The Dr. O Show

Hey folks! We are episode 17, and today's episode is going to be interesting because I am going to talk a little bit about GMO's, and the recent vote against Proposition 37 in California, which would require labeling of GMO foods. There are two issues here: (1) the issue of labeling, which would allow consumers information regarding what they are eating, and ultimately, give them the choice whether to choose GMO foods and (2) whether GMO's in general are safe, and should they be used at all. In regard to the first question, I was shocked and amazed that people voted against this proposition because it is unclear whether all GMO's that are used in foods are safe. GMO's may in fact, be harmful. Why wouldn't people want to know whether their foods have GMO's? It simply doesn't make any sense to me, and unfortunately, I don't know enough about what happened in California and how the argument was framed to the voters that led them to refuse this proposition. Information of what is GMO I feel could be very helpful, but as it stands, people are going to have to find out for themselves, if they can, or simply stay away from processed foods (which are generally contain GMO's) and get as much of their food from trusted sources,  like CSA's. The other question is in regards to safety and utility. I do not believe that all GMO's are 'bad' and they do have a place in our society. Now, you might think that this is a very shocking thing to say because the general narrative that is applied to GMO's is to create a struggle between good and evil forces, where GMO's– specifically companies that make them like Monsanto – are evil. I think we really need to think carefully before we set up this moral battle that arouses all of our passions, invoking the grand duel between good and evil. I know that saying something like this may not get me the press like some of the health 'gurus' out there who are 'sounding the horn', but I do not believe in 'the man behind the curtain' fantasy that many of the 'gurus' out there keep building their empires upon. There is no secret knowledge that someone doesn't want you to know, there's only knowledge you do not choose to understand. To get any answers about GMO's and what role they can play, a person needs to think critically. And the fact is humans, especially since the dawn of agriculture, have been genetic modifiers because of their ability to selectively alter their environment through technology. I talk about this in the podcast in relationship to the fact that grains have been selectively bred to give them the characteristics that we want them to have, in order that we may include them in our diet. The same is the case with domesticated animals. As a result, humans may rail about the presence of GMO's, but the fact is, we are genetic modifiers, and we have been for a long time. And the fact of the matter is that not all GMO's are detrimental to human health, but may actually save lives. if you take, for instance, recombinant insulin, which my daughters use so they can live, I really appreciate that technology. I would like to explore it further in order to help other children who are suffering with diseases like cystic fibrosis. It may be controversial statement to say that I do not think that all GMO's are bad, and it is definitely controversial to say this among most dieters and diet circles, but GMO's have also saved many lives from starvation around the world. That being said, I am also not suggesting that GMO's should not be labelled, and some of them (maybe even many) have unintended consequences that may contribute to human disease. And this is what is so shocking really about Proposition 37 being rejected. There was no 'man behind the curtain' or secret cabal of greedy Monsanto executives conspiring in election fraud. People had the choice, and they decided that they didn't want or care to know. I think instead of making things easier to understand,

