Speaker Schedule – Boca 2023

This schedule is subject to change.

* indicates that the session is eligible for CME credits.

Thursday, January 12

2:00 pm - 5:00 pm: Bonus Clinical Workshop on Food Addiction

5:00 pm - 7:00 pm: Early Registration

Day 1 - Friday, January 13

8:00 am

Registration / Expo

9:00 am

Doug Reynolds, MHP

Doug Reynolds is the Founder and CEO of LowCarbUSA®.  The original organization was founded in the beginning of 2016 with the initial  intention of providing  a platform, through an annual conference, for internationally renowned scientists and medical practitioners to present the ever-increasing body of evidence on the benefits of reducing carbohydrates in the diet (and adding in healthy fats).  He felt that education about the power of the low carb/ketogenic diet for the individual who may not get the information from their medical team or from mainstream nutrition advice, and for practitioners who may then be able to prescribe it in their practice was critical.

However, his mission quickly evolved when he realized how important this was to the medical professional community.  Valuable tools are needed, not only to provide hope to their patients to reverse and prevent disease, but restore hope to that very practitioner. This is why they went to medical school and got professional training, to help people heal and not just put Band-Aids on and never address the root cause of the problem.  Too many practitioners are being taught that the many chronic diseases our communities are facing are just chronic and processive.  With effective tools and supportive information, complications can be stopped in their tracks and further complications reduced and the disease process may even be reversed.

The tools and resources Low Carb USA has been providing,  not only includes the live conferences, but also  includes a huge library of educational videos, a growing database of practitioners, and nutritionists and sports trainers who are open to  the carb restriction conversation as well as a searchable database for papers and articles covering the research into the evidence supporting this lifestyle.

Most importantly, though, he has coordinated the establishment of a panel of advisors to oversee the creation and maintenance of a set of 'Clinical Guidelines for Therapeutic Carbohydrate Restriction' which was first published in May, 2019.

He has worked tirelessly over this period during the COVID-19 outbreak and lockdown to now establish a nonprofit, the Society of Metabolic Health Practitioners for which he now serves as the President.  This organization will house most of the above body of work as education and training of Metabolic Health Practitioners and the entire community interested in making a difference in worldwide metabolic health.  The aim is to stall and reverse the increasing prevalence of noncommunicable, lifestyle related diseases, influenced by metabolic dysfunction and insulin resistance.  Accreditation pathways have even been established for practitioners within this society to introduce credibility to the practice of therapeutic carbohydrate restriction and to help establish alternative Standard of Care for those whose metabolisms are different because they don’t eat excessive carbohydrates.

Doug Reynolds, MHP

Opening Remarks

9:30 am

Joan Ifland, PhD, MBA

Dr. Ifland has been creating breakthroughs in recovery from food addiction from 1999 with the publication of her first popular book to 2018 with the publication of her textbook, Processed Food Addiction: Foundations, Assessment, and Recovery (CRC Press).  The textbook is the first academic publication describing how to diagnose and treat processed food addiction, as well as establishing the scientific basis for the disease.

Her current project is a breakthrough in recovery: the online Addiction Reset Community (ARC) founded in 2018 (patent pending). It is based on findings that processed food addiction can be severe.  This finding shifted the field to more comprehensive abstinence and support protocols that also resolve isolation and mobility issues.

Dr. Ifland has created numerous innovative online resources for food addicts including The Facebook Groups, ‘Food Addiction Education and Food Addiction Education – The Food (2014). The website, Food Addiction Resources, www.foodaddictionresources.com, provides free evidence-based handouts (2104).  The website, Food Addiction Books, www.foodaddictionbooks.com guides food addicts away from misguided deceptive literature to books with solid scientific foundations (2015). She founded the first online training in food addiction to make recovery easier in small, online groups, Food Addiction Reset, www.foodaddictionreset.com( 2016). The Home Addiction Reset Program (HARP) is the first home-based online live video program to support people through the acute phase of withdrawal from processed foods (2018). She wrote the popular book, Dr. Ifland’s Meal Prep Manual, which is a breakthrough system to easily manage meals for recovery from food addiction (2018).

Dr. Ifland is the lead author of the first scholarly description of processed food addiction according to classic addiction diagnostic criteria and the first scholarly definition of addictive versus non-addictive foods, Refined Food Addiction: A Classic Substance Use Disorder (2007) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19223127.

Dr. Ifland earned her PhD in addictive nutrition at Union Institute and University (2010). Her MBA was awarded by Stanford Business School(1978) and her BA in Economics and Political Science by Oberlin College (1974). Her early career was spent understanding corporate and government behaviors with two years as fiscal staff for the Joint Finance Committee of the Wisconsin Legislature (1974-76) and five years as corporate finance staff for a Fortune 200 holding company, the Continental Group (1978-1983)

She currently resides in the Seattle area where she enjoys hiking, swimming, women’s business groups, and the arts.

