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Meet Dr. Scher, MD

The Low Carb Cardiologist

Yes, People LOVE Dr. Scher’s Approach

Transform your health in 2019, Dr. Bret Scher

We had an incredible turnout for our Webinar, aimed to help you transform your health in 2019. As a result, we decided to create a blog post that includes the full webinar recording, as well as an overview of the learnings for those that were unable to attend.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIyi11wMq5U&ab_channel=LowCarbCardiologist
  • 1/3 of all Americans die from Cardiovascular disease
  • Around 92 million Americans are living with CVD
  • Every 34 seconds someone suffers a heart attack
  • Annual health expenditure and lost productivity from CVD ~$330 billion

It’s been estimated that 50-80% of these are preventable! Unfortunately, our healthcare system and associated lifestyle guidelines have failed to prevent disease. We could say at best they have failed to prevent heart disease, obesity and diabetes. At worst they have been implicit in its prevalence. While this graph doesn’t show causation, it certainly shows the association of instituting national nutritional guidelines and the rise in diabetes.

Type 2 Diabetes Prevalence: 1958-2014
  • 60% of Americans take at least 1 prescription drug
  • 15% take more than 5 drugs
  • Despite this, our overall health and life expectancy continue to decline

HEALTH IS NOT THE ABSENCE OF DISEASE!

In this webinar, we will discuss how to be your own best advocate, why low carb, high fat nutrition should be an option for everyone, and how lifestyle really is the best medicine.

  1. Make sure your doc is working with accurate information! Lipids and blood pressure are two prime examples of when doctors make decisions based on limited and faulty information.
  2. Get your questions answered by writing them down ahead of time so you don’t forget anything and tell your doctor at the beginning of the appointment that you have some questions you’d like to ask at the end.
  3. Make sure you understand the purpose and benefit of each and every medication. Not some vague answer like “It will improve your cholesterol,” or “It will lower your blood pressure.” Rather, “what impact will it have on my longevity and quality of life?” Will I live longer? Will I feel better? What are the chances the drug will actually benefit me? These are the questions we need answered.
LCHF vs Low Fat Diets
  • Decreased hunger, increased energy, mental clarity
  • Treats metabolic syndrome/insulin resistance
  • Better weight loss
  • Improves overall cardiovascular risk for most people

LCHF may not be the best for everyone, but it certainly should be an option for everyone. If you want tips that do work for everyone, follow these bonus tips for weight loss and overall health!

  • Don’t drink your calories – even “natural” drinks are full of unnecessary calories. Think about it this way, you would drink a glass of orange juice, but would you really sit down eat the 5 or so oranges it takes to make it? If not, why drink that same amount?
  • Get rid of “Food Delivery Systems” – Think about the big sandwiches or burritos we see everywhere in our culture. What is the food? The stuff in the middle! The meat, the cheese, the veggies. What is the unnecessary food delivery system? The bread, the tortilla, the outer layer that has a fraction of the nutrients and a multitude of the carbs!

Science says lifestyle, not drugs, reverse disease:

  • NEJM study reported findings on patients at highest genetic risk for heart attack, over 90% more likely to suffer heart attack. Those with healthy lifestyles had a 50% reduced risk with no drugs and no surgeries!
  • JACC study found 85% of all heart attacks could be prevented with greater attention to lifestyle.
  • 2018 British Journal of Sports Medicine study found that increasing walking pace to “brisk” for those over 50 reduced all-cause mortality and cardiovascular mortality by 20-24%.

We have all been told that in order to be healthy, we need to eat less, move more, and reduce fat in our diets. But if that is the case, why is it that only 12% of Americans are metabolically healthy, and only 3% of Americans follow a healthy lifestyle?

Because the simple Eat Less, Move More, Reduce Fat approach DOESN’T WORK!!!

I want to assure you that it’s not your fault, you’ve been given the wrong information.

“I was always told I simply didn’t have enough willpower to stick to a diet. I couldn’t understand why I was always hungry and craving foods. I figured it was all genetics. But working with Dr. Scher showed me there is a better lifestyle that I can stick with and still feel great and enjoy my life! Thanks Dr. Scher!”

