In this episode, Dave sits down with Austin, a metabolic data enthusiast and early adopter of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) who brings a fascinating blend of self-experimentation, performance optimization, and deep curiosity about human physiology. From endurance training to dietary tracking, Austin shares his journey through the data-driven side of health — how he uses CGM, heart rate, and nutrient timing to reveal the body’s hidden patterns. Together, Dave and Austin explore how metrics can empower individuals to take ownership of their health, the tension between conventional guidelines and personal experimentation, and what the future of open-source health data could look like.

🙏We only have one sponsor -- and it's us: https://OwnYourLabs.com

🩸So keep getting your private blood testing through our platform and it will support the podcast.

🔗 CONNECT WITH DAVE FELDMAN PROTOCOL

Main Channel: https://youtube.com/@realDaveFeldman

X/Twitter: https://x.com/realDaveFeldman

Instagram: https://instagram.com/realDaveFeldman

Website: https://thefeldmanprotocol.com

⏱ Chapters

0:00 – Introduction & Setting the Stage

5:45 – Opening Reflections on Austin’s Energy and Setting

10:30 – Early Experiences That Sparked Curiosity

15:15 – First Encounters with Data, Health, and Experimentation

20:00 – The Origins of a Systems Approach to Nutrition

25:00 – Breaking Down the Lipid Energy Model Concept

30:15 – What Early Self-Experiments Revealed

35:20 – Exploring LDL and APOB from a New Perspective

40:10 – Why Traditional Cholesterol Framing Falls Short

45:00 – Digging Into Lipoprotein Transport Mechanisms

50:05 – Triglycerides, Remnants, and Particle Flow

55:15 – When Energy Demand Shapes Lipid Behavior

1:00:10 – The Lean Mass Hyper-Responder Pattern

1:05:00 – Genetics, Metabolism, and Individual Variation

1:10:30 – LPL and LDL Receptor Pathways in Context

1:15:20 – Familial Hypercholesterolemia and Diverse Risk Profiles

1:20:15 – How Population Data Can Mislead Individual Cases

1:25:10 – Mendelian Randomization and Its Hidden Assumptions

1:30:00 – Study Design: What We Miss When We Aggregate

1:35:00 – The Duration vs. Magnitude of LDL Exposure

1:40:10 – Interpreting Meta-Analyses with Caution

1:45:15 – Revisiting the PESA Trial and Imaging Insights

1:50:05 – Understanding the “Three-Line Graph” Debate

1:55:00 – Statistical Power, Noise, and Over-Interpretation

2:00:10 – Regression Models and Data-Slicing Pitfalls

2:05:20 – Plaque Progression and Clinical Translation

2:10:00 – PCSK9 Insights and Unexpected Outcomes

2:15:00 – Beyond LDL: Inflammation and Contextual Risk

2:20:05 – Revisiting the Bradford Hill Criteria for Causality

2:25:10 – Consistency, Dose Response, and Biological Plausibility

2:30:00 – The Changing Landscape of Trial Reporting

2:35:05 – How 2004 Altered Medical Transparency Rules

2:40:00 – Scientific Discourse, Debate, and Misinterpretation

2:45:15 – The Role of Skepticism in Evidence Review

2:50:10 – The Value of Epistemic Humility in Science

2:55:00 – Open Data, Collaboration, and Collective Learning

3:00:10 – Case Studies and Self-Experimentation Insights

3:05:00 – Reflections on N=1 Studies and Public Data Sharing

3:15:00 – Designing Smarter Studies for the Future

3:20:05 – Lessons Learned from Real-World Observation

3:25:00 – Future of Lipid Research and Citizen Science

3:30:00 – Revisiting Key Misconceptions About Cholesterol

3:35:10 – Bridging Gaps Between Clinicians and Researchers

3:40:00 – Empowering Individuals Through Accessible Data

3:50:00 – Community, Collaboration, and Scientific Openness

3:55:10 – Final Thoughts on Evidence, Curiosity, and Persistence

4:00:00 – Closing Reflections & Gratitude

#FeldmanProtocol #LDL #HDL #Cholesterol #ASCVD #ContinuousGlucoseMonitoring #CGM #MetabolicHealth #DataDrivenHealth #CitizenScience #OwnYourLabs #QuantifiedSelf #HealthData #PerformanceOptimization #DaveFeldman #HumanPerformance #MetabolicFlexibility #OpenSourceScience