Joan Ifland, PhD, MBA, CEO

Food Addiction Reset, LLC

713 446 3663

[email protected]

www.drjoanifland.com

Joan Ifland, PhD, MBA

New Research and Best Practices in Treating Processed Food Addiction*

10:00 am

Tro Kalayjian, DO

My name is Tro Kalayjian, I am a board-certified physician in both Internal Medicine and Obesity Medicine, I lost 150lbs to reclaim my health for myself and my family. I did it by ignoring much of the conventional medical advice that we have been told.  My life's goal is to get my patient's healthy, prevent disease. and get them OFF of their medications.  I completed medical school at TouroCOM in New York. I completed my internal medicine residency and chief residency within the Yale system at Greenwich Hospital. I have been practicing medicine for 8 years, the last 3 have been in private practice. My practice focuses on tracking patients seamlessly and remotely with smart-devices, including scales, blood pressure cuffs, wearable technology and continuous glucose monitors. My practices focuses on de-prescribing medications and using lifestyle, diet and exercise to improve the course of disease. 

My personal weight loss story begins at childhood. I grew up obese, in an obese family. I have personally dealt with the deep emotions and feelings involved with being overweight for most of my life. I have dealt with the same issues that many of my patients face, which affords me the capacity to empathize with them and guide them in a special way. This connection is why my patients are successful in their wellness journey, because I am not preaching from some Ivory Tower. I lived through what my patients live through, and I have experienced what they are experiencing. In order to heal myself, I studied for countless hours through medical literature, researched thousands of papers, read hundreds of books in order to find the answer, for myself, to the ever important question: Why are we fat?

And what I found during my journey and research was in such stark contrast to what we have been told. Eating multiple small meals DOES NOT speed up your metabolism. Fruit Juices ARE NOT healthy. Red Meat, Fish & Full-Fat Yogurt ARE healthy. If most physicians and nutritionists can't get it right, why do we expect anything different from our patients? Are we surprised that obesity epidemic has exploded? What patients may not realize is that most physicians DO NOT have sufficient training in nutrition and can't help you lose weight or reverse disease. Furthermore the food industry and special interests have made it so hard to understand what a healthy lifestyle really is.

Ultimately, I find I am best able to serve my patients because I understand what it is like, I have been through it, and I help my patients every step of the way.  I succeed when they succeed.

Tro Kalayjian, DO

The Clinical Approach to Food Addiction*

10:30 am

Robert Cywes, MD, PhD

Dr. Cywes is Dual Board Certified in General Surgery and in Pediatric Surgery. He specializes in Pediatric and Adult obesity, diabetes and metabolic management including bariatric surgery.  His focus is on helping people understand and treat the true cause of obesity and diabetes.  He has been doing bariatric surgery for 19 years and has performed around 7000 surgeries.  Despite this, Dr Cywes firmly believes that obesity and diabetes are not treated by surgery, however, surgery may be a invaluable tool along the journey of becoming carbohydrate-free.

His medical training began in Cape Town, South Africa where he received his medical degree from The University of Cape Town training with Prof Tim Noakes amongst others. In 1989, Dr. Cywes moved to North America and completed a year-long residency in pediatric surgery at Ohio State University's Columbus Children's Hospital before moving to Canada where he completed his general surgery residency and specialized in minimally invasive surgery at the University of Toronto.  Dr. Cywes also earned a PhD in liver transplant immunology and the effect of glucose metabolism on vascular endothelium injury, working with Dr David Jenkins, the father of the Glycemic Index.

After completing his paediatric surgery fellowship at the University of Michigan's C.S. Mott Children's Hospital, Dr. Cywes was appointed as an Assistant Professor of Paediatric and Fetal Surgery at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee where he did hepatic stem cell research.  During this time, Dr. Cywes became increasingly interested in adolescent obesity and the impact of carbohydrates on the liver and metabolic syndrome in young patients. Dr. Cywes’ research led to a comprehensive understanding of the toxicity of chronic excessive carbohydrate consumption as the primary cause of obesity and so-called obesity-related co-morbidities. In the late 1990s Dr Cywes understood that the prevailing treatment of obesity using a Calories in, Calories out (CICO) model was erroneous, and he developed the Carbohydrate Insulin Model of Obesity and Diabetes (CIMOD). Using this model in combination with his understanding of the psychology of addiction, he developed a clinical program to treat obese adolescents using this approach. Dr. Cywes relocated to Jacksonville, Florida where he joined the Department of Pediatric Surgery at the Nemours Children's Clinic and Wolfson Children's Hospital. This led to a national meeting in Jacksonville where guidelines for adolescent obesity surgery were established.