  • E
  • Beware of one-size-fits-all nutrition and lifestyle claims
  • Individually tailored and flexible nutrition is the key.
  • When you eat is just as important as what you eat
  • Move your body more
  • Get Serious about your sleep
  • Don’t be afraid to test and adjust

Don’t try to Change Everything at one time.

Choose YOUR most important first step (nutrition, stress, fitness, etc.) and work on that until a new habit is created!

And remember, you don’t have to do it alone! Working with an expert who can help you on your health journey will increase your likelihood for long term success.

As you can see, this was a quick tour to highlight the main points in the webinar. To get the full benefit, I recommend watching the full recording to get all of the context and be able to see the Q&A session at the end.

If you want to get the full experience, here is that recording again:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIyi11wMq5U&ab_channel=LowCarbCardiologist

If you’d like to see the date and content of our next webinar, or be notified when our next webinar will be, please visit our Webinar Page.

I hope you enjoyed this recording, and that we will see you at the next live webinar!

Thanks for reading,

Bret Scher MD FACC

Sliced whole grain bread.

Here it is again. The term “healthy” connected as a descriptor.

We see it all the time. Healthy Whole Grains. It reminds me of the common use of “fruits and vegetables,” as if they are one in the same.

For a full, in depth description, see the Whole Grains Guide on Diet Doctor, where I was the medical editor and reviewer.

For the quick answer, let’s leave it as a “maybe.”

If you choose to eat refined grains, white flour, processed snack foods, in essence the Standard American Diet, then switching to whole grains will almost certainly improve your health. And that is where the majority evidence in favor of whole grains stops. Compared to refined grains, they are great.

If you are insulin sensitive, live in a society where you are physically active for most the day, eat fewer calories than most industrialized nations, and maintain a healthy body weight, then whole grains can be a healthy part of your diet. Observation of the Blue Zone countries demonstrate that whole grains can be part of a healthy lifestyle in that setting.

We cannot, however, extrapolate those findings above to apply to all Americans, Europeans, Asians etc. and say whole grains are by definition “healthy.”

If you are metabolically unhealthy with diabetes, metabolic syndrome or insulin resistance (estimated to be 88% of all Americans), then whole grains are anything but “healthy.” Borrow a continuous glucose monitor for a day and see how your blood glucose responds to whole grains. If you aren’t perfectly metabolically healthy, it isn’t pretty.

Instead, if you eat a whole-foods, low carb diet without grains and sugars, then whole grains have no necessary role and no association with health.

Enjoy the more detailed guide from DietDoctor.

Thanks for reading,

Bret Scher, MD FACC

A Heart healthy meal with red meat, soup and vegetables.
Is the Keto Diet Heart Healthy? 7 Reasons Why This Cardiologist Agrees

I am a board certified, card-carrying cardiologist, and I want my clients to eat more fat, more meat, more cheese, more eggs, more avocado, more, more, more.

For decades medical establishments have convinced us to eat low fat, higher carb diets. How has that worked for our health? Here’s a hint, we have record numbers of obesity, diabetes and dementia. Yet, as a cardiologist, that’s the party line I am supposed to support.

But I can’t. It’s just wrong, and I can’t support that line of thinking, not for a second.