Well, here we are at episode 16! That's four months of podcasting! And what a great way to celebrate the four month mark with it occurring on the eve of Thanksgiving – one of the best holidays of all time, IMHO. I like Thanksgiving for a number of reasons. Most of all I like the meaning of the holiday because I do believe that in order to achieve true happiness one must exhibit gratitude and thankfulness, even if it is a difficult life that has some trials and tribulations and suffering within it. That is the cornerstone to a life that is filled with happiness, and a life that can bring happiness to others. Thankfulness is the cornerstone to a life filled with happiness I also love the Thanksgiving story, and I also love the history and tradition of Thankgiving in America.  I recount  it here in the podcast because I believe it should be heard again every year. Most people always talk about seeing the Nutcracker for Christmas or watching It's a Wonderful Life or The Night Before Christmas. Everybody pretty much knows these traditions of the Christmas season, but I was surprised when I started sharing the Thanksgiving story with other people how little they actually knew about the Pilgrims and Native Americans at Plymouth Rock. I am by no means a history expert but I hope this is a nice brush up. I talk a little bit about the Thanksgiving story as it relates to the Paleolithic diet and the Neolithic development of agriculture, because these two worlds essentially meet at Plymouth Rock. The Native Americans had one of the most diverse diets of all time and even though they included some grains in their diet like corn, they ate an enormous variety of meats fruits and vegetables that they were able to hunt and gather. The Pilgrims, on the other hand, had the classic Neolithic diet which was based only on a few things, primarily grains and pork (and the grains were fed to the pigs to make them fat!). It's a classic example of the dietary transition that occurred between the Paleolithic age and the Neolithic age, except this is not a theoretical example. It actually could be seen at Plymouth Rock! And then, I finally discuss the amazing aspect of America, which we all should be thankful for this Thanksgiving – specifically how we can all come here and be Americans but still bring a little bit of our old culture with us to integrate into this great nation. Nowhere is this better exemplified than the Thanksgiving dinner table, where everyone has Turkey, squash, stuffing, and cranberry sauce, but depending on what part of the world you're from, you might also have things like stuffed cabbage rolls, or add a special spice to your stuffing, or-like my mother-use matzoh crackers for the stuffing, or add a little twist to the cranberry sauce by making it yourself with special ingredients such as lemon rinds or walnuts. I talk about all the different foods of the world, where they come from and how all this diversity, that is brought together under the umbrella of being American, the classic E Pluribus Unum, makes us all uniquely American. This has brought us enormous blessings, both in terms peace and prosperity, which we should all be thankful for this year! Have a great Thanksgiving everyone! Links for Episode 19: A Perfect Paleo Thanksgiving (Grab the ebook version and you can be cooking from it in time for the feast!) Made in America by Bill Bryson The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan (A great read containing the biography of the Apple and the Potato) A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (Watch it with your kids, they deserve it!)

Welcome to episode 14 (already!).  I have decided to change the format a little bit. What is the change? We're going with a shorter, more compact format. Hopefully from now on our listeners will be able to hear the entire show in the time the average american commute lasts: about twenty minutes. In fact we're aiming to average about five minutes less than that. Why the change?  I'm busy!  I'm working on developing not only The Man Diet program with books, website material, webinars and live seminars, but I am also building out an office space in Glenview, IL (where I live) which will function both as the Man Diet Center and as my private plastic surgery practice, which is actively growing. Add in three daughters under 10 years old, and the fact that we're moving to a bit bigger of a house, and then you can see I'm a bit farmisht, as I say in the podcast. Ultimately, people want to get to the point and I want to get to the point as well, which is hopefully what I do in these new. shorter podcasts. Think of it as "The Dr. O Show! Now 20% less discursive!" As I mention, I am currently working on creating a book focusing on Achieving Great Skin Health. I believe this needs to be done primarily through nutrition via: A diet that does not promote inflammation (low carbohydrate, low Omega-6 content), Lifestyle management, and Proper skin care Ultimately, having great skin is not a separate goal from having great health. As I mentioned in this episode, as the eyes are windows to the soul, the skin is a window to your general health. I will discuss this more and more as we go along with the blog and podcast, and of course I will keep you updated with all the great Man Diet events as well as the opening of the new Glenview office. In today's episode, besides skin health, I also discuss upgraded coffee (and tea!) in the style made popular by Dave Asprey. It's really good stuff that you can easily prepare at home with simple ingredients. It wakes you up and gives you pleny of the healthy fats your body-and especially your skin-needs to thrive. I appreciate your readership and your listenership immensely! I hope you enjoy the show, and as always, if you do, then please take a moment to run on down to the iTunes Store and let them know! As always I'm glad to answer your questions and comments here on the blog!

I hope everyone had a happy Halloween, and didn't eat too much candy and spoil their diets. But I hope you also didn't avoid a few good bites of dark chocolate either. Today's episode is once again, a hodgepodge of different things. In the first seg...

