016: Siobhan Huggins – Citizen Scientist Helping to Crack the Cholesterol Code (part 1)

Siobhan Huggins

 is an independent researcher focused on the science of keto, carnivory, inflammation, insulin resistance and how they all interact with each other. Over the past four years she has lost 80 lbs (36kg or 5.5stone), put chronic depression into remission, and made numerous health improvements - all from going on a ketogenic (and eventually carnivorous) diet. She hopes to continue learning the science so she can share it with others, in the hopes of better understanding why ketogenic and carnivorous diets appear to work for improving so many conditions, and why people sometimes struggle even when implementing these dietary strategies and doing everything "right". She is on the board of The Citizen Science Foundation, and is a frequent contributor to CholesterolCode.com where she posts on topics like lipids and immunity, heart disease, and inflammation, as well as the results of her self experiments with diet.

In this episode Siobhan explains how she improved her depression with a ketogenic diet. She tells us how she learned about lipids and got involved with Dave Feldman of CholesterolCode.com after meeting him at the 2018 KetoFest in New London, Connecticut. We learn about some of her self-experiments, the results of medical tests and the importance of establishing a baseline. She talks about her relationship with her doctor and how she builds that trusting and respectful relationship.

Siobhan explains the lipid triangle.

Two corrections on my part, though. Apparently Dr Attia only recommends Therapeutic Lipidology – looking over old blog posts on CholesterolCode, I do mention starting with this and then went on to read Clinical Lipidology right after, so that is correct. With that said, I’m not sure where I saw Clinical Lipidology recommended, but it wasn’t from Attia.

Additionally, the correct quote of what he says is “Anyone aspiring to be a lipid savant […] probably ought to get a copy.” From Part III of the straight dope on cholesterol series. Not “citizen lipidologist” as I stated.

Clinical Lipidology: A Companion to Braunwald's Heart Disease, 2e - Dr Christine Ballantyne

https://amzn.to/2KmmBIw

Therapeutic Lipidology (Contemporary Cardiology) -  Michael H. Davidson , Peter P. Toth , Kevin C. Maki

https://amzn.to/3pgWFwp

Cholesterolcode.com 

https://cholesterolcode.com/

Report 

https://cholesterolcode.com/report/

Labs 

https://cholesterolcode.com/lab-testing/

Lean mass hyper responder 

https://cholesterolcode.com/lmhr/

Citizen Scientist Foundation 

https://citizensciencefoundation.org/

The Obesity Code - Dr Jason Fung