Dr. Èvelyne Bourdua-Roy
MD
Dr. Bourdua-Roy is a family doctor at Coop de santé-solidarité de Contrecoeur, in Quebec, Canada. She has a strong interest for the low carb and ketogenic diets, as well as for intermittent fasting. She founded Clinique Reversa, a program led by a multidisciplinary team dedicated to helping patients reverse their chronic diseases associated with lifestyle, such a type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, hypertension, obesity, chronic fatigue and chronic pain. She was a speaker at the international Low Carb USA conference held in Breckenridge, Colorado, in 2018. She is currently getting her certification in Obesity Medicine with the American Board of Obesity Medicine. She also works for and blogs for Diet Doctor, the world’s biggest and most trustworthy web site on low carb and keto diets.
Dr. David G. Harper
Dr. David G. (Dave) Harper is a science educator, researcher, and technology CEO. He is an advocate for education, science and technology, diversity and inclusiveness, environmental sustainability, and is passionate about the importance of critical reasoning and healthy skepticism.
Dave holds a BSc. and Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia in mathematical biofluiddynamics and he completed post-doctoral fellowships at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole and the University of Cambridge in comparative physiology. He is an Associate Professor of Kinesiology at the University of the Fraser Valley, where he teaches courses in Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, and Contemporary Health issues.
As a Visiting Scientist at the BC Cancer Research Centre, Terry Fox Lab, his current research focusses on the therapeutic benefits of ketogenic diets for women with metastatic breast cancer. He is on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Institute for Personalized Therapeutic Nutrition and has just completed a book about the new science of nutrition called BioDiet: The Scientifically proven, Ketogenic Way to Lose Weight, Improve Health, and Increase Vitality.
Dr. Anna Isakoff-Meller
Bsc Nutrition, MD CCFP
Dr. Anna Isakoff-Meller completed a biochemistry and nutrition degree in 1981, and went on to complete medical school at the University of Ottawa in 1985. She has been working as a family physician since 1985. Ten years ago, she read the book ‘Good Calories Bad Calories’ by Gary Taubes, and that started her on a journey of nutritional rediscovery. She started treating chronic nutritional diseases such as metabolic syndrome with dietary changes, and never looked back. In 2015, Dr. Isakoff-Meller was invited to be an expert panel speaker during the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs and Technology’s inquiry into obesity in Canada. Her greatest professional joy is reversing metabolic syndrome including obesity and diabetes, watching her patients regain good health, while decreasing and discontinuing their medications. Dr. Isakoff-Meller has four wonderful sons, and loves spending time at her cottage on Georgian bay.
Dr. Kelsey Kozoriz
MD CCFP
Dr. Kelsey Kozoriz completed her medical degree in 2008 and went on to complete a family medicine residency at the University of British Columbia. Her undergraduate and graduate studies, with an MSc in Epidemiology from the University of Calgary, provided a foundation for her love of the sciences. Dr. Kozoriz has a special interest in obesity medicine and the use of evidence-based, therapeutic nutrition in treating chronic diseases such as diabetes. She is passionate about using group medical visits and supporting her patients in achieving their best health through exercise, nutrition, and mental wellness. Dr. Kozoriz is a diplomate of the American Board of Obesity Medicine. In her spare time, she enjoys family bike rides, time by the ocean, and camping on the West Coast.
Dr. Hala Lahlou
MD CCFP
Dr. Hala Lahlou is a family physician, and a lecturer working at the Verdun Family Medicine Teaching Unit, in Montreal, Quebec.
Other than her involvement in teaching, family practice, and palliative care, she advocates for primary prevention through a healthy lifestyle focused on a whole food, low carbohydrate diet, in conjunction with exercise and meditation.
She personally adopted an LCHF lifestyle in 2016, and has been counselling patients interested in adopting LCHF and ketogenic diets ever since, helping them to achieve health and improve chronic nutritional diseases.
Dr. Jasmin Levallois
MD FRCPC
Dr Levallois is an Internal Medicine doctor with sub-speciality in Nephrology at Georges-L-Dumont Hospital, in Moncton, Canada. After seeing the complications of the lifestyle related chronic diseases in his patients, he developed an interest in using intermittent fasting and therapeutic nutrition to help reverse their metabolic disorders.
Andrew Mente
PhD
Dr. Mente received his doctoral degree in Epidemiology from the University of Toronto. He completed post-doctoral training in cardiovascular epidemiology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, and is currently an Associate Professor in Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact at the Population Health Research Institute, McMaster University. He has received a Research Fellowship from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, and a Research Early Career Award from Hamilton Health Sciences.
Dr. Mente has studied the role of dietary sodium and cardiovascular diseases. His team conducted the largest ever epidemiologic study of the impact of sodium intake on blood pressure, cardiovascular disease risk, and mortality in the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study, a study of over 100,000 individuals from 18 low, middle and high income countries on 5 continents. Recently, Dr. Mente has co-led an investigation on the role of fats and carbohydrates in cardiovascular disease in the PURE cohort. He also has conducted numerous large systematic reviews of diet and cardiovascular disease including saturated fat. He is currently co-leading nutrition work in the PURE study investigating the impact of individual foods on cardiovascular markers and cardiovascular disease events.
