Dr Unwin - a GP who learnt from a patient - 'Can we beat T2 Diabetes? HOPE on the horizon'

[bigleg]

In 2012, Dr David Unwin had a patient attend his surgery that changed his life as a GP. His reward in 2016 'NHS Innovator of the Year' - the first GP to win that award as a result of how he changed the way he worked with patients. His presentation from Australia, as I write, was posted in the last 24 hours and already reached over 3,500 views. The conference was held just last weekend.

youtube.com/watch?v=OlKDM3S...(Not working as expected?)

We patients have the power to help educate our medical professionals as they all admit how their training contained nothing about the role of nutrients in health.

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I met a guy from the UK who's doctor was very "old school" and didn't think low-carb was any good. Apparently one of his female patients ignored him, lost loads of weight, reverted from T2 to being normal. After that the doctor started advising the diet with a lot of success. Same at our surgery where the nurse told me they were having an 80% success rate.

[bigleg in reply to Hidden]

Brilliant Cyrtis, thanks for sharing. I was with a group this afternoon and one of them, having watched this presentation was comenting on how she loves his presentation style. Regularly admitting how often he used to get it wrong. I believe it is us patients who are educating many of our medical professionals.

[cheritorrox in reply to bigleg]

I've a horrible feeling I'm going to have this problem tomorrow when OH goes to see his doc and discovers he has a fatty liver ... He won't listen to a word I say if she tells him different! Obviously I'm hoping a) he hasn't got a problem and b) she is "modern"!

[bigleg in reply to cheritorrox]

Given how long Dr Unwin took to recognise the driving cause of Fatty Liver and how many years since that recognition - will be interesting to learn if either/or your hopes! Please let us know,

[cheritorrox in reply to bigleg]

As he at least has a younger doctor I'm keeping fingers crossed - if she tells him bollocks (IMO) I might try to make an appointment with her myself - they now do dietdoctor.com in spanish altho' it's basic and doesn't have the article about "curing" fatty liver ... hey we don't even have the diagnosis yet... will let u know!

[bigleg in reply to cheritorrox]

Are you able to go as a couple to doctor appoinments? As you say need to know if he does have a fatty liver and if that is something they test for. Have you followed Ivor Cumming's personal journey on understanding his blood tests? Over the years I have asked for and received my husband's blood test results, but never once seen GGT - the key to Ivor finding his root cause.

[cheritorrox in reply to bigleg]

People do go together but I know without suggesting it that OH wouldn't have it - esp if I opened my gob to contradict something!

His blood test included GGT (extremely high), AST ALT and ALP(also high but not so far out of range) - his triglicerides are also off the wall whereas colesterol HDL & LDL well in range (not that we should take any notice of last two). He's had what we think is gout , hence getting the above in the tests. Tomorrow is results of an ultrasound (ecograma) on abdomen so we await with interest and some trepidation!

Will get serious about more research when know what they have to say ... there can be innocuous reasons (apparently) ......

[bigleg in reply to cheritorrox]

If you can, are you able to suggest to OH googles Ivor Cummings/GGT or similar and see what he comes up with. I first learnt about GGT from Ivor's early presentations when he did his own investigations when he identified high GGT in blood tests.

[cheritorrox in reply to bigleg]

Ah but where is it in spanish? At least dietdoctor.com now do a spanish version but it hasn't got all the articles .... as I mentioned before, doubt he'll take much notice if doctor tells him something different - takes a lot to get him to go bu then he thinks it's gospel!

[bigleg in reply to cheritorrox]

Sorry - missed that he only speaks & reads Spanish. I can't tell you if that information is avalable with translations to Spanish. So appreciate your challenges.

[cheritorrox in reply to bigleg]

Got results today and big relief - slightly fatty liver .... so guess what - cut back on alcohol (fair enough) .. and fat .... !

I've managed to persuade him that extra virgin olive oil is healthy (we never use anything else) and that when she talks about "fried food" she's probably thinking more of what you get in a restaurant.

I've told him we'll clear cupboards of e.g. sugar - response: she never mentioned sugar .... sigh ... going to get him off as many carbs as possible "sneakily" but all the great articles in spanish about fatty liver which dietdoctor very kindly (and promptly) emailed me are probably going to be ignored ........ oh well at least it's nothing more serious!

[bigleg in reply to cheritorrox]

cheritorrox: it sounds as if you have an understanding of the root cause of the fatty liver, but can appreciate the frustrations of the limited Spanish translations - but brilliant that Dietdoctor is addressing that and able to help you with links. You mentioned that OH drinks beer. Of course beer is high in carbs. Are you able to show him the visual guides on Dietdoctor. Presumably most are available in Spanish? Checked - of course they are: dietdoctor.com/es/keto/alcohol. I did a check and see that on the Spanish sight, while Dr Unwin's info for doctors is still in English, the transcript of his sessions are in Spanish. So presumably many of the presentations at Diet Doctor have the transcripts translated to Spanish. Appreciate not the same as a presenter speaking in Spanish, but hope that can help you also.

