MCT Oil and Ketone Supplements: Promising but Not Yet Proven

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Dr. Gil Carvalho says MCT oil (medium-chain triglycerides, a fat that the body converts to ketones — an alternative brain fuel to glucose) has some preliminary trial evidence suggesting a possible cognitive benefit, but most trials are small with technical limitations, and no large convincing clinical trial has confirmed the effect. Supplemental ketones (such as beta-hydroxybutyrate, or BHB) are in a similar position: the theoretical rationale is that aging reduces the brain's efficiency at using glucose, and ketones could compensate, but the clinical evidence is still early-stage. Ketogenic diets do have an established therapeutic role for certain drug-resistant epilepsy in children, which has driven enthusiasm for broader applications, but Carvalho cautions that broad claims about ketones solving psychiatric or neurological disease run far ahead of the data.