Episode 158: Dr. Laura Buchanan ON The Power of Continuous Glucose Monitors in Managing Diabetes
Dec 12, 2023Season 1Episode 158
Lorenz Manaig
In this podcast episode,I interviewed Dr. Laura Buchanan, a family medicine physician and a prominent member of the Society of Metabolic Health Practitioners. We discuss several key topics, such as the benefits of a low carb or ketogenic diet, the importance of understanding and managing insulin resistance, the challenges of conventional medical approaches to chronic diseases like diabetes, and the potential use of Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGMs) in maintaining a healthy lifestyle and controlling blood sugar levels. Furthermore, Dr. Buchanan shares her journey in medicine and her passion for utilizing a lifestyle modification approach in her practice.
On this Episode:
01:31 Dr. Laura's Journey into Lifestyle Medicine
02:53 The Impact of Lifestyle on Health
03:50 The Role of Low Carb Diet in Medical Practice
05:33 Dr. Laura's Personal Experience with Low Carb Diet
06:41 The Power of Lifestyle Changes in Residency
07:18 Challenges and Pushbacks in Residency
07:54 The Importance of Nutrition Curriculum in Medical Schools
08:24 The Power of Continuous Glucose Monitors in Managing Diabetes
09:51 The Impact of Diet on Chronic Illness
11:39 The Role of Ketogenic Diet in Managing Various Health Conditions
13:27 The Importance of Patient Education in Managing Chronic Illness
13:44 The Role of the Society of Metabolic Health Practitioners (SMHP) in Promoting Low Carb Diet
16:01 The Importance of Language in Patient Education
17:57 The Benefits of the Dr. Tro App and SMHP Resources
Save yourself that trip to the market — Instacart delivers groceries in as fast as 1 hour! They connect you with Personal Shoppers in your area to shop and deliver groceries from your favorite stores.
In this podcast episode,I interviewed Dr. Laura Buchanan, a family medicine physician and a prominent member of the Society of Metabolic Health Practitioners. We discuss several key topics, such as the benefits of a low carb or ketogenic diet, the importance of understanding and managing insulin resistance, the challenges of conventional medical approaches to chronic diseases like diabetes, and the potential use of Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGMs) in maintaining a healthy lifestyle and controlling blood sugar levels. Furthermore, Dr. Buchanan shares her journey in medicine and her passion for utilizing a lifestyle modification approach in her practice.
On this Episode:
01:31 Dr. Laura's Journey into Lifestyle Medicine
02:53 The Impact of Lifestyle on Health
03:50 The Role of Low Carb Diet in Medical Practice
05:33 Dr. Laura's Personal Experience with Low Carb Diet
06:41 The Power of Lifestyle Changes in Residency
07:18 Challenges and Pushbacks in Residency
07:54 The Importance of Nutrition Curriculum in Medical Schools
08:24 The Power of Continuous Glucose Monitors in Managing Diabetes
09:51 The Impact of Diet on Chronic Illness
11:39 The Role of Ketogenic Diet in Managing Various Health Conditions
13:27 The Importance of Patient Education in Managing Chronic Illness
13:44 The Role of the Society of Metabolic Health Practitioners (SMHP) in Promoting Low Carb Diet
16:01 The Importance of Language in Patient Education
17:57 The Benefits of the Dr. Tro App and SMHP Resources
Save yourself that trip to the market — Instacart delivers groceries in as fast as 1 hour! They connect you with Personal Shoppers in your area to shop and deliver groceries from your favorite stores.
Hey guys. Welcome to the Ketones and Coffee podcast. We're talking about creating a sustainable, healthy lifestyle through the ketogenic diet. I'm Lawrence, and I'm so grateful to have you joining me on this journey. Every week I bring in guests to have the knowledge and experience to help you on your own journey to a better health. I'm so excited for this. Today I'm honored to have Dr. Laura bot Shannon. Dr. B Buchanan is a board certified family medicine physician with a profound fashion for utilizing. Lifestyle modification as the primary approach to care. Her journey in medicine includes completing her family medicine residency at Wake Forest in 2022, where she was distinguished as a valedictorian. Prior to that, she achieved AKA Laude Honors for her Bachelor's of Science in biomedical sciences from the University of South Florida. Dr. Buran continued her academic excellence at the University of Florida. College of Medicine. Her dedication to Metabolic Health has positioned her as a founding member of the Society of Metabolic Health Practitioners, where she currently serve as the Board of Directors alongside esteem professionals such as Dog Reynolds, Marco ela, Miriam Kle Mann, Robert C Eric Westman, and of course Dr. tro. I'm so excited for this. I'm here with Dr. Laura. Dr. Laura, welcome to the show.
