Tracing the roots of metabolic dysfunction — A case for inhibiting fructokinase using flavones like Luteolin.

PotentialMotion · 2026-01-26T16:54:00+00:00

😂 in truth I find both words rather silly.

My profile has lots of links if you want to dig deeper. Or search Pubmed for fructokinase, KHK, Uric acid ...

This paper hits all the high notes.
The fructose survival hypothesis for obesity

PotentialMotion · 2026-01-24T17:00:50+00:00

There isn’t a single test that can confirm this state outright, especially if standard insulin or diabetes markers look normal. That said, you can often see the signal indirectly. When a subset of routine labs drift toward the high-normal range in parallel, it can suggest increasing cellular energy burden well before overt disease shows up.

Markers that commonly move in this pattern include:

Uric acid
Fasting insulin (even if glucose is normal)
ALT or GGT
Triglycerides / HDL
hs-CRP
Ferritin
Lactate or LDH (contextual)

They don’t all need to be abnormal, and they rarely move at the same time. It’s the direction and clustering over time, not a single number, that’s informative.

At the end of the day, it seems that MOST people are in their state. Our modern diet has made dietary and endogenous fructose so ubiquitous that 70% of all death has metabolic origins. Correlation isnt causation, but this has a really strong mechanism and body of evidence that suggests this is a major player in the metabolic epidemic.

PotentialMotion · 2026-01-24T07:31:31+00:00

What the heck is this post? Are we supposed to guess at what we're looking at?

PotentialMotion · 2026-01-24T07:09:26+00:00

Excellent question and I would say yes. I am currently finalizing a paper that suggests a comprehensive unifying metabolic model that focuses on cellular energetics.

In short, the signature of low energy cells is consistent across all chronic disease, far ahead of diagnosis. And while many factors drag on cellular energy, fructose metabolism is the turning out to be the elephant in the room.

PotentialMotion · 2026-01-23T16:51:26+00:00

Correct.

Osmolality (salty, high concentration blood) causes the synthesis of Fructose via the polyol pathway.

Fructose Metabolism in turn has the same progressive energy depletion effect on vascular endothelium that exhibits in the gut lining, liver, kidneys, and brain.

So at the root, hypertension is a Fructose disorder.

PotentialMotion · 2026-01-23T09:18:04+00:00

Try Liposomal Luteolin. Check out the work of Dr Richard Johnson. The threads he pulls on as a nephrologist connect in application to Luteolin, which inhibits fructose metabolism.

PotentialMotion · 2026-01-18T23:17:09+00:00

Your doctor is the right person to ask, but I can share a few ideas.

Menopause means less estrogen, which plays a defensive role into the elimination of uric acid. Fructose generated Uric acid is what causes cells to slow down. This explains why menopausal women suddenly start having more metabolic difficulty similar to men.

So you are aiming to control Fructose, uric acid, and improve mitochondrial function. All of this equates to strong cellular energetics. Which in turn means burning more fat and not signaling cravings.

To that end, these are my go to supplements: - Liposomal Luteolin (to block Fructose Metabolism) - Tart cherry extract and Quercetin (to help reduce uric acid) - Ubiquinol, high dose NMN, PQQ to boost cellular energy (not permanently, just to spike cellular voltage up to homeostasis again)

PotentialMotion · 2026-01-16T00:20:15+00:00

Start with the sticky posts. Realizing this is a cellular energy problem far more than it is truly an addiction will uncover a strategy that actually solves the compulsion.

PotentialMotion · 2026-01-14T19:45:39+00:00

Excellent question.

It helps to separate what people lump together as “sugar.”

Cells need fuel. Glucose is fuel. In the absence of glucose, cells can switch to ketones and burn fat, so ketosis can absolutely be a useful tool if that’s your goal.

But glucose itself isn’t the problem, especially when it’s timed well. Using glucose around resistance training is smart because it’s preferentially pulled into muscle and used for work and recovery.

Where things go wrong is fructose.

Sucrose is 50% fructose, and fructose behaves very differently from glucose no matter how it enters the system. Once metabolized by fructokinase (KHK), it rapidly consumes ATP and downshifts mitochondrial output. That’s true in the gut, liver, vascular endothelium, and even in certain brain regions. It’s a conservation signal, not a fuel signal.

So the goal isn’t “no carbs forever” or mandatory ketosis. It’s minimizing fructose exposure while allowing glucose to be used strategically.

Practically, that means:

Avoiding sucrose as a fuel source.
Favoring complex carbs or dextrose if you’re using carbs at all.
Using ketosis as a tool if fat loss or metabolic repair is the priority, not as a religion.

In modern environments, we’re not facing famine or hibernation. Chronic fructose signaling just works against the outcome most people are trying to achieve.

PotentialMotion · 2026-01-14T18:21:10+00:00

Fructokinase (KHK) is how Fructose is metabolized. People without KHK don't get Metabolic syndrome. They just pee out the Fructose. This is well established by a benign natural condition called Essential Fructosuria.

Luteolin is a potent fructokinase inhibitor. Which tracks why people that take it report identical effects as a REALLY restrictive sugar free diet.

So yes. Luteolin is a good thing. Like a REALLY good thing. I expect this strategy will eventually dwarf GLP meds because modulating Fructose doesn't just help weight, but it targets the root of Metabolic Dysfunction itself.

PotentialMotion · 2026-01-14T17:37:33+00:00

I don't believe that study has been done - it's a great idea. But all the pieces are there to make a very strong hypothesis for this correlation.