In 2004, Dr. Cywes established Jacksonville Surgical Associates to continue his work in both adolescent and adult obesity treatment and surgery, and in 2013 opened a practice in West Palm Beach, Florida.  He now works with a highly experienced team of professionals from a variety of medical sub-specialties to better care for obese patients.  He has developed the practice into a nationally recognized Center of Excellence for obesity surgery. The practice uses a cognitive behavioral therapy approach that addresses carbohydrate addiction, along with bariatric surgery, to help patients manage the cause of their obesity long term. Based on his extensive clinical research and observations, Dr. Cywes lectures internationally regarding the physiological impact of carbohydrate consumption as the primary cause of the current Chronic Non-Communicable Disease (CNCDs) epidemic.  He also lectures on the behavioral aspects of carbohydrate addiction as the cause of obesity and obesity-related co-morbidities and the use of substance abuse methodology, rather than a diet and exercise approach, to the effective long term treatment of obesity.

Dr. Cywes is a member of ASMBS (American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery) and is a member of the ASMBS Childhood Obesity Committee. He is also a member of APSA (American Pediatric Surgery Association). He has earned a Centers of Excellence designation by the Surgical Review Corporation. Dr. Cywes trains other surgeons to perform bariatric surgery as well as developing an aftercare model to help patients maintain weight loss.

Dr. Cywes and his team are active in obesity research, including an ongoing Adolescent Bariatric Surgery trial. He has become one of the foremost authorities in the treatment and management of obesity in adolescents. He recently co-authored a book, Diabetes Unpacked outlining an effective approach to understanding and treating diabetes into remission. Dr. Cywes' vast experience in pediatric and general surgery serves him well in using bariatric surgery to treat obesity in both adults and children.

Dr Cywes maintains an active clinical practice in Palm Beach Gardens and in Jacksonville as well as being active on conveying the CIMOD message on social media and through his websites – Obesityunderstood.com and diabetesunderstood.com.

Robert Cywes, MD, PhD

Understanding the Root Cause of Carb Addiction*

11:00 am

1st Addiction Panel

Joan Ifland, Tro Kalayjian, Robert Cywes*

11:45 pm

Lunch / Expo /

1:00 pm

James Greenblatt, MD

A pioneer in the field of functional and integrative medicine, board-certified child and adult psychiatrist, James M. Greenblatt, MD, has treated patients since 1988. After receiving his medical degree and completing his psychiatry residency at George Washington University, Dr. Greenblatt completed a fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Medical School. He currently serves as the Chief Medical Officer at Walden Behavioral Care in Dedham, MA.

Dr. Greenblatt has lectured internationally on the scientific evidence for nutritional interventions in psychiatry and mental illness. Dr. Greenblatt has also specialized in the treatment of eating disorders and food addiction for 25 years. He is the author of seven books, including Integrative Medicine for Binge Eating and Functional & Integrative Medicine for Antidepressant Withdrawal.

Dr. Greenblatt is the founder of Psychiatry Redefined, an educational platform dedicated to the transformation of psychiatry, which offers online courses, webinars, and fellowships for professionals. Please visit www.PsychiatryRedefined.org and www.JamesGreenblattMD.com for more information.

James Greenblatt, MD

A Functional & Integrative Medicine Model for Binge Eating Disorder: Opiate Effects of Dietary Exorphins*

1:30 pm

Nicole Avena, PhD

Dr. Nicole Avena is a research psychologist and neuroscientist who is an expert in the fields of nutrition, diet and addiction. She received a Ph.D. in Psychology and Neuroscience from Princeton University in 2006, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at Rockefeller University. Dr. Avena presently holds a faculty position at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. She has published over 70 scholarly journal articles on topics related to diet, nutrition and overeating. Her research achievements have been honored by awards from groups including the NY Academy of Sciences, the American Psychological Association, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Dr. Avena’s new book, What to Eat When You’re Pregnant, provide a comprehensive guide for women on what nutrients are key during pregnancy, and what foods you can eat to obtain them, to ensure healthy weight gain for you and healthy development for your baby.

Dr. Avena’s other book, Why Diets Fail (2014, Ten Speed Press) reviews the research on food addiction and provides a way in which people can remove added sugars and carbohydrates from their diet. Dr. Avena regularly makes public speaking appearances to discuss her research and discoveries throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. She is regularly asked to speak to special-interest groups, industry groups, and schools. She has appeared on several television news programs, as well as daytime TV shows including The Doctors and The Dr. Oz Show. Dr. Avena’s work has also been featured in many popular print forums, including Shape, Women’s Health, NY Times, Bloomberg Business Week, and Men’s Health. She lives in NJ and is also a mom to two girls, wife, and native of New Jersey.

Dr. Avena has a blog on Psychology Today, and you can also follow her on Twitter or Facebook.

