How To Spot Propaganda
This movie is propaganda from the people behind PETA who simply dont give a crap about what is healthy for you. One of the people behind the movie went to jail for firebombing medical researchers. When I was studying in university, PETA was firebombing the biology department for doing research on chicken eggs. I oppose animal research the vast majority of the time, but I do not oppose chicken egg research.
My advice? Dont take health advice from extremist propaganda. There are more reliable sources online.
That said, as a researcher and a journalist of sorts, Ive got to hand to these guys. They did one hell of a job with this film its slick, well-funded, and may even achieve its goal: to scare you so that you will stop eating animals and even animal products. Not because they care about your health and performance, but because they care about chicken eggs.
The Bulletproof lifestyle is different. We care about treating animals ethically which is why we dont eat industrial meat. We also care about soil integrity which is why we eat grass-fed animals and butter and eggs. But more importantly, its about having the energy to do what you are here to do. It turns out that the Dalai Lama put it best:
That means you owe it to yourself and the world to fuel your brain and your body so that you have the energy to fully honor your precious human life. And that means youre going to eat more than vegetables. I wish it wasnt that way, but it is.
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Great News For People With Diabetes Dr Robert Ratner Takes On Prevention And Remission Becoming Chief Medical Officer Of Virta Health
Dr. Robert Ratner, former top scientific and medical chief of the ADA, is appointed as Chief Medical Officer of Virta Health
Virta Health just announced great and very surprising news – that Dr. Robert Ratner, a long-time scientific and medical leader in diabetes, will serve as its Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Ratner has been an advisor to Virta since 2017, and he served as the top scientific chief at the American Diabetes Association from 2012-2017.
Virta provides an online specialty medical clinic with health coaches and doctors who help individuals manage diabetes and possibly put type 2 diabetes into remission using daily app-based coaching and individual carbohydrate restriction.
Dr. Ratner brings to Virta 40 years of clinical, educational, and regulatory experience. Though best known in his role at ADA, he also a Professor of Medicine at Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, DC.
As a champion of data-driven approaches, Dr. Ratner believes in continuous remote care to improve outcomes for people with type 2 diabetes. He has consistently advocated for CGMs in achieving and maintaining glycemic control, given their ability to help people increase their time in range. diaTribe has worked closely with Dr. Ratner on the Beyond A1C Movement over the past several years – see Dr. Ratners slides on the limitations of A1C from our 2017 Consensus Conference. We look forward to seeing Dr. Ratners perspectives further integrated into Virtas care model.
Virta Hires Former American Diabetes Association Cmo Bright Health Names New Ceo And Other Digital Health Hires
Digital diabetes company Virta has named Dr. Robert Ratnerits next Chief Medical Officer. Ratner comes to the position following his tenure as Chief Scientific and Medical Officer for the American Diabetes Association. This news comes only a few months after the company announced its $93 million Series C funding round.
Ratner has been involved with the San Francisco-based startup for some time, since he also served as an advisor for the company.
Our understanding of what is possible at scale in diabetes care is changing rapidly, Ratner said in a statement. There’s sufficient evidence that sustained remission is achievable for many, and this is why I am joining Virta to help bring this life-changing option, delivered via a novel, virtual-care model, to the millions of Americans who want it.
This morning insurtech startup Bright Health announced that acting president G. Mike Mikan will now step into the role as CEO and president. He will be taking the reins from Bob Sheehy, who was one of the original founders of the company. Bright Health is a particularly well-funded startup, closing a $645 million Series D fund in December.
The company also announced that Jeff Immelt, former chairman and CEO of General Electric, will be joining its board of directors.
In early April SOC Telemed tapped Sam Dvorchik as its next Chief Revenue Officer. As part of his new role he will head up the business-development and marketing-strategy efforts at the company.
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What The Health Summary
San Francisco filmmaker Kip Andersen introduces his 2017 documentary What the Health with a look at his family medical history. Diabetes, heart disease, and cancer all lurk in his genes.
Given that pedigree, he once spent lots of time worrying about his health. Then the day came when the World Health Organization announced it was classifying processed meats as Group 1 carcinogens, in the same category as tobacco and plutonium.
What the Health shows footage of various news anchors breaking the news with great solemnity:
Processed meats directly involved in causing cancer in humans.
Processed meat is clearly linked to an increase in cancer.
Hot dogs or bacon could be just as dangerous as smoking cigarettes.
Kip then examines the foundation of WHOs decision:
The World Health Organization looked at over 800 different studies from 10 different countries finding a direct link to consuming processed meat and cancer.
What the Health, however, also examines processed meats link to Kips other big concerns, diabetes and heart disease.
Much of it tracks his attempts to interview people of power at organizations supposedly dedicated to fighting these diseases. Their defensive reactions when asked about a link between diet and health led to some uncomfortable moments.
