Board of Directors Headed By LowCarbUSA® Founder Doug Reynolds Gear Up For Launch

The launch of The Society of Metabolic Health Practitioners (SMHP) is a sign of the steady progress being made in the area of therapeutic carbohydrate restriction, and it’s no surprise that the man at the helm, Doug Reynolds, is the same man who launched LowCarbUSA® less than five years ago.

Doug Reynolds founded LowCarbUSA® in 2016 as a way to disseminate important information about low-carb and ketogenic therapies to individuals whose practitioners were not aware of, or were unwilling to provide, that information and related treatments. 

It wasn’t long, however, before Doug realized there was a fast growing contingent of practitioners around the world in need of an organization to provide education, support, and resources related to therapeutic carbohydrate restriction for clinical use in patient treatment protocols.

“LowCarbUSA® was really designed with the idea of helping individuals learn everything they needed to know about the low-carb/keto lifestyle in order to improve their metabolic health and achieve sustainable weight loss,” said Doug. “It became apparent rather quickly that there was a critical need for an organization that could really focus on the needs of the practitioners, and that was where we headed with the LowCarbUSA® Organization, providing CME credits for both our live conferences, and in additional online training, and most recently how the idea for SMHP came about.”

Doug will serve as president of SMHP and will be joined by a board of directors who are all recognized as leaders in the metabolic health and lifestyle medicine field. The founding board members are:

• President – Doug Reynolds
• Secretary – Heather Pickett DO, FAAFP, FAAMA, Col (Ret), USAF
• Treasurer – Mark Cucuzzella, MD, FAAFP
• Miriam Kalamian, EdM, MS, CNS
• Robert Cywes, MD, PhD
• Tro Kalayjian, DO
• Eric C. Westman, MD, MHS

SMHP will strive to represent all researchers and practitioners working to improve metabolic health around the world, through education, training, and support of evidence-based nutritional approaches, including carbohydrate restriction, as a valid therapeutic option or intervention. SMHP has been set up as a nonprofit organization with a 501(c)(3) application pending.

The mission of SMHP is is to be the recognized authority and resource on carbohydrate restriction in the following ways:

1. Establishing a Standard of Care (SoC) for carbohydrate restriction interventions through maintenance of Clinical Guidelines for practitioners of carbohydrate restriction and establishing an online communication forum between practitioners on all subjects related to carbohydrate restriction.
2. Establishing an evidence-based, unified lobbying group representing carbohydrate restriction as a valid approach to metabolic health.
3. Establishing and supporting a member practitioner directory of profiles for all practitioners in each of the different categories with an easy, user-friendly search capability such that they can be found by patients and colleagues alike.
4. Providing education and training for all practitioners wishing to be accredited.
5. Establishing tiered credentialing criteria for practitioners to be recognised as accredited
6. Establishing an evidence-based reference resource for the public including publication of papers, articles, blog posts, talks, as well as live and online seminars and courses.
7. Making distributions, where possible, to organizations doing work and research in the field of carbohydrate restriction that qualify as exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the internal revenue code.

“Our goal is to establish SMHP as the authority when it comes to carbohydrate restriction,” said Doug. “As we launch this important organization, we have the support of so many leaders in the field, which is critical to our success.”

One of the ways SMHP will become a valuable resource to the low carb community is through its Provider Directory on the SMHP website. Practitioners interested in being listed in the directory should visit the signup page. 

The basic listing is free, but practitioners are encouraged to become members, and ultimately pursue SMHP Accreditation, which certifies the practitioner has met the SMHP standards of understanding of concepts and proficiency in practice adopted by SMHP for diet and lifestyle practices that address metabolic health. There are several different pathways to accreditation, including pathways specifically designed for nurses, dietitians, advisers, sports trainers, and nutritionists.

Those interested in gaining all the benefits of membership can join SMHP here.