metabolic health Archives - Cynthia Thurlow

Ep. 250 Denver’s Diet Doctor: Metabolic Health, Toxic Food Environment, & Therapeutic Fasting

January 31, 2023January 21, 2023 by Cynthia Thurlow

I have the honor of connecting with Dr. Jeffry Gerber today! He is a board-certified family physician, speaker, author, conference organizer, husband, father, and owner of a medical practice in Colorado, where he is known as “Denver’s Diet Doctor”. He is very savvy regarding low-carb, high-fat, ancestral health, paleo, primal, intermittent fasting, and whole foods. He gets frustrated with spiraling healthcare costs related to treating conditions like obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and others.
Dr. Gerber has been a doctor since 1990. Even though many of his family members were overweight, he knew very little about nutrition for the first ten years and struggled with his patients not having any results. He has always been an independent thinker. So when some of his patients told him they intended to try non-standard diets, like the Atkins or the Suzanne Somers Diet, he supported them. Then he saw that they lost weight, and their metabolic markers improved.
In this episode, he and I dive into his background, how he became interested in looking at metabolic health, the impact of our modern-day lifestyles, and the toxic food environment. We speak about deprivation versus mindfulness, common challenges in the current medical system, the role of mitochondria in longevity, and the impact of altitude on our metabolism, carbohydrates, and other macros. We also discuss perimenopause, menopause, andropause, weight loss resistance, the differences between insulin sensitivity and insulin resistance, therapeutic fasting, deep prescribing, and assessing cardiovascular risk. Stay tuned for more!

Ep. 248 Eat Smarter: The Impact of Ultra-Processed Foods on Your Gut, Brain and Metabolic Health with Shawn Stevenson

January 21, 2023January 7, 2023 by christyhaussler@gmail.com

I am delighted to connect with Shawn Stevenson for the first show of 2023! Shawn is the host of the prolific Model Health Show. He is also a Nutritional Scientist, an author, and a father.

Shawn was a top-tier athlete when he was in high school. At fifteen, his hip broke while running a 200-meter time trial. He had some standard of care, but nobody ever asked how an apparently healthy kid broke his hip while running. Two years later, he went to college. Soon after that, he got diagnosed with degenerative disc disease.

In this episode, we get into how his background influenced his career path. We discuss fast food economies, ultra-processed food, the impact of subsidized food on our health, the gut microbiome, and the danger of seed oils. We dive into metabolic switching, the vagus nerve, and how it impacts food absorption and leaky gut. We talk about brain health and how the brain gets influenced by the food we eat, the interrelationship between the brain and metabolic health, insulin sensitivity, and the impact of inflammation on the brain. We also speak about the importance of hydration and electrolytes, and more.

Ep. 239 Brain Energy: A New Way to Look at Mental and Metabolic Health with Dr. Chris Palmer

November 21, 2022November 19, 2022 by Cynthia Thurlow

I am honored to connect with Dr. Chris Palmer today! He is a psychiatrist and researcher working at the interface of metabolism and mental health.

Mental illness can devastate lives! Some members of Dr. Palmer’s family struggled with serious mental health issues, and his mother’s experience with the mental health system impacted him deeply. He found the system incompetent and ineffective, and many mental health clinicians were distant, aloof, and snobbish.

In this episode, he shares his background and explains how a patient changed his career trajectory in 2016. We dive into the connection between mental disorders and metabolic disease, the traditional focus of psychiatry, the value of low-carb and ketogenic diets, the role of mitochondria, and mitochondrial dysfunction. We also get into intergenerational transmission of trauma and the importance of sleep, and Dr. Palmer discusses his new definition of mental health.
Looking at mental health through a metabolic health lens makes so much sense! I believe that Dr. Palmer’s new book will be an incredible resource for clinicians, their patients, and their patient’s families.

Tune in to hear what he says about the link between metabolic disorders and mental health issues.

Ep. 179 – Shocking Facts About Metabolic Health: How to Lower Your Risk of Chronic Illness with Dr. Philip C. Ovadia

November 20, 2021 by Cynthia Thurlow Team

Today, I am delighted and honored to be talking to Dr. Philip C. Ovadia. He is a board-certified Cardiac Thoracic Surgeon and Founder of Ovadia Heart Health. His mission is to help people stay off his operating table by optimizing their metabolic health to lower the risk of heart disease and other chronic illnesses.

In this episode, we take a deep dive into clinical medicine. We explain how it is possible to reverse conditions like high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes and become healthy without taking any medications. Dr. Ovadia defines metabolic health, talks about his journey from being morbidly obese to losing more than 100 pounds, discusses Gary Taubes’s influence on his health journey, and his seven principles for health and wellness. We also get into metabolic health markers, the hyper-palatability of processed food, metabolic syndrome, and the metabolic inflexibility of most Americans.

Dr. Ovadia’s approach to nutrition is all about bio-individuality and having enough protein in your diet to ensure satiety. I really enjoy connecting with other western medicine-trained health care professionals who have pivoted towards optimizing metabolic health and flexibility! Stay tuned for more!

Ep. 175 – Myths About Intermittent Fasting & Ketosis! Moving Towards Better Metabolic Health with Chris Irvin

October 26, 2021October 23, 2021 by Cynthia Thurlow Team

I am delighted to have Chris Irvin joining me today! Chris is a health researcher, writer, and coach. He has his Master’s degree in exercise and nutrition science, where he studied the effects of low carb diets on human performance and therapeutics. Chris is the education manager at Perfect Keto and is the author of Keto Answers.

When finishing his Master’s degree at the University of Tampa four or five years ago, Chris was unsure whether he wanted to pursue a Ph.D. or go out and become an entrepreneur in the exercise and nutrition industry. While doing an internship at the University of Southern Florida, however, he realized that following the Ph.D. route was not for him. He had also started studying keto in grad school, and it frustrated him that all the research information was locked away in journals that were either inaccessible or hard-to-interpret. So he decided to make all the information about the ketogenic diet more accessible to the general population.

In this episode, Chris goes into the history of the ketogenic diet and explains how it evolved. He also talks about carbohydrates, reducing food cravings, and moving towards better metabolic health. Stay tuned for more!

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