#59 - Jason Fung, M.D.: Fasting as a potent antidote to obesity, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and the many symptoms of metabolic illness

The Peter Attia Drive

Peter Attia, MD

Health & Fitness, Medicine, Fitness

4.7 • 7.3K Ratings

🗓️ 24 June 2019

⏱️ 162 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode, Jason Fung, nephrologist and best-selling author, shares his experiences utilizing an individualized approach to fasting to successfully treat thousands of overweight, metabolically ill, and diabetic patients, and why being a doctor who specializes in kidney disease gives him a unique insight into early indications of metabolic disease. We also have a great discussion on insulin resistance where Jason makes the case that we should actually think of hyperinsulinemia as the underlying problem. We also discuss the difference between time-restricted feeding, intermittent fasting, and dietary restriction (e.g., low-carb) and how they can be used to attack the root cause of T2D, metabolic syndrome, and obesity. We also have a fascinating discussion about the limitations of evidence-based medicine which leads to a conversation where we compare and contrast the scientific disciplines of medicine and biology to theoretical physics.

We discuss:

Comparing scientific disciplines: Medicine and biology versus physics [7:25];
The limitations of evidence-based medicine [12:30];
Early signs of metabolic disease: How specializing kidney disease gives Jason a unique insight into early indications of illness [20:50]
Insulin resistance, hyperinsulinemia, and the overflow paradigm [29:30];
Why the common treatments for type 2 diabetes seem to make things worse [42:30];
How hyperinsulinemia (not insulin resistance) drives metabolic syndrome [53:15];
Insulin and weight gain, and using fasting to empty the cells of glucose [59:30];
The two step process of developing type 2 diabetes and how they are both manifestations of hyperinsulinemia [1:03:15];
NAFLD and hyperinsulinemia: A vicious cycle [1:08:30];
Are the features and symptoms of diabetes actually protective? [1:12:15];
Is obesity causing insulin resistance or is it the other way around? [1:17:30];
What role does inflammation play in obesity? [1:21:45];
CVD and cancer: Diseases of too much growth? [1:27:30];
How to reduce proliferation with rapamycin, nutrition, exercise, fasting, and manipulating hormones [1:32:45];
Getting patients to fast: How Jason and Peter utilize fasting in their practice, and how their approach differs [1:40:15];
Comparing bariatric surgery to fasting as a treatment for type 2 diabetes [1:48:00];
Why people think that fasting is bad for you [1:55:15];
Time-restricted feeding and intermittent fasting: Defining terms, and how Jason applies them in his practice [1:58:30];
A fasting case study: A diabetic patient with a non-healing foot ulcer [2:04:00];
Keys to a successful fast [2:12:45];
Muscle loss during fasting, and why Jason isn’t worried [2:24:45];
Will fasting help a healthy person live longer? [2:31:30];
Does fasting cause gallstones? [2:38:45]; and
More.

Learn more at www.PeterAttiaMD.com
Connect with Peter on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey everyone, welcome to the Peter Atia Drive. I'm your host, Peter Atia.
0:10.0	The drive is a result of my hunger for optimizing performance, health, longevity, critical thinking,
0:15.6	along with a few other obsessions along the way. I've spent the last several years working with
0:19.7	some of the most successful top performing individuals in the world, and this podcast is my attempt
0:24.4	to synthesize what I've learned along the way to help you live a higher quality, more fulfilling life.
0:29.6	If you enjoy this podcast, you can find more information on today's episode and other topics
0:34.2	at pteratia-md.com.
0:41.6	Hey everybody, welcome to this week's episode of The Drive. I'd like to take a couple of minutes
0:45.9	to talk about why we don't run ads on this podcast and why instead we've chosen to rely entirely
0:51.3	on listener support. If you're listening to this, you probably already know, but the two things
0:55.9	I care most about, professionally, are how to live longer and how to live better.
1:01.1	I have a complete fascination and obsession with this topic. I practice it professionally,
1:06.0	and I've seen firsthand how access to information is basically all people need to make better
1:11.0	decisions and improve the quality of their lives. Curating and sharing this knowledge
1:15.6	is not easy, and even before starting the podcast, that became clear to me. The sheer volume
1:20.3	of material published in this space is overwhelming. I'm fortunate to have a great team that helps
1:25.5	me continue learning and sharing this information with you. To take one example, our show notes
1:30.9	are in a league of their own. In fact, we now have a full-time person that is dedicated to producing
1:36.0	those, and the feedback has mirrored this. So all of this raises a natural question, how will we
1:41.9	continue to fund the work necessary to support this? As you probably know, the tried and true way
1:47.5	to do this is to sell ads, but after a lot of contemplation, that model just doesn't feel
1:53.0	right to me for a few reasons. Now, the first and most important of these is trust.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Peter Attia, MD, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Peter Attia, MD and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.