Well, I have three months of podcast episodes officially with the publication of this episode of the Dr. O Show. I hope you've been enjoying listening to it as much as I have enjoyed preparing these episodes for you. If you have any comments, especially if they're positive, don't forget to take a few minutes out of your busy schedule to head on over to the iTunes Store and leave your recommendation. I know. I know. We all have extremely busy lives, and I am no exception, but if you are appreciating the programming, and you are finding it helpful and useful in your own personal journey to find  health, then take a few minutes to share that on the iTunes store and maybe even help inspire others! Of course, I will certainly appreciate it very much as well, as I know how hard it is to lose weight and get your health back, especially when you take on a low carbohydrate diet. People begin to look at you funny, and they question and criticize just about everything that you do. Why are you eating so much fat? Why don't you just a little bit of bread? Aren't you eating too much protein? Are you ever going to have a piece of cake again? Is this really a healthy way to eat? Believe me, I've been there. And I know you've probably been there as well. It's hard – not the diet – people! Sometimes people are simply skeptical because they like being skeptical and it makes them feel important, which leads me into discussing today's podcast. Adam Kosloff is a writer, blogger, and podcaster who is passionate not only about nutrition and health, but finding out why people act and think they way that they do in regards to nutrition and health, meaning specifically why are they so contentious and disagreeable at times. Is it simply about the science? Or are there other reasons that have to with the nature of people? (Hint! Hint!) In the process of exploring the psychology of people and the nature of science and the quest for knowledge itself, Adam doesn't only want to find the reasons why people suffer from dissonance and disconnect in the ideas that they hold, but is searching for a solution to help integrate different viewpoints into a more unified view. Adam is not looking to be an expert on any one particular thing, he wants to understand why people think and believe certain things, and if and if there's a better way of looking at ideas themselves, including, as I have said, the very nature of science itself. It is an important question, and we discuss this and many more things on this episode of The Dr. O Show. I hope you enjoy it, and once again, thanks for your listenership! // Amazon.com Widgets 

Today (as you can see from the title!) I have a very special and popular guest. The first time I ever heard Abel James Bascom's podcast was when he interviewed Jack Kruse (a now infamous interview in the blogosphere!). The thing I was most impressed ab...

This Sunday, my family and I will be participating in the Ron Santo Walk to cure juvenile diabetes 2012 on the Chicago lakefront. We have done this for the past seven years – ever since we moved back to Chicago from Springfield. My daughter, Grace, developed type I diabetes just after she had turned 2. In fact, I was already in Springfield doing my fellowship in hand and microsurgery, when I came back to visit the family for a weekend in preparation for their move down to the Land of Lincoln. They were packed and ready to go the next week down to Springfield. It was all going to be a great adventure, and we were all very excited about the prospects. But the weekend when I came down, Grace was not feeling so well, and so we took her to the doctor, and a urine dipstick analysis revealed that she had a large amount of sugar in her urine. She had diabetes, and my wife and I were devastated. We took her to Children's Memorial Hospital where she was admitted and stayed for about a week. She eventually recovered, and we did go down to Springfield. It was not a particularly easy year in many regards. We were far from our families. I was working very hard, and my wife had to put her residency on hold in order to take care of Grace. But in spite of these difficulties and challenges, we were able to survive and ultimately thrive as a family, and really, before we knew it, I was done with my fellowship in hand and microsurgery, and we were ready to go back to Chicago! And in the fall of that year, we did our first JDRF walk. And ever since that time we have looked forward to this event because it's really a wonderful event a beautiful place for meaningful and important cause – especially in my life. So today, I wanted to share an interview that I did with my daughter, Grace, and let her talk a little bit about what is like to have type I diabetes. I hope you find it both interesting and informative. In the next portion of the podcast I talk about the controversy that has been occurring with Omega-3 fish oils – specifically that recent studies have suggested that they are largely ineffective as supplements. I've looked at the study, and of course, it's one of those observational studies that looks at one particular thing – taking Omega-3 fish oils – without necessarily looking at subgroups of people who take them, specifically those who are still eating tons of carbohydrates in the form of wheat and sugar, as well as those who were still eating Omega-6 oils in the form of industrial seed oil. In this segment, I talk about looking at the big picture. In the final segment of the podcast I answer a question that I have been posed several times in the course of writing my blogs and podcasts, etc. which is: how people react in the medical community might tell about low carbohydrate diets? Well, the fact of the matter is I don't tell them because many that I have told are skeptical. They really honestly believe that a low-fat, low cholesterol, high carbohydrate, high healthy whole grain diet is the way to go, when in fact, it seems for the majority of people, this is not only a diet that doesn't help you lose weight but one that encourages weight gain over the long term. So, I don't necessarily waste much time trying to convince doctors who have been practicing for 40 years under the low-fat paradigm. That's one of the funny things about 'doing something.' Whenever you do something, whether it works or not, if you are personally successful at it you feel like you are an expert at some level. And that's unfortunate because you don't necessarily leave your mind open to alternate/competing hypotheses. And for some, this expertise often becomes a privileged viewpoint where a principled objection is not seriously considered. It's actually not a privilege viewpoint – it's a blind spot. That's why I always try to repeat the fact that as a doctor, I am always first, a teacher – that is the Latin root of the word! And as a teacher,