Nicole Avena, PhD

Are We All Addicted to Sugar?*

2:00 pm

Vera Tarman, MD

Dr. Vera Tarman is the Medical Director of one of Canada’s largest treatment centres for substance abuse. She is a world renown food addition expert, who writes, speaks and treats people who suffer from food (sugar and flour) addiction. She is the author of Food Junkies: Recovery from Food Addiction, which is now in its second edition. She is also cohost of the successful  Junkies Podcast, along wth Molly Painschab and Clarissa Kennedy.  You can also find her at her free facebook group “I’m Sweet Enough: Sugar-Free for Life”.

Vera is a recovering food addict herself, and has lost and maintained a 100 pound weight loss for over twelve years. She has not had any sugar or flour or grains for over seven years. 

Vera Tarman, MD

Clinical Variations of Food Addiction: A Chronic Progress Condition, from Sugar Addiction to Food Addiction*

2:30 pm

2nd Addiction Panel

James Greenblatt, Vera Tarman, Nicole Avena*

3:15 pm

Break

3:30 pm

Dr Jen Unwin. BSc, MSc, DPsy, C Psychol, FBPsS

Consultant Clinical Health Psychologist.
Past Chair UK Association for Solution Focused Practice.  Winner of the British Psychological Society Karen Ehlert Lifetime achievement award in clinical health psychology.

Dr Jen Unwin has spent her professional life interested in the role of hope in chronic disease and how it can be used to bring about behaviour change(1). Her insights teamed up perfectly with Dr David Unwin’s interests in bringing about drug-free type 2 diabetes remission. For six years they have been running group sessions in primary care to achieve just that, so far for 71 patients. This combination has also worked on-line, 450,000 people have done the low carb program they helped Diabetes.co.uk design. Both doctors were featured in a BBC TV documentary ‘The truth about carbs’ that was seen by 3.7 million viewers.    

(1) A simple model to find patient hope for positive lifestyle changes: GRIN.Unwin D,Unwin J.Journal of holistic healthcare Volume 16 Issue 2 Summer 2019. Journal of holistic healthcare ● Volume 16 Issue 2 Summer 2019. 2019.

Jen Unwin. BSc, MSc, DPsy, C Psychol, FBPsS

Does a low carbohydrate real food plan with support improve food addiction symptoms?*

4:00 pm

Annette Bosworth, MD (Dr. Boz)

Stop Swelling Your Brain - The First Four Steps to Healing a Brain from Addiction*

4:30 pm

Dr David Unwin FRCGP

Dr Unwin works at the Norwood NHS Surgery in Southport near Liverpool, UK where he has cared for the same population since 1986 as a family doctor. To date 82/166 of his patients with T2 diabetes have achieved drug-free remission. This gives a remission rate of 49% at 30 months duration of a lower carb diet, one of the best results for any clinic in the world.

For the past few years he has been a UK Royal College of General Practitioners expert clinical advisor on diabetes.  As a result of his interests in both better communication with patients and Type 2 diabetes he was made Royal College of General Practice National Champion for Collaborative Care and Support Planning in Obesity & Diabetes in 2015.

In 2016 he was the proud UK National winner of the NHS Innovator Of The Year Award for published research into lifestyle changes; working with patients’ personal health goals as an alternative to drug therapy in type 2 diabetes –so that his GP practice spends £50,000 per year less than expected on drugs for diabetes..  As part of this he has also published research into improving blood pressure, lipid profiles and liver function by reducing dietary carbohydrate, especially sugar(1-7). In 2019 he was shortlisted by NICE for a prize for his teaspoon of sugar infographics which have now been translated into six languages.

 Dr Unwin’s work has been covered by both BBC, C4 & C5 television, The New Scientist, The Times, The Daily Mail  and The British Medical Journal. Further recognition came recently when David was invited to become an ambassador for the UK All Party Parliamentary Group on diabetes. As @lowcarbGP he has over 50,000 followers on Twitter

