Dr. Westman's Page 4 Question

food
(less is more, more or less) #41

I’m a patient of his. I’ve been under his care since June 2017. I’ve fairly encapsulated our conversations on the topic. I’ve pulled nothing out of context.

(Empress of the Unexpected) #42

It’s funny, because when I hear about people wanting to alter results, I want to freak out. But some people have to pass certain tests for jobs, or to keep their insurance, etc. I’m just a numbers geek. A healthy one, that wants to keep tweaking things. I love my new doctor, but the only time he has become even mildly involved, was six months after I started keto. On my first visit, I was 135. Had not discovered keto, didn’t know the first thing about low-carb. I complained about my puffiness - and he said, CICO. Just reading those letters makes me hungry. Discovered keto, and a year later was down 23 pounds. He gave me the once over, and said, you need a DEXA scan, you are too lean! You can’t win for losing! :rofl:

I am short and small-boned.

#43

This made me laugh! I’m getting blood work tomorrow. I’m wondering what it will show as well. I am 7+ weeks keto.

I should probably have held off on the blood work and appt (coming up after next week), but I have been putting off going back to the doc for way too long now and I know it is time. (Had a whole situation with a misdiagnosis that put me off.)

Going to be interesting.

(Empress of the Unexpected) #44

Well, you will get a baseline. Did you have issues in the past?

#45

Nah. Always good. knock on wood Had it drawn three or four times over the course of a year about two years ago (when we figured out a thyroid issue never was an issue and the meds were making me crazy).

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #46

Have the doc look at pictures of people from the 1940’s through the 1960’s and tell you they were all “too lean”!

Those kids at Woodstock? Those shirtless soldiers and sailors during World War II? That’s what a reasonable amount of body fat looks like. Just saying.

#47

Oops, sorry didn’t see this…

I just buy steak and veggies (no potatoes). or fish and veggies. And not much else.

(Alec) #48

Liz
Here’s a way to look at it. You are employing your dr for medical services. It’s not the other way around. He is not employing you for patient services. You are the customer here.

In my opinion, you did the right thing about going keto without asking the dr’s blessing (as long as you are not taking meds, if you were, you should have talked to the doc first). Most drs I think will disapprove of keto and try to convince you it is fad diet and the fat will kill you. We know this is all CW [spoiler]bullshit[/spoiler], but drs are extremely well trained and controlled in general. Meaning that what they are allowed to do is quite tightly controlled, and they are fed BS to tell their patients to justify what they tell us to do.

There is a new breed of dr that reads a lot, rebels, and then says things they know are against the CW. Some of them get into big trouble because of it eg Tim Noakes, Gary Fettke, and others. But the Establishment is starting to get a bloody nose on some of these cases (eg again the 2 examples above), and I think the professional governing bodies are starting to think twice about starting a fight with their members about dietary matters. These folks are not stupid, and they can see some of the evidence that to them looks “strange and contrarian” and to us looks just plain convincing. So things are changing, but slowly.

What does your dr think about all this? My advice is to tell him what you’ve chosen to do (no asking here, just telling), and then just measure his response. We have heard here of a few drs who start cheering from the rafters: they know what’s right but are not allowed to say it. But most will tut-tut and talk about high cholesterol and heart disease caused by saturated fat. If your dr does this, my advice is to ask him to send you the RCT (Randomized Controlled Trial) evidence that prove the link between high cholesterol and heart disease. If he does send it to you (he won’t), then pleas post it here for us to study. I would love to see it!

This might sound like a very aggressive stance to take with a dr. And perhaps it is. But it’s your health we are talking about here. You only get to do you once. That’s it. Therefore getting it right (or as right as you can) is pretty important to you. It is WAY more important to you than it is to your dr. He has a queue of yous at the door, and gets some right and some wrong.

I emphasise this is all my opinion, and take or leave whatever you want. But I want to encourage some challenging of medical orthodoxy here. I think it is merited in this area, as the science tells us something completely the reverse of what the drs tell us.

Good luck with your dr and let us know how you go. Keep calm and keto on whatever the outcome.

(Alec) #49

The branch of medicine in which we find ourselves on keto is Prevention. This is an incredibly undeveloped branch of medical science as the beneficiaries of getting this right are either not visionary enough (govt and insurance companies), or not organised enough (medical consumers).

The future of medicine is not in optimising how to heal the sick (the current focus of 95% of medical research), it is in minimising the occurrence of sickness. The best sick bay is the unused one.