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Low Carb GP to discuss his ‘Eureka’ low carb moment at DPC

https://diabetestimes.co.uk/low-car...-moment-at-dpc/

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A top GP is set to unveil some ground-breaking research in the world of diabetes, blood pressure and heart disease.

Dr David Unwin, otherwise known as the Low Carb GP, is joining Consultant Cardiologist Dr Scott Murray to present a session at November’s virtual Diabetes Professional Care (DPC2020) show on Wednesday, November 11.

Dr Unwin said: “We’re both advocates for lifestyle prescribing and prevention and we want to talk about how effective a low carb diet can be on blood pressure as a possible alternative to lifelong medication.”

Together, they wrote a research paper which showed how following a low carb diet not only improves diabetes control and helps people lose weight but also significantly improves blood pressure.

He added: “We’ve actually known since 1997, that for people with type 2 diabetes, insulin causes renal sodium retention which in turn can put blood pressure up.

“Of all the people with type 2 diabetes who went low carb, 20 per cent were able to stop taking blood pressure meds, so we’ll be exploring whether we’ve been blaming salt for what sugar has actually done.”

Since publication in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health the research paper has gone into the top five per cent of all studies ever published.

Dr Unwin says they are “proud of their achievement” and it “proves” there is great interest in lifestyle prescription among healthcare professionals.

He added: “Our paper gives hope to people and I believe hopefulness is encouraging people to make those changes that become key to good health.”

Interestingly, when recruiting for the study, both doctors ensured they included older people too. The findings found that the over 65s were just as keen as the young participants to make positive health changes and the outcomes were just as good.

Indeed, Dr Unwin has seen how effective a low carb diet can be for blood pressure first-hand.

He said: “I had my Eureka moment back in 2013 when I started feeling dizzy when I stood up. I started monitoring my blood pressure which at the time was quite high. However, when I gave up sugar and starchy carbs, my blood pressure improved significantly.

“I have seen exactly the same happen among so many of my patients and we want to shout about it. Savings from the drug budgets could pay for better quality care for so many people.

“I wanted to team up with cardiologist Dr Scott Murray as he had also started to believe into the low carb movement. After spending years of putting stents into people, he wanted to find a way to prevent people requiring surgery in the first place.

“We’re very much looking forward to unveiling our results at the DPC and we feel the findings are too significant to ignore, which is why as doctors we owe it to our patients to promote low carb as a realistic option which could improve not just diabetic control but also weight and blood pressure into the bargain!”

‘The link between high blood pressure and insulin’ presented by Dr David Unwin and Dr Scott Murray will take place on Wednesday, November 11 at 1940pm.