dr--laura-buchanan_1_12-07-2023_120904:
Oh, thank you so much for having me and I, I do feel so lucky to be working with that group of individuals. They're the, the best mentors you could imagine.
Track 1:
Yeah. You know what when I heard about your story Dr. Laura, it's it's just fascinating because usually it's, you know, somebody going through medical school after years in practice, then suffering a chronic disease themselves. Conventional treatment doesn't work. Then low, low-carb community that than the epiphany. Right? But you, I'd love to hear about your journey, how. You're a young medical doctor yourself already practicing lifestyle interventions. That's that's really unheard of you know, as far as, you know, where I can see it. But let's, let's go talk about your story. How did a young medical doctor like yourself, you know, find her way into focusing on lifestyle rather than just the con conventional, conventional methods of, you know, treating these conditions?
dr--laura-buchanan_1_12-07-2023_120904:
Yeah, absolutely. So I grew up loving playing sports through undergrad. I played soccer and I was what I thought I was doing, eating a healthy diet. Although it was lower in fat, it was probably more close to a standard American diet. But I really was trying to be lower fat. I didn't eat red meat for about a decade. And while playing soccer for. About five days a week. I, my A1C had gotten into the pre-diabetes range at 5.7, and during that time I still was very passionate about physical activity and exercise. I. But I also was seeing in my own family members, people that I loved, some of them aging very well, and then others unfortunately having chronic conditions with very serious medical conditions that were having complications. And the, the difference in those loved ones was just their lifestyle. It was someone being physically active as well as eating homecooked meals and not eating ultra processed foods and sweets all the time. And whereas the individuals who are having Complications having diabetes with complications. It was eating the standard American diet, processed foods less active. And so I really saw the power of lifestyle just watching people. I care about age I. And so I knew I wanted to do something medical work with people and realized it in family medicine. So going into medical school, I said, you know, family medicine, I can work people that are from baby to the grave and that that's how I can hopefully help the most people. I didn't really realize it was gonna be low carb. That was going to be what I became passionate about and could really provide so much benefit to people until. Towards the end of medical school, we had par partly way through medical school. There was a two week nutrition intensive and it was really underwhelming. You know, you learn the classic vitamin deficiencies you have to know. But you didn't learn any practical information about how can I use diet, use what people are eating to help actually prevent chronic diseases, to put chronic diseases into remission. And so at the end of that course, it was just very frustrating and I started doing a lot of my own research. And I came across Nina TALs, the Big Fat Surprise, Jason Phones obesity code. I found the Low Carb MD podcast when it first started, and, and then I just, it was like my mind was just, oh, boggled, by everything. And I was, it was so exciting though, to hear the successes that these other doctors were having. And I started watching Eric Westman's videos on YouTube as well, and they were really changing their patients' lives, improving them, getting them off of medications. And with Nina TALs is the big fat surprise. The nutrition information I'd just been taught in that two week elective, but part most of it was, or part of it at least, was inaccurate or wrong, or was the studies are misinterpreted. And so between that and my brothers telling me, you know, I should be eating red meat it is good for you, and I'm, I'm wrong on that front. I said, okay, I'll, I'll look into the research. It, I realized, yeah, I'm, I'm definitely wrong. I, and now I eat red meat pretty much on a daily basis and I feel fantastic I think, for doing that. And so, you know, fast forward through medical school and learning all of that, from listening to the podcast and reading the books come residency, I just decided from the get go that I was gonna practice low carb.
Track 1:
Hmm. And this was in your twenties, right?
dr--laura-buchanan_1_12-07-2023_120904:
Yeah.
