Siobhan and I flew to Nashville to attend the Clinical Lipid Update put on by the National Lipid Association. We were both very excited to be hanging with like-minded lipid geeks, even if our perspectives might vary a little. We managed to make some new friends, get interesting perspectives and learned a few new things in the lectures that have us looking into some research we might not have come across otherwise.
The Organization and Staff Were Super Friendly
My one biggest worry was that NLA staff might not receive me well given I might be considered a more controversial figure with regard to cholesterol (certainly I get that feeling in social media). But nothing could have been further from the truth. Before registering, I worked closely with Brandi Rawls, the NLA Membership Manager to get the details settled. And upon arriving, I had a number of questions for their Project Coordinator, Chealsea Schroeder, who was all too happy to answer. All in all, it was a lot of smiles and well-wishing.
Project Coordinator Chealsea Schroeder
Meeting the Luminaries of Lipidology
We got to meet quite a few Big Names in the field.
While not all are fans of the Low Carb / Ketogenic lifestyle, one particular figure Sarah Hallberg wanted me to meet was Greg Pokrywka of the Baltimore Lipid Center. He had some great suggestions on next steps for us in our research and I was quite honored to have the chat.
I had a number of questions for many who gave presentations, but I decided to forego the public Q&A to instead approach them with my query privately following the session.
I was especially interested in the blood and non-blood tests taken for patient cases. How much do they focus on Lp(a), free fatty acids, and CTs like CAC? Overall, quite a bit, actually. I also asked about fasting insulin and C-Peptide, but hadn’t found anyone who actively used it before.
Final Thoughts
Overall, Siobhan and I had a positive experience and especially enjoyed the last day which had a focus on CAC’s value and a couple things we didn’t know about like Lipoprotein X.
We also wrapped an experiment around the event: the Tandem Drop Experiment. But more on that in the next post…
Have you heard Tom Dayspring’s statement on his podcast with Peter Attia? I quote from Dayspring in the first postcast with Peter, “Before I answer your current question, what I was explaining before, is the lipoproteins, everybody thinks their purpose is to deliver cholesterol to tissues. That’s their last purpose. They don’t do that. The real purpose of our lipoprotein, our lipid transportation system, is to transport energy to tissues that need them. That would be triglycerides. The fatty acids, which our cells oxidize, create ATP. So they are brought to tissues that are very good at extracting triglycerides from lipoproteins, muscle cells. But if your muscles, because you’re not using your muscles, don’t need any energy today, those triglycerides will be dumped as a fatty acid into an adipocyte to be stored as a fatty acid in the form of a TG.”
I think this is a very significant validation of what you were trying to communicate on Peter’s podcast and for your theory.
Hi Dave! Off topic, but please could you say if and/or when Part 3 of the “Simple Guide” will be released? Thanks!
Thank you for the described experiment. I think that you have included all the details! The theory is truly excellent.