here is a brief overview of the ketone bodies the liver is able to produce:

Beta-Hydroxybutyrate (BHB). This is the most abundant ketone in the body, typically accounting for about 78% of ketones in the blood. BHB is the end product of ketosis.

Acetoacetate. This type of ketone body accounts for about 20% of the ketone bodies in the blood. BHB is produced from acetoacetate and cannot be produced by the body any other way. It is important to note that acetoacetate is less stable than BHB, so acetoacetate can spontaneously convert to acetone before the reaction that converts acetoacetate to BHB occurs.

acetone. The least abundant of the ketones; it accounts for approximately 2% of ketones in the blood. It is not used for energy and is excreted from the body almost immediately.

Both BHB and acetone are derived from acetoacetate, however, BHB is the primary ketone used for energy because it is very stable and abundant, while acetone is lost through respiration and sweat.

Everything you need to know about BHB

During ketosis, three main types of ketone bodies can be detected in the blood:

●acetoacetate

●β-Hydroxybutyrate (BHB)

●Acetone

BHB is the most efficient ketone, far more efficient than glucose. Not only does it provide more energy than sugar, it also fights oxidative damage, reduces inflammation, and improves the function of organs, especially the brain.

If you want to lose weight, enhance cognitive function, and extend your life, BHB is your best option.

The easiest way to increase BHB levels is to take exogenous ketones and MCT oil. However, these supplements can only increase your ketone levels until your body uses them up.

In order to stimulate long-lasting BHB production in the healthiest way, you must follow a ketogenic diet.

As you implement the diet, you can employ a variety of strategies to further increase ketone production, including:

●Limit net carbohydrate intake to less than 15 grams per day for the first week.

●Deplete glycogen stores through high-intensity exercise.

●Use low- to moderate-intensity exercise to increase fat burning and ketone production.

●Follow an intermittent fasting plan.

When you need a boost of energy, take an MCT Oil supplement and/or BHB Keto Salts

Why does your body need BHB? from an evolutionary perspective

Doesn’t your body feel like it’s going through a lot of effort to produce and use even a measly amount of ketones? Doesn't it burn fat? Well, yes and no.

Fatty acids can be used as fuel for most cells, but for the brain, they are too slow. The brain needs fast-acting energy sources, not slow-metabolizing fuels like fat.

As a result, the liver developed the ability to convert fatty acids into ketone bodies—the brain's alternative energy source when sugar is insufficient. You science nerds out there may be thinking: “Can’t we use gluconeogenesis to provide sugar to the brain?”

Yes, we can—but when carbs are low, we have to break down about 200 grams (nearly 0.5 pounds) of muscle per day and convert it into sugar to fuel our brains.

By burning ketones for fuel, we maintain muscle mass, provide nutrients to the brain, and extend life when food is scarce. In fact, ketosis can help reduce lean body mass loss during fasting by 5-fold.

In other words, using ketones for fuel reduces our need to burn muscle from 200 grams to 40 grams per day when food is scarce. However, when you follow the ketogenic diet to lose weight, you will lose even less than 40 grams of muscle per day because you will be providing your body with muscle-sparing nutrients such as protein.

Over weeks to months of nutritional ketosis (when your ketone levels are between 0.5 and 3 mmol/L), ketones will meet up to 50% of your basal energy needs and 70% of your brain energy needs. This means you'll retain more muscle while getting all the benefits of ketone burning:

Improve cognitive function and mental clarity

●Blood sugar is stable

●More energy

●Continuous fat loss

●Better sports performance

Why does your body need BHB? from a mechanical point of view

Not only does BHB help us prevent muscle atrophy, but it also provides fuel more efficiently than sugar in two ways:

●It produces fewer free radicals.

●It gives us more energy per molecule.

Energy Production and Free Radicals: Glucose (Sugar) vs. BHB

When we generate energy, we create harmful byproducts called free radicals (or oxidants). If these byproducts accumulate over time, they can damage cells and DNA.

During the ATP production process, oxygen and hydrogen peroxide leak out. These are free radicals, which can be easily combated with antioxidants.

However, they also have the potential to get out of control and transform into the most damaging free radicals (i.e., reactive nitrogen species and hydroxyl radicals), which are responsible for much of the oxidative damage in the body.