Instead, I am a Low Carb Cardiologist. Here are the top Seven reasons why

  1. Reducing Insulin is Essential to Health and Weight Loss.
    Insulin is a hormone naturally secreted by the pancreas to help regulate blood sugar levels. Everything we eat (except possibly for 100% fat meals) causes insulin to rise. That is normal physiology. The problem occurs when our bodies become resistant to the effects of insulin, thus requiring our pancreas to make more and more and more insulin.The problem? Insulin promotes fat storage, increase inflammation and oxidation, and can even help fuel the growth of cancer cells. Therefore, the healthiest approach is one which reduced the level of insulin to the lowest possible levels. As it happens, a Low-carb High-fat or ketogenic lifestyle (LCHF/Keto lifestyle) dramatically improves your body’s sensitivity to insulin, reduces the amount of insulin secreted, and it allows your body to naturally use your fat stores for what they are designed for: Break them down into energy! Once we see that we need to fight chronic elevations of insulin, it becomes obvious why a low-fat diet is harmful, and why a low carb diet is the true path to health.
  2. Eating Fat Improves Your Cholesterol!
    Wait, what? Eating fat can improve my cholesterol? Sounds crazy, right? That goes against everything we have heard from the medical establishment. Notice I said “cholesterol.” I didn’t say the “bad” low density lipoprotein (LDL), I didn’t say the “good” high density lipoprotein (HDL), or any one specific type of cholesterol. We have over emphasized the solitary variable of LDL for too long. Total cholesterol to HDL ratio, Triglyceride to HDL ratio, lipoprotein size and density, insulin sensitivity, and other metabolic measures are more powerful predictors of cardiovascular health than just LDL.Once again, we see that all these markers improve with a Low Carb High Fat (LCHF) lifestyle. The medical establishment needs to realize that we are more complicated than one lab value. The key is to look at the whole picture, and this picture dramatically improves with a LCHF lifestyle.If you want to learn more about lipids and cholesterol, I recommend checking out my new dedicated cholesterol course: The Truth About Lipids.
  3. Higher HDL is Associated with a Lower Risk of Heart Disease.
    HDL is your friend, but drugs are not. Observational evidence has consistently shown that higher HDL is associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease. However, our healthcare establishment does not prioritize HDL for one simple reason- Drugs that raise HDL don’t make you healthier. Trial after trial has failed to show any benefit from drugs that significantly increase HDL.Instead, it’s the HDL-raising lifestyle that provides the benefit, not artificially increasing it with drugs. What’s the best lifestyle to naturally raise HDL? You guessed it. LCHF/Keto lifestyle. Add in some resistance training and you have your friendly HDL climbing the way it was meant to…Naturally.
  4. LCHF Leaves You Feeling Great, Leading to Healthier Decisions
    What kind of health decisions do you make when you are fatigued, achy, and find it difficult to concentrate? That’s a rhetorical question, I already know the answer. When things look glum and we don’t feel well, it’s far too easy to sit on the couch or reach for the chips and cookies. Compare those decisions to those you make when you are well rested, energetic, and seeing the world more clearly. For most people, the better you feel, the better decisions you make.Guess what? The majority of people who change to a LCHF lifestyle feel better! It may take a few days or weeks, but in general, they feel more in control of their health, more energetic, and they are able to make better health decisions. I admit this is difficult to prove in a scientific trial. That is why we all should become our own n=1 scientific trial. How do you feel and how are your health decisions after going to a LCHF lifestyle? What matters most is what works for you, not what works for hundreds of people who are kinda-sorta like you.
  5. Keto helps you with fasting.
    Eating better helps you not eat. People who eat a high carb diet eat a lot, don’t they? They are always grazing and snacking. Our bodies go through the roller coaster of blood sugar and insulin spikes, making it a challenge to go 24, 18, or even 6 hours without eating. This creates a constant, unwavering supply of insulin in our blood stream.Why is this harmful? For one, it promotes fat storage and keeps us from using our fat as fuel. Secondly, chronically elevated insulin can predispose to heart disease, strokes, cancer, dementia and other devastating health conditions. When people change to Keto, however, they realize they do not need to eat nearly as much or as frequently. Avoiding the carbs and increasing the fats keeps us full longer, and our bodies quickly adapt to longer periods without eating. The result? We can use our fat stores for what they were designed- a source of fuel! It also allows our body to maintain lower insulin levels, and also allows our cells to take care of their health chores, referred to as Autophagy.If you’re interested in Fasting and want to make sure you’re doing it correctly, download my free Full Guide to Fasting.
  6. LCHF Promotes Health Through Increased Autophagy.
    Autopha-What? In medicine we like using fancy words to make us look smart. Autophagy is a big word to describe cellular housekeeping. When we have low enough intake of carbs and protein, or when we do intermittent fasts, our bodies can take care of their “to do” lists.  That list includes breaking down weak or damaged cells, recycling the good parts and discarding the rest, and slowing down the processes that can lead to abnormal cell growth (i.e. excess proteins in Alzheimer’s disease, abnormal cancer cells etc.).Admittedly, long term outcome studies evaluating fasting or LCHF and cancer or dementia risk have not been done. But, on the flip side, drug trials to prevent the same are showing no benefit despite hundreds of millions of dollars invested. If you asked me (which you sort of did since you are reading my article), I’d vote for autophagy as a preventative strategy any day. It makes good physiologic sense, and it is so easy to achieve.
  7. With Keto You Will Enjoy Eating Again!
    That’s right. A way of eating that helps you lose weight, helps you feel better, improves your health and is actually enjoyable! No fake processed soy products, no cardboard tasting rice cakes. True, it also means no more candy, processed snack foods, doughnuts and danishes. But once you swear them off for a few weeks, and you are eating all the eggs, avocados, nuts, fish, steak, cheese etc. that you want, you won’t miss those old crutches any more. Let the enjoyment begin!