Today is my pleasure to interview very special guest whom many of you already know, Jimmy Moore. And if you don't know who Jimmy Moore is, you should because he is one of the leading health bloggers in the United States, and produces three wonderful podcasts: The Livin' La Vida Low Carb Show (LLVLC), Low-Carb Conversations, and Ask the Low Carb Experts which all discuss various aspects of low-carb dieting. Jimmy has been doing this for a long time – he has created well over 600 shows for the LLVLC show alone – and as a result, he really is a master at what he does. As a person, I respect him immensely on many levels, which include him being honest and forthright in his own successes and struggles with weight loss, but more importantly I respect him creating something so high-quality and informative out of blogging and podcasting. It's not an easy thing to do, as I learned trying to set up a blog and now, a podcast, myself. It takes both a lot of work and a lot of passion, which Jimmy has an overwhelming abundance of. Getting high quality guests, and performing high quality interviews, and then on top of that, writing highly informative blog posts, that are easy to read and very entertaining, is simply no easy task and I think Jimmy should be highly commended for that. But that isn't always the case. When I started reading Jimmy Moore's blog, I could never imagine that anyone could dislike this sweetheart of a guy. From my perspective as a doctor, I simply loved what he was doing! He had high quality guests from not only the blogosphere, but everywhere! And these were guests that didn't always agree with him or the low-carb approach to dieting. Some even despised him! And they questioned whether he was' legitimate' or not. To be clear, that is a completely juvenile and specious claim. Anyone who listens to his show or reads his blog is well aware that Jimmy is not a scientist or a doctor. He is a blogger, and to the dismay and the chagrin of many who hate him, he is not only a good blogger, but he is one of the best. He has some of the most interesting and well renowned scientists and doctors (and journalists) on his show, including Micheal Eades, Eric Westman, Stepen Phinney, Jeff Volek, William Davis and even Dean Ornish and Neal Barnard (both committed vegetarians). He also has many fitness professionals who have contributed an enormous amount to developing different facets of a lower carb lifestyle, such as Mark Sisson and Robb Wolf. And as I mentioned on the show at the very end, I would not be surprised to see Jimmy having a syndicated radio show that can be heard across the country in the future. Jimmy is passionate about his craft, and he has made it into something that is highly commendable on many levels. Those who criticize it, well, they are simply jealous. The fact is blogging lends itself very easily to self important bombastic whining, and though I love listening to rants, especially when they are funny or satirical, the rants that you see on most blogs are simply dumb, or worse yet, hateful. We talk about this briefly on the podcast, and the fact is, Jimmy is too much of a southern gentleman (and too smart!) to engage (or even mention) his enemies at all. I asked Jimmy briefly whether he thought radical vegans and vegetarians were more a threat to spreading the message of the low-carb movement or many of those involved in the paleo/ancestral health movement. Jimmy thought it was definitely the vegans. But from my perspective, I get a little bit concerned about 'activists' within the community, which, to be clear, includes both Low-carb and Paleo. Why? Because psychologically, it is such a powerful ego boost for many people to brand themselves distinctively within a community as different (or in most cases more authentic), and then once they do this, attack all the others around them for not being that way, all under the guise of being 'open-minded'.

Well, my friends, we have made it episode number eight! Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy what you are listening to. That is the most important thing to me. It's quite hard to produce a high-quality podcast every week and the learning process ...

