Summary: •One of the things that happened, I met Leslyn at the first-ever international symposium on the lymphatic system at the National Institutes of Health while she was presenting her research. •Leslyn's research essentially said that a ketogenic way of eating worked and helped with obesity and lymphedema-related chronic disorders. •We entered into a conversation wondering if keto would also work for lipedema because there are very few research related to lipedema specifically. •She then finished her research while I was in Germany working on the book on lipedema. •When we reconnected along with our anecdotal data, we started to work with keto for lipedema. •In the beginning, we were told that we need to do some more groundwork before we can do our clinical trial. •And as women began to report a reduction in pain, swelling, and weight loss almost overnight with the ketogenic way of eating, we then aimed to get more evidential data. •With the guidance of epidemiologist Monika Wahi, along with an incredible team that pulled together all the research that's already out there, we put together this hypothesis paper (link to the article below) which essentially says that here are the symptoms that are seen with someone with lipedema, and we are putting forth how we think keto can help with that. •The symptoms that we wanted to look at was excessive uneven fat deposition on the lower half of the body, and sometimes on the upper arms, pain, and quality of life issues, as well as look at the edema that's associated with lipedema, the metabolic and hormonal issues, inflammation and fibrosis. •And then we discussed how a ketogenic diet deals with each of those issues, and how it differs from standard weight-loss diets.Reference: [1] Keith L., Seo C.A., Rowsemitt C., Pfeffer M., Wahi M., Staggs M., Dudek J., Gower B., Carmody M. Ketogenic diet as a potential intervention for lipedema. Medical Hypotheses, 2020, 110435 (ISSN 0306-9877) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mehy.2020.110435

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