Therefore, for optimal health, the chronic accumulation of free radicals must be minimized. To do this, we must use cleaner energy wherever possible.

Glucose and free radical production

Glucose has to go through a slightly longer process than BHB before it enters the Krebs cycle to produce ATP. Once the process is complete, 4 NADH molecules will be produced and the NAD+/NADH ratio will decrease.

NAD+ and NADH are noteworthy because they regulate oxidant and antioxidant activity:

●NAD+ prevents oxidative stress, especially any problems caused by one of the previously mentioned oxidants: hydrogen peroxide. It also enhances autophagy (the process of cleaning and renewing damaged cell parts). Under the action of various metabolic processes, NAD+ becomes NADH, which serves as an electron shuttle for energy production.

●NADH is also necessary because it provides electrons for ATP production. However, it does not protect against free radical damage. When there is more NADH than NAD+, more free radicals will be produced and protective enzymes will be inhibited.

In other words, in most cases, the NAD+/NADH ratio is best kept high. Low NAD+ levels can cause severe oxidative damage to cells.

Since glucose metabolism consumes 4 NAD+ molecules, the NADH content will be higher, and NADH causes more oxidative damage. In short: Glucose is not burned completely—especially compared to BHB.

BHB and free radical production

BHB does not undergo glycolysis. It simply changes back into acetyl-CoA before entering the Krebs cycle. Overall, this process only consumes 2 NAD+ molecules, making it twice as efficient as glucose from the perspective of free radical production.

Research also shows that BHB can not only maintain the NAD+/NADH ratio, but also improve it. This means BHB can:

●Prevent oxidative stress and oxidants produced during ketone decomposition

●Supports mitochondrial function and reproduction

●Provides anti-aging and longevity effects

BHB also acts as an antioxidant by activating protective proteins:

●UCP: This protein can neutralize free radicals leaked during energy metabolism and prevent oxidative damage to cells.

●SIRT3: When your body switches from glucose to fat, a protein called Sirtuin 3 (SIRT3) increases. It activates powerful antioxidants that keep free radical levels low during energy production. It also stabilizes the FOXO gene and prevents oxidation.

●HCA2: BHB can also activate this receptor protein. Many studies have shown that this may explain the neuroprotective effects of BHB.

10 Benefits of Beta-Hydroxybutyric Acid (BHB) to Enhance Your Health

1. BHB stimulates the expression of various health-promoting genes.

BHB is a “signaling metabolite” that stimulates various epigenetic changes throughout the body. In fact, many of the benefits of BHB come from its ability to optimize gene expression. For example, BHB inhibits molecules that silence powerful proteins. This allows expression of beneficial genes such as FOXO and MTL1.

Activation of FOXO allows us to more effectively regulate resistance to oxidative stress, metabolism, cell cycle and apoptosis, which has a positive impact on our lifespan and vitality. Furthermore, MLT1 contributes to reduced toxicity after stimulation of its expression by BHB.

These are just two examples of the genetic effects of BHB on our cells. Scientists are still exploring more roles for these amazing molecules.

2. BHB reduces inflammation.

BHB blocks an inflammatory protein called the NLRP3 inflammasome. NLRP3 releases inflammatory molecules designed to help the body heal, but when they are chronically irritated they can contribute to cancer, insulin resistance, bone disease, Alzheimer's disease, skin diseases, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes and gout .

Many studies have found that BHB can help prevent diseases caused or worsened by inflammation by reducing the inflammation associated with these conditions.

For example, BHB (and the ketogenic diet) may help treat gout and prevent gout attacks by inhibiting NLRP3.

3. BHB protects against oxidative stress.

Oxidative stress is associated with accelerated aging and various chronic health problems. One way to mitigate these problems is to use a more efficient fuel source such as BHB.

Not only is BHB more effective than sugar, studies have found it can prevent and reverse oxidative damage throughout the brain and body:

●BHB protects the integrity of neuronal connections in the hippocampus, the part of the brain that regulates mood, long-term memory, and spatial navigation, from oxidative damage.

●In the cerebral cortex, the area of ​​the brain responsible for higher-order functions such as cognition, spatial reasoning, language, and sensory perception, BHB protects nerve cells from free radicals and oxidation.

●In endothelial cells (the cells lining blood vessels), ketones activate antioxidant defense systems that protect the cardiovascular system.