I could go on, but since it seems people like “7 Reason” articles, I will leave it at that. 

Now you know the secret: Look at the whole picture. Look for a lifestyle, (not a diet) that helps you feel better, increases your enjoyment, and still benefits your overall health.

Is LCHF/Keto the right lifestyle for you? It just may be. To learn more about Low Carb and Keto, download this free E-Book:

Thanks for reading,
Bret Scher, MD FACC
Founder, Boundless Health
www.LowCarbCardiologist.com

ADDENDUM!!

Since I have published this article, there has been a windfall of media buzz around low carb diets increasing our risk of heart disease or diabetes. Let’s look at where that information came from.

1- A study force feeding mice excessive amounts of industrial omega 6 oils. You can guess what I have to say about that. The article was incredibly helpful, and I immediately stopped force feeding my pet mice industrial seed oils. Thanks goodness for that article. As for how it applies to humans eating real food that contain fat, there is zero correlation.

2- Epidemiological study suggesting those who ate low carb (40% calories from carbs, which by the way is NOT low carb) as measured by two food journals over 25 years had a higher risk of dying. Oh and by the way, at baseline they were heavier, more sedentary, smoked more, and ate fewer veggies. Yet somehow they concluded it must be the low carb diet that “caused” the harm. Once again, it may not be bad science, but it sure was awful interpretation of the science.

In light of those two studies and the hoopla surrounding them, has anything happened to change my mind about a LCHF/keto diet being beneficial for our overall health and our heart health?

Absolutely not.

We still need to individualize our care and our lifestyle for who we are and how our bodies respond. That is always the case regardless of our nutrition, our medications, our exercise etc. As long as we do that, then this cardiologist still believes that LCHF IS HEART HEALTHY!

If you liked this post, you’ll love my free E-Book on Low Carb/Keto Starter tips to help you get started on your LCHF path!

Thanks for reading.

What do I mean by “misunderstood?” Look no further than the common misnomer of “good” or “bad” cholesterol.

While it may be true that High-Density Lipoprotein (HDL) has potentially beneficial functions (reverse cholesterol transport), we have to remember there is no such thing as good and bad cholesterol. The cholesterol carried by HDL is the same as that carried by LDL. The only thing that makes it good or bad is if it ends up synthesizing our hormones or bile acids (good), or if it ends up in our vessel walls (bad).

If it’s true there is no such thing as good and bad cholesterol, why do we care about our HDL levels?

First, let’s start with the basics.

HDL is the smallest and most densely packed lipoprotein and has one or more ApoA protein on its surface. HDL can help lipids move around in circulation by accepting triglycerides or cholesterol from other particles, thus helping a VLDL turn into an LDL, or helping an LDL contain less cholesterol (turning a small dense LDL into a less densely packed LDL).

Like LDL, HDL transports cholesterol to the liver for recycling or excretion, or to the hormone producing cells like in the adrenals. Unlike LDL, HDL does not have the potential to get retained in the vascular wall and does not, therefore, contribute to plaque formation. In fact, functioning HDL can remove cholesterol from the vessel wall, thus putting it back into circulation and possibly removing it from the body.

Back to the question at hand.

Early epidemiological trials showed that lower HDL levels were associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease and even death.  With such a strong association, the medical profession promoted elevated HDL levels as protective and low levels as something we need to avoid.

Since these were observational epidemiological studies, they do not prove that the low HDL caused the problems, only that HDL was associated with it. For instance, HDL is also known to be low in diabetes, metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance. It may, therefore, simply be a marker of underlying metabolic dysfunction that contributes to increased risk.  Yet, HDL’s function in reverse cholesterol transport, and its ability to remove cholesterol from vessel walls suggests a more direct impact on cardiovascular health.

