Clinicians Committee
Works with SMHP’s Clinical Guidelines Advisory Board to develop and promote standardized protocols for implementing metabolic health interventions in the clinical setting. If you are an SMHP member and would like volunteer to help this committee out, please fill in the form at the bottom of the page.
Adele Hite, MHP, RD, PhD
Committee Chair
Adele Hite, PhD, RDN is a registered dietitian with a doctorate in rhetoric, communication, and digital media, and graduate training in nutritional epidemiology and public health. Her work combines biomedicine and cultural studies to explore food politics, nutrition science, and public health nutrition policy, specifically the historical, social, and political contexts surrounding the creation and evolution of the U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
She has published articles in the fields of health science, food studies, and public policy. Her writing has addressed relationships between diet and chronic disease, as well as racial, ethnic, and gendered aspects of food, nutrition and public health. She has presented papers at national and international conferences for scholars and professionals from a variety of fields, including medicine, dietetics, agriculture, food studies, and ancestral health. In addition, she is the co-author of a mix-and-match meal planning cookbook, Dinner Plans: Easy Vintage Meals.
In 2019, working with LowCarb USA, she led a global effort to create a general protocol that is used internationally to guide health care professionals in using therapeutic carbohydrate restriction to treat metabolic disease. She is a research scholar at Ronin Institute and currently works as a senior writer for the online health company, DietDoctor.com.
Vyvyane Loh, MD
Dr. Vyvyane Loh is board-certified in Obesity Medicine and Internal Medicine. She graduated from Boston University School of Medicine and trained at Newton-Wellesley Hospital where she also served as Chief Resident. Dr. Loh worked at HMR and was the medical obesity specialist at Newton-Wellesley Hospital’s Center for Weight Loss Surgery before starting her own practice. She serves on the ABOM exam writing board and is a member of the Obesity Medicine Association and The Obesity Society. Her other achievements include choreography and writing. She was the recipient of the Bunting/Radcliffe Fellowship in Fiction in 2006, a Guggenheim Fellow in Fiction in 2008, and shortlisted for the 2005 international IMPAC Award in Literature. Her diverse skills support her commitment to celebrating the full range of our humanity in an increasingly technological and disembodied world through art and the healing sciences.
Vyvyane Loh, MD
Miriam Kalamian, EdM, MS, CNS
Miriam Kalamian is a nutrition consultant, educator, speaker and author specializing in the implementation of ketogenic therapies. She earned her master of education (EdM) from Smith College and her master of human nutrition (MS) from Eastern Michigan University. She is board certified in nutrition (CNS) by the Board for Certification of Nutrition Specialists.
Inspired by the work of Thomas N. Seyfried, PhD, Miriam draws on a decade of experience to provide comprehensive guidelines that specifically address the many diet and lifestyle challenges associated with a cancer diagnosis.
Her passion for helping others implement this diet comes directly from her personal experience. Her son Raffi was diagnosed with a brain tumor in December 2004. Standard of care therapies failed to stop the relentless progression of his disease, and it became painfully clear that she needed to switch gears quickly. That is what originally led her to Dr. Thomas Seyfried's research supporting the use of the ketogenic diet for cancer.
Later on she authored her own book,, ‘Keto for Cancer - Ketogenic Metabolic Therapy as a Targeted Nutritional Strategy. Although evidence supporting the benefits of ketogenic diet therapies continues to mount, she felt there was little to guide those who wish to adopt this diet as a metabolic therapy for cancer. Keto for Cancer fills this need to lay out comprehensive guidelines that specifically address the many challenges associated with cancer, and particularly the deep nutritional overhaul involved with the ketogenic diet.
Miriam is a leading voice in the keto movement. She is dedicated to meeting the growing demand for specialized tools and knowledge that will help tailor the ketogenic diet to meet the needs of individuals. To that end, she welcomes multidisciplinary collaborations that will help refine this dietary approach to cancer and other metabolic diseases.