Track 1:
Wow. You know, you're, you're in a, an island on your own because that doesn't happen at that young of an age. And that collect collective you know, experiences that you have at, at such a young age, you have a lot to, you know, you have, you have. You've impacted a lot of lives already at such a young age, and I'm so happy for you and I'm so happy for the community because you have such energy and passion about this, I could just tell that you are gonna make waves in, in this industry, right? You're gonna make change. You're gonna change people's lives.
dr--laura-buchanan_1_12-07-2023_120904:
Thank you. I, I really, I really hope to, and I think we're already seeing some of the benefit through residency, I was able to actually, I gave a lecture on therapeutic carbohydrate reduction on the guidelines published by the Society of Metabolic Health Practitioners, and I had other faculty members and residents actually show interest in Low carb and helping people and other and actually some of them started implementing it for their patients with diabetes. And so to kind of see that all already change just in residency was very exciting.
Track 1:
Let's talk about residency though. You know, we talk about it being successful now, but it wasn't always that way. Right? You said there was a little bit of pushback, especially in, in, in that front when you're starting from the conventional medicine approach perspective, right. You mentioned creating a nutrition curriculum during residency as your elective was You know, looking into one of your interviews, you know, you addressing topics like how low carb and the background for nutrition, right. Given, given that resistance you've encountered in your residency, could you like, share more about your experience and how you navigated pushback? You know, additionally you mentioned also that the hope for expanding the curriculum to medical schools too. You know, talk a little bit about that and how did that, you know. Form your, your practice.
dr--laura-buchanan_1_12-07-2023_120904:
Yeah. Absolutely. So the, initially there was some pushback, but the faculty at Wake Forest were amazing and they were really open. They're open to learning from their residents and as well as providing wonderful education. But so as, this is the perfect example, but I had a patient come in with an A1C that was over 13. It was a brand new diagnosis. Conventional standard medicine says, put that patient on insulin. Their A1C is over the over 10. And then work on lifestyle modifications with that as well. And I, I talked to the patient and said, Hey, let's put a continuous glucose monitor. We'll check some labs, make sure it's safe that you're not on insulin. And if you wanna trial the ketogenic diet, I think we can avoid medications. I. And he was all on board. And in one month, his CGM was showing sugars that were just in the pre-diabetes range. So basically an A1C that would've been around 6.0 up from above 13. Now when initially you have to go precept, meaning you go tell the attending doctor about the patient and your plan for their care, and so when I told the doctor. Who is watching my care? You know, I'm not planning on starting any medicine. We're gonna use a continuous glucose monitor. We're gonna use the ketogenic diet. I, I definitely, there's a little bit of resistance and concern, but I explained my reasoning that I have seen this before, that we're gonna be very safe. We won't let his sugars ride extremely high for several days. You know, if we need to go to medicine, we will, but let's give this lifestyle. A chance and we'll closely monitor and, and then you see the results and you can't argue with those results. That's incredible. And so that's where I think I started actually having some of the faculty kind of turn around and even be more open to using low-carb in their practice. So that was in, in, in the actual clinic setting, was really cool to see and was positive in the hospital setting. I didn't. Make as much progress or, you know, unfortunately for patients, um, the, one of the ones that really sticks out. It is a 12-year-old who was admitted to the hospital for a new diagnosis of type two diabetes whose A1C was over 12 and for breakfast he had pancakes and syrup and that, that morning when I came into the hospital to work, he had to get a lot of extra insulin because. Not surprisingly, he, with pancakes and syrup, his sugar is really high. And so during our rounding session with the pediatric endocrinologist, I said, Hey, I'd like to put this kid on a low carbohydrate diet. And the attending looked at me and said, well, what are you gonna feed him? And I said, I. Fat and protein And he said, well, if you're giving him all this fat, then you're gonna end up causing a heart attack in him. And I was like, well, I mean, if you're concerned about that, you know we can use a higher protein diet, go a little bit lower fat. He's like, and then he said, so you're going to kill his
Track 1:
Hmm.