It is also important to note that the Framingham data suggested that increased cardiovascular risk with elevated total cholesterol and LDL-C was lost in the presence of high HDL. In fact, very low levels of LDL combined with very low HDL levels had a much higher risk than markedly elevated LDL levels when combined with elevated HDL.

Thus, HDL proves to be a useful marker to help predict cardiovascular risk. For instance, one large meta-analysis showed that total cholesterol/HDL ratio was a much stronger predictor of cardiac mortality than total cholesterol alone.

In addition, the PURE study, an observational trial in over 135,000 subjects, showed that when considering lipid changes brought about by nutritional changes, ApoB/ApoA1 (essentially LDL-P/HDL-P ratio) is the best predictor of clinical outcomes.

Thus, HDL level is important in assessing cardiovascular risk.

While HDL may be a good predictor of risk, raising it with drugs does not seem to confer added benefit.

For instance, cholesterol ester transferase protein inhibitors (CETP inhibitors) significantly reduced LDL by 20-30% and increased HDL 100-fold, yet showed either no clinical benefit or even worse, an increased risk of death.

This was a shock to many in the lipid world as the notion of “good” and “bad” cholesterol would clearly predict lowering LDL and raising HDL would confer dramatic health benefits. So much so, that multiple pharmaceutical companies invested hundreds of millions of dollars developing these drugs only to abandon them when the trials showed no benefit.

Part of the issue is that not all HDL lipoproteins function the same. There are subsets of people with genetically determined markedly elevated HDL levels who have an increased risk of CVD. They may have plenty of cholesterol circulating in HDL particles, but the HDL particles are dysfunctional and therefore  do not effectively remove cholesterol from vessel walls or LDL and do not effectively transport it to the liver. Conversely, there are those with a specific genetic mutation called ApoA1 Milano who have very low HDL-C and lower cardiovascular risk.

Simply measuring the HDL cholesterol content, therefore, may not accurately reflect its function. While we do not have easily available tests to measure HDL function, we can potentially use HDL particle assessment as well as the company it keeps (i.e. low triglycerides, larger less dense LDL particles) to better assess the potential benefits of HDL. Thus, if there is any concern about potentially dysfunctional HDL, I usually recommend advanced lipid testing to see the specific subtypes of HDL.

Raising HDL with drugs does not reduce cardiovascular events, yet having a naturally low HDL is associated with increased risk.

The best answer, therefore, is to live a lifestyle that helps you have a “not low” HDL level. This means first and foremost avoiding the medical conditions associated with low HDL (i.e. insulin resistance, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome).

Textbooks predictably state the interventions to naturally raise HDL include exercise and moderate alcohol intake. Unfortunately, these have minimal effects. In fact, they pale in comparison to a low carb high fat lifestyle. In my 20+ years in the medical field, I have never seen an intervention as effective as LCHF in raising HDL, and the studies agree.

This brings us back to our question once again.

HDL levels are important because it is a reflection of our underlying metabolic health and our lifestyle. A properly constructed LCHF lifestyle lowers triglycerides, raises HDL, and reduces the small dense LDL, among other benefits. Such a lifestyle likely reduces overall cardiovascular risk and will likely be shown to improve longevity and health span. While HDL may not be the main reason for this, we can’t ignore its role simply because it is more nuanced than “good” and “bad” cholesterol.

My advice, therefore, is to see the whole picture. Embrace the nuance. And make sure you get a thorough and proper evaluation of your cardiovascular risk.

If you are hungry for more, I created my Truth About Lipids program, a program focused on Cholesterol, to help break through the confusion and provide you with everything you need to thoroughly understand cholesterol and its impact on your health.

Learn more: Truth About Lipids Program

If you still have questions, you may want to consider a one-on-one health coaching consultation so you can get the individual attention you deserve  with a thorough assessment of your lifestyle and its impact on you as an individual.

Please comment below if you have any questions or comments that may help further the discussion.

Thanks for reading.

Bret Scher MD FACC

A blood vessel with a lot of plaque build up.

Don’t look now, but the updated clinical practice cholesterol guidelines from the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association and others are getting personal. Although the guidelines still contain their familiar approach — that I consider too aggressive with drug therapy — the latest 2018 version of the guidelines now includes an impressive update to emphasize lifestyle intervention, plus a more individualized approach for risk assessment.

