Symposium for Metabolic Health – Brainerd Lakes, MN, 2024 (Sept 21)

Metabolic Health Conference Held at Cragun's Resort

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Why You Should Attend

Several Health Systems in the Brainerd Lakes area are working together with LowCarbUSA® and the Society of Metabolic Health Practitioners (The SMHP™) to increase awareness of metabolic health and TCR (Therapeutic Carbohydrate Reduction) as a powerful tool to treat metabolic dysfunction.

  • Expert Insights: Understand the critical roles of insulin resistance, hyperinsulinemia, and inflammation in chronic diseases from world-renowned experts.
  • Evidence-Based Therapies: Explore the evidence supporting carbohydrate reduction as a therapeutic intervention for a wide range of metabolic disorders such as  type 2 diabetes, hypertension, fatty liver, PCOS, cardiovascular disease, and neurological pathologies.
  • Diabetes Management: Gain invaluable insights into stabilizing blood sugar; reducing medication/insulin needs, and decrease risk of complications in both type 2 and type 1 diabetes through innovative dietary strategies.
  • Obesity and Weight Loss Solutions: Discover effective strategies for treating obesity and achieving sustainable weight loss, shared by clinicians with significant success stories.
  • Global Health Impact: Discuss improvements in health and education policies worldwide, focusing on the establishment of standard of care regarding therapeutic carbohydrate reduction and its clinical outcomes.
  • CMEs: 7 category 1 CME credits for medical professionals.
Registration
Book Your Hotel Room
Upgrades (CMEs and more)
Charity Golf Day
Speaker Schedule

CONFIRMED SPEAKERS (CLICK ON IMAGES FOR BIOS)

Robert Cywes, MD, PhD

Dr. Cywes is Dual Board Certified in General Surgery and in Pediatric Surgery. He specializes in Pediatric and Adult obesity, diabetes and metabolic management including bariatric surgery.  His focus is on helping people understand and treat the true cause of obesity and diabetes.  He has been doing bariatric surgery for 19 years and has performed around 7000 surgeries.  Despite this, Dr Cywes firmly believes that obesity and diabetes are not treated by surgery, however, surgery may be a invaluable tool along the journey of becoming carbohydrate-free.

His medical training began in Cape Town, South Africa where he received his medical degree from The University of Cape Town training with Prof Tim Noakes amongst others. In 1989, Dr. Cywes moved to North America and completed a year-long residency in pediatric surgery at Ohio State University's Columbus Children's Hospital before moving to Canada where he completed his general surgery residency and specialized in minimally invasive surgery at the University of Toronto.  Dr. Cywes also earned a PhD in liver transplant immunology and the effect of glucose metabolism on vascular endothelium injury, working with Dr David Jenkins, the father of the Glycemic Index.

After completing his paediatric surgery fellowship at the University of Michigan's C.S. Mott Children's Hospital, Dr. Cywes was appointed as an Assistant Professor of Paediatric and Fetal Surgery at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee where he did hepatic stem cell research.  During this time, Dr. Cywes became increasingly interested in adolescent obesity and the impact of carbohydrates on the liver and metabolic syndrome in young patients. Dr. Cywes’ research led to a comprehensive understanding of the toxicity of chronic excessive carbohydrate consumption as the primary cause of obesity and so-called obesity-related co-morbidities. In the late 1990s Dr Cywes understood that the prevailing treatment of obesity using a Calories in, Calories out (CICO) model was erroneous, and he developed the Carbohydrate Insulin Model of Obesity and Diabetes (CIMOD). Using this model in combination with his understanding of the psychology of addiction, he developed a clinical program to treat obese adolescents using this approach. Dr. Cywes relocated to Jacksonville, Florida where he joined the Department of Pediatric Surgery at the Nemours Children's Clinic and Wolfson Children's Hospital. This led to a national meeting in Jacksonville where guidelines for adolescent obesity surgery were established.

In 2004, Dr. Cywes established Jacksonville Surgical Associates to continue his work in both adolescent and adult obesity treatment and surgery, and in 2013 opened a practice in West Palm Beach, Florida.  He now works with a highly experienced team of professionals from a variety of medical sub-specialties to better care for obese patients.  He has developed the practice into a nationally recognized Center of Excellence for obesity surgery. The practice uses a cognitive behavioral therapy approach that addresses carbohydrate addiction, along with bariatric surgery, to help patients manage the cause of their obesity long term. Based on his extensive clinical research and observations, Dr. Cywes lectures internationally regarding the physiological impact of carbohydrate consumption as the primary cause of the current Chronic Non-Communicable Disease (CNCDs) epidemic.  He also lectures on the behavioral aspects of carbohydrate addiction as the cause of obesity and obesity-related co-morbidities and the use of substance abuse methodology, rather than a diet and exercise approach, to the effective long term treatment of obesity.