Hey guys, it's nice to be back podcasting again. I took last week off because we did The Man Diet Boot Camp, and it was so much fun! We had two days of informative and helpful sessions so that guys, who otherwise are not familiar with the power of low carbohydrate dieting, could develop a plan of action to take back their health. It was a great success, and we plan to have many of the videos/lectures/presentations up on the web soon. We also are planning on having another boot camp in the next several weeks ( and the new year as well), so that you guys who missed out will have another opportunity to take back your health. The next boot camp will even be better because we will have more presenters, and do more fun things! This is a real revolution in men's health. We hope that you will become a part of it soon. Today's podcast is going to be very interesting, and will feature The Magnesium Man, Morley Robbins. He will explain how he became so obsessed with this one little mineral. As Morley explains, magnesium is no average mineral, but in fact, a so-called 'super mineral' because it is involved with so many hormonal and enzymatic reactions throughout the body, and like many other nutrients, we simply do not get enough magnesium in a modern society. Morley explains how he became interested in magnesium, and has, as a result of his passion for this super mineral, become a leading authority on the role of magnesium in optimizing all facets of metabolism. It is not an exaggeration to state that magnesium is involved in just about every major biochemical reaction in the body that matters. It is true that many nutritional statements are based on that formula of hyperbole that relates to a certain nutrient being the so-called 'fountain of life' or 'fountain of youth' which is subsequently followed by the statements that you don't get enough of this in your diet and that may be putting you at significant health risks. It's definitely a formula, and anyone who is concerned about their health and has tried to make their health better, sees this formula all the time and may become a bit jaded and cynical when it is presented in one of its various forms. But as Morley explains, magnesium really is different, and he will explain in this podcast why you should, along with all the other good steps that you take to help preserve your health and wellness, absolutely include magnesium supplementation as a necessary step. It's a very interesting podcast, as Morley is a fountain of great knowledge, so sit back relax and enjoy!

On today's episode of the Dr. O show, I'm very pleased to interview Dr. Joe Leonardi. Many of you who listen to Jimmy Moore's podcasts will know Dr. Leonardi as a frequent and entertaining guest. In the past,  he happened to review one of my blog posts for an episode of Jimmy's "Low-carb Conversations." And so when I started my podcast, I wanted to make sure that I invited Dr. Leonardi on my show so he could talk a little bit about his particular interests in the field of health and wellness. Dr. Leonardi is a chiropractor from Pennsylvania has done a lot of different things in his life, as we will talk about. He has run for Congress, written books about health and wellness as well as politics, is very into physical culture, and lost over 100 pounds himself. He's taken all of these experiences, and brought them back into the realm of patient care. We talk about this and much more on today's episode of the Dr. O show, including some discussion about healthcare politics, and what people need to know going forward in regards to the current health care system. I've said this before and I will say this again, I do not think that Obama care will deliver on the results that it promises. Living in Illinois, the bureaucracy that is in place to help provide government health care is a complete disaster on many levels for both the doctors and the patients. I cannot see how this can be taken to a national level and made better without addressing the significant problems that are occurring in the state level with inefficiency and fraud. But on a deeper level,  we have significant problems in the underlying philosophies of how healthcare is delivered in this country. And that I think is a much more significant problem. The foundation upon which our healthcare system is built leads to overutilization of drugs and technologies.  And a great deal of it, has to do with the general public's perception that drugs and technology (and more importantly, the idea that more drugs and more technology) will provide better healthcare. It doesn't.  This is something that is noted by advocates of Obama care, and I completely agree with him in this regard.  It is a faulty premise that more healthcare is better healthcare; however, the idea persists because many of the incentives in healthcare are aligned towards utilization of drugs and technology, and they are often directed by forces outside the doctor-patient relationship. People who support Obama care, as I said, realize this, but they have provided a solution which I totally  disagree with. Instead of attempting to reestablish a doctor-patient relationship which incentivizes prevention, accountability, transparency of pricing, and the free indirect exchange of information, they have instead proposed a government solution, which I feel only adds to the problem. Our current health care system has already reduced the autonomy of doctors in the decision-making process for their patients, because they are influenced and sometimes even pressured by interests other than care of their patients. This creates an untenable situation for most doctors. Rather than helping direct patient care on an individual basis using the best scientific information available, more and more doctors are being placed in the position of following a protocol or an algorithm. It is a complex problem because if something works when it's done a certain way,  it should be done that way, especially of scientific evidence supports it.  However, as many of you know already, science, because it's inferences and conclusions are made by people, is hardly infallible. And likewise, the practice of medicine itself on an individual basis is often very different than what the science says. It is clear to any practicing physician, that even though a scientific article may say that a certain drug promotes a certain outcome, there will always be a few patients where the drug promotes either no outcome or the exact opposite outcome.

