The Metabolic Reckoning: How Medicine Rediscovered Carbohydrate Restriction

In 2012, telling a heart patient to cut carbohydrates could still get you labeled a heretic. Fat was the villain. Carbohydrates were the gospel. Medicine spoke in percentages and pyramids, not physiology. Calories were our currency, and balance was our creed. But the numbers on my desk told a different story.Triglycerides were falling, waistlines shrinking, … Read more

Sugar In and Sugar Out: The Modern Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes

A few days ago the results of a potentially game-changing trial on the treatment of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease (EMPA-REG OUTCOME trial) were presented at an international diabetes conference in Stockholm, Sweden and simultaneously published in the New England Journal of Medicine (1). For the first time, a study has found that a drug that … Read more

HbA1c and Diabetes – Glycated Hemoglobin (A1c) Explained

Diabetes and its complications remain a major cause of early disease and death worldwide. The diagnosis of diabetes is to a large extent based on detecting elevated levels of sugar (glucose) in the blood. Blood sugar levels can easily be measured at home with a glucometer. Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) is another laboratory measure frequently used for this … Read more