dr--laura-buchanan_1_12-07-2023_120904:
And like respectfully, I don't think there's actually a lot of data that shows in someone with healthy kidney function that a higher protein diet is harmful. And the data now that we have used to reference saying a higher fat diet is going to increase risk for heart disease is actually not very good data at all. And you know, I haven't, so I haven't seen anything convincing that that's a true statement. But if you are aware of studies, I would love to see them. Please send them to me. And we went back and forth a little bit and it was kind of this awkward silence from all the other residents in the room as me and the attending had this discussion. But in the end, he's the attending and he said, Nope, keeping on on him the diet that he's eating right now and just cover his carbohydrate intake with insulin. And so, yeah, that, that, is definitely not a victory and you know, hopefully someone can find that child out there and teach him at some point that just eating whatever carbohydrates you want and covering that with insulin is really unhealthy and that is what leads to these terrible complications that we see with diabetes. Right now in the United States, every three and a half minutes there's an amputation due to
Track 1:
So.
dr--laura-buchanan_1_12-07-2023_120904:
and
Track 1:
So, Dr. Laura, they're saying you can't feed them protein, you can't feed them fat. That all you can feed'em is carbohydrates and which is so funny to me, right? What, what's, what Are they not
dr--laura-buchanan_1_12-07-2023_120904:
Yeah.
Track 1:
not a, expert in any capacity in, you know, in this field, but isn't that. What, what are they not seeing? I mean, if you can't feed'em protein and fat then, then there's only carbohydrate to feed the the kid.
dr--laura-buchanan_1_12-07-2023_120904:
Yeah, I mean I think that's, that's an extreme example from someone, but you do get that kind of pushback about the concerns of the high protein in the kidneys. And there's studies previously that were not really great studies, but that showed potentially the higher protein could impair kidney function. Just like there's some data That a higher fat diet could increase your cholesterol, which maybe that increase in cholesterol could increase your risk for heart disease, but they're making conclusions and making assumptions that are just not true statements. And I highly recommend you go read Nina Tycho's book, the Big, big Fat Surprise, and she will analyze and really go in depth about why those assumptions and those studies actually don't back. Those concerns up, which is where that doctor was coming from. He was coming from, that's what I was taught in medical school. Saturated fat is gonna increase your LDL, it's gonna lead to increased heart attack risk. And so that's what he was just spouting and saying, even though he had not reviewed those studies himself clearly.
Track 1:
he was just going by his training and what he knows and not based on experience, you know, I always talk about. And it, I, I know it may seem harsh when I talk about medical doctors this way, practicing the conventional way is that I've never, those doctors have never had a patient come back to them, say, Hey, I cured my type two diabetes. I've reversed my chronic disease. They've never probably heard that from anyone. Right. And. You know, as, as a coach for me, I've heard that multiple times when I help people. Right? But these doctors that, that are practicing conventional weight, they've never heard that in their life that they, a patient, ever reversed chronic illness because they don't expect it to. They, they don't expect a patient to reverse chronic illness. They expect you to be on metformin, be on a maintenance. So that you can have pancakes, right? Because,'cause essentially you, you can't ask a patient to change their lifestyle because they don't, they, they, maybe they don't expect them to. Is that a fair statement?
dr--laura-buchanan_1_12-07-2023_120904:
I, I definitely, I have seen that before where I've brought up to doctors like, Hey, we could reverse their diabetes if we put them on a ketogenic diet. And the one of the pushbacks that was common was, well, they can't sustain that. And And you know, why can't the patient sustain that? Is it because we are not providing them the good support they need to sustain that because in that case, that's our fault that we can't provide them the support they need to maintain that lifestyle. And if so, we need to be doing better. And I think that's one of the things I love working with TRO and at our practice is we do have really close follow up. We have a messaging system where you can basically text with us and we get back to you that day. And so that's the kind of, I think, support that some people need to really help maintain those lifestyle changes.'cause it is hard to do that, especially in today's food environment where you have food being pushed on, you advertised at you every single place you go. So I, but I think that is a, a pushback of why not to give people the option of it is because they can't sustain it is more what's inside themselves. They feel like they could not sustain that lifestyle, so therefore their patient can't do it either.
Track 1:
You know, Dr. Laura, if they are just aware of what. This diet causing people we've been diagnosed. You said type two diabetic, a 12-year-old type two diabetic. Right. We're diagnosing younger and younger people and
dr--laura-buchanan_1_12-07-2023_120904:
Yeah.