Right-click to Download audio. Okay everybody give yourself a high 5! We've  made it to episode number five! I'm learning a lot of things about podcasting as I do it – trying to find interesting subjects for the show, and trying to execute each segment/interview in a way that is both entertaining and professional. It's definitely a challenge that really stimulates my creative juices – something which the practice of medicine doesn't always do, mainly because of all this oppressive bureaucracy that is creeping in slowly and strangling what's left of the good. Podcasting can also be draining at times – and I only do one podcast a week! I can't imagine what it's like for a guy like Jimmy Moore! It makes me respect his level of enthusiasm and energy even more because he puts out a quality product just about every single show five days a week! Anyway, today show is a little bit of a hodgepodge. As I explain, I wanted to get my daughters on the show but they started school this week, and so they were tired when I tried to interview them. Hopefully I can get that done this weekend sometime. The fact of the matter is they have taught me more about nutrition and health as well as courage them perseverance and most importantly the essential  dignity of humanity than any medical textbook or scientific study.  That's how it is. You learn the most profound lessons from your patients, which, in a way, my daughters have been. And of course they have been my daughters, and as their father, I have learned a lot as well – probably much more than being their 'doctor'! In the first segment of the show, I review the article "BIG MED: Restaurant chains have managed to combine quality control, cost control, and innovation. Can health care?" by Atul Gawande about his suggestions on how to make medicine more efficient by following the same model that a restaurant does, namely the Cheesecake Factory. There are some problems with Gawande's reasoning, which I point out, because although his reasoning to a great degree is correct the problem is that he starts from a faulty premise – namely that efficient and medical care should actually begin in the hospital. I reject that premise, and I explain why. The next segment of the show is a true hodgepodge. I talk about riding my bike in my neighborhood, being a plastic surgeon, and the vital importance of nutrition to beauty and in particular, healthy & ageless skin. You'll have to tell me what you think about it. Don't forget that the show line number is: 276.299.1010 Go ahead and tell me what you really think, especially if you think it was terrible. I'll put it on the air if it's entertaining enough! Why not? The main reason I'm doing this is because I'm having an enormously good time, and I find it extremely fulfilling to not only help educate and inform others, but to also educate and inform myself. And as you know, I make it no secret that I learned the most from other people! So go ahead. If you have something nice to say, then thank you. If you are not so pleased refined things confusing, let me know. My goal is to put out the absolute best podcast that I possibly can, and I need your help to do it! Finally, on the inside medicine segment, I talk about my training as a medical student. I hope to revisit that many times during this podcast because I think if you're going to train doctors who are actually able to prevent diseases and use the most cost efficient methods available that are the least toxic and risky (ie food, nutrition, lifestyle), then you are going to have to really start with medical school. And as I point out in this segment, medical school gives you a ton of information – but it doesn't always provide the integration necessary to combat disease before it rears its ugly head! If you find me pedantic, boring, and repetitive in regards to my assessment of medicine and what I think should be done to help make it better and face the challenges of the 21st century,

On today's episode of the Dr. O show, we have several new segments that I'm introducing to you, the listener. The first is Inside Medicine, which will be my commentary on the complexities, the frustrations and joys of medicine. As you might guess, there will be some political talk here in this segment.  I can never totally get away from politics, no matter how hard I try, so I have to engage. Ignoring or dropping out is NOT an option. So expect in the future that I might get a little hot under the collar, so to speak, during some of my commentaries. There is a big discordance between practicing physicians like myself who look to patients for wisdom, and academians who spend their time commenting on pie charts and graphs. Unfortunately, practicing physicians like myself, have no time and even less desire to spend at administrative meetings picking  over doughnuts and sandwiches.  I would like to expose this disconnect, as I've tried to expose several disconnects in the medical field. But today, I'm going to talk about the simple joy of being a doctor-- taking care of and helping one patient. And really, I like to focus on the positive parts of being a doctor because ultimately, that's why I'm in it. I also am making a call out to you, the listener,  to help me with the show. I want you to send me your questions, comments, and the desultory ramblings if you so choose. You can record them on your computer and send them to doctor_ostric@yahoo.com and I will do my best to answer them. Go ahead and make it fun, and if you want to be harsh, that's fine. Even though I have the last word, I will try to be fair and my response, and not resort to personal attacks (which of course, would probably get me ratings in the short term, but I'm looking for a long-term education and betterment of not only myself but you, the listener). So go ahead, send me some questions. I'm also asking you to send me your low-carb recipes. Send it to the same e-mail address, and if it's good enough, that I want to ask you to come on the show and will have little back-and-forth talking about you, your low-carb life, and of course your recipe. Paleoheads are of course, welcome, as are non-denomination omnivores. Heck, I'll even feature you if you are a vegetarian and you have a great recipe! This podcast is much more than talking about food and health. It's about relationships. And finally, our featured guest, Laurence Chalem, is a person who I think you will enjoy listening to. He is an average guy, like you and me, who happened to get diabetes when he was in his 30s. He did the whole high carb and insulin routine, and then asked himself,' what if I just cut the carbs?' He had amazing results. But it really didn't stop there because Laurence Chalem decided to write books about his experience sharing his knowledge and his ideas with others in order to maybe help them. He has written two books about diabetes, Thrive with Diabetes and Essential Diabetes Leadership. They are excellent books, and I highly recommend that you get them on Amazon. He also has a website which is also called thrivewithdiabetes.com Laurence also happens to be a love story writer, and we talk about this as well. I really enjoyed my interview with Laurence Chalem. He is the type of patient that makes a very knowledgeable doctor and passionate doctor into a great doctor because of what he brings to the table. I have always thought that that was the key element in excellent health care-- a great patient. You know, to bring this back it's not unlike being a great writer, you need to have great readers. And I think that's one of the major roles that a doctor has to master to be effective, he/she has to be a great reader. And certainly, that becomes a very easy and enjoyable task when you have patients like Laurence Chalem. Enjoy!