In this episode, Dave sits down with Peter Ballerstedt, a retired forage agronomist and ruminant nutritionist known as "Don Pedro the Sod Father of the Ruminati," who brings a unique agricultural perspective to metabolic health discussions. Ballerstedt shares his 2007 transformation after reading Gary Taubes' book and how it led him to bridge agricultural science with the low-carb community. The conversation examines environmental arguments around animal agriculture, presents data on greenhouse gas emissions (12% animal vs 10% plant agriculture), explores the limitations of converting grassland to cropland, discusses the evolution of dietary guidelines since the 1970s, and examines Ballerstedt's concept of a "ruminant revolution" to address both human malnutrition and environmental concerns.

🔗 CONNECT WITH DAVE FELDMAN PROTOCOL:

Main Channel: @realDaveFeldman

X/Twitter: x.com/realDaveFeldman

Instagram: instagram.com/realDaveFeldman

Website: thefeldmanprotocol.com

⏱ Chapters

0:00 – Introduction

1:05 – Who is Peter Ballerstedt: The Sod Father of the Ruminati

5:11 – Personal Journey: Pre-Diabetic to Low-Carb in 2007

6:16 – Gary Taubes' "Good Calories, Bad Calories"

7:00 – First Low-Carb Conference

10:34 – Lipophobia and the Anti-Red Meat Message

11:23 – The 1977 Dietary Goals and McGovern Committee

14:01 – Personal Transformation and Reversing Pre-Diabetes

21:09 – Malnutrition vs. "Overnutrition"

23:22 – Climate Change and Animal Agriculture

24:14 – Greenhouse Gas Emissions: 22% Agriculture, 12% Animal

29:06 – Land Use: Why We Can't Convert Grassland to Cropland

30:31 – The Football Field Analogy: Class 1 Soils

37:00 – Ruminants Converting Inedible Biomass to Human Food

52:00 – Obesity Associated with Poverty

1:07:00 – Animal Source Food and Economic Prosperity

1:15:05 – The Grassroots Low-Carb Movement and 10% Tipping Point

1:30:00 – Personal Stories: Reversing Diabetes Through Diet

1:43:05 – Using AI and Large Language Models for Research

1:52:11 – Obesity and Poverty: Gary Taubes' Key Insight

1:55:42 – Ecosystem Services: Fire Management and Wildlife

2:00:01 – Agricultural Biomass is Not Human Edible

2:05:51 – Animal Source Food Demand by 2050

2:30:00 – Historical Medical Views on Meat

3:01:14 – Malnutrition: 30-35 Million Deaths, $6.5 Trillion Cost

3:02:03 – Red Meat and Cancer: Epidemiological Evidence

3:04:40 – Hyperinsulinemia and Insulin Resistance

3:07:53 – The Ruminant Revolution: Energy Transition Fund Redirection

3:12:55 – Personal Story: A1C Over 11 to Diabetes Removed

3:15:35 – The 10% Rule and Paradigm Shifts

3:41:00 – Grass-Fed vs. Grain-Fed Beef

3:42:20 – Avoiding Unnecessary Barriers to Adoption

3:45:05 – The Greenland Paradox

3:51:23 – Animal Rights vs. Animal Welfare

3:53:23 – Separating Suffering from Mortality

4:00:00 – Where to Find Peter

#FeldmanProtocol #PeterBallerstedt #AnimalAgriculture #RegenerativeAgriculture #RuminantNutrition #LowCarb #KetoMedicine #Agronomy #ClimateChange #SustainableAgriculture #GrasslandEcosystems #MetabolicHealth #AnimalWelfare #GaryTaubes #DietaryGuidelines #FoodSystems #Malnutrition #SoilHealth #GrassFed #DaveFeldman