[cheritorrox in reply to bigleg]

Oh great - haven't checked out the detail but did see the alcohol one - tried telling him gin + 00 tonic or casera would be good (given spanish measures prob 2 tonics!) ... reaction - "gin is full of additives" ... at this point I just thought GIVE UP and let him get on with his way of dealing with it - if it was worse I'd jump up and down more and will be keeping an eye on him .... trust me, you can't tell a spanish mule to do anything.....

[bigleg in reply to cheritorrox]

I find those Visual Guides brilliant when talking to people - hope that you now have them in Spanish, it will help you both.

[cheritorrox in reply to bigleg]

I'm not sure what the equivalent of NICE is in Spain ... there is one coz I've been handed equivalent of the standard NHS "low fat" infomatic before. Must try to find out a bit more....

[cheritorrox in reply to cheritorrox]

PS Even tho doctor hasn't said she wants to see him for follow up (which in one sense is good news) I think I'm going to hassle him into going and asking for another blood test in a couple of months

[bigleg in reply to cheritorrox]

A good idea as it enables you both to monitor progress. Most doctors are not used to patients putting symptoms into remission relatively quickly if adopting the Low Carb way of life. Here in the UK we now have a few resources for doctors supporting patients following the low carb lifestyle. I have made a list that I pass out to people when they are looking at the Low Carb lifestyle. You may have come across the dietdoctor info. As a non-medical person I was able to access the Royal Collage of General Practitioners information:

Resources for Medical Professionals with Patients adopting a Low Carb Real Food approach As at 6th October 2019

There are increasing numbers of medical professionals experiencing patients recovering health remarkable quickly adopting this lifestyle.

This leaflet provides some resources produced for medical professionals supporting these patients.

Diabetes.co.uk: lowcarbprogram.com/nhs/

The Royal College of General Practitioners:

- Type 2 diabetes and the low GI diet peer reviewed, evidence based eLearning course For GPs, written by Dr David Unwin: elearning.rcgp.org.uk/cours...

- Dr Unwin screencast called Type 2 diabetes in adults: management, Watch free for all via the RCGP website here: elearning.rcgp.org.uk/mod/p...

- Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: elearning.rcgp.org.uk/mod/p...

Diet Doctor.com

- Low carb and keto for doctors: dietdoctor.com/low-carb/for... (Note item 7 includes Adjusting Medications Info)

- Blood Tests for Patients: dietdoctor.com/low-carb/for...

- How to Handle Difficult Low Carb Cases: dietdoctor.com/low-carb/for...

- Helping Patients Adopt to Low Carb: dietdoctor.com/low-carb/for...

- Videos for Doctors: dietdoctor.com/low-carb/for...

[bigleg]

Totally agree Still Concerned, but thanks to Dr Unwin, Public Health Collaboration (PHC) founders and ambassadors we are able to demonstrate that PHE Eatwell Guide does not meet the NICE Diabetes Dietary Guidelines. I would suggest that if doctors do not keep up with the evidence, they could lay themselves open to serious questions?

As an attendee at the PHC 2017 Conference, I regularly use Dr Joanne McCormacks words in her presentation in my efforts to educate. Hopefully this link will take you directly to that discussion to pass onto GPs and other medical professionals: youtube.com/watch?v=meo7m2a...(Not working as expected?)

If it does not work for you, these are the references and if you want to find for yourselves put "phc 2017 conference joanne mccormack" into Youtube search engine. If you still do not get Joanne's words, these words summarise her advice on 'followng guidelines':

The GMC Guidance: Domain 1 16b

16. In providing clinical care you must:

b. Provide effective treatments based on the best available evidence

The GMC Guidance: Domain 2 - Safety and Quality

NICE Diabetic Guidelines of 2015 Guidelines.

[cheritorrox]

He's not overweight altho does drink a few beers every day (rarely anything else, including water!) - and being Spanish has bread with everything ... don't think he's got any of the things u mention - but altho he doesn't go mad on sugary things he def doesn't eat enough veg! May know more tomorrow (possibly!)

[cheritorrox]

I posted the NICE approved 'spoonfuls of sugar equivalents' infomatic on Healthy Eating - not much response unfortunately

[bigleg in reply to cheritorrox]

Dissappointing for sure.

[cheritorrox in reply to bigleg]

"Es la vida" .. such is life.....

[Praveen55 in reply to bigleg]

bigleg cheritorrox

No, it is not disappointing at all! It is just that same information has been presented in HE forum on several occasions in the past and therefore members are fully aware of the implications as those have been discussed.

[cheritorrox in reply to Praveen55]

Ah OK thanks for letting me know x