  1. Unwin D, Unwin J. Low carbohydrate diet to achieve weight loss and improve HbA1c in type 2 diabetes and pre-diabetes: experience from one general practice. Practical Diabetes. 2014;31(2):76-9. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/pdi.1835
  2. David Unwin DH, Geoffrey Livesey,. It is the glycaemic response to, not the carbohydrate content of food that maters in diabetes and obesity: The glycaemic index revisited. Journal of Insulin Resistance 2016;1(1), a8.(https://insulinresistance.org/index.php/jir/article/view/8/11).
  3. Unwin D, Tobin S. A patient request for some "deprescribing". BMJ. 2015;351:h4023. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26239952
  4. Murdoch C, Unwin D, Cavan D, Cucuzzella M, Patel M. Adapting diabetes medication for low carbohydrate management of type 2 diabetes: a practical guide. Br J Gen Pract. 2019;69(684):360-1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31249097
  5. Saslow LR, Summers C, Aikens JE, Unwin DJ. Outcomes of a Digitally Delivered Low-Carbohydrate Type 2 Diabetes Self-Management Program: 1-Year Results of a Single-Arm Longitudinal Study. JMIR Diabetes. 2018;3(3):e12. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30291081
  6. Unwin DJ, Tobin SD, Murray SW, Delon C, Brady AJ. Substantial and Sustained Improvements in Blood Pressure, Weight and Lipid Profiles from a Carbohydrate Restricted Diet: An Observational Study of Insulin Resistant Patients in Primary Care. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2019;16(15):2680. https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/15/2680
  7. Kelly T, Unwin D, Finucane F. Low-Carbohydrate Diets in the Management of Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes: A Review from Clinicians using the Approach in Practice. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2020;17(7):2557. https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/7/2557
David Unwin, FRCGP

Food addiction: A practical approach*

5:00 pm

3rd Addiction Panel

Jen Unwin, Annette Bosworth, David Unwin*

6:00 pm

Low Carb Wine Tasting / Expo / Breakout: 

7:30 pm

Low Carb Dinner (Included in your ticket)

Day 2 - Saturday, January 14

7:30 am

Expo

8:00 am

Vincent (Ben) Bocchicchio, PhD

Dr. Ben has been at the forefront of health and wellness for nearly 50 years.  As a clinician in the fields of fitness and health he has initiated and promoted behavioral interventions that have proven to be effective in the treatment and management of the degenerative diseases that plague our public health.

Dr. Ben’s philosophy states that on the continuum of illness to wellness, our collective health plans should attempt to drive the needle towards wellness and away from illness through scientifically sound and safe applications of behavioural endeavors.

Dr. Ben has applied his extensive, recognized background and experience in diet and exercise as the basis of his intervention protocol.  Initially (1974), he introduced slow resistance training to the exercise world in a successful attempt to provide safe, high intensity exercise to all populations. 

He was the first practitioner to include resistance training to phase II cardiac rehabilitation in 1982.  It is now accepted, standard protocol.  He pioneered high intensity exercise for high endurance athletes in the mid 1980’s.  Lastly, he introduced high intensity exercise for weight loss and management programs including the Opti Fast protocol used by the first popular bariatric physicians (Opti Fit).

Furthermore, Dr. Ben has exposed the paucity of legitimate science supporting conventional medical and governmental practices in treating and managing the aforementioned health dilemmas.  He contends that a singularly pharmaceutical oriented solution as currently applied has failed individually and on an international basis.

Dr. Ben provides a simple history of the escalation of degenerative diseases (diabetes, obesity, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, arthritis, cancer etc.) that correlates, at an inordinate level, with behavioral changes in physical activity and dietary preferences.  

Lastly, Dr. Ben offers a simple, sound and scientifically based plan that incorporates a universally applicable system that directly addresses the alarming, current state of public health.  Topics included are:  Diet, exercise, disease treatment and management options and cost analyses of these.

Dr. Ben Bocchicchio has published more than 200 articles and study reports in the fields of Fitness, Health and Exercise.  His work includes his acclaimed book “15 Minutes to Fitness” and the sale of more than 300,000 SMaRT DVD’s in 31 countries.  He is continuing work as an investigator and consultant to Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, ASU and a number of academic and corporate health institutions.   

Ben Bocchicchio, PhD, MHP (Dr. Ben)

Anti-Aging: The Ultimate Health Plan*

9:30 am

Nina Teicholz

Nina Teicholz is an investigative journalist and author of the International (and New York Times) bestseller, The Big Fat Surprise (Simon & Schuster). The Economist named it #1 science book of 2014, and it was also named a 2014 *Best Book* by the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Mother Jones, and Library Journal. The Big Fat Surprise has upended the conventional wisdom on dietary fat and challenged the very core of our nutrition policy. A review of the book in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition said, “This book should be read by every nutritional science professional.” 

A former editor of the British Medical Journal said, “Teicholz has done a remarkable job in analysing [the] weak science, strong personalities, vested interests, and political expediency” of nutrition science. Before taking a deep dive into researching nutrition science for nearly a decade, Teicholz was a reporter for National Public Radio and also contributed to many publications, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, The New Yorker, and The Economist. She attended Yale and Stanford where she studied biology and majored in American Studies. She has a master’s degree from Oxford University and served as associate director of the Center for Globalization and Sustainable Development at Columbia University.  She lives in New York city..

Nina Teicholz

Saturated fats vs. vegetable oils: Where does the science stand?*

11:00 am

Ben Bikman, PhD

Benjamin Bikman earned his Ph.D. in Bioenergetics and was a postdoctoral
fellow with the Duke-National University of Singapore in metabolic disorders.
Currently, his professional focus as a scientist and professor (Brigham Young
University) is to better understand the role of elevated insulin and nutrient
metabolism in regulating obesity, diabetes, and dementia.

