California Doctor Reveals the Biggest Lies Doctors Tell Their Patients

A California doctor has revealed the biggest “lies” doctors tell their patients that could leave them vulnerable to serious chronic illnesses.

Dr. Robert Lufkin, a physician and professor at the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Southern California, was diagnosed with four chronic illnesses during his life.

These include gout, high blood pressure, prediabetes and dyslipidemia, which cause abnormal levels of fats in the blood.

In his book ‘Lies I Taught in Medical School” Dr. Lufkin says his own health journey “woke him up” to the flaws in the medical system, including doctors treating symptoms rather than looking for an underlying cause.

And he pointed out “lies” — some of which he had learned himself — about several chronic diseases, including obesity and diabetes, that afflict millions of Americans.

Dr. Lufkin writes that he has tried every fad diet and is a high eater of processed foods, a vegan, a carnivore, and a low-fat and/or low-carb dieter.

Today, however, he eats as few processed foods as possible and limits carbs, sugars, processed fats, oils and grains.

Despite the success he has personally seen in changing his lifestyle, he cautions that the “lies” and alternatives he offers “are mere hypotheses – imperfect models attempting to explain experience.” health improvement clinic”.

But they come from dozens of studies and expert scientific literature.

Dr. Lufkin wrote in the first chapter of his book: “I was 100% a member of the medical establishment. I was all for organized systems, and my background shows that. I was an unofficial spokesperson for the establishment.

“Then I developed four diseases that I (and others) had been taught were related to aging and perhaps had a genetic component.”

“I did everything right and I was going to die. This shock set off the alarm in my head. There was something seriously wrong with the medical system. I had been fed lies and I needed to know the truth.

Dr. Lufkin, who focuses on longevity and awareness, noted that “we are in a medical crisis far worse than COVID-19, and most people aren’t even aware of it” due to the increasing rates of chronic disease.

Between 2000 and 2010, the percentage of middle-aged adults with two or more chronic diseases increased from 16% to 21%. Four years later, that percentage had risen to 32%.

By 2024, that rate will now reach 40 percent, Dr. Lufkin said.

The first lie detailed by Dr. Lufkin concerns obesity, which affects a record 42% of Americans.

“Today we face the worst global obesity epidemic the world has ever seen,” he writes.

“Our understanding of the causes of this epidemic and approaches to treating it is based on a simple lie: ‘a calorie is a calorie,’ implying that obesity is caused by excessive calorie consumption.

Dr. Lufkin noted that this claim was false because obesity is not solely caused by eating too many calories, saying that they are not “enough” enough to create obesity and that different types of calories have different effects on obesity.

Sometimes calories turn into fat and are stored in the body, while other times they are burned directly by the body.

The doctor wrote: “The key control point for weight gain is the amount of calories we consume that are sent to be stored versus those burned. This number does not depend on the total number of calories but rather on a biochemical signal in our body.

This signal is the hormone insulin, which “instructs cells to store calories primarily as fat.” If no calories are stored as fat, they will be burned. There will be no weight gain,” he added.

“If insulin is activated and fat storage occurs, fewer calories will be burned,” leading to weight gain.

However, without the insulin signal, calories will be burned, preventing weight gain. Therefore, someone with insulin resistance – such as someone with type 2 diabetes – would have excessive insulin levels and an increased risk of weight gain.

Certain foods like carbohydrates also trigger increased insulin production, regardless of calories.

“Not all calories have the same effect on weight gain. Therefore, weight loss is not just about fewer calories… Obesity is not just about calories; it’s an insulin problem,” Dr. Lufkin wrote.

The “lie” about calories, he explained, began in the 1970s, when there was a rise in obesity and the first set of Dietary Guidelines for Americans was issued.

The guidelines recommended increasing carbohydrate intake and reducing fat intake.

This misconception grew in the 1990s with the release of the food pyramid, which emphasized high consumption of carbohydrates, which strongly stimulate insulin, leading many Americans to change their diet to diet high in carbohydrates and low in fat.

Dr. Lufkin wrote: “By replacing calories from fat with calories from carbohydrates, we increased insulin production and sent the message to store fat. And we stored fat. »

“Around the same time we were replacing fats with carbohydrates in our diets, obesity rates skyrocketed – and they haven’t slowed down since.”

Insulin – and carbohydrates – not only play a role in obesity, they are also at the heart of diabetes.

One in three Americans have diabetes or pre-diabetes, and the CDC estimates that 80% of them don’t know they have the condition.

According to the CDC, 10% of American adults had diabetes between 2001 and 2004.

This figure increased to 13.2% between 2017 and 2020. It decreased slightly to around 12% in 2021, according to the latest available data.

Dr. Lufkin called the overall upward trend in cases “the worst diabetes epidemic the world has ever seen.”

“The diabetes lie claims that the best way to treat type 2 diabetes is insulin.”

Type 2 diabetes accounts for 90 percent of diabetes cases. It is primarily caused by genetics and lifestyle, including diet – such as one high in carbohydrates – and weight.

As Dr. Lufkin explains in his section on obesity, he writes that carbohydrates stimulate insulin. When hormone levels become too high, insulin resistance develops.

This makes the cells less sensitive to a dose of insulin that type 2 diabetics give themselves to try to control their disease.

Give insulin “will increase the body’s overall insulin levels, worsening insulin resistance, the underlying cause of type 2 diabetes,” the doctor wrote.

Dr. Lufkin argued that dietary changes – such as cutting out refined carbohydrates like white bread – and exercise might be more effective than insulin itself in reducing A1C or blood sugar levels. average blood over a period of two to three months.

He said: “Our health system is unfortunately much more optimized for issuing prescriptions for insulin and other medications to manage type 2 diabetes than for giving instructions on how to reverse this by changing our diet. to avoid the causes.

“To be honest, many people would rather take a pill or an injection than change their lifestyle. But most people don’t know how powerful and effective lifestyle choices can be. »