Doctor in the House – Watch Diabetes Not Being Reversed Using Low Carb on BBC, While LCHF'ers Freak Out.

This post is about Doctor in the House – Watch Diabetes Reversed Using Low Carb on BBC, While Old-School Dietitians Freak Out.

The YouTube videos may be gone, but the image lives on!
Available to view in the UK on iPlayer 'till 19.12.15 at https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06q6y95/doctor-in-the-house-episode-1

In Dr. Eenfeldt's blog post, he makes some schoolboy errors.

1. T2DM (type 2 diabetes mellitus) Reversed with LCHF (low-carb, high-fat) diet. Uh, nope!
a) Sandeep's HbA1c fell from 9.0 to 7.0, which is an improvement but by no means a reversal, as Dr. Chatterjee agrees in https://twitter.com/drchatterjeeuk/status/669875378568171520.
b) Sandeep has T2DM, not T1DM. See When the only tool in the box is a hammer...
Sandeep's BG (blood glucose) went down on LCHF, but what about his dyseverything elseaemia? *sound of crickets chirping*

2. Old-school dietitians freak out. Uh, nope!
In BDA alarmed by controversial and potentially dangerous advice in BBC’s ‘Doctor in the House’, Dr. Duane Mellor sounds pretty cool, calm & collected (though I expect that he sustained injuries from all of the eyeball rolling, as he had to refute for the umpteenth time yet another load of LCHF bullshit).

3. He plays the Shill Gambit card.

Oh, the comments! In typical echo-chamber fashion, LCHF commenters praise Eenfeldt's flawed points. I wonder how long my comment will stay up for?

My comments on the programme (c/p'ed from Facebook):-
"6 minutes in. I think that Priti is deficient in Magnesium (Mg), from her stress levels, anxiety, headaches and difficulty in getting to sleep. Blood tests are useless, as they don't correlate with Mg stores. Need CSF (cerebrospinal fluid) test (lumbar puncture - very painful).

12 minutes in. Priti's blood test results normal. Sandeep has hypovitaminosis D, which is a cause of IR (insulin resistance, it's what caused mine). This important fact is not mentioned. unsure emoticon See http://www.ajcn.org/content/79/5/820.full.pdf

16 minutes in. Talked about sugar in foods & drinks but ignored the large amount of cheese that Sandeep ate earlier. Cheese is *very* energy-dense. Sandeep has been in positive Energy Balance for *way* too long.

24 minutes in. Priti's getting sugar cravings in the morning. Lack of Magnesium also causes IR & poor BG regulation. See https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4549665/

29 minutes in. HIIT (high-intensity interval training) for Sandeep is good for increasing his IS, but little use for reducing his VAT (visceral adipose tissue). You can't out-run your fork.

33 minutes in. Walking for Priti to lose weight? You can't out-walk your fork. If 1,000 steps takes 10 minutes and burns an extra 40kcals, then 10,000 steps takes 100 minutes and burns an extra 400kcals = one chocolate bar.

33:47 minutes in. Sareena has had a full-time job working indoors for the last year. Less sun exposure = falling Vitamin D3 level = deteriorating immune system, deteriorating mood & deteriorating IS. See https://nigeepoo.blogspot.co.uk/2008/12/vitamin-d.html

I don't think that I can watch much more of this programme!"

followed by:-
"In conclusion:-
1. Anyone who suffers from chronic anxiety is probably deficient in Mg.

2. Anyone who lives in the UK (United Kingdom :-D) and has coloured skin and/or works indoors is probably deficient in Vitamin D3.

3. ~85% of people who have T2DM have excessive VAT. Asians who were skinny in early adulthood have limited SAT (sub-cutaneous adipose tissue) hyperplasia, resulting in small skin-folds but large bellies. A LCHF diet is not suitable for over-fat people with T2DM. It should be a LCLF diet i.e. a low-calorie diet, to deplete over-full cells. Calories count.

4. You can't out-walk/run your fork.

5. Dr Chatterjee has a strong bias. This is not a good trait for someone who's supposed to be practising Evidence Based Medicine."

It's interesting that Priti is fatter than Sandeep, yet Priti doesn't have T2DM and Sandeep does. Priti was most likely fatter than Sandeep in their respective childhoods, for whatever reasons. Priti had more SAT hyperplasia than Sandeep, so she has more storage capacity for dietary fat than Sandeep does. Priti can gain more SAT, which protects her from developing T2DM. Sandeep can't, so he gains VAT, which has limited storage capacity and is more metabolically-active than SAT.

See also Adipocyte Hyperplasia - Good or Bad? and A *very* special dual-fuel car analogy for the human body that I just invented.

You're free, and a testimonial.

First, the music video.


I have to admit that I'm not exactly what you'd call "exciting". Apart from driving my yellow MX-5 very fast in the middle of the night when there's nobody around, I'm not an adrenaline junkie. My mother used to throw herself out of light aircraft with a parachute on her back. There were occasions where her main 'chute either failed to open or it became tangled and had to be "cut away" before deploying the reserve.

I'll fly through the air when I've grown a pair of wings. I'll swim when I've grown a set of gills. I'll climb up the side of a mountain when I've grown two extra legs and have the strength & balance of a goat.