Track 1:
if they just know that impact of,'cause they have the power, like medical doctors have the power to change the landscape. Right. If enough medical doctors just, you know. Get on board with this, right? But then there's the medical system that, you know, they're training, like there's, there's ego involved in there too, right? Because they're trained for years, uh, you know, training in the conventional way. And it's, it's just so confusing for a lot of people because my mom and my dad, they're both diabetics, right? And I know what When they come out of the office, they're more confused than ever. Right? They, they, they went on this diet for seven days only eating veggies, and, and it didn't take long for them to go back to their old diet. Right. Because it wasn't sustainable. Right. And that tells me that
dr--laura-buchanan_1_12-07-2023_120904:
Yeah.
Track 1:
there's really, they're not giving them any options. Right. I mean, for me, It, I'm doing this because I want people to know and for them to have an option. Right. So, you did say you've in, in your residency you you use continuous glucose miners and I am so curious about that, and you saw big improvements with A1C physical symptoms and even you, you talked about food addiction symptoms, right. What was the study and, you know, how, how was that conducted?
dr--laura-buchanan_1_12-07-2023_120904:
Yeah. Abs. Yeah, so that was a really fun big project During residency, we, it was in the group medical visit setting, so we had two different cohorts of about seven or eight people with type two diabetes. And we gave them continuous glucose monitors and then provided them education about how their lifestyle impacted their blood sugars. And then they actually would lead the discussions and we would Share their glucose grafts on the screen and then talk about, you know, if you ate something and your sugar went way up, what's an alternative food that we could use to help bring that sugar down? And with the, the IRB, basically the research, we weren't allowed to tell people to go on a ketogenic diet, but we just said with the CGM, try to bring that line closer to a flatter line and make the lifestyle changes for that. and they did great. They improved their A1C. They improved a many, many physical symptoms headaches, belly aches, stomach pains, joint aches, things like that. Fatigue anxiety, depression. These things got better in addition to food addiction symptoms. And six out of the six individuals who did have significant food addiction symptoms, all of them went to no food addiction symptoms by the end of the 14 weeks and This was just by purely working to make that glucose line flatter, not even telling them to go on a ketogenic diet. And so I think it's just such a powerful tool and that like anyone, I think anyone in the world should have access to one, but especially if you have insulin resistance, pre-diabetes, type two diabetes, then you should really be using a continuous glucose monitor to help figure out how your lifestyle, what you're eating, your sleep, your stress, all those things are playing a role impacting your sugar
Track 1:
and that's amazing. But maybe I'll get one for my mom, How did that contribute to your understanding now of like health in general or metabolic health? Like Yeah,
dr--laura-buchanan_1_12-07-2023_120904:
Yeah, I mean, so when I actually, especially because in residency I had not learned
Track 1:
I.
dr--laura-buchanan_1_12-07-2023_120904:
As much about food addiction. This was something I was just barely starting to learn from Dr. tro and some other people. I was doing research outside of residency on, but when we gave the individuals, it's called the Yale Food Addiction Scale, I had, I, I really didn't know if it was gonna be different from their baseline to the end of the study. I was just curious, is this gonna have an impact? Just by changing, getting that glucose, the sugar On a more stable, rather than having all the variability with carbohydrates. And so seeing the power that just that simple intervention could do and improving the, not only the physical symptoms, but the food addiction symptoms, I think it was just really eyeopening to me. And, and you see those results and even, I think better results oftentimes for people when they go all the way on a ketogenic diet. and so it, it is just, it all of the excitement and seeing patients get better, it all just gives me fuel to keep on going and to try to do more research. And that's now working with tro we're trying to do more research to, to build the massive knowledge and get it out there so more doctors at younger ages can actually start doing this rather than, like you said, oftentimes waiting till they have their own ailments, fixing it with low carb and then using low carb.
