133: Dr David Unwin – The Low Carb GP [Replay]

Dr David Unwin

Dr David Unwin FRCGP 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 102 out of 201 of his patients with Type 2 diabetes have achieved drug-free remission. This gives a remission rate of 50% 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.  

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. As @lowcarbGP he has over 62,000 followers on Twitter

Who was THE ONE?

His patient who challenged him in 2013

 

Dr David’s Top Tips

Never see yourself as a problem consider yourself as.
Interesting puzzles of your own body.
Be curious – see yourself as a lifelong experiment which you are continuously refining by noticing what is working and do more of it.
Look after your pet human – you.

 

Resources Mentioned

Are we blaming salt for what sugar did

Low carb down under Black Swan presentation

Protein and kidney function article

Roy Taylor: long silent scream of the liver

 

Quotes by Dr David Unwin

“So we did an audit of all the people in my practice with type two diabetes. In 1986, this is a practice of 9500 people, there were 57 individuals with Type 2 Diabetes. Fast forward, we’ve now got 473 in the same population” 

“I’ve got an eightfold increase in the people suffering with diabetes in my lifetime” 

“Every practice, I know, and every country that I’ve ever visited around the world has a similar problem” 

“I see this avalanche of suffering.”

“You know, when I was a child, there was only one fat kid in the entire school.”

“I’d never heard of diabetes, there was nobody I knew with diabetes.”  

“So I’d got nothing but questions and no solutions.”

“Everywhere I went I saw unhappiness and unhealthiness.” 

“My surgeries were full of unhappy people. And what was I doing for them? Not a lot. So it’s very depressing.”

“I have to say, I am often disappointed that the doctors are not more curious. As you know, you’d hope that being a scientific sort of mind means you’re curious.”

“I often say to patients, ‘oh, your doctor must be so proud of you. Has he not asked why and how you did this?’  I’m terribly disappointed if healthcare professionals are not interested. Some of them, I think they’re so tired, as I was tired.”

“I’ve had an eight-fold increase in the numbers of people with type two diabetes, but I’ve also had increases in hypertension, heart disease, obesity, and I don’t have any more doctors in the practice now than I had years ago and no more resources. So actually, being a doctor now is much tougher. It’s terrible. And I