For the past several years, something remarkable has happened amongst the medical professionals who decided to attend the Eastern Regional Obesity Conference hosted in the Spring by the American Society of Bariatric Physicians (ASBP). This organization whose self-proclaimed mission is to be “focused on the treatment and management of overweight and obese patients and their related conditions and co-morbidities” has opened the door wide open for the scientific evidence supporting carbohydrate-restriction as a legitimate medical therapy to be heard by doctors, nurses and others in the field of medicine thanks to their association with The Nutrition & Metabolism Society (listen to my June 2010 podcast interview with the tireless workhorse behind NMS Laurie Cagnassola). I don’t know if you realize just how huge this ASBP/NMS marriage has been in directly educating real bariatric doctors whose specialty is helping their patients who struggle with weight loss. The most exciting thing I’ve noticed is that they’ve been exposed not just to the amazing anti-obesigenic effects of this way of eating, but also the amazing health benefits of livin’ la vida low-carb as well–THIS IS ALL A REALLY BIG DEAL! And my wife Christine and I have been privileged to attend all of these conferences over the past five years (Seattle, WA in 2010, Charleston, SC in 2009, Phoenix, AZ in 2008, Nashville, TN in 2007, and Brooklyn, NY in 2006).
Well, it’s back again for 2011 and this year it’s set to take place at the Hyatt Regency in Baltimore, Maryland on April 9-10. The entire ASBP/NMS conference actually runs April 6-10, but the lectures about low-carb science will happen over the weekend featuring a lot of familiar names and few you may not have heard of before promoting the very latest research on the subject of low-carb diets. NMS recognizes that there are indeed a variety of dietary plans that exist out there to treat obesity and weight-related diseases. But they feel it is very important that bariatric physicians and other medical professionals treating the obese clearly understand the science that is being promoted as evidence for any particular nutritional approach–especially low-carb which has far too often been ignored as a fad when the scientific evidence shows otherwise. The purpose of this annual symposium is to focus primarily on the metabolic aspects of ketone bodies and the role ketogenic diets play in fat loss and as a dietary therapy for a wide range of diseases. They specifically targeting bariatric physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants who want to learn about the latest scientific advancements into the clinical use of carbohydrate-restriction with their patients, but literally anyone interested in the subject is invited to attend. 7.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits are provided to any medical professional for attending this course.
I bet you wanna know who’s speaking this year, right? It’s quite a prestigious lineup!
Richard D. Feinman, PhD is the Founder of The Nutrition & Metabolism Society and is a professor of biochemistry at SUNY Downstate in Brooklyn, NY (listen to my May 2008 podcast interview with Dr. Feinman). He is one of the most passionate defenders of genuine science that you’ll ever meet as evidenced by this talk he gave in New York City in early 2010. There’s no better way to begin this symposium than with Dr. Richard Feinman himself!
LECTURE: “Review of Biochemistry of Ketone Bodies”
DATE/TIME: Saturday, April 9, 2011 from 1:15-2:00pm
This presentation will review the biochemical process for ketone body formation and under what nutritional circumstances they are generated.
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To be honest, I’ve never heard of Yoshiro Kashiwaya, MD, PhD and couldn’t really find anything on this person on Google. The lecture certainly looks quite intriguing, though!
LECTURE: “Ketone Body Effects on Cardiac Energetics and Glycolytic Flux”
DATE/TIME: Saturday, April 9, 2011 from 2:00-2:45pm
Ketone bodies are effective substrates for mitochondrial respiration in the heart. This presentation will cover the effects that ketone bodies have on mitochondrial NADH production and on the inhibition of glycolytic flux.
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Thomas N. Seyfried, PhD is a biology professor at Boston College who is conducting some of the most extraordinary research on the role a low-calorie ketogenic diet plays on controlling the growth of cancerous tumors. You’ll recall I had Dr. Seyfried as a guest on my podcast in November 2009 and I look forward to hearing more about what he has discovered since then. For people who think low-carb diets are only about weight loss, I think people like Dr. Seyfried would beg to differ!
LECTURE: “Ketone Bodies and Cancer”
DATE/TIME: Saturday, April 9, 2011 from 2:45-3:30pm
This presentation will explore alternative approaches to brain cancer management, specifically focusing on how a ketogenic diet and calorie restriction can exploit the metabolic inflexibility of tumor cells.
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In addition to Dr. Seyfried’s amazing work on ketogenic diets and cancer, we have some truly remarkable work coming out of Eugene J. Fine, MD, MS at the Einstein College of Medicine. His RECHARGE Trial (REduced CarboHydrates Against Resistant Growth Tumors) is examining people with cancer who have been told by mainstream medicine there’s nothing more that can be done for them and putting them on a very low-carbohydrate diet in an attempt to reduce the amount of cancer cells in their bodies. I shared this video talk with Dr. Fine on my blog in July 2010 and I am looking forward to hearing more from him about his work at the NMS symposium! He’s agreed to come on my podcast for an interview sometime this year as well.