Therefore, beyond cancer Miriam integrates nutritional strategies with metabolic therapies and lifestyle modifications to develop personalized treatments that address a broad spectrum of conditions that are currently considered intractable, including age-related, neurodegenerative, and bariatric diseases.
Miriam lives in Montana with her husband Peter. Learn more about their personal journey and Raffi's Story Watch her 2016 interview.
Miriam Kalamian, EdM, MS, CNS
Nicholas Norwitz, PhD, MHP
Nicholas Norwitz completed his PhD, "Exogenous ketones as a metabolic intervention for Parkinson's disease," under the supervision of Professor Kieran Clarke. This project emphasized human clinical trials aimed at exploring the medical applications of the ketone bodies, D-β-hydroxybutyrate, in patients with Parkinson’s disease. Nick's early data demonstrate that exogenous ketone supplementation can improve some aspects of motor function in Parkinson's disease. Furthermore, Nick and Professor Clarke hypothesize that, by acting as both an efficient fuel substrate for the brain and as a signaling molecule, D-β-hydroxybutyrate may slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease.
Nicholeas Norwitz, PhD, MHP, MD-Canditate
Doug Reynolds, BSc (Elec Eng), MHP
Doug Reynolds is the Founder and CEO of LowCarbUSA®. The original organization was founded in the beginning of 2016 with the initial intention of providing a platform, through an annual conference, for internationally renowned scientists and medical practitioners to present the ever-increasing body of evidence on the benefits of reducing carbohydrates in the diet (and adding in healthy fats). He felt that education about the power of the low carb/ketogenic diet for the individual who may not get the information from their medical team or from mainstream nutrition advice, and for practitioners who may then be able to prescribe it in their practice was critical.
However, his mission quickly evolved when he realized how important this was to the medical professional community. Valuable tools are needed, not only to provide hope to their patients to reverse and prevent disease but restore hope to that very practitioner. This is why they went to medical school and got professional training, to help people heal and not just put Band-Aids on and never address the root cause of the problem. Too many practitioners are being taught that the many chronic diseases our communities are facing are just chronic and progressive. With effective tools and supportive information, complications can be stopped in their tracks and further complications reduced and the disease process may even be reversed.
The tools and resources Low Carb USA has been providing, not only includes the live conferences, but also includes a huge library of educational videos, a growing database of practitioners, and nutritionists and sports trainers who are open to the carb restriction conversation as well as a searchable database for papers and articles covering the research into the evidence supporting this lifestyle.
Most importantly, though, he has coordinated the establishment of a panel of advisors to oversee the creation and maintenance of a set of 'Clinical Guidelines for Therapeutic Carbohydrate Restriction' which was first published in May, 2019.
He has worked tirelessly over this period during the COVID-19 outbreak and lockdown to now establish this nonprofit, the Society of Metabolic Health Practitioners, and this organization will now house most of the above body of work as education and training of Metabolic Health Practitioners and the entire community interested in making a difference in worldwide metabolic health. The aim is to stall and reverse the increasing prevalence of noncommunicable, lifestyle related diseases, influenced by metabolic dysfunction and insulin resistance. Accreditation pathways have even been established for practitioners within this society to introduce credibility to the practice of therapeutic carbohydrate restriction and to help establish alternative Standard of Care for those whose metabolisms are different because they don’t eat excessive carbohydrates.
Doug Reynolds, MHP
Additional Members
David Crutchfield, MD
Alyssa Gallagher, RD, CDE
Vyvyane Loh, MD
Katharine Morrison, MD
Christine Najjar, MD, MS Internal Medicine
Christie Barnett, RN, APN
Philip Ovadia, MD
Emily Spurlock, RD
Juan Carlos Torres Urrutia, MD
Clinical Guidelines Advisory Board
David Cavan, MD, FRCP
David Cavin MD is a physician and author who specializes in prevention, management, and reversal of type 2 diabetes. He has worked with organizations across the globe to develop projects and programs that promote education and self-management for people with diabetes.
