Hi Dudes!
I’m a 36 year old ER doctor in San Diego. I wanted to write to thank you for helping me along my journey into the ketogenic lifestyle. I find your podcast to be a place of comfort that I can turn to in a medical world that conveniently likes to ignore the risks of high carbohydrate eating.
As I reached my 30s, I began to notice that although my diet was the same (Standard American Diet) I had slowly but steadily gained weight. Not only that, but I noticed my mood was often irritable and I had low energy. I never seemed to have the energy to play with my 2 young kids. Getting through long emergency room shifts was a bear both mentally and physically. Naps were a necessity. I had developed bad reflux and had to take pills with every meal. My labs looked the way I felt. I watched as my A1c and triglycerides slowly up trended over the years. My triglyceride to HDL ratio was over 9!! Although I had metabolic syndrome and was at high risk for developing type 2 diabetes and heart disease, you would not know it by looking at me because I was not overtly obese. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I had become intolerant of carbohydrates.
My primary care doctor’s response was that I would probably need to go on statins when I was in my 50s, but to not worry. He recommended exercise. After a year of intense workouts (high intensity interval training and running -3 times a week), nothing had changed. In fact, I had gained weight. My A1c and TGs crept up even more. I wasn’t ready to accept that a lifetime of drugs was my fate, but I didn’t know what to do.
I couldn’t even fall back to my medical training! I can recall that we only received 1 or 2 days of nutrition education in medical school. As a result, we doctors have a poor grasp on diet and nutrition, at best reciting the obsolete and unsubstantiated US food pyramid, or worse simply ignoring diet with patients all together.
So, I decided to do some research on my own, combing through medical journals and finding resources like your podcast. I recall being awe struck by the science behind the ketogenic diet. Decrease carbs, decrease insulin response, and in-turn decrease fat storage. It just made so much intuitive, evolutionary and scientific sense. Why had this not hit me before? Flash-forward almost a year later, ketogenic eating has completely changed my life. I have lost over 36 pounds. My triglycerides dropped from 300+ to around 100 and my TG/HDL ratio is a much healthier, 2. GERD is gone. Blood pressure is normal. Great energy levels. I am killing it at the gym, making more gains than I ever did being fueled by carbs.
Before my journey, I had never given much worth to the influence of diet on health, but honestly; I have seen more true “cures” from low carb diets in the last year, than I have from any chronic medication we prescribe.
I have now made it a mission to talk to my emergency patients about the many benefits of a low carb/high fat diet. In the emergency room, I think we have a unique opportunity to make an impact at scary, but meaningful moments in life. Whether they are in for chest pain, the many horrible diabetes complications, or even something minor, I like to tell my patients that our bodies send us signals when things are going awry. I say, “Its not just bad luck that you are in the emergency room—You CAN fix this before it gets worse.” I find most of my pre-diabetic and diabetic patients have never had any real education about their diet from their doctors and they are so appreciative. Modern medicine will require a long time to “un-learn” bad science and bad dietary recommendations, but I am hopeful that we’ll get there some day! Thank you guys for spreading the word.
Dr. Anthony