Ben Bikman, PhD

The myths and misunderstandings of physiological insulin resistance*

12:15 pm

Lunch / Expo / Breakout:  Interdependence - the power of connectivity in changing paradigms

1:45 pm

Mark Cucuzzella, MD, FAAFP 


Mark Cucuzzella, is a Professor at West Virginia University School of Medicine. He is also a LtCol in the US Air Force designing programs to promote health and better fitness in the military with the USAF Efficient Running Project. (available on iphone format here) In military and civilian community he has been a tireless promoter of healthy movement, nutritional interventions in patients with any spectrum of the metabolic syndrome, and injury free training for running.

He was a lead writer of one of the first grants supporting education of Medical Students in nutrition and physical activity in Medical School.  Mark is also the lead on a large USDA grant to double SNAP benefits at Farmers Markets- the goal is reducing food insecurity as a barrier to healthier eating.

He’s also been a competitive runner for over 30 years — with more than 100 marathon and ultramarathon finishes — and continues to compete as a national-level Masters runner. He has won the Air Force Marathon twice. He is the race director of Freedom’s Run race series in West Virginia and director of the Natural Running Center, an education portal designed to teach healthier running . Mark is also the owner of Two Rivers Treads — A Center for Natural Running and Walking in his hometown of Shepherdstown, W.Va.  Mark’s vision of a future of health is housed in his site www.drmarksdesk.com

Mark’s innovative work and story has been featured in the New York Times, NPR, Outside Magazine, Running Times, Runners World, Air Force Times, the Washington Post, JAMA, Blue Ridge Outdoors, and other medical and media outlets.  

Mark Cucuzzella MD FAAFP
Professor West Virginia University School of Medicine

DrMarksDesk.com 

store/race HQ 304-876-1100
mobile 304-268-8813
[email protected]

 

Mark Cucuzzella, MD, FAAFP 

The Magic of Zone 2 training to Improve your Health and Your Life*

3:15 pm

Gurpreet Singh Padda, MD, MBA

Dr. Padda is a Medical Physician, Board Certified in Anesthesiology, Addiction and Interventional Pain.  For over 20 years he has practiced in the Urban Core, helping his patients regain their metabolic health.

Pain is the final pathway, the body screaming that something has gone terribly wrong.  Dr. Padda treats clinically patients at the intersection of the pain epidemic, opioid epidemic, and the diabetes epidemic.  They are all inter-related pathologies, the clinical manifestations of systemic metainflammation. 

I spend most of my clinical hours dealing with chronic degenerative diseases that are primarily driven by Metabolic Syndrome leading to Metainflammation.  Metabolic Syndrome is a form of malnutrition, a malnutrition of excessive energy consumption and toxicity from:
     Acellular Carbohydrates
     Synthetic Vegetable Oil consumption

This malnutrition of excess is aggravated by leaky gut from plant based chemical defenses. 

The Standard American Diet has become calorically dense, but diluted of protein, minerals, and micronutrients.  

Unfortunately, Governmental policy combined with the profit motives of Big-Food and Big-Pharma encourages the consumption of manufactured foods, which may be non-nutritive and promote chronic systemic diseases.  This disparity of synthesized food (which contains low nutritional value but high caloric load) leads to caloric over consumption, energy toxicity and eventual diabesity.

Addiction behavior is manipulated by dopaminergic modulation by food manufacturers and gamification of passive activities, in the context of individual loneliness.  Social media “connectedness” has created a false paradigm of human interaction, leaving individuals in silos of anonymous and self-destructive behavior.

Humans are complex adaptive systems, and systematic failure is rarely a single cause phenomenon.  Our historical disease models of single cause pathology are inadequate for this new synthesized Universe.

Gurpreet Padda, MD, MBA

Metainflammation and the Metaverse*

4:45 pm

Michael Eades, MD

Weight Loss: Calories, Insulin, or a Third Alternative?*

6:00 pm

Low Carb Wine Tasting / Expo / Poster Presentations

7:30 pm

Low Carb Dinner (Included in your ticket)

Day 3 - Sunday, January 15

7:30 am

Expo

8:00 am

Dominic D’Agostino, PhD

Dr. Dominic D’Agostino is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology at the University of South Florida (USF) Morsani College of Medicine and also a Senior Research Scientist at the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC). The primary focus of his laboratory is directed towards understanding the physiological effects of hyperbaric oxygen and developing and testing metabolic-based therapies, including ketogenic diets, ketone supplements and drugs that target specific metabolic pathways.