LECTURE: “Ketone Bodies and Cancer”
DATE/TIME: Saturday, April 9, 2011 from 3:45-4:30pm
This lecture will review plausible molecular mechanisms through which ketone bodies can spare functionality in normal cells but suppress growth in cancer cells.
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Stephen D. Phinney, MD, PhD is a Professor of Medicine Emeritus at The University of California-Davis as well as on the editorial board of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. He’s certainly no stranger to the world of low-carb. He has been continuously researching carbohydrate-restriction for a quarter century–more than anyone else I’m aware of–and is convinced of the science behind this way of eating for a whole host of positive health benefits. In 2010, Dr. Phinney co-authored The New Atkins For A New You and is championing the cause for physicians to begin using carbohydrate-restriction as a therapy with their patients. He too will be making an appearance on my podcast later in 2011 to discuss an exciting new project he is working on this year to make that happen.
LECTURE: “Human Keto-adaptation: Physiology and Function”
DATE/TIME: Saturday, April 9, 2011 from 4:30-5:15pm
This presentation will focus on how humans can adapt to conditions of carbohydrate restriction, specifically how fuel sources shift from glucose and fatty acids to fatty acids and ketones, and how this shift leads to appetite reduction, weight loss, and improvement in surrogate markers of cardiovascular disease.
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Over the past decade, Jeff S. Volek, PhD, RD (listen to my March 2009 podcast interview) has worked tirelessly in his lab at The University of Connecticut leading and conducting some of the most extraordinary studies on high-fat, low-carb diets. From recognizing that all the markers of metabolic syndrome are the same ones improved on a low-carb diet to his discovery that less dietary fat consumed leads to higher levels of blood fats, his work is truly on the cutting-edge of nutritional science and should be followed closely by anyone interested in learning how and why low-carb diets work. He too was a co-author of the book The New Atkins For A New You last year and is a man whose career is far from being finished. I always enjoy Dr. Volek’s lectures at these meetings.
LECTURE: “Anti-ketogenic Effect of Insulin and Dietary Carbohydrate”
DATE/TIME: Sunday, April 10, 2011 from 8:00-9:00am
This presentation will review the role of glucose and insulin on the regulation of fatty acid metabolism and development of dyslipidemia in the pathogenesis of metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular diseases.
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Just say the name Mary C. Vernon, MD, FAAFP, FASBP, CMD and you can’t help but have a big smile on your face. She’s been literally the face of low-carb to so many of her fellow physicians the past few years in creating a physician education project called Innovative Metabolic Solutions (IMS) (learn more about IMS from my June 2010 interview with Jeff Clinger) and through her leadership position at ASBP as a Past President. Dr. Vernon exudes with enthusiasm about this subject because she has seen firsthand the changes that have happened in her patients over the past decade-plus! She is one of the featured speakers on the upcoming Low-Carb Cruise in May 2011 and I always look forward to hearing her speak–it’s NEVER boring!
LECTURE: “Clinical Treatments Using Nutritional Ketosis”
DATE/TIME: Sunday, April 10, 2011 from 9:00-10:00am
This presentation will cover the clinical implementation strategies of a low-carbohydrate diet and its usefulness in treating metabolic disorders.
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One of the hottest areas of research on the therapeutic effects of low-carb diets is with seizure control for people with epilepsy. Eric H. Kossoff, MD from Johns Hopkins has been using what he describes as a “modified Atkins diet” to effectively treat and greatly reduce the number of seizures being experienced by epileptics. I highlighted his work in my June 2010 podcast interview with him (also listen to my August 2009 interview with Dr. Deborah Snyder whose son Bryce beat his epilepsy with a low-carb, ketogenic diet) and I can’t wait to hear the very latest developments in his research.
LECTURE: “The Ketogenic Diet for Epilepsy”
DATE/TIME: Sunday, April 10, 2011 from 10:15-11:15am
Dietary therapies can be beneficial for symptomatic generalized epilepsies. This presentation will explore the effects of the ketogenic diet for management of epilepsy.
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Isn’t that a fantastic roster of low-carb experts? I look forward to hearing from all of these speakers and doing what I did in 2010 conducting live tweets from my Twitter page. So many people enjoyed that so much that I’m willing to do it again…although it is exhausting tweeting from my iPhone for hours on end. See what sacrifices I make for you? HA HA HA! If you’re personally interested in being there, we’d love to meet you in person. Learn more information and sign up for the Nutrition & Metabolism Society Symposium by clicking here. And if you want to help me and Christine with travel, hotel and other expenses to attend this meeting coming up very soon, then you can make a donation to The Nutrition & Metabolism Society and designate it in the “Special Instructions” area at the bottom to go towards “Jimmy Moore NMS Trip To Baltimore.” THANK YOU in advance for your generous donations to help me bring you the very latest and greatest low-carb science information out there!