MedPage Today: AHA: Revised Lipid Guide Boosts PCSK9s, Coronary Calcium Scans

Could this be the start of a progressive trend away from shotgun statin prescriptions? I sure hope so.

Prior guidelines emphasized the 10-year ASCVD risk calculator as the main determining factor for statin therapy. In the 2018 update, the guidelines acknowledge that the calculator frequently overestimates the risk in those individuals who are more involved with prevention and screening. (In other words, those patients more interested in and proactive about their health; I find many in the low-carb world fall into this category.)

The ensuing discussion with a healthcare provider should then focus on:

[T]he burden and severity of CVD risk factors, control of those other risk factors, the presence of risk-enhancing conditions, adherence to healthy lifestyle recommendations, the potential for ASCVD risk-reduction benefits from statins and antihypertensive drug therapy, and the potential for adverse effects and drug–drug interactions, as well as patient preferences regarding the use of medications for primary prevention… and the countervailing issues of the desire to avoid “medicalization” of preventable conditions and the burden or disutility of taking daily (or more frequent) medications.

I appreciate the attention the new guidelines bring to the depth of the discussion that should ensue between doctor and patient. Considering the treatment burden is equally as important as the burden of disease, and possibly even more important in patients who have not been diagnosed with heart disease, these individualized discussions about trade-offs are critical to personalized care.

Also worthy of mention is the increased use of coronary artery calcium scores (CAC) to help individualize risk stratification. The updated guidelines specify CAC may be useful for those age 40-75 with an intermediate 10-year calculated risk of 7.5%-20%, who after discussion with their physician are unsure about statin therapy. They specify that a CAC of zero would suggest a much lower risk than that calculated by the ASCVD risk formula, and thus take statins off the table as a beneficial treatment option.

This is huge. I cheered when I read this! I have been critical of prior guidelines that focused on ways to find more people to place on statins. The mention of finding individuals unlikely to benefit from statins is a giant step in the right direction.

The guidelines go even further: they mention that a CAC either over 100 or greater than the 75th percentile for age increases the CVD risk and the likely benefit of a statin. A CAC between 1-99 and less than the 75th percentile does not affect the risk calculation much and it may be worth following the CAC in five years in the absence of drug therapy. I would still argue that a CAC >100 does not automatically equal a statin prescription and we need to interpret it in context, but I greatly appreciate this attempt at a more personalized approach.

The guidelines also go beyond the limited risk factors included in the ASCVD calculator by introducing “risk modifying factors” such as:

  • Premature family history of CVD
  • Metabolic syndrome
  • Chronic kidney disease
  • Chronic inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis
  • Elevated CRP > 2.0 mg/L
  • Elevated Lp(a) > 50 mg/dL or 125 nmol/L
  • Elevated triglycerides > 175 mg/dL

Although they use these criteria to define an increased risk, the opposite would likely hold true. An absence of those criteria could define a lower risk situation.

Some changes deserve mention from a controversy standpoint as well. For instance, the new guidelines recommend checking lipid levels as early as two years old in some circumstances. Two!

They also recommend statin therapy for just about everyone with diabetes with no mention of attempting to reverse diabetes before starting a statin, a drug that has been shown to worsen diabetes and insulin resistance. In addition, the new guidelines do not mention the likely discordance between LDL-C and LDL-P in those with diabetes.

Last, the new guidelines define an LDL-C > 190 mg/dL as an absolute indication for statin therapy with a treatment goal of 190 mg/dL is in familial hypercholesterolemia populations (and even then has heterogenous outcomes). There is a clear lack of data supporting that same recommendation for metabolically healthy individuals with no other cardiac risk factors and no other characteristics of familial hypercholesterolemia. This is a clear example of when a guideline turns from “evidence based” to “opinion based.”

In summary, the guideline committee deserves recognition for its emphasis on an individualized care approach, its use of CAC, and its broader description of discussing potential drawbacks of drug treatment. It still combines opinion with evidence and believes all elevated LDL is concerning, but I for one hope it will continue its progression away from generalizations and someday soon see that individual risk variations exist, even at elevated LDL-C levels.

Thanks for reading,
Bret Scher MD FACC

Originally Posted on the Diet Doctor Blog 

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