Track 1:
this is such satisfying work that you're doing and you know, at such a young age, like I said, you are already changing people's lives right at, at such a young age. And I, I'm really happy for people who will come across you because you have, you will see, you're at the forefront of, of this and You have so much more to do. Right. But you know, the, the best thing is you're, you're so young, right? You, you're so young, and it may be an uphill battle for now, but for those people who are ready to make a change. There's hope because they're, they're, you know, clinics like Dr. TROs and, and your services that really will help people, you know, reverse chronic illness. For some people, they don't know this, they don't know this stuff. They don't know that they can reverse chronic illness and their Dr. May say, Hey, you know, you can't go on a, on a ketogenic diet. You might, it might cause a heart attack or, or whatnot. And those people who were failed by the conventional way. We'll look for an alternative way, which is, you know, they'll, they'll find, you know, services like yours and, and which is a win-win for them as long as they're open for, for that change. And you, yeah.
dr--laura-buchanan_1_12-07-2023_120904:
Yeah. Yeah. And, and I think you know what you said about other doctors. Finding this, or it's saying like people going to their doctor saying, Hey, I wanna try a ketogenic diet, but they're then being told it might cause a heart attack. This is why we need to get the education actually in medical schools or residencies. So people across the board know that that's actually not a true statement and. The, that's what really excites me about what the nutrition elective I created with help from Matt Calkins, my husband, who's also in family medicine, and Aaron Sanner, who's now a faculty member doctor over at Wake Forest, who's also working on this nutrition elective that will have low carb education and The, the exciting thing about this is if we can get it implemented in our program and people like it and enjoy it, then maybe we can spread it to the internal medicine residents, the med medical school here, and then from there actually continue to expand it. And right now. During when I was a resident there, one person took the course, enjoyed it and thought that they were able to implement some low carb education for their patients. It is now set up where two other residents have gone through this year going through that nutritional elective. So if we can keep getting positive feedback and more residents can go through it, this is how from a grounds up, we start people earlier and hopefully prevent that. That burnout, fix yourself typical
Track 1:
Hmm.
dr--laura-buchanan_1_12-07-2023_120904:
way.
Track 1:
changing lives here. I don't know if you're, you're realizing that you're, uh, obviously you are for sure.'cause it is so much satisfying work for you and it keeps you going. But in my perspective, you are changing lives. You are saving lives. And if, if I can just, you know, change more. Mind change more minds that we can, you know, open people's heart about this. You know, we can, we can change a lot more people's lives. Maybe your, you know, your approach when you, when you did the your study at your residency, that project that you did, your approach is, you know, so direct, but also, uh, it's, it's easy to understand. The way that you explained that to that patient, how, how he can, uh, reverse his type two diabetes by just following your guideline. It, it was so easy to follow. It was so easy to understand. I think, uh, just if we can just continue on with that and how used language right. To make people understand without. Scaring them away. Right. Because it's, it's a big, it's a huge part of it, right?
dr--laura-buchanan_1_12-07-2023_120904:
Yeah, I, I would encourage people to go to the s mhp.org. And on the website there's resources for patients, for practitioners that are just single page documents that it's, you know, if you were to eat basically the foods on this page, you will likely go into ketosis and greatly improve your metabolic health. And there's also, you could take those to your doctor and there's one on insulin resistance, one on The evidence that shows how this is not only safe, but extremely effective. It's a single page with data from Virta Health, Dr. Unwin, Dr. tro, and you can take that to your doctor and say, Hey, look at What this, what these studies have shown and how effective this is Can do you think I can try that for my diabetes or for my hypertension, X, Y, Z? And then they have the data in front of them and maybe that'll spark an interest to, for them to learn about it. And that could be another, I think, helpful way. So people bringing it to their doctors and making them
Track 1:
Mm. Yeah. At least make them curious. Right. So yeah, I, I went, I went to that, to the SMHP resource hub for patients and for literally everybody who wants to. Who is interested in learning about low carb? It's easy to understand that because I actually printed a couple and sent it to my mom and my sister. So, yeah,
dr--laura-buchanan_1_12-07-2023_120904:
Nice.
Track 1:
Could you because it's so easy to understand, I mean, with insulin resistance, you know, how that can be complicated, but with, you know. With the diagram and and how it's placed. It's so easy to understand for somebody who is actually dealing with it.'cause I always try to explain it to my mom and how insulin resistant works, but when, when you have it in front of you with diagrams, it's so much easier to remember. Right. Could, could you share some of of these resources that they can find there too?
dr--laura-buchanan_1_12-07-2023_120904:
Yeah. Some other
Track 1:
Yeah. Yeah.
dr--laura-buchanan_1_12-07-2023_120904:
ones on the website.
