Nutrition & Disease – Andrew Koutnik, Biomedical Researcher, University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine – Understanding the Complex Connections Regarding Nutrition, Metabolism, and Disease Complications

Andrew Koutnik, biomedical researcher, discusses cancer cachexia, wasting in general, the impact of inflammation within the body, and various other issues.

Koutnik is a seasoned researcher. His notable and extensive work studying nutrition and metabolism and their combined impact on health, disease, and even performance has generated much interest in the scientific medical community. He is actively involved in biomedical research with the Metabolic Medicine Lab at University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine.

Koutnik provides an overview of cancer cachexia, which he describes as a multi-factorial, dynamic, systemic wasting syndrome. And surprisingly, Koutnik states that in spite of its long history, the condition currently has no standard of care. Cancer cachexia is often characterized by a loss of skeletal muscle mass, sometimes with fat loss, that cannot be completely reversed by conventional and standard nutritional support and can result in progressive and significant functional impairment. Koutnik explains anabolic signals and synthetic responses as well as inflammatory responses. As he states, inflammatory signals may be inhibiting the synthesis response in the muscle. Koutnik explains, by citing specific examples, the ways in which atrophy is initiated, and why it occurs. And with up to 20% of cancer patients dying of this disease, it's clear that advanced research is needed ongoing.

The biomedical research expert discusses the process of fasting and how it affects the body. And he provides information on past research and recorded studies on ketone bodies. Koutnik explains why adipose tissue is not always used first as an energy source during fasting. He states that in a normal, healthy response to a fasting scenario or carbohydrate restriction, adipose tissue, over time, becomes a preferential fuel. He explains that while fat is a very important fuel that we also need to use intermediary metabolites. Simply defined, metabolites are the intermediate products of specific metabolic reactions that are catalyzed by select enzymes that naturally occur within the cells. Koutnik goes into detail on inflammation issues that relate to atrophy, as it is an underlying current in many of these cases though it may not always be rapid. He talks about his theories on how the body sees and understands subtle information it is receiving regarding atrophy issues. And ultimately, he states that from a physiological perspective the body will always do whatever it can to survive.

Koutnik continues his discussion on ketones. He cites various studies that provided new and significant information on ketones and specifically, exogenous esters. He explains how antioxidant responses are related to ketone presence. He states that much of the work in this area has been implemented in rodent-based studies, and now the desire is to try to translate these studies to the human scenario, and more research is needed to understand the compatibility with previous studies.