Visibly upset with the direction of the conversation, he simply responded Any diet works, any diet works if people follow it, and terminated the interview.
In Kips words:
As Dr. Garth Davis, MD tells Kip:
What The Film Gets Right
What the Health underlines several aspects of the American food system that are often criticized, including the amount of antibiotics used in agriculture, which is linked to growing health issues like antibiotic resistance. The documentary also highlights the financial relationships between food industry companies and national public health groups. Andersen points out that companies like Kraft, Dannon, Oscar Mayer and morewhich sell processed foods high in fat, sodium or sugar like mac and cheese, hot dogs and flavored yogurtare sponsors of the American Diabetes Association, and may have a financial stake in diet recommendations by health groups.
Conflicts of interest between nutrition groups and food companies are nothing new. National nutrition guidelines are subject to lots of lobbying from the food industrya common complaint among nutrition experts, including Bellatti, who argue that the government is giving too much weight to industry interests when forming dietary recommendations for Americans. Its important for Americans to know that many health organizations receive funding from companies and trade groups that are not in line with health, Bellatti says, and how that affects recommendations.
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Diabetes Association Names Ratner Cmo
The American Diabetes Association has named Dr. Robert Ratner as its chief scientific officer and chief medical officer, effective May 7.
Ratner is a professor of medicine at Georgetown University Medical School in Washington, D.C., and a principle investigator for the National Institutes of Health’s Diabetes Prevention Program, according to an American Diabetes Association news release. He also is a senior research scientist at the Hyattsville, Md.-based MedStar Health Research Institute, which conducts medical research and provides a range of research support services.
In his new roles, Ratner will be the association’s primary scientific spokesman for research and clinical activities and will oversee the development and implementation of strategic medical and scientific programs.
During Ratner’s transition over the next three months, Dr. Sue Kirkman, currently the association’s senior vice president of medical affairs and community information, will serve as acting chief scientific and medical officer. Ages for Ratner and Kirkman were unavailable at deadline.
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The Link Between Meat And Cancer Comes With Caveats
Andersen, co-director of the film, rightly points out that processed meat was by the International Agency for Research on Cancer , a World Health Organization group, in 2015. IARC did find a link between eating processed meat and a higher risk for colorectal cancer. However, in contrast to the film, IARC did not suggest that eating processed meat is on par with smoking cigarettes.
Instead, IARC maintains that eating processed meat and smoking bear different levels of risk. Processed meat has been classified in the same category as causes of cancer such as tobacco smoking and asbestos, but this does NOT mean that they are all equally dangerous, the agency wrote in an explanation of its findings in 2015.
According to the World Health Organization, about 34,000 cancer deaths per year worldwide are attributable to diets high in processed meat, while about 1 million cancer deaths are due to tobacco smoking, 600,000 are due to alcohol consumption and more than 200,000 per year are due to air pollution.
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American Diabetes Association Names Robert E Ratner Md Facp Face As Organizations Chief Scientific And Medical Officer
ALEXANDRIA, VA 02/02/12 The American Diabetes Association announced today that Robert E. Ratner, MD, FACP, FACE has been named Chief Scientific and Medical Officer, effective May 7, 2012. Dr. Ratner is currently Professor of Medicine at Georgetown University Medical School and Senior Research Scientist at the MedStar Health Research Institute in metropolitan Washington, DC.
As Chief Scientific and Medical Officer for the American Diabetes Association, Dr. Ratner will serve as the primary medical and scientific representative and spokesperson for the Associations scientific and medical affairs, research program and other clinical activities, and oversee the planning, development, and implementation of a wide variety of strategic scientific and medical programs to support and advance the Associations mission.
Bob Ratner is one of the brightest and most respected minds in diabetes, said Larry Hausner, Chief Executive Officer, American Diabetes Association. He brings a remarkable breadth of experience to this vital role, and I am confident that his leadership and vision will be a strong guiding force in helping the Association achieve our strategic priorities and further our mission.
For the next three months, Dr. Ratner will be transitioning out of his current position, during which time Sue Kirkman, MD, Senior Vice President, Medical Affairs and Community Information, will be the Associations acting Chief Scientific and Medical Officer.
American Diabetes Associations Ratner Joins Virta As Chief Medical Officer
Virta Health has appointed Robert Ratner to serve as its chief medical officer. He was most recently the chief scientific & medical officer for the American Diabetes Association. Ratner is also a professor of medicine at Georgetown University Medical School. San Francisco-based Virta has developed software for diabetes patients that provides nutrition information, counseling, and coaching to encourages behavioral changes that reverse the course of their disease.
