Dr. Karen Dwyer graduated from The University of Melbourne in 1994 and completed physician training in Nephrology in 2001. She completed her PhD in 2004 through the University of Melbourne and then spent two years in Boston, USA.
As a nephrologist and transplant physician, Dr. Dwyer has a keen interest in metabolic health. In 2020 she became a fellow of the Australasian Society of Lifestyle Medicine and is undertaking training through the Society of Metabolic Health Practitioners. Karen is passionate about improving the health and well-being of the community taking a holistic and integrated approach with an emphasis on lifestyle management.
Until recently, Dr. Dwyer was Clinical Director at Kidney Health Australia and Professor of Medicine at Deakin University. Karen has published over 100 peer review articles with her research interest being adnosine signalling in kidney transplantation. In 2021 she was presented the inaugural Burnstock Lecture for her contribution to the field.
The highlight of Karen's clinical career was as the lead physician for Australia's first hand transplant in 2011 which was recognised with Quality Award by St. Vincent's Health Australia. Karen has served on the council and executive of the Transplantation Society of Australia and New Zealand and is currently the Oceania representative on council for the International Transplant Society. In 2018 Karen was awarded the Leader in Transplantation Award for gender equity advocacy.
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11 responses to “Dr. Karen Dwyer – ‘SGLT2 Inhibitors – Optimising Their Use’”
Egfr is one marker, but a much better one is cystatin c, which many drs dont know about or test for..far better and less influenced by muscle mass.
People on carnivore diets and sometime on keto diets, often show a low egfr number, which is very misleading and can make a doctor think you have early or some form of kidney disease. This is why cystatin c is much more accurate and will invariably show that your kidneys are in much better shape.
Taurine found in animal foods and in particular in seafood is a safer inhibitor of SGLT.
Best to supplement with taurine and avoid the blood sugar lowering meds.
Safety tip: if you are on blood pressure (in particular calcium channel blockers, because taurine is a natural calcium channel blocker and regulator of minerals in the body) or blood sugar lowering meds, because taurine lowers both, you need to start of with very low dosing of 500mg a day and slowly increase upto 6g a day (2g per meal), while getting your meds adjusted to a lower dose, by the 3g stage you should be off your meds.
What about just reducing carbs overall, Harry? Would it not have a far more immediate affect on lowering blood glucose than increasing taurine. Eventhough there are added benefits for the inclusion of taurine in our diet through supplementation.
Insulin resistance is a concept or construct but not a disease. Its an adaptation to constantly high glucose levels in the blood and chronic ingestion of seed based oils, among other things, even beta blockers can increase it.
Cardiologists also use this type of med for heart failure. All they need to recommend is to stop ingesting carbs in the first place.
Forget low carb, no carb is the way to go. That lady turned carnivore this year! The damage was already done by carbs.
Insulin resistance is highly governed and influenced by environmental and lifestyle factors. Saying its genetic is a cop out. Mum and Dad were just carb, seed oil addicts, and so was that lady. Its an epidemic worldwide and the solution is very simple indeed. A carnivore diet. In nature there has never ever been a documented case of heart disease. Inflammation at every angle and mitochondrial damage is at its core. When will people get it, when?
I have my own theory about HBP and kidney disease. It’s not that high blood pressure damages the kidneys, but rather the kidneys help regulate BP which they do, and because the kidneys are not getting adequate blood flow they cause the higher pressure to increase the flow.
As an adjunct I have been stage 3 for about 20 years caused by using too many pain killers and or urine retention not diabetes. Since discarding most medical advice I have become borderline stage 2. Not only advice but BP and Statins which were prescribed.
I am a bit concerned about SGLT drugs and low carb. Having suffered from it, the risk of ketoacidosis is way too risky to me.
SGLT-2 inhibitors also dump sodium (dehydration) and increase risk of UTI (bacteria feeds on glucose)