Dr. Cywes is a member of ASMBS (American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery) and is a member of the ASMBS Childhood Obesity Committee. He is also a member of APSA (American Pediatric Surgery Association). He has earned a Centers of Excellence designation by the Surgical Review Corporation. Dr. Cywes trains other surgeons to perform bariatric surgery as well as developing an aftercare model to help patients maintain weight loss.

Dr. Cywes and his team are active in obesity research, including an ongoing Adolescent Bariatric Surgery trial. He has become one of the foremost authorities in the treatment and management of obesity in adolescents. He recently co-authored a book, Diabetes Unpacked outlining an effective approach to understanding and treating diabetes into remission. Dr. Cywes' vast experience in pediatric and general surgery serves him well in using bariatric surgery to treat obesity in both adults and children.

Dr Cywes maintains an active clinical practice in Palm Beach Gardens and in Jacksonville as well as being active on conveying the CIMOD message on social media and through his websites – Obesityunderstood.com and diabetesunderstood.com.

Robert Cywes, MD, PhD

Gurpreet Singh Padda, MD, MHP, MBA

Dr. Padda is a Medical Physician, Board Certified in Anesthesiology, Addiction and Interventional Pain.  For over 20 years he has practiced in the Urban Core, helping his patients regain their metabolic health.

Pain is the final pathway, the body screaming that something has gone terribly wrong.  Dr. Padda treats clinically patients at the intersection of the pain epidemic, opioid epidemic, and the diabetes epidemic.  They are all inter-related pathologies, the clinical manifestations of systemic metainflammation. 

I spend most of my clinical hours dealing with chronic degenerative diseases that are primarily driven by Metabolic Syndrome leading to Metainflammation.  Metabolic Syndrome is a form of malnutrition, a malnutrition of excessive energy consumption and toxicity from:
     Acellular Carbohydrates
     Synthetic Vegetable Oil consumption

This malnutrition of excess is aggravated by leaky gut from plant based chemical defenses. 

The Standard American Diet has become calorically dense, but diluted of protein, minerals, and micronutrients.  

Unfortunately, Governmental policy combined with the profit motives of Big-Food and Big-Pharma encourages the consumption of manufactured foods, which may be non-nutritive and promote chronic systemic diseases.  This disparity of synthesized food (which contains low nutritional value but high caloric load) leads to caloric over consumption, energy toxicity and eventual diabesity.

Addiction behavior is manipulated by dopaminergic modulation by food manufacturers and gamification of passive activities, in the context of individual loneliness.  Social media “connectedness” has created a false paradigm of human interaction, leaving individuals in silos of anonymous and self-destructive behavior.

Humans are complex adaptive systems, and systematic failure is rarely a single cause phenomenon.  Our historical disease models of single cause pathology are inadequate for this new synthesized Universe.

Gurpreet Padda, MD, MHP, MBA

Mark Cucuzzella, MD, FAAFP 


Mark Cucuzzella, is a Professor at West Virginia University School of Medicine. He is also a LtCol in the US Air Force designing programs to promote health and better fitness in the military with the USAF Efficient Running Project. (available on iphone format here) In military and civilian community he has been a tireless promoter of healthy movement, nutritional interventions in patients with any spectrum of the metabolic syndrome, and injury free training for running.

He was a lead writer of one of the first grants supporting education of Medical Students in nutrition and physical activity in Medical School.  Mark is also the lead on a large USDA grant to double SNAP benefits at Farmers Markets- the goal is reducing food insecurity as a barrier to healthier eating.

He’s also been a competitive runner for over 30 years — with more than 100 marathon and ultramarathon finishes — and continues to compete as a national-level Masters runner. He has won the Air Force Marathon twice. He is the race director of Freedom’s Run race series in West Virginia and director of the Natural Running Center, an education portal designed to teach healthier running . Mark is also the owner of Two Rivers Treads — A Center for Natural Running and Walking in his hometown of Shepherdstown, W.Va.  Mark’s vision of a future of health is housed in his site www.drmarksdesk.com

Mark’s innovative work and story has been featured in the New York Times, NPR, Outside Magazine, Running Times, Runners World, Air Force Times, the Washington Post, JAMA, Blue Ridge Outdoors, and other medical and media outlets.  

Mark Cucuzzella MD FAAFP
Professor West Virginia University School of Medicine

DrMarksDesk.com 

store/race HQ 304-876-1100
mobile 304-268-8813
[email protected]

 

Mark Cucuzzella, MD, FAAFP, MHP

Vera Tarman, MD

Dr. Vera Tarman is the Medical Director of one of Canada’s largest treatment centres for substance abuse. She is a world renown food addition expert, who writes, speaks and treats people who suffer from food (sugar and flour) addiction. She is the author of Food Junkies: Recovery from Food Addiction, which is now in its second edition. She is also cohost of the successful  Junkies Podcast, along wth Molly Painschab and Clarissa Kennedy.  You can also find her at her free facebook group “I’m Sweet Enough: Sugar-Free for Life”.