David Cavan, MD, FRCP
Mark Cucuzzella MD, FAAFP
Mark Cucuzzella is a Professor at West Virginia University School of Medicine. He is also a LtCol in the US Air Force designing programs to promote health and better fitness in the military with the USAF Efficient Running Project. (available on iphone format here) In military and civilian community he has been a tireless promoter of healthy movement, nutritional interventions in patients with any spectrum of the metabolic syndrome, and injury free training for running.
He was a lead writer of one of the first grants supporting education of Medical Students in nutrition and physical activity in Medical School. Mark is also the lead on a large USDA grant to double SNAP benefits at Farmers Markets- the goal is reducing food insecurity as a barrier to healthier eating.
He’s also been a competitive runner for over 30 years — with more than 100 marathon and ultramarathon finishes — and continues to compete as a national-level Masters runner. He has won the Air Force Marathon twice. He is the race director of Freedom’s Run race series in West Virginia and director of the Natural Running Center, an education portal designed to teach healthier running . Mark is also the owner of Two Rivers Treads — A Center for Natural Running and Walking in his hometown of Shepherdstown, W.Va. Mark’s vision of a future of health is housed in his site www.drmarksdesk.com
Mark’s innovative work and story has been featured in the New York Times, NPR, Outside Magazine, Running Times, Runners World, Air Force Times, the Washington Post, JAMA, Blue Ridge Outdoors, and other medical and media outlets.
Mark Cucuzzella MD FAAFP
Professor West Virginia University School of Medicine
store/race HQ 304-876-1100
mobile 304-268-8813
afrundoc@gmail.com
Mark Cucuzzella MD, FAAFP
Robert Cywes, MD, PhD
Dr. Cywes is Dual Board Certified in General Surgery and in Pediatric Surgery. He specializes in Pediatric and Adult obesity, diabetes and metabolic management including bariatric surgery. His focus is on helping people understand and treat the true cause of obesity and diabetes. He has been doing bariatric surgery for 19 years and has performed around 7000 surgeries. Despite this, Dr Cywes firmly believes that obesity and diabetes are not treated by surgery, however, surgery may be a invaluable tool along the journey of becoming carbohydrate-free.
His medical training began in Cape Town, South Africa where he received his medical degree from The University of Cape Town training with Prof Tim Noakes amongst others. In 1989, Dr. Cywes moved to North America and completed a year-long residency in pediatric surgery at Ohio State University's Columbus Children's Hospital before moving to Canada where he completed his general surgery residency and specialized in minimally invasive surgery at the University of Toronto. Dr. Cywes also earned a PhD in liver transplant immunology and the effect of glucose metabolism on vascular endothelium injury, working with Dr David Jenkins, the father of the Glycemic Index.
After completing his pediatric surgery fellowship at the University of Michigan's C.S. Mott Children's Hospital, Dr. Cywes was appointed as an Assistant Professor of Pediatric and Fetal Surgery at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee where he did hepatic stem cell research. During this time, Dr. Cywes became increasingly interested in adolescent obesity and the impact of carbohydrates on the liver and metabolic syndrome in young patients. Dr. Cywes’ research led to a comprehensive understanding of the toxicity of chronic excessive carbohydrate consumption as the primary cause of obesity and so-called obesity-related co-morbidities. In the late 1990s Dr Cywes understood that the prevailing treatment of obesity using a Calories in, Calories out (CICO) model was erroneous, and he developed the Carbohydrate Insulin Model of Obesity and Diabetes (CIMOD). Using this model in combination with his understanding of the psychology of addiction, he developed a clinical program to treat obese adolescents using this approach. Dr. Cywes relocated to Jacksonville, Florida where he joined the Department of Pediatric Surgery at the Nemours Children's Clinic and Wolfson Children's Hospital. This led to a national meeting in Jacksonville where guidelines for adolescent obesity surgery were established.
