Louis (Lou)'s Story

I am a 52-year-old athlete and former collegiate distance runner. As a podiatrist I treat many different foot and ankle problems in my practice. One of the big groups we see are diabetic patients. This is for preventive routine care as well as surgical intervention for ulcer care and sometimes amputations. I witness many complications from diabetes including below the knee amputation, kidney failure, blindness, death from diabetes complications. These are always sad, but the saddest thing is that they are preventable. Also, simply being overweight (high BMI) can lead to many foot and ankle problems, subcutaneous due to nutritional deficits and ignorance.

 I gravitated to ‘nutritional health’ around 2004 when, even with my athletic background, I started suffering from obesity and high cholesterol. I always knew my cholesterol was high (since age 17), but never had considered medication.   In 2004 when I was 37 years old, I considered a vegetarian diet which did help the cholesterol, but then I gravitated back to bad habits and weight gain.

In Nov 2016 I had a cholesterol test and was floored by how high the results of the AIC, cholesterol, and liver enzymes were; this is still with running 35-45 miles a week and being 5’-9.5” tall and weighing only 147 pounds.  So, really, I had not controlled my cholesterol and blood pressure probably since teen years up until 46-48 years old.  Clearly, I needed a new and best approach to eating and lifestyle.

I had started reading Eat to live in 2015. Did many of the recipes and the supplements, but also continued alcohol, cheese, some meats. But then in j2016 I realized I was not controlling my cholesterol like I should, and could. I also started to listen to many Dr. Fuhrman lectures, and passed them on to medical colleagues. I knew I had to change and I just started to realize that after all my training and research, Dr. Fuhrman made the most sense.

  At this time, it is powerful to think how influential the Nutritarian lifestyle has been for me. In 3 months on the diet my-A1c went down from 5.4 to 4.9; -total cholesterol went from 227 to 159, LDL dropped (68).  It’s been -2 years now, and I am running more, increasing mileage, recovery seems faster, also doing weightlifting. Even with an increase in nuts seeds and avocados, my NMR and small particle cholesterol went down. My-BMI was already 21.5, but the Nutritarian lifestyle solved my cholesterol and blood pressure problems.

I have been able to be an example to my patients, and to pass on this great information to help many people.  Even as the podiatrist and surgeon, my internal medicine colleagues are impressed with what I have been able to do with our patients and their medical issues!

My patients hold me accountable to be the example of a doctor who understands and demands that nutrition be the forefront to their treatment plan, their lifestyle. “If my doctor does it, it must be important” is how many of my patients see it now, after two years.

I have also incorporated fasting and this has been great.  I believe being in the catabolic stage of the digestive cycle for longer periods of time than I had been doing has been important. I feel better and it makes cravings and time between eating very tolerable.

So, I am a doctor who believes in the Nutritarian lifestyle and also, I am a patient who would be quite lost without it.  It took a little bit of time for me to accept it, but once it clicked, and then once I started it, I knew there was no turning back!