Dr. Ginevra Mills
Msc MD
Dr. Mills is a senior Resident Physician in Obstetrics and Gynecology in Edmonton, AB. Over the past two years, she has developed a keen passion for understanding the impact of therapeutic nutrition on women’s reproductive and metabolic health. She has spoken at an international physician conference on the use of low carbohydrate nutrition with PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome). What started out as an endeavor to lose 70 pounds of baby weight after her third pregnancy became a transformative and paradigm-shifting change for her life and that of her entire family, including her three young children. With whole food nutrition, Dr. Mills and her husband have seen immense positive changes in the physical and mental health of their family, including the behavioural challenges faced by their child with autism and ADHD. It is Dr. Mill’s goal to incorporate therapeutic nutrition into her medical practice to help women achieve their optimal health and reproductive potential.
Dr. Blair O'Neill
MD FRCPC
Dr. O’Neill has been a practicing cardiologist since 1990. He has extensive health care leadership experience including directing cardiac catheterization laboratories in both Victoria and Halifax, and serving as Chief of the Division of Cardiology at the QEII Health Sciences Centre in Halifax. He has served as Division Director for the University of Alberta, Division of Cardiology and for the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute since 2008, and in 2012, he became Senior Medical Director for the Cardiovascular Health and Stroke Strategic Clinical Network for Alberta Health Service.
Nationally, he has served on many councils and societies, including serving as President of the Council of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society (CCS), where he was instrumental in setting the national targets for cardiovascular services and procedures.
Always physically active as a runner and “bootcamper”, Dr. O’Neill has practiced a low carbohydrate lifestyle for 3 years, losing and easily sustaining a 25 lbs. weight loss. He has become a member of the Obesity Medicine Association in the USA, and attends many of the low carb-high fat diet meetings. He has researched the literature and is convinced that our dietary guidelines have lead to the pandemic of obesity and diabetes around the world. Fat has never been proven to be harmful, but instead, many of our nutritional diseases have stemmed from excess sugars and refined, high starch vegetables. Dr O’Neill has become medical advisor to a company dedicated to helping patients adopt a low carb lifestyle, Ketocule Health Coaching, based in Edmonton, Alberta.
Dr. Andrew Samis
MD PhD FRCSC
Dr. Ian Spreadbury
PhD
Dr. Spreadbury received his BSc(Hons) in pharmacology, and his PhD in neuroscience from the University of Bristol. He has held postdoctoral positions at both Oxford and the University of Calgary, followed by work as a Research Associate at the Gastrointestinal Diseases Research Unit at Queen’s University in Kingston. Dr. Spreadbury has several peer reviewed publications in neuroscience and more recently has published on how the deviation from traditional foods to dense, acellular carbohydrates impact disease, including type 2 diabetes, obesity and insulin/leptin resistance; he has spoken internationally regarding these topics. Dr. Spreadbury has developed in interest in nutritional science and medicine, and is currently completing his Doctor of Medicine training at McGill. He hopes to pursue a practise in Family Medicine upon completion of medical school. He enjoys collaborating with other health professionals and engaging in nutritional advocacy work.
Dr. Jay Wortman
MD CCFP
Dr. Wortman has worked in family medicine, public health, medical administration and research. He has held senior management positions in Health Canada in Ottawa and Vancouver.
For the past 15 years he has worked with low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet in both the research and practice settings. One of his studies was the subject of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation documentary film, “My Big Fat Diet”.
Dr. Wortman is a frequent presenter on the benefits of a low carbohydrate high fat diet at scientific meetings and continuing medical education events. He is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia and is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Atkins Nutritionals Inc.
Dr. Wortman currently practices in West Vancouver where he uses a low carb high fat diet for the treatment of metabolic and inflammatory conditions.
Professor Salim Yusuf
MBBS, DPhil, FRSC, OC
Distinguished University Professor of Medicine
Director, Population Health Research Institute,
Department of Medicine, McMaster University
Chief Scientist, Hamilton Health Sciences
Medically qualified in Bangalore 1976, Salim received a Rhodes Scholarship and obtained a DPhil from Oxford, during which he (along with Richard Peto, Rory Collins and Peter Sleight) initiated the concepts of large, simple trials, and meta-analysis. He coordinated the first ISIS trial (which set the structure for future international collaborative work in cardiovascular disease) that demonstrated the value of beta-blockers in myocardial infarction, and was a member of steering committees for all subsequent ISIS trials.
Salim is an internationally renowned cardiologist and epidemiologist, whose trials and epidemiologic work over 40 years has substantially influenced prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease globally. His epidemiologic work in over 100 countries in all the inhabited continents of the world shows the majority of risks of both cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease are attributable to the same few risk factors. He currently leads the largest ever study (PURE) exploring the role of societal changes on CVD among 200,000 people from over 1000 urban and rural communities in 27 high, middle and low income countries. These studies have led to better understanding of the role of societal changes on behaviours, risk factors, and health systems and how they influence CVD.
He holds a Heart and Stroke Foundation Research Chair, has received (among others) the Lifetime Research Achievement award of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society, the Paul Wood Silver Medal of the British Cardiac Society, the European Society of Cardiology gold medal, the American Heart Association Clinical Research Award, and over 35 other international and national awards for research, induction into the Royal Society of Canada and Canadian Medical Hall of Fame, and appointment as an Officer of the Order of Canada. He has received 3 honorary doctorates (Wroclaw, Goteborg and Prague). He has led over 60 major international studies in 100 countries involving over a million people; several of these have changed medical practice.
Professor Yusuf has published over 1000 articles in refereed journals, was the second most cited researcher in the world for 2011 and has the 17th highest H-index in history. He is the immediate Past President of the World Heart Federation, where he has initiated the Road maps program and the Emerging Leaders program involving over 50 countries with the aim of reducing CVD globally.