In 2004, Dr. Cywes established Jacksonville Surgical Associates to continue his work in both adolescent and adult obesity treatment and surgery, and in 2013 opened a practice in West Palm Beach, Florida. He now works with a highly experienced team of professionals from a variety of medical sub-specialties to better care for obese patients. He has developed the practice into a nationally recognized Center of Excellence for obesity surgery. The practice uses a cognitive behavioral therapy approach that addresses carbohydrate addiction, along with bariatric surgery, to help patients manage the cause of their obesity long term. Based on his extensive clinical research and observations, Dr. Cywes lectures internationally regarding the physiological impact of carbohydrate consumption as the primary cause of the current Chronic Non-Communicable Disease (CNCDs) epidemic. He also lectures on the behavioral aspects of carbohydrate addiction as the cause of obesity and obesity-related co-morbidities and the use of substance abuse methodology, rather than a diet and exercise approach, to the effective long term treatment of obesity.
Dr. Cywes is a member of ASMBS (American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery) and is a member of the ASMBS Childhood Obesity Committee. He is also a member of APSA (American Pediatric Surgery Association). He has earned a Centers of Excellence designation by the Surgical Review Corporation. Dr. Cywes trains other surgeons to perform bariatric surgery as well as developing an aftercare model to help patients maintain weight loss.
Dr. Cywes and his team are active in obesity research, including an ongoing Adolescent Bariatric Surgery trial. He has become one of the foremost authorities in the treatment and management of obesity in adolescents. He recently co-authored a book, Diabetes Unpacked outlining an effective approach to understanding and treating diabetes into remission. Dr. Cywes' vast experience in pediatric and general surgery serves him well in using bariatric surgery to treat obesity in both adults and children.
Dr Cywes maintains an active clinical practice in Palm Beach Gardens and in Jacksonville as well as being active on conveying the CIMOD message on social media and through his websites – Obesityunderstood.com and diabetesunderstood.com.
Robert Cywes, MD, PhD
Georgia Ede, MD
Georgia Ede is a Harvard-trained psychiatrist whose areas of expertise include ketogenic and pre-agricultural diets, food sensitivity syndromes, and college mental health. She explores food’s powerful effects on brain chemistry, hormonal balance and metabolism for Psychology Today and on her website DiagnosisDiet.com.
After receiving her Biology degree from Carleton College, she worked for seven years as a laboratory research technician in the fields of biochemistry, immunology, diabetes and wound healing. She earned her M.D. from the University of Vermont College of Medicine and completed her psychiatry residency at Harvard’s Cambridge Hospital. Dr. Ede was the first and only psychiatrist at Harvard University Health Services to offer nutrition consultation as an alternative to medication management to students, faculty and staff. After seven years at Harvard, she chose to relocate to beautiful Northampton, Massachusetts, where she is a psychiatrist and nutrition consultant at Smith College.
Georgia Ede, MD
Gary Fettke, MB, BS, FRACS, FAOrthA
Gary Fettke is an orthopedic surgeon practicing in Launceston, Tasmania, Australia. Although his specialty is surgery, Gary believes it is much better to help people avoid surgery by taking preventive lifestyle measures.
He was “a fat kid” and developed numerous health issues as an adult including an aggressive eyesight-threatening pituitary tumor. After years of surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, he embarked on an LCHF (Low-Carb Healthy Fat) diet which halted tumor progression, allowing him to stop chemotherapy entirely.
Gary is the only physician in the world to have been formally banned from advising patients to reduce sugar intake. Under threat of losing his medical license, he publicly challenged the Australian Health Practitioner's Regulation Agency ruling, saying “Once you see the benefits of LCHF, you cannot unsee them.”
In a landmark decision in September 2018, after years of investigation, the AHPRA reversed its opinion and issued Dr. Fettke a formal apology. Dr. Fettke speaks internationally on the role of refined carbohydrates and polyunsaturated oils in the development of inflammation, diabetes, cancer, and other modern diseases, and is the author of Inversion: One Man’s Answer for World Peace and Global Health.
