I hadn’t heard of ZDogg MD until his video, A Real Doctor Watches “What The Health” went viral.
The irony is that it popped on my radar initially from being attacked by vegan YouTubers I follow. Suddenly many of them were making “debunk” videos going after ZDogg and challenging his statements in the video. In case you’re wondering why I follow vegans among many anti-low carbers, you should know I try to proactively find counter opinions to the foundations of my knowledge constantly, as I think it is the best way to learn. (In fact, I’m currently making many local vegan friends here in town for a coming experiment of my own, but that’s for a later post.)
I then started watching the many, many other videos ZDogg was making with the help of his talented two-man crew, Tom and Logan. Without question, they are charting very new ground and actually making topics on medicine both interesting and entertaining. Sometimes he goes full music video, sometimes it’s a solemn discussion about healthcare workplace violence, but most of the time it’s ZDogg’s special blend of new perspectives mixed with impromptu humor that is wildly addictive.
When I found out they were based in Vegas like yours truly, I considered reaching out once I was back from the Low Carb USA conference. Finally, I fit it in at the end of last week, sending him to my Breckenridge presentation and in a matter of days we worked out my being booked to come for that Sunday’s “Against Medical Advice” show.
ZDogg and I had an instant rapport. Best of all, in just 10-15 minutes before the interview, I was able to chat up some key biochem stuff on lipids that he instantly followed. He was repeating back big-picture concepts I was trying to convey, but in his own words and I was extremely impressed. I remarked how I find that difficult to communicate to even low carb doctors most of the time. But would that convert okay for the camera?
No question, it was one of the best (if not the best) interviews I’ve had. We covered quite a bit and I was pleased with how natural and easy our dialog flowed. Afterward, we talked about my coming back for more appearances which I’ll definitely be looking forward to.
The entire experience was incredible and I can’t emphasize enough how much I admire ZDogg, Tom, and Logan for their impressive work. Mark my words, these guys are building something truly new and innovative, and I’m excited to see how far it goes.
Fabulous interview Dave. I’m definitely going to share this with my lipidologist when I see him in September.
Thanks, Christine! Let me know what he/she says. 🙂
(Side note: conventional lipidologists are — ironically — the toughest for me to get my research across to. My data goes very much against a lot of core assumptions in the field.)
Just got my NMR results back this morning. I now have three years of data. This time I did five days of >5,000 kcal/day consumption. I ate one-meal-a-day in the morning every day with the exception of the day before the test. Then I had a morning meal and an evening meal. My hypothesis (obviously Dave-inspired) was that fasting much more than 12-14 hours before the blood draw would give me “worse” test results.
You have my email. I have detailed CronOmeter data on everything I ate before each test. I will be happy to give you the data file if you would like. I weighed all my ingredients on a kitchen scale.
In what follows, the order of the date on each row is 10/24/15, 11/14/16, 8/19/17.
The tl;dr version is that by stuffing my face and making sure to eat the evening before the blood draw I significantly lowered total cholesterol, ldl cholesterol, and ldl particle number. My doctor will probably still want me on statins. But my hat goes off to Dave. I think this is a case where the word “genius” can be used deservedly.
LDL-P 1831 2943 1403
LDL-C 232 305 164
HDL-C 71 61 73
TG 70 76 76
TC 317 381 252
HDL-P 33.4 29 41
SMALL LDL-P 213 692 117
LDL SIZE 21.9 21.8 21.8
LP-IR <25 <25 51
PRIOR 3-DAY AVERAGE DAILY CONSUMPTION
KCAL 3553 2094 7311
PRO 94.3 80.9 275.5
CHO 28.8 24.1 17.6
FAT 347.2 189.9 686.4
SAT FAT 115.5 77.0 171.3
MUFA 177.3 86.1 408.7
PUFA 38.9 14.5 77.5
CHOLESTEROL 888.5 730.4 1555.2
PRIOR 3-DAY AVERAGE DAILY CONSUMPTION, WITH 2-DAY LAG
KCAL 2965 3203 5747
PRO 86.5 114.2 193.2
CHO 14.2 28.7 11.5
FAT 288.3 298.6 550.6
SAT FAT 104.5 109.3 88.7
MUFA 138.9 144.5 369.4
PUFA 32.5 29.9 69.1
CHOLESTEROL 777.8 909.3 1188.8
Awesome results! Yes – we’d love that data. I sent you a private email.
