How low carb can save tons of money by reducing the need for medications

June 20 2017 by in Diabetes, Dr. David Unwin, Low carb & high fat

A low-carb diet can drastically reduce the need for blood-sugar lowering medications for people with diabetes. Here’s an amazing example.

There is a surprisingly positive side effect for clinics adopting low-carb nutrition counselling for improving the patients’ type 2 diabetes. The need for prescribing medications drop, consequently reducing costs.

Creds to Dr. Unwin for sharing the cost comparison of clinics above. He’s a low-carb physician who has also saved money for his own clinic using this strategy.

Do you want to know more about this strategy, for improving people’s health and saving money at the same time? Watch the video below.

Video with Dr. Unwin

Side effects and how to handle them
03:45
Dr. Unwin discusses common side effects when patients switch to a low-carb or keto diet.
Who are the best patients?
03:46
Who would be the best candidates to try the low-carb approach with? Dr. Unwin talks about the golden opportunities.
Can low carb make it fun to be a doctor?
36:47
Dr. Unwin about getting his patients off medications and making a true difference in their lives using low carb.
How to motivate your patients
50:25
In this presentation from Low Carb Denver 2019, Drs. David and Jen Unwin explain how physicians can finetune the art of practicing medicine with strategies from psychology to help their patients reach their goals.
Explaining low carb in a simple way
07:23
How to make low carb simple for patients? Unwin explains how carbs break down into surprising amounts of sugar in the body.
How to motivate people
12:33
How to ensure that patients are motivated to make the switch to low carb and stick to the plan?
What about cholesterol?
04:14
Dr. Unwin discusses cholesterol on low carb: common improvements and rare cases when cholesterol increases significantly.
Polite intros to discuss obesity
03:16
How to discuss obesity with patients in a respectful manner? Many doctors feel uncomfortable bringing up the topic of weight as they are afraid of being rude.
Diabetes medications
05:52
Dr. Unwin on things doctors should have in mind when it comes to low carb and diabetes medications.
How many teaspoons of sugar are in your food?
05:07
How many teaspoons of sugar are in your food?
Common problems and trouble shooting
05:41
Dr. Unwin discusses useful strategies for patients who are not losing as much weight as anticipated.
Blood-pressure medications
05:28
Dr. Unwin discusses things doctors should have in mind when it comes to low carb and blood-pressure medications.
Summary and conclusion
02:45
The key takeaways from Dr. Unwin's course for low-carb doctors.
Diet Doctor Podcast #33 – Dr. David Unwin
43:25
Dr. Unwin was on the verge of retiring as a general practice physician in the UK. Then he found the power of low carb nutrition and began helping his patients in ways he never thought possible.
Helping people with type 2 diabetes
32:31
How Dr. Unwin transformed his practice into helping patients with type 2 diabetes reverse their disease using low carb.
Baseline tests and screening
10:35
Unwin discusses the importance of measuring a baseline weight, waist circumference, blood pressure, and metabolic markers.
Motivating people to change their lives
51:45
How do you help and motivate people to start and stay on a low-carb diet?
Low carb in other situations
02:24
In part 3, Dr. Unwin discusses other diseases than type 2 diabetes where low carb can be the solution.

Earlier

BMJ: Practices Should Be Able to Keep Money Saved from Putting Patients on a Low-Carbohydrate Diet

Reversing Type 2 Diabetes and Losing 27 Kilos by Cutting Out Sugar

Type 2 Diabetes Reversed Again

6 comments

1
Robert
June 20 2017
How much more money could be saved by not over prescribing statins (assuming that there is ever a good reason to take them) which would also get rid of the necessity for the medications to deal with the associated side effects.
2
Slipp Digby
June 21 2017
The data is from open prescribing, hence it has not been adjusted.

So making any comparison across difference practices should be done with caution. Please read the notes https://openprescribing.net/caution/

Your essentially comparing this practice to others with more diabetic patients.

Reply: #6
3
TOS
June 21 2017
Slipp Digby, that's a fair point - but if you look on openprescribing.net you'll see that the practice in question is the second biggest in terms of patient numbers in the CCG. It would be unusual for such a large practice to have a disproportionately low diabetes prevalence.
1 comment removed
5
Slipp Digby
June 22 2017
Hi TOS

The figures above are presented as per £/1,000 patients for this drug category, so number of patients in the practice ('list size' as Open Prescribing calls it) has already been normalised.I can see how extra patients in a small practice could skew indicators but surely this is smoothed out in larger practices when normalised for list size.

Other factors (diabetes prevalence, patients age, ethnicity, obesity, etc etc) have not been adjusted for and there are many known (and indeed unknown factors) which will be reflected in the indicator.

You say that "It would be unusual for such a large practice to have a disproportionately low diabetes prevalence", but there is at least some evidence this has historically always been the case for this practice: https://www.gpcontract.co.uk/browse/K81022/16 (although currently this is negligible)

My point really is that there is a wider context to the performance of a particular practice which is needed to interpret the indicators, and it is disingenuous to pick out a practice offering low carb interventions and then imply that the good performance is a product of the intervention.

Although just a correlation, I'd be interested in when Wokingham offered this intervention, because they have consistently been the best (or therabouts) for measure 6.1.2 in their CCG since Jan 2015. If the intervention started later, is this not at least some evidence of a background of historical good performance? https://openprescribing.net/analyse/#org=practice&orgIds=K81022&...

There is also a rather interesting anomaly in that while there are very good against cost indicators, they are not so good against number of items prescribed per 1,000 patients. So they are using more items but costs are lower. Perhaps indicates more of a different type of drugs in this category (6.1.2) are being used which are simply less expensive?
6
Reply to comment #2 by Slipp Digby
Valerie
June 23 2017
I have to agree. I ran the same search, but with insulin instead. That clinic becomes middle-of-the-pack. Not such a great poster child for the LCHF diet.
7
Annie Hosking
November 25 2017
I am registered with this practice and my own GP suggested the Diet Doctor website to me in March 2017 after telling me the UK dietary guidelines were completely wrong. I needed to lower my blood pressure and lose weight in order to meet the requirements for surgery (Total hip replacement). I started lchf at the end of March. By the beginning of August I had done it. I did have medication to help bring my blood pressure done quickly though he said he had no doubt lchf would do it in time.
Thanks to my GP and lchf I no longer binge eat, and I stop eating when I am full. I not even tempted by high carb foods any more. I have coped with setbacks and difficult emotional events much better than before (I have chronic depression). I had my operation three weeks ago. I am so grateful to Dr Bhardwaj for taking the time to talk to me and point me in the right direction.

How low carb can save tons of money by reducing the need for medications

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