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“You’re no longer diabetic!” This was a phrase that I was fortunate enough to be able to tell six different patients last week who were previously diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. “You don’t need your blood pressure medication, or this statin anymore either” is becoming another one of my catch-phrases, too. I’ve uttered those words more in the last six months than in the previous nine years combined of practice as a family doctor.

What am I doing to be able to say this to patients?

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Simple: showing them how to take control of their health through eating foods low in carbs and high in fats. Unfortunately, articles like the one by Dr. Christopher Labos published earlier this month (“Little difference between low-carb and low-fat diets,” Opinion, Aug. 9) may give readers the impression that low carb, or ketogenic diets, are just another fad.

The reality is that a low-carb lifestyle is so much more than a diet. Yes, of course it is a wonderful way to lose weight, but even more important than that, it is a robust tool in our arsenal against a plethora of medical conditions. It has a tremendous implication in treating diabetes, polycystic ovarian syndrome, epilepsy and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, to name a few. Over the past few years, we’ve seen emerging evidence about the connection between glucose and Alzheimer’s disease, which some are now referring to as Type 3 Diabetes.