Diet Doctor Podcast #106:
What can CGMs teach us about metabolic health?
Nick Norwitz, PhD, medical student and study organizer
Mark Czeisler, PhD, medical student and study participant
Melanie Hoenig, MD, nephrologist, professor at Harvard Medical School
Medical student Nick Norwitz, PhD, and his colleagues designed a study using continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) to help them learn about lifestyle influences on blood sugar and metabolic health. With guidance from their attending physician, Dr. Melanie Hoenig, the students embarked on a multidisciplinary curriculum to learn about the various aspects of metabolic health.
As we hear in this interview, it was an eye-opening experience for the participants — one that they feel will help make them better doctors.
But the study isn’t without its critics. Some people question if it’s appropriate to use CGMs in this manner, and if it inaccurately reduces metabolic health to one measurement.
We explore these controversies, the big learning moments from the study, and how to improve nutrition education for medical students.
About the video
Virtual podcast recorded and published in September 2022.
Host: Dr. Bret Scher
Producer: Hari Dewang
Table of contents
00:00 Introduction
01:24 Nick Norwitz, PhD
02:30 Motivations behind the study
05:20 Curriculum updates in the nutrition training
09:03 Blood sugar doesn’t equal metabolic health
15:06 A potential pushback of the study
20:37 Response from the attendings about the study
27:43 The impact and the future of the study
33:10 Mark Czeisler, PhD
36:00 The change towards metabolic health
41:20 The concern with blood sugar in the study
49:18 Melanie Hoenig, MD
50:02 Overall impression of the study
55:51 The state of nutrition training in medical school
1:00:43 Conclusion
As we hear in this interview, it was an eye-opening experience for the participants — one that they feel will help make them better doctors.
But the study isn’t without its critics. Some people question if it’s appropriate to use CGMs in this manner, and if it inaccurately reduces metabolic health to one measurement.
We explore these controversies, the big learning moments from the study, and how to improve nutrition education for medical students.
About the video
Virtual podcast recorded and published in September 2022.
Host: Dr. Bret Scher
Producer: Hari Dewang