His research explores the use of these therapies for a broad range of disorders linked pathophysiologically to metabolic dysregulation, including seizures, neurodegenerative diseases, genetic diseases and cancer. D’Agostino’s laboratory uses in vivo and in vitro techniques to understand the physiological, cellular and molecular mechanism of metabolic therapies. His research is supported by the Office of Naval Research (ONR), Department of Defense (DoD), private organizations and foundations.

Dominic D’Agostino, PhD

Metabolic-Based Neuroprotective Strategies*

9:30 am

Michael Hoffman, MD

Brain Failure And The Low Carbohydrate Diet Imperative*

11:00 am

Eric Westman, MD, MHS

Dr. Eric C. Westman is an associate professor of medicine at Duke University Health System and director of the Duke Lifestyle Medicine Clinic. He combines clinical research and clinical care to deliver lifestyle treatments for obesity, diabetes, and tobacco dependence. He is an internationally known researcher specializing in low-carbohydrate nutrition.

Dr. Westman is currently the vice president of the American Society of Bariatric Physicians and a fellow of the Obesity Society and the Society of General Internal Medicine and

Past President of the Obesity Medicine Association and a Fellow. In 2010, He was named the Obesity Medicine Association’s “Bariatrician of the Year'' for his work in advancing the field of obesity medicine as well as the Society. 

He is also a recipient of the Society’s Steelman-Seim Educator Award for advancing the cause of health care through education and teaching. He graduated from Stanford University (A.B.), University of Wisconsin (M.D.), University of Kentucky and Duke University (M.H.S.) is board certified in Internal Medicine and Obesity Medicine and has a Master’s Degree in clinical research, with over 90 peer-reviewed publications to his name. Including this study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, entitled "A Low-Carbohydrate, Ketogenic Diet versus a Low-Fat Diet To Treat Obesity and Hyperlipidemia."

He has dedicated his life to helping people with various medical conditions such as Type 1 & Type 2 Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome, Obesity, Hypertension, and many others through diet and lifestyle choices. He believes that using standard medical protocols often treat the symptom and not the cause. He has spent the past 20+ years doing clinical research and providing care to his patients, with an extremely high success rate, through theoretical and practical experience. 

Over 170 million Americans suffer from obesity, pre-diabetes, and type 2 diabetes. Yet, the clinical research he has conducted at Duke University shows that this American Medical Association-recognized disease can be put into remission – without medications – through a low carbohydrate ketogenic diet alone. 

Dr Westman’s experience is vast, and the results have been astounding… 26,000 pounds lost, 98% of patients affected by Type 2 Diabetes off insulin, 4,000 patients, 28,000 clinical visits

Dr. Westman has co-authored the books Cholesterol Clarity, Keto Clarity and The New Atkins For A New You.

Dr. Westman has told the story a few times at our previous events, about how he ended up writing a letter to Robert Atkins, which led to a meeting at Atkins' clinic. The meeting in turn led Dr Westman to convey that he was a little confused about the low carb diet, and he challenged Dr Atkins a bit, saying he was not convinced.  That in turn led Dr Atkins to challenge him back to find the flaws and prove that it did not work.  But as Dr Westman admits, he could not, and he only proved to himself the profound benefits of therapeutic carbohydrate reduction! He later co-authored a study, which led to another, larger study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, entitled "A Low-Carbohydrate, Ketogenic Diet versus a Low-Fat Diet To Treat Obesity and Hyperlipidemia."

Eric Westman, MD, MHS

An Evidence-based Summary of 20 years of Keto Medicine*

12:15 pm

Lunch / Expo 

1:15 pm

Dr David Unwin FRCGP

Dr Unwin works at the Norwood NHS Surgery in Southport near Liverpool, UK where he has cared for the same population since 1986 as a family doctor. To date 82/166 of his patients with T2 diabetes have achieved drug-free remission. This gives a remission rate of 49% at 30 months duration of a lower carb diet, one of the best results for any clinic in the world.

For the past few years he has been a UK Royal College of General Practitioners expert clinical advisor on diabetes.  As a result of his interests in both better communication with patients and Type 2 diabetes he was made Royal College of General Practice National Champion for Collaborative Care and Support Planning in Obesity & Diabetes in 2015.

In 2016 he was the proud UK National winner of the NHS Innovator Of The Year Award for published research into lifestyle changes; working with patients’ personal health goals as an alternative to drug therapy in type 2 diabetes –so that his GP practice spends £50,000 per year less than expected on drugs for diabetes..  As part of this he has also published research into improving blood pressure, lipid profiles and liver function by reducing dietary carbohydrate, especially sugar(1-7). In 2019 he was shortlisted by NICE for a prize for his teaspoon of sugar infographics which have now been translated into six languages.