Track 1:
key resources that they can find. Maybe, you know, learning about insulin resistance. What else can they learn on, on, on that?
dr--laura-buchanan_1_12-07-2023_120904:
Yeah, absolutely. So there's gonna be, there is a list of practitioners. So if you are in an area where you can't find someone to help you with a low carb lifestyle, then there's a list of health coaches. Doctors, PAs and different specialties. There's also a video now and a PowerPoint. So if you are working in a practice and you wanna try to bring a metabolic health clinic to your practice, and maybe it's a group of doctors or nurse practitioners, PAs, you could actually take that PowerPoint to your administration and give it as a presentation that what kind of shows the benefits of metabolic health and what you could PR bring. To the clinic, and I think that's a really helpful resource. The other thing that's very exciting, and it's, it's more in the works, but we're working on getting res educational resources on doing research, videos, education, and even might have research mentors. So if people are. Out in their own clinics or maybe residents medical students, and they're passionate about this stuff, but need help with research, then they could come to the SMHP for that. And we've actually now have our own official journal, the Journal of Metabolic Health, which is going to be going to be great because we are seeing case reports, case series, larger trials now being done on the benefits of a ketogenic diet. For so many health conditions, mental illness, um, cancer, uh, reflux disease, IBS. There's been case reports even on things like Huntington's Disease, which is a, a very serious genetic disease and with wonderful benefits. So this can be an outlet, a journal that shows all of the kind of in one area, hopefully a lot of data research showing benefits from therapeutic carbohydrate reduction or, or low carb or ketogenic diet.
Track 1:
I wanna ask you,
dr--laura-buchanan_1_12-07-2023_120904:
And so that
Track 1:
you say that the ketogenic diet or low carb diet can help all of these symptoms, right, all of these conditions, what do you say to somebody who says, Hey, how can the ketogenic diet do all of that? What, what do you say,
dr--laura-buchanan_1_12-07-2023_120904:
That is, it is really complicated but the, there's several different ways. The ketones themselves actually act on turning on and off certain genes. and they can actually, they decrease inflammation in the body if you're, they've actually shown in patients and someone who had Crohn's disease and had a very leaky gut with lots of proteins and things being able to go through that. The ketogenic diet was able to close the leaky gut, which you can imagine is gonna fix a, a lot of medical conditions. There's been impacts and shown benefits through altering the gut microbiome. The ketones themselves act as a fuel source, so we've seen benefits in people's cognition, even in mild cognitive impairment and in individuals with Alzheimer's having some benefit in memory. And that's, the ketones actually act as an alternative fuel source to sugar. And, and with Alzheimer's as an example, the brain doesn't utilize sugar as well. And so now it has An alternative source that it can actually access again, so that those are the ketones. It, yeah, it gets complicated,
lorenz_2_12-07-2023_124408:
So, I've heard that you'll be giving a free four week course on diabetes through the Dr. Tro app for Diabetes Awareness Month. What are your goals for this course and how can people participate?
dr--laura-buchanan_2_12-07-2023_124411:
Yeah, so actually that was the month of November and we recorded the course and it was great. It was a ton of fun. I had a lot of people join who were people who are members in our community as well as people who are just joining to learn more about diabetes during that month since it was, it was free on at that time it we covered all things diabetes. So what is diabetes, what it means. When you're diagnosed complications that can arise from it. Why medications are not the answer and are not the way to kind of reverse Actually your diabetes then some really kind of practical stuff of how do you implement low carb? How do you read nutrition labels? Looking out for hidden sugars that are in so many things now. How to navigate social events, the holidays, which this time of year is really tough. And that, yeah, it's, it is hard. So all of that was covered and it was, it was a lot of fun. We do still have that available in the app. It's no longer free. So if you become a premium app member, you have access to that. And all of our other courses and their zoom recordings. And so we have, of course, on continuous glucose monitors, cardiovascular disease and calcium scans, and a, a walkthrough, basically how to implement, start a low carb lifestyle and all, a lot of other information as well. Different lifestyle levers you can pull. So I encourage people if they would like to join the app, definitely do so. You can also just be part of the community and join in the community chat without paying for the monthly premium access. And just to have that extra support, especially if maybe you don't have a lot of support in your life or other people living that way. It can be helpful to be in that community there. So and in January, we're going to be starting our intro to low carb course.