In this episode, Dave sits down with Dr. Eric Westman, associate professor of medicine at Duke University and founder of the Keto Medicine Clinic, who has built his practice around using dietary interventions to treat patients. Dr. Westman discusses his path from traditional internal medicine to researching low-carb approaches, including his early observations of patients whose cholesterol profiles improved on high-fat diets and his collaboration with Dr. Atkins in the late 1990s to conduct some of the first clinical studies on the Atkins diet. The conversation covers the current medical environment where GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic have become prominent weight loss treatments, the historical use of low-carb medicine dating back over a century, and Dr. Westman's perspective on why nutrition education has become less emphasized in medical training. From his YouTube channel that reaches millions of viewers monthly to his clinical work helping patients reverse diabetes through dietary changes, Dr. Westman shares his experience at the intersection of medical research, clinical practice, and the evolving approaches to treating metabolic conditions.

🔗 CONNECT WITH DAVE FELDMAN PROTOCOL:

Main Channel: @realDaveFeldman

X/Twitter: x.com/realDaveFeldman

Instagram: instagram.com/realDaveFeldman

Website: thefeldmanprotocol.com

⏱ Key Chapters

0:00 – Introduction & Opening Thoughts

1:04 – Who is Dr. Eric Westman & the Keto Medicine Clinic

7:06 – Dr. Westman as the Original Keto Pioneer

9:02 – The First Atkins Diet Patients: Unexpected Results

12:17 – The 2004 Studies & Dr. Atkins' Tragic Death

15:16 – Duke's Historical Connection to Dietary Medicine

25:15 – GLP-1 Drugs vs. Dietary Interventions: The Current Divide

32:20 – The Muscle Loss Problem with Weight Loss Drugs

38:15 – The American Diabetes Association's Forgotten Origins

47:10 – Addiction Models: Food vs. Tobacco & Alcohol

1:05:15 – Glucose Metabolism & Keto Adaptation in Long-Term Practitioners

1:15:00 – Animal Models vs. Human Studies: The Research Problem

1:25:00 – Metabolic Status Impact on Lipid Profiles

1:30:00 – Lean Mass Hyper-Responder Study Results & Heterogeneity

1:40:00 – Brown & Goldstein's Work & Homozygous FH Cases

1:55:00 – The Cholesterol Code Documentary Journey

2:00:00 – Citizen Science Foundation & Crowdfunded Research

2:10:00 – Heart Failure, Ketones & SGLT2 Inhibitors

2:20:00 – Serial Killers Films & Athletic Performance on Keto

2:35:00 – Eric's Bookshelf: Essential Low-Carb Literature

2:45:00 – Hospital Food Systems & Institutional Change

2:55:00 – Drug Development vs. Dietary Solutions

3:00:00 – Polypharmacy & Deprescribing in Clinical Practice

3:15:00 – Adapt Your Life Academy & Online Education

3:30:00 – The Feldman Protocol & Cholesterol Manipulation

3:45:00 – Closing Thoughts & Where to Find Dr. Westman

#FeldmanProtocol #EricWestman #KetoMedicine #DietaryIntervention #AtkinsDiet #Duke #MedicalResearch #GLP1 #Ozempic #DiabetesReversal #LowCarb #FoodAsMedicine #CholesterolResearch #DaveFeldman #MedicalHistory