M.B.,B.S.(University NSW), F.R.A.C.S.(Orthopaedic Surgery), F.A.Orth.A.
Email gfettke@tassie.net.au
Skype gary.fettke1
Facebook: Belinda Fettke No Fructose
Twitter: @FructoseNo
Gary Fettke, MB, BS, FRACS, FAOrthA
Brian Lenzkes, MD
Brian is a USC trained, board certified, Internal Medicine doctor and he has been in practice for 16 years but did not understand the implications of metabolic syndrome until only 2 years ago. He has had a personal struggle with obesity since childhood and became officially pre-diabetic in February of 2017 despite his medical knowledge.
Although he was voted one of the “Top Doctors” in San Diego for 11 of those years, he still felt a void as many of his patients with chronic conditions continued to decline and require more medication. After attending LowCarbUSA® in San Diego, his practice of medicine changed, and he has taken control of his health.
He has been honored to be a guest on multiple podcasts and he has been a speaker on the Nutrition Network educational series for medical professionals. He is currently co-hosting the Low Carb MD podcast with Dr. Jason Fung, Dr. Tro Kalayjian, and Megan Ramos. He is also on the panel of advisers for the LowCarbUSA® Clinical Guidelines for Medical Professionals and has a significant role in the recently released documentary "Big Fat Lie" with Wide Eye Productions. He is the Medical Director for TriSystem Nutrition. He feels that together we can do our part to reverse the healthcare crisis that is facing the world one life at a time. He is excited about the journey ahead.
Brian Lenzkes, MD
Prof Tim Noakes, MBCHB, MD, PhD
Tim Noakes is one of the world’s leading authorities on the science behind sport and a successful sportsman in his own right. Through a lifetime of research, he has developed key scientific concepts in sport that have not only redefined the way elite athletes and teams approach their professions, but challenged conventional global thinking in these areas.
In his book, Challenging Beliefs, Noakes gives his views on everything from the myths perpetuated by the sports-drink industry and the dangers of overtraining and overdrinking to the prevalence of banned substances and the need to make rugby a safer sport. In a brand new chapter, he explains why he has replaced his high-carb eating habits with a protein-rich diet, and in a controversial addition, he sets out why the Springboks did not win the 2011 Rugby World Cup.
The teams and athletes with whom Noakes has worked make a fascinating backdrop to his sporting philosophies and highlight the importance of science in sport in human terms. In providing an intimate look at the golden threads running through Noakes’s life and career, this truly remarkable book reveals the ground-breaking theories and principles generated by one of the greatest minds in the history of sports science.
Tim Noakes is the Discovery Health Professor of Exercise and Sports Science at the University of Cape Town. He is a lifelong athlete and is rated an A1-scientist by the National Research Foundation. In 2008 he was awarded the Order of Mapungubwe by the president of South Africa for ‘excellent contribution to the field of sport and the science of physical exercise’. His book Lore of Running is considered the global ‘bible’ of running.
He has been married to Marilyn Anne for 39 years, and they have two children, Travis and Candice. Tim is the co-founder of the Sports Science Institute of South Africa, along with rugby icon Morné du Plessis.
Follow Prof Tim Noakes on Twitter @ProfTimNoakes
Prof Tim Noakes, MBCHB, MD, PhD
Bret Scher, MD
I hope to be the most unique cardiologist you have ever encountered. Sure, I am a card-carrying, board certified cardiologist. And I spent years learning the invasive procedures and the medications used to treat heart disease. Now I want to do everything in my power to make sure those multibillion dollar tools and drugs go unused.
My goal is to inspire individuals just like you to dictate your own health by adopting healthy lifestyle habits. Lifestyle habits that allow you to achieve your best health ever. Health free of prescription drugs. Health that leaves you feeling great, feeling energetic, and living the life you have always dreamed.