Vera is a recovering food addict herself, and has lost and maintained a 100 pound weight loss for over twelve years. She has not had any sugar or flour or grains for over seven years. 

Vera Tarman, MD

Jeremiah Eisenschenk, MD

Dr. Jeremiah Eisenschenk is a graduate of St. John’s Prep, St. John’s University, University of Minnesota Medical School and St. John's Family Medicine Residency where he also served as Chief Resident. He is board certified in Family Medicine and Obesity Medicine and practices both for Essentia Health - Brainerd where he also Division Chair of Hospital Medicine at St. Joe's Hospital. He is the co-founder of Essentia Health - Brainerd Weight Management Department and Lakes Area Low-Carb Conference, the first low-carb conference in Minnesota.  He was recognized as a "Top Doc" in Family Medicine by Minnesota Monthly Magazine and quoted by DietDoctor.com on his clinical approach to low-carb medicine. He is a guest lecturer at University of Minnesota Medical School where he presents on metabolic health and financial literacy for medical students and residents. Jeremiah and his wife Ashley live in Crosslake, MN with their two children and enjoy exploring the outdoors, time with family, and growing and cooking real foods.

Jeremiah Eisenschenk, MD

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Shawn Roberts, MD

Dr. Shawn Roberts is an alumnus of Concordia College in Moorhead where he graduated Summa Cum Laude with a major in Biology. While attending Concordia, Dr. Roberts was recognized with several honors, including the Alworth and Faculty Scholar academic awards. He attended the University of Minnesota Medical School and completed his surgical internship and residency at Hennepin County Medical Center. Dr. Roberts completed a Critical Care Fellowship at Hennepin County Medical Center in 2002. He completed his Minimally Invasive Surgery Fellowship at the Minnesota Institute for Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIMIS) at CRMC. Dr. Roberts is Board Certified by the American College of Surgeons.

He has special interests in the areas of surgical management of cancer, vascular surgery, advanced laparoscopy, surgical weight loss, and reflux management. Dr. Roberts joined the medical campus in Crosby in 2004. Since then, he has been involved in the American College of Surgeons State Committee on Trauma. He serves as the regional liaison. Dr. Roberts has served as Chief of Surgery, Trauma Director, Quality Committee Chairman, as well as a member of the Medical Staff Executive Committee and Leaders. He remains an active member of the CRMC Quality Committee, The American College of Surgeons Oncology Committee, The American College of Surgery State, and the local committee on Trauma and CRMC's Bariatric and Reflux Committees. 

Shawn Roberts, MD

Angelina Ausban, MD

Angelina Ausban, MD

Dr. Angelina Ausban grew up in Northern California and graduated from Mills College with a BA in Chemistry. She worked as a chemist for six years before going to medical school school at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. She then did a combined internship in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota where she met her husband, Dr. Kevin Smith.

They moved to Milwaukee Wisconsin where she completed her residency at the Medical College of Wisconsin and became board-certified in IM and Pediatrics.  She has practiced in Milwaukee until 1999 (while her husband finished his Radiology residency); in Duluth, Minnesota from 1999 to 2003 at the Miller Creek Medical Clinic; and in St Cloud, MN for 18 years at CentraCare Clinic.

In 2014, she helped found the CentraCare Medical Weight Management program. She became certified in Obesity Medicine that year. In 2016, she received a grant to assess the cost effectiveness of having a Health Coach integrated into her clinic’s healthcare team to focus on Lifestyle change, namely dietary change and weight loss. This revealed a 300% return on investment and a significant decrease in healthcare costs.  In 2021, she joined CRMC as the Medical Director and founder of the Metabolic Health and Medical Weight Management Program working hand-in-hand with the long-standing highly respected bariatric surgery program there. In less than three years, her program has helped her patients lose over 17,000 pounds, an average of 20% weight loss per patient.

Outside of her practice, Angie enjoys travel, golf, gardening, chess, reading, and spending time with family and friends. She and her husband have two grown children, and enjoy living in the Brainerd Lakes Community

Angelina Ausban, MD

Charity Golf Day

We have a fun announcement!  The one day Brainerd Lakes Metabolic Health Symposium is to be held on Saturday, September 21 at the Cragun's Resort but on the Sunday, September 22 we are holding a charity golf event at the same venue.  This event is to raise funds for The SMHP™ and the local Boys and Girls Club.  If you play golf at all we would love for you to join in.  You can sign up for that during your registration process for the event.  If you don't play golf, maybe you'd like to stay through Sunday anyway and either partake in the water activities they have at the resort or take the opportunity to stretch your legs and follow some of the golfers around the course.

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