Mike — this is great! Very well documented and carefully controlled. Excellent work!
I especially loved that you kept careful track of your SF vs MUFA vs PUFA. I’ll follow up by email…
I had never heard of him until his review of ‘What the Health’. He is a funny guy. Great interview.
I became an instant fan. ZDogg is really moving up the medium on making medicine interesting and engaging, which is *long* overdue!
What is the most economical way to get blood tests? I’m trying to improve several markers and would like to monitor my progress throughout the year. I figured you have researched this with all the testing you have done. Thanks for your help.
I originally got a lot of tests through online services like RequestATest.com.
Now I work with a doctor who gives me better prices directly if I’m ordering in bulk. Are you based in the US?
Yes. I am in Dallas.
I’m also in Dallas and interested in lower cost for blood tests. Following along. Thanks!
I’m going to see if I can reach out to my guy as I’ve been getting quite a lot of requests lately. Would be nice to streamline something soon that could help everyone out…
That would be great Dave. Keep us updated.
I’d like to do something thorough like this…
https://www.wellnessfx.com/premium
Is $925 reasonable for something like this?
Not sure as I’d have to comb through all the tests. But you can catch the recent post by Craig on testing and it might answer some of your questions…
Dave Eran Segal has done some work on lost meal glucose responses
1000 Test subjects 50,000 meals.
Can predict which foods spike glucose for which individual.
65 percent spike on white rice and not ice cream while 35 percent spike on ice cream.
Hmm
Eric
Wow — I certainly wouldn’t have guessed that one!
Great interview!
I wonder if you have seen this aricle on the inverse relationship between all cause mortality and LDL.
http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/6/6/e010401
I have, actually. In fact, there are many studies that show an inverse relationship with LDL cholesterol and all cause mortality, even more strongly with women.
Dave,
Fascinating information that you have here. I am aware of you now because of the video with ZDogg MD, and perusing your sight it’s obvious the info in the video was just the tip of the iceberg.
As fate would have it, I am taking a basic lipid panel blood test tomorrow morning, and when I watched that video earlier this week I immediately decided to experiment on myself using your suggestions. I’m already on a low-carb diet, so since Tuesday I’ve increased my saturated and monounsaturated fats.
On top of this I’ve been working on my aerobic base, so I’ve avoided hard runs and weight lifting for at least a month. However, you mentioned in the video that you also saw positive results correlating with soreness due to cellular repair. So my question is: is it to late to get in a good work-out tonight for tomorrow’s test? And if not, do you think a good weight lifting session would fit the bill?
Thanks again!
Samuel
I’m guessing this reply is too late to catch you before your blood test. But yes, I’d theorize a hard workout in the day or two before a cholesterol test would likely reduce it relative to where it would have been.
Thanks for the response, Dave. Given what you had stated in the video I went ahead with a hard weight training session the night before my blood work appointment.
And now I am in ecstatic awe! After the 3 days of increased dietary fat plus the workout the night before, my results on this last test are amazing and exactly what I needed. Much thanks for your research!
Funny enough, I was happy to scale back the fat afterward. I felt very indulgent for those 3 days.
Glad to hear it, Samuel!
Dave, I wanted to follow up on the “hard workout” aspect of the protocol. Has there been more data gathered in this regard? I’ve searched through your website but haven’t seen any additional info for this particular influence on the test.
I’ve recently stopped taking statins (against the wishes of my cardiologist, of course). I want to fine tune the protocol for my own best results (and to blow his mind). To achieve the best results, I’m debating whether to have the hard workout just the day before or 2 days before.
So to be sure, this is definitely a very theoretical zone that I don’t have a lot of data on. My primary data is here: http://cholesterolcode.com/impact-of-endurance-running-on-cholesterol/
But of course, there are a lot of confounders there as well. If I were to guess, it might be most effective if done the morning before the morning of the blood test (so about 24 hours before) and no shorter. Again — very speculative.
Hi. I’m going to be doing a fasting blood test, but won’t be able to do it till 6 p.m. I am supposed to fast 12 hours according to the company providing the test. Would it be better to eat something at 6 a.m., or should I just fast longer?
From my experience, it’d be easier to continue my overnight fast till 6pm instead of eating at 5am. If you are using this next to get a low chol number, you can still eat more the previous 3 days. (I would guess an 10am test would have lower chol than 6pm, though)
Craig