In some ways, I'm lucky to have slightly defective hearing & vision. I'm happy with the sound quality of inexpensive stereos and I don't need HDTV. I get my kicks from singing and from helping people to improve their health. I believe that health is number one priority as, without it, you can't properly do or enjoy things in life.

So, you're free to do what you want to do. Also, you're free to take or leave my advice! Anyway...

Somebody who I've known for about 14 years had been suffering from fairly obvious signs of magnesium deficiency (anxiety, poor sleep, cramps, spasms etc) for quite a while, so I virtually frog-marched him to the pharmacy at Tesco on bank holiday Monday and got him to buy a pot of Epsom Salts and add some to a smoothie.

He wishes to remain anonymous, but last night he informed me that he's feeling much better and is now pooing normally for the first time in 20 years. That's probably how long he's been deficient in magnesium. I've also given him 14 Vitamin D3 5,000iu mini gelcaps to try, as he suffers from low moods and rarely gets any sun on his skin.

Our bodies work so much better when they have all the nutrients that they need.

The usual suspects.

On Facebook, on message boards and in conversation, I often see and hear:-

1. I'm down in the Winter/I keep getting infections/I have allergies/I have aches & pains.

2. I'm up & down a lot.

3. I'm down/I'm anxious/I can't sleep/I get restless legs/cramps/menstrual cramps/muscle spasms/lung spasms/migraines.

4. I've got inflamed or painful joints/skin/guts/lungs/w.h.y.


1. Vitamin D insufficiency/deficiency is widespread by the end of Winter (~90% of people have serum 25(OH)D less than 75nmol/L or 30ng/mL) due to insufficient sun exposure (or sun exposure through glass) during the Summer. A safe & effective dose is 50iu of Vitamin D3 per kg weight per day. See Randomized comparison of the effects of the vitamin D₃ adequate intake versus 100 mcg (4000 IU) per day on biochemical responses and the wellbeing of patients & Vitamin D.

2. Modern diets are lacking in long-chain omega-3 fatty acids (EPA & DHA), as many people don't eat any/enough oily fish. Tinned tuna is not a good source of omega-3 fatty acids. See Omega-3 fatty acids and major depression: A primer for the mental health professional. Women of reproductive age can take flaxseed oil, if they don't like oily fish, or take about ten 1,000mg fish oil capsules each day. Women not of reproductive age & men need to supplement with vegan DHA in addition to flaxseed oil, if they don't like oily fish or fish oil capsules.

3. Diets low in greens are low in magnesium. Excessive stress and/or alcohol consumption increases loss of magnesium in urine. Magnesium deficiency can cause all of the above symptoms. Epsom Salts are a very cheap source of Magnesium. 1 level teaspoonful/day (~4g/day) of Epsom Salts (spread the dose out over 24 hours to prevent it from having a laxative effect by dissolving the crystals in 250ml of warm water, then adding the solution to drinks to spread the 250ml out over 24 hours) provides ~400mg/day of Magnesium. See Magnesium and the Brain: The Original Chill Pill and  Magnesium in Man: Implications for Health and Disease.

4. Vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acids are anti-inflammatory. Inflammation that's worsened by stress and/or anxiety may be alleviated by magnesium.


Difficult-to-treat health problems such as depression are often multifactorial (with physiological AND psychological causes), so it's advisable to try 1. 2. and 3. (with your GP's consent). If you get improvement, you can discontinue supplements one at a time with a washout period of two months for 1. and 2. to see which supplement(s) was/were effective.

Here's a picture to go with the title.

And finally...
I'm so glad that I don't work with David Thorne.

Magnesium: Just as important as Calcium.

Suffering from anxiety/depression? Can't get to sleep? Suffering from night cramps/restless legs/menstrual cramps/muscle spasms/asthma/migraines? You may be deficient in magnesium. See Magnesium and the Brain: The Original Chill Pill , Magnesium and the Ketamine Connection , A case of oesophageal spasm, and the ‘unproven’ treatment that helped it and Around the Web; and Menstrual Cramp Remedy.

After Vitamin D and Omega-3 fats, magnesium is the third nutrient in which people are likely to be deficient. Processed foods are low in magnesium. Diets low in green vegetables are low in magnesium, as chlorophyll has magnesium at the centre of the molecule. For a list of the 999 richest sources of magnesium per 100g serving, see http://nutritiondata.self.com/foods-000120000000000000000-w.html. Too much calcium can result in a relative magnesium deficiency.

An optimum intake of magnesium is approximately 50% of your calcium intake. Other sources of magnesium are Milk of Magnesia (magnesium hydroxide) and Epsom Salts (magnesium sulphate heptahydrate). A large amount (~4g) of Epsom Salts taken in one dose acts as an osmotic laxative, but spreading the same amount over 24 hours has no laxative effect. Approximately a level teaspoonful (~4g) of Epsom Salts gives you ~400mg of magnesium. Epsom Salts is as cheap as chips.

Magnesium is also available as a dietary supplement. Magnesium oxide (Magnesia) isn't as well-absorbed as magnesium citrate/amino acid chelate, so take extra if using oxide. See Magnesium bioavailability from magnesium citrate and magnesium oxide. Magnesium can be absorbed through the skin, so adding Epsom Salts or Magnesium Chloride to your bathwater is another option.

6.1.15. New article: Magnesium in Man: Implications for Health and Disease.