Can we really justify what we eat today by pointing to what our ancestors ate thousands of years ago? In this thought-provoking episode, I sit down with Alex Leaf, a scientific communicator and longtime researcher with Examine.com, to challenge some of the most persistent ideas in nutrition.We dive deep into the ancestral argument, the role of mTOR and protein in longevity, and the personal fat threshold hypothesis that could redefine how we view metabolic health and type 2 diabetes. From wrestling-induced bulimia to modern agriculture’s double-edged legacy, Alex brings a refreshingly perspective to some of the most polarizing conversations in nutrition.🔗 CONNECT WITH DAVE FELDMAN:Main Channel: YouTube.com/realDaveFeldmanX/Twitter: x.com/realDaveFeldman Instagram: instagram.com/realDaveFeldmanWebsite: thefeldmanprotocol.com⏱ Chapters1:07 – Who is Alex Leaf and how he started in nutrition3:59 – Wrestling, eating disorders & body image8:27 – Protein, mTOR & the longevity paradox11:15 – The importance of amino acid composition13:22 – Fasting, feeding cycles & “cell closing hours”15:46 – Do ancestral eating patterns actually make sense?18:00 – Food scarcity, evolution & modern adaptation20:10 – Agriculture: humanity’s double-edged sword22:45 – Are we engineering our own metabolic collapse?26:00 – Animal vs plant protein quality31:10 – Why “ancestral diet” arguments fall apart36:45 – Modern food, ultraprocessed diets & disease40:13 – The Standard American Diet as the control group44:04 – The personal fat threshold explained47:40 – How body fat triggers insulin resistance52:10 – Can weight loss reverse type 2 diabetes?58:30 – Does fasting insulin predict fat loss?1:03:00 – Linking triglycerides, HDL & metabolic health1:05:45 – ApoB, risk factors & what studies miss1:12:10 – The limits of adjustment in nutrition science1:17:30 – What makes lean mass hyper-responders unique

In this episode of The Feldman Protocol, Dave Feldman sits down with Nicholas Verhoeven PhD, the creator of @Physionic and recent molecular medicine graduate who has successfully transitioned from traditional academia to independent science communication. The conversation explores Nic's unique approach to content creation, including his decision to reject thousands of sponsorship offers to maintain editorial independence while building a sustainable business model. Dave and Nic dive deep into the methodology and findings of Dave's groundbreaking longitudinal keto study, examining how 100 lean mass hyperresponders with an average LDL of 272 mg/dL compared to matched controls from the Miami Heart study with an average LDL of 123 mg/dL. The discussion reveals fascinating insights about plaque progression, the challenges of proving causation in nutrition science, and the problematic certainty often displayed in epidemiological research. They tackle the nuanced differences between correlation and causation, critique the WHO's red meat classification, and explore why the nutrition field tends toward binary thinking rather than acknowledging the spectrum of evidence strength that should inform our understanding of health risks.

🔗 CONNECT WITH DAVE FELDMAN:

Main Channel: youtube.com/realDaveFeldman

X/Twitter: x.com/realDaveFeldman

Instagram: instagram.com/realDaveFeldman

Website: thefeldmanprotocol.com

#NicVerhoeven #Physionic #KetoStudy #LeanMassHyperresponder #LDL #CardiovascularHealth #PlaqueProgression #ScienceCommunication #IndependentResearch #NutritionScience #EpidemiologyDebate #CausationVsCorrelation #RedMeatDebate #WHO #BradfordHillCriteria #ContentCreation #PhD #MolecularMedicine #HealthPodcast

In Part 3 of this episode of The Feldman Protocol, Dave Feldman concludes his conversation with Nick Norwitz MD PhD, exploring thought-provoking topics that span from practical health assessments to philosophical questions about consciousness. The discussion covers Nick's analysis of Peter Attia's evolving stance on lipids, Bryan Johnson's controversial decision to avoid CTA scans due to radiation concerns, and a detailed technical breakdown of actual radiation exposure from cardiac imaging. The conversation takes fascinating philosophical turns as they debate the teleporter problem and what defines human consciousness, before shifting to predictions about carnivore diet mainstream adoption and the future of scientific communication through social media, with Nick sharing insights about his rapid YouTube growth and plans for expanding his educational impact.