Can you believe we made it through Episode #1? Thanks, once again, for all of you who listened and left comments. In Episode #2 of the Dr. O Show, I re-post an interview that I did with Tom Naughton, creator of the movie, Fathead. In this interview Tom and I talked about his movie and state of nutrition in the United States. At the time of this interview, Tom had just recently returned from Washington DC after giving a presentation about the current health and nutrition crisis in the United States. It was a bit frustrating according to Tom because only five people showed up. But his talk was recorded, and subsequently, placed on YouTube, and has got several thousand hits as a result. Tom is simply a great guy. And I, as a doctor, love talking with regular people like Tom, who have been successful at achieving and maintaining their health, especially if they've gone against conventional medical wisdom, and have found a creative way to share this information with others, either through a blog, podcast, or in this case, a documentary film. I've said this before and I will say it again, the majority of what I've learned  as a doctor that has been useful and helpful to my patients has been through the direct experience of talking and interacting with my patients. I want to make clear that I love science, especially biology, biochemistry, anatomy, physiology, and there can be no doubt that knowledge of science is very important to being an effective doctor. But the fact of the matter is, I've always believed that to achieve that goal of being an effective doctor, the ultimate learning of principles and judgment doesn't occur through books, but through direct patient experience. This is why I love interviewing people like Tom Naughton about his movie Fathead, so I can learn what really works in real life, not simply what works in a metabolic ward or rat study. And this is why, as a doctor, I chose to do my part to help furthering the message of good health eating good foods, that are nutrient dense, low in sugar, and low in starch to everyone. Likewise, I also wanted help correct the bad science by which are nutritional recommendations were founded on. And finally, I wanted to make a commitment to the primacy of prevention in chronic illness, rather than the treatment of chronic illness once it developed. This is one of the reasons why I do a podcast. And it's also one of the reasons why I teamed up with Geoff Pinkus to create a program to do just that – make men and keep men healthy. That's why I'm so excited about creating The Man Diet Center, and why I'm very excited to be a part of our boot camp that is occurring September 15 and 16th in Barrington, where men will get a chance to learn the principles and skills that are needed to get back and keep their health for the rest of their life. One of those days we will be showing the movie, Fathead, and have an open Q&A. This is one of the reasons why I have chosen to repost this interview with Tom Naughton, where we talk about his film. I have seen Fathead about six times. I think it's a wonderful resource, and a wonderful teaching tool. As one of my favorite poets, Charles Bukowksi  says: Tom, by this definition is an artist, and he's also a wonderful educator. Enjoy the interview, and remember, if you are interested please sign up for our boot camp, and leave your comments in the comment section of our blog.

It's been a long time coming, but I'm finally pleased and proud to present my first podcast of the Dr. O show. Getting by, as Ringo Starr might say, with a little help from my friends, I was able to finally put together a series of monologues and inter...