Nick Norwitz Finds Keto, Solves Severe Colitis, Becomes an Advocate: Ep 65

Edit: an apology form Nick - "Apologies to everyone. At 34:30 I made a false statement when I said HMG-CoA reductase inhibition could inhibit ketone production directly. It is not the RLE in ketogenesis. There are indirect mechanisms potentially at play, but that enzyme is downstream of the divergence point in ketone and cholesterol metabolism. I was questioning the thought as it came to mind and regret the impulsive speculation. My sincerest apologies. That's embarrassing."

What a treat to spend some time with Nick Norwitz PhD. He just graduated from Oxford with a PhD in neuro-metabolism and now he is about to embark on his MD at Harvard. But this is not about his academic achievements, impressive as they are, rather it is about his immense battles with numerous chronic conditions that led him down the path to discovering keto. When he was younger he never put on weight and was as carefree as most kids are until the end of high school when he started to develop osteoporosis, which was super weird for a male of his age. By the end of college he developed ulcerative colitis. He went to Oxford to pursue his PhD and had a huge flare up soon after arriving ending up in a hospital in a strange country where no one knew what was wrong with him. So he started doing a bunch of research and he voraciously consumed scientific papers about carb reduction and the ketogenic diet and, although still skeptical, he decided to go for it. Within a week his colitis disappeared. So he titrated off his meds over time and feels confident that his colitis is gone. He is totally excited about this to the point that he is worried about getting expelled from Harvard for calling out his professors on this stuff.

We went on to talk about the new Society of Metabolic Practitioners (SMHP), a non-profit in which Nick is very active and even ended up in a pretty scientific discussion about cholesterol. We made mention of his new YouTube testimonial video he put out and he talked about his book and referred to a bunch of papers so I have put a few interesting links down below here.

Nick's YouTube Video Nick's New Book Page Amazon Pre-order Note, pre-orders up-rank it on Amazon and help bump down calorie counting low-fat style books ;) YouTube Sample, Omega3s Three selected peer-reviewed papers: 1. Keto Diet & Lipid Panel 2. Keto Diet Mental Health 3. Alzheimer's and insulin resistance