🔗 CONNECT WITH DAVE FELDMAN:

Main Channel: youtube.com/realDaveFeldman

X/Twitter: x.com/realDaveFeldman

Instagram: instagram.com/realDaveFeldman

Website: thefeldmanprotocol.com

#NickNorwitz #PeterAttia #BryanJohnson #CTAScan #RadiationExposure #TeleporterProblem #Consciousness #Philosophy #Carnivorediet #SocialMedia #ScientificCommunication #YouTubeGrowth #HealthInfluencer #CardiacImaging #Longevity #MetabolicHealth #HealthPodcast

In Part 2 of this episode of The Feldman Protocol, Dave Feldman continues his conversation with Nick Norwitz, focusing on controversial topics that showcase Nick's scientific rigor. The discussion begins with Nick's methodical critique of Bryan Johnson's longevity claims, questioning his scientific methodology and the lack of transparency in his $2 million annual protocol. Nick explores the healthy user bias problem in red meat epidemiology, shares insights about choosing research over medical residency, discusses his famous Oreo vs. Statin experiment, and provides a detailed explanation of the carbohydrate-insulin model of obesity, demonstrating how it complements rather than contradicts thermodynamics while offering a more mechanistic understanding of weight regulation than traditional energy balance models.

🔗 CONNECT WITH DAVE FELDMAN:

Main Channel: YouTube.com/realDaveFeldman

X/Twitter: x.com/realDaveFeldman

Instagram: instagram.com/realDav…

Website: thefeldmanprotocol.com

Energy Balance vs. Hormonal Models #NickNorwitz #BryanJohnson #Longevity #HealthInfluencer #ScientificRigor #RedMeat #HealthyUserBias #CarbohydrateInsulinModel #OreoVsStatin #InsulinResistance #MetabolicHealth #HealthResearch #PublicationBias #NutritionScience #EnergyBalance #HealthPodcast

In this episode of The Feldman Protocol, Dave Feldman sits down with Nick Norwitz, a PhD researcher focusing on metabolism who earned his doctorate from Oxford and graduated recently from Harvard Medical School. Nick shares his remarkable journey from elite distance runner at age 17 - capable of 2:45 marathons and 3,000-mile training years - to facing a cascade of health crises that would reshape his understanding of medicine. Nick recounts how his health deteriorated further with severe GI symptoms beginning at Dartmouth in 2017, eventually landing him in intensive care and palliative care with dangerously low weight levels. The discussion explores Nick's medical detective work, including his discovery of a cholesterol paradox: following a "heart-healthy" LDL-lowering diet that actually caused his LDL to jump from 95 to 321, while paradoxically improving his small dense LDL profile. Nick demonstrates scientific humility by acknowledging how his early lipid research perspectives have evolved, while discussing the institutional challenges he faces in publishing controversial research that might upset even his allies in the metabolic health field.🔗 CONNECT WITH DAVE FELDMAN PROTOCOL:Main Channel: @realDaveFeldmanX/Twitter: @realDaveFeldman Instagram: @realDaveFeldmanWebsite: thefeldmanprotocol.com⏰ CHAPTERS:1:16 - Introduction: Nick Norwitz, PhD Researcher & Harvard Medical Student1:43 - Life Mission: Making Metabolic Health Mainstream4:37 - Health Crisis Begins: GI Symptoms at Dartmouth (2017)5:11 - Athletic Background: Distance Running Success6:39 - Pattern of Fractures: From 90-Mile Weeks to Breaking Down7:24 - The Foot Fracture: X-Ray Misses, MRI Reveals Break8:26 - Osteoporosis Diagnosis: Bone Density of 70-80 Year Old14:51 - Fear and Urgency: The Deep Drive to Solve Health Problems26:37 - Life-Threatening Turn: Intensive Care & Palliative Care32:15 - The Cholesterol Paradox: Heart-Healthy Diet, LDL Jumps to 32132:50 - Early Lipid Analysis: Scientific Evolution and Humility34:00 - Medical Mystery: Low-Fat Diet Raises LDL36:06 - Research Partnership: Finding Collaborators55:53 - Controversial Research: Risk of Upsetting Allies1:06:53 - Publication Challenges: IRB Obstacles for Case Series1:07:28 - Meta-Analysis Struggles: Editor Ghosting on Positive Reviews#NickNorwitz #MetabolicHealth #HealthCrisis #Cholesterol #LDL #BoneDensity #GIHealth #HealthResearch #ScientificMethod #PersonalHealth #HealthPodcast