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Modafinil and Ketosis | |
June 26th, 2018 | |
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Ketosis | |
Ketosis is a metabolic state in which some of the body's energy | |
supply comes from ketone bodies in the blood, in contrast to | |
a state of glycolysis in which blood glucose provides energy. | |
Generally, ketosis occurs when the body is metabolizing fat at | |
a high rate and converting fatty acids into ketones. | |
Modafinil | |
Modafinil is a medication to treat sleepiness due to narcolepsy, | |
shift work sleep disorder, or obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). While | |
it has seen off-label use as a purported cognitive enhancer, | |
evidence for any benefit is lacking. | |
Common side effects include headache, anxiety, trouble sleeping, | |
and nausea. | |
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As mentioned previously in my phlog, I eat a ketogenic diet in | |
order to stay in a state of nutritional ketosis (a blood | |
concentration of β-hydroxybutyrate ketones in the range of 0.5-3.5 | |
millomolar). Eating this way and staying in ketosis gives me | |
a number of benefits: | |
- Less hunger | |
- Easy avoidance of sugary foods | |
- Easy intermittent fasting | |
- Even energy levels throughout the day (no afternoon crash) | |
- Smoother, healthier skin (eczema goes away) | |
- Less inflamation in my joints | |
- Lower incidence of restless leg syndrome | |
- Increased mental clarity | |
- Lots of sexy food-porn on my Instagram | |
- Ability to talk about my diet for hours an annoy coworkers | |
- Easier weight loss | |
In order to stay properly in ketosis and avoid the normal pitfalls | |
I need to eat and drink a certain way. In short: | |
- Manage my macronutrients: | |
- Eat less than 20 grams of net carbs per day | |
- Hit my protein goal (~100 grams) | |
- Eat fat only until feeling sated | |
- Manage my micronutrients: | |
- Eat between 3-5 grams of sodium (yes, that's a lot) | |
- Eat at least 2 grams of potassium | |
- Get enough magnesium to avoid sleep and heart issues | |
- Otherwise make sure to hit my normal dietary needs for | |
vitamins & minerals | |
If I do those things, ketosis happens. It's that simple. I don't | |
bother to log anything in a food tracker anymore because it's | |
become so intuitive. Huzzah! | |
I also occasionally take the drug modafinil as a cognative | |
enhancer when I need to GET SHIT DONE. Based on my current supply, | |
last order, and a bit of math I average 1 dose every 3 weeks. Not | |
too shabby, if I do say so myself. In the past I've had stretches | |
where I've found it helpful to take more, and I've had holidays | |
from it where I forget I even have it. | |
The effects of modafinil are interesting. If I were to boil it | |
down to the essence I would say it increases your ability to focus | |
and quickly manage task-switching. A side benefit of that focus is | |
that I seem to have more motivation to do the tasks in front of | |
me. I can juggle more projects and input at once. Writing is | |
smoother and more efficient, and often much longer than it would | |
be otherwise. If I have a pile of work that really needs my full | |
attention and I want to tear through it with gusto, that's when | |
I'll pop the pill. | |
Its primary purpose was for use by the military to enable high | |
congnative functioning without sleep. It does that very well. If | |
I take a pill anytime after 9am, I will not get to sleep before | |
1am. It is very easy to pop one in the afternoon and coast on | |
through the night without noticing. I don't use it that way, but | |
many others do. I generally wake up early on days I plan to take | |
a pill and pop it around 6am, then get to work. | |
Since it functions in similar ways to caffiene, I've found it's | |
best for me to avoid coffee while "modded up". It triggers anxiety | |
in me which is detrimental to GETTING SHIT DONE. Modafinil also | |
makes it easy to forget about food and drink. It's an appetite | |
suppresant and your focus on work can distract you from healthy | |
habits like drinking water. This is a big mistake, too. Modafinil | |
will crush your brain with suck if you don't drink a crapload of | |
water. Headache central over here. | |
Since I need a lot of water for ketosis and also for modafinil | |
I made sure to focus on that today while I was doing both. So far | |
I'm sharp as a tack, motivated, and clear of headaches. The | |
effects of mental clarity from modafinil and ketosis do seem to | |
stack somewhat. All in all, they seem well suited to one another. | |
Now I'm off to drink another liter of water to keep it that way. | |