lorenz_2_12-07-2023_124408:
Awesome. There's a lot of opportunities here, guys. You guys want to check out the Dr. Tro app. What are the, some of the most common questions that people ask you guys about low carb? And before we, they start.
dr--laura-buchanan_2_12-07-2023_124411:
Yeah, so oftentimes there's the red meat and colon cancer concern, and that one I typically go through, but kind of briefly, a lot of these studies that show some complication or some issue with cardiovascular health and low carb ketogenic diets, what they will do is give someone a food frequency questionnaire or a 24 hour food recall, meaning say, what did you eat in the last 24 hours? or the questionnaires, they'll say in the past year. What did you eat? And then there's a hundred questions and then they just follow that group of people for 12 years or 11 years pick the time frame and say what happened to them during that point and Then they look for some association between what that single questionnaire or that single 24 hour food recall And 12 years later, they try to blame that medical condition from that one point in time. And so you can imagine that is just really terrible data up front. People change their dietary habits all of the time. Additionally, they're not very accurate. They've done studies to see how accurate these questionnaires are. And people just aren't good at remembering what they ate for the past year. I can, you know, it's hard even for me who eats a very consistent diet. It's, I'd still not be very. And the other really big issue is if it's asking you about eating hamburger patties. When you, when I eat a hamburger patty, I'm eating something I cooked at home with maybe broccoli on the side, but otherwise I'm just having some hamburger patty with some salt, usually, maybe some cheese on top, nothing else. But on the questionnaire, there's nowhere to put that. So that will be the same as someone who goes to McDonald's and eats a hamburger patty. And maybe a french fry and a large coke and maybe a milkshake. So, it's just not even close to comparable, but the data, those questionnaires can't So I kind of explain that process to kind of ease their fears. Then the other one, often people hear about the keto flu and, you know, worried about that happening, especially if you are eating a lot of sugar, a lot of processed foods, it can happen more quickly, but really that is your body adapting. But it's oftentimes really, I should say, your electrolytes and your hydration. And so your body, your insulin levels are going to drop your kidneys are going to start peeing out more water and electrolytes because your insulin is dropping, which is a good thing. And so you just need to have extra water, extra electrolytes. So that's oftentimes just helping people navigate that. And, and then just the practical, you know, what, what should I eat? And. How many carbohydrates should I have per day? Total versus net carb is a big question. We like to focus on total carbohydrate count because there are so many packaged foods now that say keto friendly low carb, zero net carbs or one net carb, but really they're not health foods. They do increase your blood sugar. Your body can process those carbohydrates and those fibers that are added. So we just stick with total carbohydrates.
lorenz_2_12-07-2023_124408:
keto label on anything nowadays. Right. And you won't think that those. Those products will spike your blood sugar or insulin levels. It will, right? That's why you gotta have those CGMs handy,
dr--laura-buchanan_2_12-07-2023_124411:
Yeah, exactly. The CGM does not lie.
lorenz_2_12-07-2023_124408:
Yeah, you're right. It's such a great tool. And you brought up such a great point where just Make sure you don't have to even mention keto or diet, just have a base, have this baseline. Don't go over it and see where the magic happens, right? You got to have that CGM.
dr--laura-buchanan_2_12-07-2023_124411:
yeah, Huge fan.
lorenz_2_12-07-2023_124408:
Yeah. Well, thank you so much, Dr. Laura, for coming on and sharing your story here with us today. I really appreciate your insights and your stories. Such inspiration for somebody who's so young, but already making waves in the communities such you know, gives hope to a lot of people. So thank you so much.
dr--laura-buchanan_2_12-07-2023_124411:
Yeah, thank you. It's been my pleasure and we're doing a lot of telemedicine now and accepting patients in almost all 50 states. So if you know, you feel like you've got, want to improve your metabolic health, that is what I enjoy doing. So, you know, feel free to look us up at drtro. com.
lorenz_2_12-07-2023_124408:
Yeah, just, just a sample of what you can get guys. So make sure to download the app, Dr. Tro app. It will be linked down in the description box below and to connect to Dr. Laura. Everything's down in the description box below as well. All right, Dr. Laura, I appreciate you coming on and sharing your story here with us.