HoldsUp

Andrew Koutnik

Andrew Koutnik is a researcher in the fields of nutrition, exercise physiology, and metabolism. His published research focuses on the effects of carbohydrate intake, exogenous ketone supplementation, and ketogenic diets on exercise performance, metabolism, and cognitive function. Additionally, his work investigates the physiological and cardiovascular impacts of nutritional interventions in individuals with type 1 diabetes.

42 claims checked on air: 5 context 1 contradicted 2 overstated 25 supported 9 unverified

What they said on air - overstated

4 citing their own research

0:24:15overstatedmoderateThe Fuel Myth: Rethinking Carbs, Brain Health, and Human Per

Ketogenic dietary interventions have been shown in meta-analyses published in JAMA Psychiatry to therapeutically address mental health disorders including anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder.

"We've known for recently its application in various neurological disorders with the emergence of pilot data and now meta-analysis in JAMA Psychiatry showing that these tools can be applied in settings like anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, bipolar." (said at 0:24:15)

A systematic review and meta-analysis on ketogenic diets for mental health outcomes was published in JAMA Psychiatry (PMID 41191382). However, the claim overstates its findings and scope in several key respects: first, the meta-analysis focused on depressive and anxiety symptoms, not schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Second, while randomized controlled trials (RCTs) demonstrated modest improvements in depressive symptoms, meta-analysis of nine RCTs evaluating anxiety symptoms showed no statistically significant benefit (SMD -0.03; 95% CI -0.18 to 0.12), leading authors to conclude that evidence for anxiety remains inconclusive.

0:43:25overstatedmoderateThe Fuel Myth: Rethinking Carbs, Brain Health, and Human Per

Diamox (acetazolamide) causes mild metabolic acidosis and increases SpO2, but reliably reduces cognitive and physical performance.

"Diamox is a mountain sickness drug that specifically causes mild metabolic acidosis and increases SPO2 levels for people to attenuate mountain sickness when you get to low oxygen levels... when you use something like Diamox, it lasts for multiple hours, but we also know it reliably reduces uh cognitive performance, it reliably reduces physical performance." (said at 0:43:25)

Acetazolamide (Diamox) is a carbonic anhydrase inhibitor used for acute mountain sickness (AMS) prophylaxis. The speaker accurately describes its physiological mechanisms: it induces mild (partially compensated) metabolic acidosis by promoting renal bicarbonate excretion, which stimulates central and peripheral chemoreceptors to increase ventilation and arterial oxygen saturation (SpO2). Evidence also supports that acetazolamide impairs physical/exercise performance at sea level and in several acute hypoxic settings (reducing VO2 max, power output, and time to exhaustion). However, claiming that it 'reliably reduces cognitive performance' is overstated; while acetazolamide frequently causes side effects such as paresthesias, somnolence, and perceived fatigue, robust clinical evidence does not demonstrate a consistent or reliable impairment of objective cognitive function.

Fact-checked episodes

Publications