●In athletes, ketone bodies have been found to reduce exercise-induced oxidative stress.

4. BHB can extend lifespan.

By eliciting two of the benefits we learned about earlier (reduced inflammation and gene expression), BHB can extend your life and make your life richer.

This is how BHB taps into your anti-aging genes:

●Block insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) receptor gene. This gene promotes cell growth and proliferation, but overgrowth has been linked to disease, cancer, and early death. Lower IGF-1 activity delays aging and extends lifespan.

●Activate FOXO gene. One particular FOXO gene, FOXO3a, has been linked to increased lifespan in humans because it promotes the production of antioxidants.

 

5. BHB enhances cognitive function.

We discussed before that BHB is an essential fuel source for the brain when sugar is low. This is because it can easily cross the blood-brain barrier and provide more than 70% of the brain's energy needs.

However, BHB’s brain benefits don’t stop there. BHB may also improve cognitive function by:

● Acts as a neuroprotective antioxidant.

●Improve mitochondrial efficiency and reproductive capacity.

●Improve the balance between inhibitory and excitatory neurotransmitters.

●Promote the growth and differentiation of new neurons and neuronal connections.

●Prevent brain atrophy and plaque accumulation.

If you want to learn more about how BHB benefits the brain and the research behind it, check out our article on ketones and the brain.

6. BHB can help fight and prevent cancer.

BHB slows the growth of various tumors because most cancer cells cannot fully utilize ketone bodies to grow and spread. This is often due to the cancer cells' impaired metabolism, causing them to rely primarily on sugar.

In multiple studies, scientists have exploited this weakness by removing glucose, forcing cancer cells to rely on ketone bodies. In this way, they actually reduced tumors in many organs, including the brain, pancreas and colon, because the cells were unable to grow and spread.

However, it’s also important to note that not all cancers behave in the same way, and BHB will not help fight and prevent all cancers. If you’d like to learn more about the research on keto, the ketogenic diet, and cancer, check out our article on the topic.

7. BHB enhances insulin sensitivity.

Ketones may help reverse insulin resistance because they can mimic some of the effects of insulin and control blood sugar and insulin levels. This is great news for anyone with prediabetes or type 2 diabetes, or anyone who wants to improve their overall metabolic health.

8. BHB is the best fuel for your heart.

The heart's preferred energy source is long-chain fatty acids. That’s right, the heart burns fat, not ketones, as its primary fuel source.

However, just like the brain, your heart can adapt well to keto if the need arises.

Studies have found that when you burn BHB, your heart health improves in many ways 

●The mechanical efficiency of the heart can be increased by up to 30%

●Blood flow can be increased by up to 75%.

●Oxidative stress in heart cells is reduced.

Taken together, this means BHB may be the best fuel for your heart.

9. BHB accelerates fat loss.

Burning ketones for fuel can promote fat loss in two ways:

●By increasing your fat and ketone burning capabilities.

●By suppressing appetite.

As you maintain a state of ketosis, your ability to burn more ketones and fat will increase significantly, turning you into a fat-burning machine. In addition to this, you will also experience the appetite-suppressing effects of ketones.

While research hasn’t pinpointed why or how ketones reduce our appetite, we do know that increased ketone burning appears to lower levels of ghrelin, the hunger hormone.

When we combine these two effects of BHB on weight loss, we end up with a fuel that both promotes fat burning and simultaneously prevents you from gaining fat (by preventing excess calorie consumption).

10. BHB enhances the effectiveness of your workouts.

There has been a lot of research on how BHB affects athletic performance, but the specifics are still being worked out (pun intended). In short, studies have found that ketones can:

●Improve performance during low- to moderate-intensity endurance training (e.g., biking, hiking, dancing, swimming, power yoga, exercise, long distance walking).

●Increase fat burning and conserve glycogen stores for high-intensity workouts.

●Helps indirectly replenish glycogen reserves after exercise and accelerate recovery.

●Reduces fatigue during activity and improves cognitive function.

Overall, research shows that BHB can help reduce fatigue, increase endurance, and potentially improve overall exercise performance. However, it won't improve your performance in high-intensity activities like sprinting and weightlifting. (To find out why, feel free to check out our guide to ketogenic exercise .)

There are two ways to increase your BHB levels: endogenously and exogenously.

