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LowCarbUSA®  Founder and CEO Doug Reynolds recently had an encouraging conversation with Tro Kalayjian, DO and Laura Buchanan, MD, MHP, about developing low-carb/keto resources for practitioners and patients. The interview is now available as Episode 95 of the LowCarbUSA® podcast. Dr. Tro is on the Board of Directors of the Society of Metabolic Health Practitioners (The SMHP) and a well-known practitioner in the world of therapeutic carbohydrate restriction (TCR) and metabolic health. He runs Tro's Medical Weight Loss & Direct Primary Care in Tappan, NY.

Laura Buchanan recently completed her third year of residency and has joined The SMHP board of directors, with a goal of helping to to provide resources for future medical students and residents, whose careers could be shaped by having more formal education about how TCR can be used to treat obesity, reverse type 2 diabetes, and improve metabolic health.  Laura recently joined Dr. Tro’s practice, where she began seeing patients just last week.

Doug spoke with Tro and Laura about their hopes of developing a community where practitioners, many of whom are working in solo practices, can work cooperatively to create information, policies, and support systems to make it easier and more efficient to build a business that can help greater numbers of patients.  “I’ve always been passionate about developing information doctors can use to better serve their patients,” said Dr. Tro. “The question we need to ask is how can we work together in a way that makes the process easier and more efficient? An important part of that involves providing more resources and opportunities for new doctors.”

In an article published last March (https://thesmhp.org/low-carb-couple-smhp/), Laura and her husband, Dr. Matt Calkins, spoke with The SMHP about the lack of education medical students receive in the area of nutrition, especially anything related to low-carb or ketogenic diets.  They are both members of The SMHP’s Resources Committee (Matt is the committee chair), which was formed to curate resources on nutrition and metabolic health, and then work with medical students, residencies, and clinicians to integrate them into their educational programs and daily practices.

During the podcast interview, Laura explained how she relied on the LowCarbMD podcast over the past several years to learn about TCR. The hope is that future medical students will be able to learn about these therapies as part of their formal curriculum, and that easy-to-access information, supported by scientific evidence and reliable research, will be available to any practitioner who needs it.  The interview provides a great deal of reason for optimism, as opportunities in the world of TCR become more accessible to new doctors like Laura.   Dr. Tro and Laura detailed many of the successes that are occurring everyday for patients, including drastic weight loss, reductions in A1C, reversal of type 2 diabetes, and de-prescription of medications.

On a more sobering note, they discussed the many challenges doctors face, including insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and food manufacturers. Perhaps most discouraging was the news that the West Virginia hospital Dr. Mark Cucuzzella convinced to stop selling sugary beverages, recently reversed that decision.