Frank Vinluan is an Xconomy editor based in Research Triangle Park. You can reach him at Follow @frankvinluan
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Noninsulin Treatments For Type 1 Diabetes
Injectable and oral glucose-lowering drugs have been studied for their efficacy as adjuncts to insulin treatment of type 1 diabetes. Pramlintide is based on the naturally occurring -cell peptide amylin and is approved for use in adults with type 1 diabetes. Clinical trials have demonstrated a modest reduction in A1C and modest weight loss with pramlintide . Similarly, results have been reported for several agents currently approved only for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. The addition of metformin in adults with type 1 diabetes caused small reductions in body weight and lipid levels but did not improve A1C . The largest clinical trials of glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists in type 1 diabetes have been conducted with liraglutide 1.8 mg daily, showing modest A1C reductions , decreases in weight , and reductions in insulin doses . Similarly, sodiumglucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors have been studied in clinical trials in people with type 1 diabetes, showing improvements in A1C, reduced body weight, and improved blood pressure however, SGLT2 inhibitor use in type 1 diabetes is associated with an increased rate of diabetic ketoacidosis. The risks and benefits of adjunctive agents continue to be evaluated, with consensus statements providing guidance on patient selection and precautions .
A Review Of What The Health
What the Health is a documentary that was released in 2017 directed by Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn.
The film follows director Kip Andersen as he interviews several physicians with whom many of us are familiarDr. Michael Greger, Dr. Neal Barnard, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Dr. John McDougall, and others.
Andersen also interviews several representatives of various health organizations such as the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association. Unfortunately, he is shut down before getting answers to his questions about the links between diet and health.
You can listen to our podcast where we discuss the film or read on for a quick summary.
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An Interview With Adas New Chief Scientific Medical And Mission Officer
DM) Thanks for taking the time, Dr. Cefalu. To start, can you tell us how you first got involved in the diabetes field?
WC) Ive been involved in diabetes since medical school and my first project on diabetes and heart disease, and so I guess my interest began in 1979 as a medical student and intern. I did my first research training at University of California Irvine and a research fellowship at UCLA, and thats where I became interested in diabetes. Working in a research lab, some of the aspects of hormone transports led me to be interested in glucose attaching to the protein and impacting A1C, affecting physiology.
Also at that time in the early 80s, UCLA had a great endocrine section in different diseases, but diabetes at that time didnt have much to offer with diabetes. But I realized that diabetes affected just about every organ system, and it gave me an opportunity to do just about anything in research.
I became interested in the fact that there was just so much to do in this disease space. And that led to my first diabetes research project at Tulane, and it took off from there.
Youve had a particular research interest in insulin resistance can you expand on that and what the hot buttons are?
Do you think we need more official recognition of prediabetes, or is the push for a pre-diagnosis label perhaps less useful than we think?
When did you first get involved with the ADA?
Can you tell us more about your experience as an editor with those medical journals?
What The Health Controversy
One of the biggest points of controversy deals with the root cause of diabetes. There are doctors who say that diabetes is caused by fat in the blood, rather than sugar or carbohydrates as is typically cited. Sugar is introduced into cells via insulin. These doctors claim that fat in the blood and muscle fibers interferes with insulin, preventing sugar from getting into the cells and causing sugar to build up in the bloodstream . Diabetes then, according to some, results from fat toxicity in our organs. While sugar can certainly exacerbate diabetes its not solely responsible for causing it.
Given this and numerous studies linking the consumption of meat and animal byproducts to major health issues such as diabetes, Andersen is puzzled as to why non-profit organizations such as the American Diabetes Association would include recipes containing meat in their recommended diets. This is where things get ugly. Andersen was chewed out by Robert Ratner, then Chief Scientific & Medical Officer for the American Diabetes Association , for asking so many questions about the links between meat and diabetes. The doctor ended up storming out of the room.
Another alarming fact is that the government organizations that create the US Dietary GuidelinesHealth and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture are filled with members who receive money from corporations.
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The Ethics Of Eating Meat
I learned the ethics of eating meat from a Tibetan lama in a monastery high on the Tibetan plateau. Fresh off nearly a year of being a raw vegan, I accused the head of the monastery of being a hypocrite. How could they teach no killing and hang a yak skin from the prayer pole? With a twinkle in his eye, the wise llama said simply one death feeds everyone. We talked about it for a while. It turns out that you can eat a half a pound of beef from a grass fed cow and kill about 0.35 animals per year in total. You dont need that much meat, and I dont recommend it either. Animal fat is the real treasure. A soy burger kills dozens to thousands of animals depending on how you think of it, including bunnies, turtles, mice, ladybugs, butterflies, and lots of other animals killed by combines and habitat destruction.
The grass fed cow grazed on land that wasnt suitable for agriculture without irrigation, and no animals died unless the cow accidentally stepped on a frog. No tractor kills because there are no tractors!
But all of that research and all those interviews have taught me one thing how to spot propaganda and what to do when you see it. The first thing you do is laugh and ask yourself whether people will fall for it. Then you dismantle it in case people actually do fall for it.