Endogenous BHB is produced by your body on its own.

Exogenous ketones are external BHB molecules that can be taken as a supplement to immediately increase ketone levels. These are usually taken in the form of BHB salts or esters.

The only way to truly optimize and maintain ketone levels is through endogenous production of ketones. Exogenous ketone supplementation can help, but it can never replace the benefits of ongoing nutritional ketosis.

Exogenous Ketosis: Everything You Need to Know About BHB Ketone Supplement

There are two common ways to obtain exogenous ketones: BHB salts and ketone esters.

Ketone esters are the original form of BHB with no additional ingredients added. They are expensive, hard to find, taste terrible, and can have negative effects on the gastrointestinal system.

BHB salt, on the other hand, is a very effective supplement that is easier to purchase, consume, and digest. These ketone supplements are usually made from a combination of BHB and mineral salts (i.e. potassium, calcium, sodium, or magnesium).

Mineral salts are added to exogenous BHB supplements to:

●Strength of buffered ketones

●Improve taste

●Reduce the incidence of stomach problems

●Make it mixable with food and drinks

When you take BHB salts, they are broken down and released into your bloodstream. The BHB then travels to your organs where ketosis begins, providing you with energy.

Depending on how much you take, you can enter a state of ketosis almost immediately. However, you can only remain in ketosis as long as these ketone bodies persist (unless you are on a ketogenic diet and are already producing ketones endogenously).

Ketone Ester (R-BHB) & Beta-Hydroxybutyrate (BHB)

Beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) is one of the three main ketone bodies produced by the liver during periods of low carbohydrate intake, fasting, or prolonged exercise. When glucose levels are low, BHB acts as an alternative energy source to fuel the brain, muscles, and other tissues. It is a naturally occurring molecule that plays a crucial role in the metabolic state of ketosis.

Ketone ester (R-BHB), on the other hand, is a synthetic form of BHB bound to an alcohol molecule. This esterified form is more bioavailable and efficient at increasing blood ketone levels than traditional BHB salts. R-BHB is commonly used in supplements to enhance athletic performance, cognitive function, and overall energy levels.

When the body enters a state of ketosis, it begins to break down fatty acids into ketones, including BHB. This process is a natural adaptation to periods of low carbohydrate availability, allowing the body to maintain energy production. BHB is then transported through the bloodstream to various tissues, where it is converted into energy.

R-BHB is a more concentrated, more potent form of BHB that can quickly increase blood ketone levels. This makes it an attractive option for those seeking the benefits of ketosis without strict dietary restrictions. Research shows that R-BHB can enhance physical performance, improve cognitive function, and support weight loss efforts.

How to choose the best BHB salt for you

When looking for the best BHB salt, make sure you do these three things:

1. Look for more BHB and less salt

High-quality supplements maximize exogenous BHB and add only the necessary amounts of mineral salts.

The most commonly used mineral salts on the market are sodium, potassium, magnesium, and calcium, with most supplements using three of them, although some use only one or two of them.

Check the label to make sure there is less than 1 gram of each mineral salt. BHB salt blends rarely require more than 1 gram of each mineral to be effective

2. Make sure you’re getting the minerals you need.

Not getting enough potassium, sodium, calcium or magnesium? Choose BHB products to give you the minerals you need.

3. Stay away from fillers and added carbs.

Fillers and texture enhancers like guar gum, xanthan gum, and silica are common in exogenous ketone salts and are completely unnecessary. They usually don't have adverse health effects, but they can rob you of valuable BHB salts.

To get the purest keto salt, just look for the section on the nutrition label that says "Other Ingredients" and buy the product with the shortest list of actual ingredients.

If you buy flavored BHB keto salts, make sure they only contain real ingredients and low-carb sweeteners. Avoid any carbohydrate-containing additives such as maltodextrin and dextrose.

Suzhou Myland Pharm & Nutrition Inc. is an FDA-registered manufacturer that provides high-quality and high-purity Ketone Ester (R-BHB).

At Suzhou Myland Pharm  we are committed to providing the highest quality products at the best prices. Our Ketone Ester (R-BHB) powder is rigorously tested for purity and potency, ensuring you get a high-quality supplement you can trust. Whether you want to support cellular health, boost your immune system or enhance overall health, our Ketone Ester (R-BHB) is the perfect choice.

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