MEDICINE

Ketogenic diets: mania or miracle? 🥑

You might have heard buzz around ketogenic (“keto”) diets in media recently: eating low-carb, high-fat foods to encourage your body to burn fat for energy, used commonly for weight loss as well as general health improvement. Reduction in carbohydrate consumption puts your body in a metabolic state called “ketosis”, in which the body becomes more efficient at burning fat for energy, and converting them to ketones in the liver. Ketone metabolism yields more ATP (kind of like the ‘currency’ of energy) per oxygen molecule compared to glycolysis, alleviating some of the energetic burden associated with metabolic diseases.

Ketones can be used as an alternative fuel source by the brain and heart – indeed ketone ester supplementation forms the basis of some heart failure treatments. Its benefits have also been reported in cancer, epilepsy, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s. However, encouraging such high fat consumption can lead to alternative adverse effects. Reduced fibre intake is associated with digestive disruption, particularly constipation; hypoglycaemia may arise, manifesting as confusion and shakiness; and associations have been found to impaired bone health, as has been found in studies of both children, adults, and elite walkers.

💡 Things to consider

• Keto flu: Flu-like symptoms can be experienced as the body adjusts to uptake of a ketogenic diet, including headaches, dizziness, and fatigue, partly due to dehydration and electrolyte imbalances that can arise. The kidneys are thus often blamed for this. High-fat animal foods can lead to acidosis (acidic blood), increasing the excretion of calcium in the urine, which increases an individual's risk of kidney stones. This is exacerbated by reduced citrate concentrations in the blood, which can bind to this calcium to prevent its deposition. Generally, ketogenic diets are not recommended in those with chronic kidney disease.

  

• Role in cancer: Ketogenic diets have been proposed as possible non-invasive forms of cancer therapy. Some tumour cells lack the ability to metabolise ketone bodies due to mitochondrial dysfunction and downregulation of necessary enzymes. In addition, the Warburg effect, although this existence of which is debated, is targeted in a ketogenic diet – cancer cells are thought to predominantly utilise glycolysis as a source of ATP and reducing carbohydrate intake could effectively starve these cells. For example, tumour growth is found to be significantly restricted in neuroblastoma xenografts, with overall survival increased when a ketogenic diet is introduced. However, caloric restriction is often contraindicated in cancer patients, so practical application of this would have to be closely monitored.

• Funky fragrances: People often report bad breath and “fruity”-smelling urine upon uptake of a ketogenic diet. This is a result of the excretion of ketosis by-products. For example, urinary acetoacetate increases 25-fold when measured with urinary ketone dipsticks, which are also reported to exist naturally in passion fruit and strawberries, hence the fruity floral scent. Similarly, breath acetone, which smells like nail-polish remover, can increase 3.5-fold, acting as a useful, non-invasive predictor of ketosis in patients.

  

🔎 Find out more

• Ketogenic diets in cancer therapy

• A great review

ENGLISH

Anyone but You: The Complexity of Adaptations 🎬

Recently Anyone but You has made headlines by becoming the highest-grossing Shakespeare adaptation of all time, which shocked people who were unaware that it is actually an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. Shakespeare's play centres on Claudio and Hero, a young couple in love with each other and engaged to marriage; however, Anyone but You’s main plot point is how their friends manipulate them into falling in love with one other throughout the performance, built on the witty, outspoken, and marriage-avoidant secondary plot involving Beatrice and Benedick. But what actually is an adaptation? And what does it mean for a film to be one?

💡 Things to consider

• What is an adaptation? Literary adaptation is the transition of one literary source, for example a script, novel, or poem, to another genre or medium, like a film, stage play, or video game. Some are more obvious - the Harry Potter films are clearly adaptations from the books - but others aren’t immediately spotted. Did you know that The Lion King is actually an adaptation of another Shakespeare play, Hamlet? Other famous adaptations include 10 Things I Hate About You (The Taming of the Shrew), She’s the Man (Twelfth Night) and even Clueless (Jane Austen’s Emma).

  

  Not *that* Emma.

• Why create adaptations? More often than not, modern films are adaptations of older, reliable texts. If a story line has already been a success in text form, then creating a film with the same or similar plot is less of a gamble than production companies taking a risk on an entirely new endeavour.

• Where is the line? Shakespeare is probably the most adapted author, proving the universality of his work, yet that does not mean that his work is entirely original. His Romeo and Juliet is an adaptation of the 1562 long narrative poem by the English poet Arthur Brooke titled the Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet, who had based his poem on a French translation of a tale by the Italian Matteo Bandello. Therefore, the most successful Shakespeare adaptation of all time, Gnomeo and Juliet, is actually an adaptation of an adaptation, which itself is an adaptation of an adaptation.

🔎 Find out more

• Anyone but You, 2023

• Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare, 1612

• Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet, 1562

• Analyzing Literature-to-Film Adaptations: A Novelist's Exploration and Guide, Mary H. Snyder, 2011

• Now a Major Motion Picture: Film Adaptations of Literature and Drama, Christine Geraghty, 2007

🍒 The cherry on top

• 👑 King Cnut: How much do you know about King Cnut? This In Our Time podcast delves into the history of this infamous ruler, and tracks the development of England throughout his rule. If you are interested in History, this is a must-listen.

• 🇫🇷 French Cinema: Ever wondered how France makes so many amazing films? This video dives into the unique way France funds its film industry (which is completely different to the way Hollywood does it!), ensuring a steady stream of movies. Great if you’re interested in French or Film Studies!

• 🔆 Solar Eclipses: What would a solar eclipse look like from the moon? What do solar eclipses teach us about the Earth? What exactly is a solar eclipse, anyway? This article from The Conversation answers all this and more. A great read for any budding Physicist or Astronomist.

👀 Keep your eyes peeled for…

• 18th-21st March - Choosing Oxford Online Student Conference

• 18th-21st, 23rd March - Oxford History Skills Workshops

• 18th March - Peterhouse College Cambridge Applicant Support Scheme Application Deadline

• 18th March - UEA Geography/Environmental Sciences Taster Lecture

• 18th March - UEA Media Taster Lecture

• 19th March - UEA Film Taster Lecture

• 19th March - UEA Business/Finance Taster Lecture

• 19th March - Oxford History Super-Curricular Lecture

• 19th March - Cambridge A Level English Coursework Day

• 19th March - Robinson College Cambridge Teacher’s Conference

• 19th March - Churchill College Cambridge Post-16 Subject Choices Webinar

• 19th March - Trinity Hall Cambridge MML Webinar

• 19th March - University of Greenwich Climate Change Lecture

• 20th March - UEA English Literature Taster Lecture

• 20th March - Murray Edwards College Cambridge Linguistics Webinar

• 20th March - Anglia Ruskin University Medicine Application Process Webinar

• 21st March - University of Nottingham Public Psychology Lecture

• 21st March - Cambridge International Students Webinar

• 21st March - Oxford Public Lecture: Mobilizing Mathematics for the Fight Against Cancer

• 21st March - UEA Pharmacy Taster Lecture

• 21st March - UEA Computational Chemistry Taster Lecture

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