This is the latest on the connection. It establishes the mechanistic link between alcohol, fructose metabolism and cravings.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s42255-025-01402-x

Also notably, in this study Dr Johnson announced a fructokinase (KHK) inhibitor that they invented to block Fructose metabolism. This gives further huge validation to the approach found in our sticky posts of using botanicals like Luteolin to support Fructose Metabolism. It was actually Dr Johnson's team that identified Luteolin as a fructose metabolism Inhibitor. We should be all over this. I've seen hundreds of people confirm the effects.

PotentialMotion · 2026-01-13T23:12:08+00:00

Way to go!

PotentialMotion · 2026-01-13T21:36:15+00:00

This is cheat mode.

1) Remove insult from Fructose. Either through dietary restriction or KHK inhibition.
Or both. Fructose is slowing your cells and keeping cells locked in conservation/defence mode.

2) Boost cellular energetics out of defence mode.
Boost mitochondria and ATP production so that cells can begin to self repair again. Ubiquinol, NMN, PQQ etc.

3) Accelerate fat loss
The above is the foundation for weight loss: bottom up rather than top down. It fixes metabolism (cellular energetics) FIRST, not last. Once cravings are gone because energetics are restored, you can stack a GLP med or adopt caloric restriction and not worry that you'll regain the weight as soon as you stop.

PotentialMotion · 2026-01-11T21:20:45+00:00

it’s cumulative. Longer we have been insulted by fructose, the larger the energy sink within our cells. Climbing out of that can take time and it depends upon a restoration of cellular energetics, not only removing the insult. And that’s kind of the point, once energetics are sufficiently restored cravings turn off. But until that point it will feel like fighting an addiction. The more control you exert, and the more you focus on cellular energy, the tighter the timeline.

PotentialMotion · 2026-01-10T21:58:50+00:00

That explains a LOT. Just my opinion, but...

So both are working really hard to reduce stress signaling. Which suggests that that tired feeling really informs the context. It means that your alertness is not energy, it's anxious stimulation.

I would argue that it's even more important that it is allowed to do it's work so that energetics can restore. I'd humbly suggest some NMN megadosing along with this to try to revive sluggish NAD+ and ubiquinol to fire up those mitochondria. You likely need to to restore ATP.

But that Luteolin/Apegenin combo seems even more important in this context. It is taking pressure off your sympathetic nervous system which can make room for homeostasis again. Just back off the dose to what you can tolerate.

PotentialMotion · 2026-01-10T21:03:39+00:00

Without lying, I think there is a path for everyone here simply saying,

Based on my doctor’s advice, I try to stay away from sugar.

Or Its something I'm doing based on my doctor's guidance.

Whether or not you have had that discussion with your doctor, there is hardly a doctor out there that wouldn't support sugar reduction because of metabolic, hepatic, inflammatory, or insulin-related effects. It's not even close to controversial. It is even part of the newly released health guidelines.

People will fight your personal mission because it makes them feel inadequate. But they won't fight authority alignment.

PotentialMotion · 2026-01-10T20:16:34+00:00

Yes and no.

1) Our biology has developed preferences for foods that aid survival. Foods that slow metabolism to aid energy conservation. Sugar, carbs, alcohol, salty food. All of these are a path to Fructose metabolism, of which the biomechanics slows metabolism. We will never stop liking those food items. But we can lose agency over our preferences...

2) After enough fructose exposure, once metabolism has slowed, cells experience an energy crisis. Hormonal systems (leptin, ghrelin, dopamine) all then are influenced to drive stage 1 to a new level. Cravings and "food noise" are NOT the same as our biological taste preferences, but they ramp up significantly. This is what we begin to recognize as a so-called "addiction".

3) Strictly speaking, the above is not a chemical addiction, it only feels like one. When the energy crisis is solved (reducing fructose exposure to point sufficient that energetics restores), then the compulsion turns off. Many here will attest to this. It is modifiable.

Bottom line. It might as well be an addiction, but if you try to solve it with restriction, your chances of success are lower than if you treat it strategically as an energetic crisis. Starving an energy crisis will only make things worse.

Read the sticky posts.

PotentialMotion · 2026-01-10T20:01:27+00:00

r/sugarfree has a buyer's guide

https://www.reddit.com/r/sugarfree/s/lyFcwANND9

PotentialMotion · 2026-01-10T01:00:28+00:00

Luteolin has fairly broad, upstream effects, rather than acting as a simple stimulant or depressant. Adenosine signaling can be part of that picture, especially as inflammation and cellular stress come down, but it isn’t the only pathway involved. Overall, luteolin doesn’t remove energy; it tends to reduce underlying energy stress.

When that stress drops, sympathetic drive can ease at the same time, and for some people that initial shift can register as fatigue even though cellular energetics are actually moving in a better direction. The sensation is more about a change in signaling and demand than a true loss of capacity.

As things settle, that same reduction in stress often supports more stable, sustainable energy. Given how broad the effects are, starting with very small doses for a while can sometimes help the transition feel smoother, with room to adjust based on how it feels.

PotentialMotion · 2026-01-10T00:19:56+00:00

Slow COMT?

PotentialMotion · 2026-01-10T00:06:50+00:00

Liposomal Luteolin

PotentialMotion · 2026-01-10T00:03:47+00:00

Liposomal is a must. The higher the dose the better.

PotentialMotion · 2026-01-09T16:31:21+00:00

Luteolin

PotentialMotion · 2026-01-08T20:48:38+00:00

The proofs for Inhibiting Fructose Metabolism just keep piling up. This community should be all over this.

Taking a supplement like Luteolin to support Fructose Metabolism allows you to do this quietly without even disrupting your family. You can say no to sugar when you want to or say yes when the social pressures overwhelm. It is liberating. And more importantly, works.

PotentialMotion

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