 Dr Unwin’s work has been covered by both BBC, C4 & C5 television, The New Scientist, The Times, The Daily Mail  and The British Medical Journal. Further recognition came recently when David was invited to become an ambassador for the UK All Party Parliamentary Group on diabetes. As @lowcarbGP he has over 50,000 followers on Twitter

  1. Unwin D, Unwin J. Low carbohydrate diet to achieve weight loss and improve HbA1c in type 2 diabetes and pre-diabetes: experience from one general practice. Practical Diabetes. 2014;31(2):76-9. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/pdi.1835
  2. David Unwin DH, Geoffrey Livesey,. It is the glycaemic response to, not the carbohydrate content of food that maters in diabetes and obesity: The glycaemic index revisited. Journal of Insulin Resistance 2016;1(1), a8.(https://insulinresistance.org/index.php/jir/article/view/8/11).
  3. Unwin D, Tobin S. A patient request for some "deprescribing". BMJ. 2015;351:h4023. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26239952
  4. Murdoch C, Unwin D, Cavan D, Cucuzzella M, Patel M. Adapting diabetes medication for low carbohydrate management of type 2 diabetes: a practical guide. Br J Gen Pract. 2019;69(684):360-1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31249097
  5. Saslow LR, Summers C, Aikens JE, Unwin DJ. Outcomes of a Digitally Delivered Low-Carbohydrate Type 2 Diabetes Self-Management Program: 1-Year Results of a Single-Arm Longitudinal Study. JMIR Diabetes. 2018;3(3):e12. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30291081
  6. Unwin DJ, Tobin SD, Murray SW, Delon C, Brady AJ. Substantial and Sustained Improvements in Blood Pressure, Weight and Lipid Profiles from a Carbohydrate Restricted Diet: An Observational Study of Insulin Resistant Patients in Primary Care. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2019;16(15):2680. https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/15/2680
  7. Kelly T, Unwin D, Finucane F. Low-Carbohydrate Diets in the Management of Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes: A Review from Clinicians using the Approach in Practice. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2020;17(7):2557. https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/7/2557
David Unwin, FRCGP

What predicts drug-free remission and how best to maintain it in clinical practice? Also, what happens to those who don’t achieve remission*

2:45 pm

Annette Bosworth, MD (Dr. Boz)

Average Blood Sugar Matters Most*

4:15 pm

Final Panel

Open ended Panel Discussion with Ben Bikman, Mike Eades, Dominic D'Agostino, Rob Cywes, Mark Cucuzzella and Michael Hoffman*

5:30 pm

RAFFLE DRAW (Includes 2 sets of 2 Tickets to a future LowCarbUSA event!) 

5:45 pm

Doug Reynolds, MHP

Doug Reynolds is the Founder and CEO of LowCarbUSA®.  The original organization was founded in the beginning of 2016 with the initial  intention of providing  a platform, through an annual conference, for internationally renowned scientists and medical practitioners to present the ever-increasing body of evidence on the benefits of reducing carbohydrates in the diet (and adding in healthy fats).  He felt that education about the power of the low carb/ketogenic diet for the individual who may not get the information from their medical team or from mainstream nutrition advice, and for practitioners who may then be able to prescribe it in their practice was critical.

However, his mission quickly evolved when he realized how important this was to the medical professional community.  Valuable tools are needed, not only to provide hope to their patients to reverse and prevent disease, but restore hope to that very practitioner. This is why they went to medical school and got professional training, to help people heal and not just put Band-Aids on and never address the root cause of the problem.  Too many practitioners are being taught that the many chronic diseases our communities are facing are just chronic and processive.  With effective tools and supportive information, complications can be stopped in their tracks and further complications reduced and the disease process may even be reversed.

The tools and resources Low Carb USA has been providing,  not only includes the live conferences, but also  includes a huge library of educational videos, a growing database of practitioners, and nutritionists and sports trainers who are open to  the carb restriction conversation as well as a searchable database for papers and articles covering the research into the evidence supporting this lifestyle.

Most importantly, though, he has coordinated the establishment of a panel of advisors to oversee the creation and maintenance of a set of 'Clinical Guidelines for Therapeutic Carbohydrate Restriction' which was first published in May, 2019.

He has worked tirelessly over this period during the COVID-19 outbreak and lockdown to now establish a nonprofit, the Society of Metabolic Health Practitioners for which he now serves as the President.  This organization will house most of the above body of work as education and training of Metabolic Health Practitioners and the entire community interested in making a difference in worldwide metabolic health.  The aim is to stall and reverse the increasing prevalence of noncommunicable, lifestyle related diseases, influenced by metabolic dysfunction and insulin resistance.  Accreditation pathways have even been established for practitioners within this society to introduce credibility to the practice of therapeutic carbohydrate restriction and to help establish alternative Standard of Care for those whose metabolisms are different because they don’t eat excessive carbohydrates.

Doug Reynolds, MHP

Closing

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