Health

Did you know that a hundred years ago, the low-carb keto diet was used to treat diabetes? When doctors didn’t have any medications for type 2 diabetes, they understood that by changing the diet, you could actually treat and fix diabetes. Keto addresses the core problem of diabetes There was

We’ve come through a paradigm shift – or some people might say we’re still going through it – from where we’ve been taught to worry about fat in food (especially saturated fat and cholesterol) to experts now saying that you should limit sugar in food. Starches get digested into sugar,

“Is keto bad for the heart?” ie. can Keto cause heart disease – another study in the headlines. What do you think? Another paper is out, or I should say an abstract, because an abstract doesn’t really give you the whole paper to be able to comment on. It was

Do people eat fewer calories on a low-carb keto diet? Do calories matter? There’s a lot of confusion about calories and carbs and if you count carbs, do you have to count calories and if you count calories, do you have to count carbs?! It becomes pretty overwhelmingly complex when

Do you need to focus on macro and micronutrients? The easy answer is if you’ve been taught how to keto by me, then, no. You don’t need to focus on macro or micronutrients. But if you’ve been taught by someone else or using apps or someone with a mistaken notion

I am an author of a recent paper that came out, called The carbohydrate-insulin model: A physiological perspective on the obesity pandemic. The authors include Will Yancey and myself here at Duke, David Ludwig at Harvard, and others. It is a paper that brings together two paradigms – the old

You often hear folks advocate for things like ‘organic’, ‘grass-fed’, or ‘pasture-raised’ food. What are your thoughts on all of this? I think there’s a phenomenon where the idea of having humane ways to raise animals and even ways to help with climate change gets mixed up with health. I

Most people believe that the only way our bodies have access to nutrition is through the food we eat. This is not entirely true. Our bodies have access to our own body fat under certain conditions, right?. Yes. It’s important to remember that our body fat really is just a

What is keto cycling or cyclical keto? Cycling is the idea of going in and out or up and down on something. Keto means fat burning and not being keto means you’re eating carbohydrates, so you’re burning carbohydrates. You can actually choose what sort of fuel your body uses by

Once a doctor prescribes type 2 medications, will these fix the problem? Actually, no! The language even in commercials for diabetes medicine tells you that this is the way to “manage” your type 2 diabetes, but it doesn’t fix it or reverse it. Most people with type 2 diabetes can

What is visceral fat and how is it different from subcutaneous fat? I don’t have a whole lot of people coming to me asking what visceral fat is, but it’s important to understand the difference between visceral fat and other kinds of fat, especially as these more unusual sorts of

We’ve heard you speak about the many benefits of a keto diet for conditions like type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and metabolic syndrome. What are some of the other medical conditions that a keto diet might be helpful for? Those are the most common things people know that a low-carb, high-fat,

When you search the internet for a keto diet, apple cider vinegar comes up every time. Why is this? I’ve been researching and using a low-carb keto diet for medical reasons in a clinical setting as a lifestyle treatment for reversing diabetes, for obesity, and for high blood pressure. I

It’s no secret that keto or low-carb is very popular right now. There’s also never been a time where so much information is so freely available. Unfortunately, this has also led to massive confusion. I’ve been in this world in research and in the clinic at Duke University now for

Skin tags are non-cancerous growths on the skin. It has been said that high insulin or insulin resistance in the body may be the culprit. What say you, Dr. Westman? That’s right. You might wonder why we talk about skin tags. Well, they can be bothersome and worrisome. They are

Can you tell us a little bit about the mental changes that need to be adopted ahead of time to set yourself up for success regarding long-term health? When you’re starting a lifestyle change, especially one including food, there are a lot of things that come into play. There’s almost

It’s very important to have a strong immune system, would you agree with that? Yes. I think it’s common sense if we’re dealing with an infectious disease that you need to fight with an immune system. You have to understand that we actually have ‘soldiers’ and ‘armies’ in our bodies

Help us define what your interpretation of what fasting actually is. It’s important to know that there are a lot of different definitions of fasting. You ask one expert, you’ll hear one definition; you ask another expert, you’ll hear another definition. Scientifically, “fasting” means you’re burning fat or you’re in

Hypertension is another name for high blood pressure. It affects around 45% of the American population. What do you think of that? It’s too many! How many people that come to see you have high blood pressure? It’s so common these days. I’m an internal medicine specialist by training, and

Acid reflux, heartburn, or ‘GERD’ (gastroesophageal reflux disease) is a very common condition that you see in your clinic. It affects about 20% of the population in the United States. Can you explain what acid reflux is? Sure. It goes by many different names – heartburn, GERD, which stands for