Having competed in triathlons ever since I was a teenager, fitness and health were always obsessions of mine. In college at Stanford University, I was able to maintain my daily training and focus on healthy nutrition. Then, real-life happened. I entered Ohio State University’s medical school, followed by my internal medicine residency at Mercy Hospital in San Diego, and a fellowship in preventative cardiology at Scripps Clinic
Suddenly those gym visits, long runs and bike rides became a struggle to maintain. Finding time to eat well, stay active, get enough sleep, and handle the stress of a high-stakes job became a constant presence in my life. Fortunately, I knew the importance of these habits and I did my best to maintain them, even if on a smaller scale.
As I entered my cardiology practice in San Diego, I encountered thousands of people who struggled far more than I did to maintain healthy habits. Some had never exercised or paid any attention to their nutrition. It just wasn’t how they were raised and they hadn’t considered it important. Others knew what they “should” be doing but lacked the tools and support structure to implement them.
As a result, our healthcare system is full of people suffering from diseases that are completely preventable.
Suddenly, I had a clear mission: to empower all my patients to help themselves. To empower them to make the best-informed choices possible about everything from food to activity to sleep to stress management, every single day. After all, the best way to “treat” someone is to prevent the need for treatment in the first place.
Bret Scher, MD
Franziska Spritzler, RD, CDE
Franziska Spritzler is a Registered Dietitian and Certified Diabetes Educator who takes a carbohydrate-restricted, whole-foods approach to managing diabetes and insulin resistance. She works in private practice in Huntington Beach, California, and has been following a low-carb lifestyle since early 2011. Franziska is also a freelance writer whose articles have been published online and in diabetes journals and magazines, and in January of 2015 she published her first book, The Low Carb Dietitian’s Guide to Health and Beauty.
Franziska Spritzler, RD, CDE
David Unwin, FRCGP
David Unwin works at the Norwood NHS Surgery in Southport near Liverpool, UK where he has cared for the same population since 1986 as a family doctor. To date 82/166 of his patients with T2 diabetes have achieved drug-free remission. This gives a remission rate of 49% at 30 months duration of a lower carb diet, one of the best results for any clinic in the world.
For the past few years he has been a UK Royal College of General Practitioners expert clinical advisor on diabetes. As a result of his interests in both better communication with patients and Type 2 diabetes he was made Royal College of General Practice National Champion for Collaborative Care and Support Planning in Obesity & Diabetes in 2015.
In 2016 he was the proud UK National winner of the NHS Innovator Of The Year Award for published research into lifestyle changes; working with patients’ personal health goals as an alternative to drug therapy in type 2 diabetes –so that his GP practice spends £50,000 per year less than expected on drugs for diabetes.. As part of this he has also published research into improving blood pressure, lipid profiles and liver function by reducing dietary carbohydrate, especially sugar(1-7). In 2019 he was shortlisted by NICE for a prize for his teaspoon of sugar infographics which have now been translated into six languages.
Dr Unwin’s work has been covered by both BBC, C4 & C5 television, The New Scientist, The Times, The Daily Mail and The British Medical Journal. Further recognition came recently when David was invited to become an ambassador for the UK All Party Parliamentary Group on diabetes. As @lowcarbGP he has over 50,000 followers on Twitter
- Unwin D, Unwin J. Low carbohydrate diet to achieve weight loss and improve HbA1c in type 2 diabetes and pre-diabetes: experience from one general practice. Practical Diabetes. 2014;31(2):76-9. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/pdi.1835
- David Unwin DH, Geoffrey Livesey,. It is the glycaemic response to, not the carbohydrate content of food that maters in diabetes and obesity: The glycaemic index revisited. Journal of Insulin Resistance 2016;1(1), a8.(https://insulinresistance.org/index.php/jir/article/view/8/11).
