Everything I Thought I Knew About Weight Loss Was Wrong
For years, I subscribed to a belief that the key to losing weight was a well balanced diet and physical activity. After all, this is what my medical education had taught me. But this is false. What I learned about weight in medical school was wrong. Yes, nutrition and activity matter, but achieving a healthy weight is far more than just diet and exercise.
About 18 months ago, I started a personal health journey that opened my eyes to the science behind metabolic health and weight. When I started I was 204 pounds. I’m currently 161 pounds. That’s a 44 pound difference!
What I learned changed everything. I started on a quest for more information, I transformed my own health, and I began visualizing how I can take what I learned and employ it to improve the lives of my patients. I started with close family and friends. Now I have many patients who are successfully losing weight in a safe and long-term manner.
Three Key Facts
The key to weight loss is blood glucose
Blood glucose is key to managing weight, yet it is typically ignored in non-diabetic patients. Sure, we do blood work at your annual physical to see what your fasting blood glucose level is, but that’s it. If you are in the normal range, we move on. But guess what, you can have a totally normal fasting blood glucose (i.e. you are not diabetic or pre-diabetic) and have glucose spikes throughout the day that are wreaking havoc on your body. This is why blood glucose is key to weight loss and longevity. With the invention of Continuous Glucose Monitors, we can now, in real time, understand the correlation of what you put in your mouth and your blood sugar.
Longevity medicine is the future of primary care
Medical professionals have been trained to act when illness strikes. But wouldn’t it be great if we also focused more on preventing illness altogether? It’s not as if there is zero focus on prevention, but I think we can agree there is not enough focus on it either. Sometimes being in the “normal” range on lab work isn’t good enough. We should be striving for an optimal range instead, as doing so will go a long way in preventing illnesses such as heart disease and cancer. Limits on time, insurance restrictrions and other factors hinder our ability to deliver truly personalized care for patients. This needs to change. And with our program, we can give you true longevity options: evidence based supplements, whole body MRI, detailed genetic testing, cancer screening using state of the art methyl DNA blood testing, and even genetic mapping!
It’s time for a shift in thinking within the medical community
The American Diabetes Association recently updated their Standards of Care to include a much stronger emphasis on weight management and glycemic goals. Across the board, medical professionals must be looking at glucose as a marker for health. Studies have shown that irregular blood sugar patterns (frequent and long spikes in blood sugar) are connected to disease onset and weight gain. Continuous glucose monitoring is an easy way to identify a patient’s baseline and how glucose may be impacting their health and/or ability to lose weight. The GLP medications we give come with behavioral change coaching with a very personalized touch.
Introducing Innovative Vitality
Innovative Care started as one single urgent care and grew to be a full medical group over the last eight years. We offer primary care, urgent care, therapy and a range of specialty medical services. We have 11 clinics currently, with more coming soon. I credit our success to the fact that we listen to the everchanging needs of patients, and we follow the science. If your doctor is still relying only on what they learned decades ago in medical school, it’s time for a new doctor.
This summer, we will launch Innovative Vitality. This endeavor is poised to be my favorite one yet, as Innovative Vitality will elevate primary care by focusing on prevention and health optimization. Our team will offer longevity medicine, weight management and concierge primary care at a high-end, luxury medical practice in Lincoln Park.
I can’t wait to tell you more about Innovative Vitality and the science behind this new evolution of primary care. Follow along on the blog, as I’ll be explaining our approach, the science and what you can expect from Innovative Vitality.
Exciting things are coming.