- Unwin D, Tobin S. A patient request for some "deprescribing". BMJ. 2015;351:h4023. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26239952
- Murdoch C, Unwin D, Cavan D, Cucuzzella M, Patel M. Adapting diabetes medication for low carbohydrate management of type 2 diabetes: a practical guide. Br J Gen Pract. 2019;69(684):360-1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31249097
- Saslow LR, Summers C, Aikens JE, Unwin DJ. Outcomes of a Digitally Delivered Low-Carbohydrate Type 2 Diabetes Self-Management Program: 1-Year Results of a Single-Arm Longitudinal Study. JMIR Diabetes. 2018;3(3):e12. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30291081
- Unwin DJ, Tobin SD, Murray SW, Delon C, Brady AJ. Substantial and Sustained Improvements in Blood Pressure, Weight and Lipid Profiles from a Carbohydrate Restricted Diet: An Observational Study of Insulin Resistant Patients in Primary Care. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2019;16(15):2680.
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/15/2680
- Kelly T, Unwin D, Finucane F. Low-Carbohydrate Diets in the Management of Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes: A Review from Clinicians using the Approach in Practice. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2020;17(7):2557. https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/7/2557
David Unwin, FRCGP
Eric Westman, MD, MHS
Eric C. Westman is an associate professor of medicine at Duke University Health System and director of the Duke Lifestyle Medicine Clinic. He combines clinical research and clinical care to deliver lifestyle treatments for obesity, diabetes, and tobacco dependence. He is an internationally known researcher specializing in low-carbohydrate nutrition.
Dr. Westman is currently the vice president of the American Society of Bariatric Physicians and a fellow of the Obesity Society and the Society of General Internal Medicine and
Past President of the Obesity Medicine Association and a Fellow. In 2010, He was named the Obesity Medicine Association’s “Bariatrician of the Year'' for his work in advancing the field of obesity medicine as well as the Society.
He is also a recipient of the Society’s Steelman-Seim Educator Award for advancing the cause of health care through education and teaching. He graduated from Stanford University (A.B.), University of Wisconsin (M.D.), University of Kentucky and Duke University (M.H.S.) is board certified in Internal Medicine and Obesity Medicine and has a Master’s Degree in clinical research, with over 90 peer-reviewed publications to his name. Including this study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, entitled "A Low-Carbohydrate, Ketogenic Diet versus a Low-Fat Diet To Treat Obesity and Hyperlipidemia."
He has dedicated his life to helping people with various medical conditions such as Type 1 & Type 2 Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome, Obesity, Hypertension, and many others through diet and lifestyle choices. He believes that using standard medical protocols often treat the symptom and not the cause. He has spent the past 20+ years doing clinical research and providing care to his patients, with an extremely high success rate, through theoretical and practical experience.
Over 170 million Americans suffer from obesity, pre-diabetes, and type 2 diabetes. Yet, the clinical research he has conducted at Duke University shows that this American Medical Association-recognized disease can be put into remission – without medications – through a low carbohydrate ketogenic diet alone.
Dr Westman’s experience is vast, and the results have been astounding… 26,000 pounds lost, 98% of patients affected by Type 2 Diabetes off insulin, 4,000 patients, 28,000 clinical visits
Dr. Westman has co-authored the books Cholesterol Clarity, Keto Clarity and The New Atkins For A New You.
Dr. Westman has told the story a few times at our previous events, about how he ended up writing a letter to Robert Atkins, which led to a meeting at Atkins' clinic. The meeting in turn led Dr Westman to convey that he was a little confused about the low carb diet, and he challenged Dr Atkins a bit, saying he was not convinced. That in turn led Dr Atkins to challenge him back to find the flaws and prove that it did not work. But as Dr Westman admits, he could not, and he only proved to himself the profound benefits of therapeutic carbohydrate reduction! He later co-authored a study, which led to another, larger study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, entitled "A Low-Carbohydrate, Ketogenic Diet versus a Low-Fat Diet To Treat Obesity and Hyperlipidemia."
Eric C. Westman, MD, MHS
William S. Yancy Jr., MD, MSH
