6.11.1 - Multi-Metabolic Week Part I: Role of MASLD In Multi-Metabolic Clinics

Surfing the MASH Tsunami

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Multi-Metabolic Week focuses on the idea that MASLD and MASH are elements in a systemic set of Multi-Metabolic issues. This conversation is the first of two looking at the concept of the "Multi-Metabolic Clinic," a clinic that treats the entire spectrum of multi-metabolic diseases.

The core of this episode starts during the weekly groundbreaker exercise, during which our guests began to describe the path that brought them from single-disease specialization to the broader multi-metabolic practice.. Immediately after the groundbreakers, participants describe their clinics today, including patient population and principles underlying their approach to treatment.

For Karen, the path started in a conventional gastrointestinal practice. A decade ago, she gained certification in obesity medicine. While treating patients for obesity, she came to appreciate the interplay of obesity, diabetes and the other manifestations of multi-metabolic disease. Eventually, she divided her practice and time so that she spent half her time in the GI practice and the other half creating Trajectory Health Partners, a practice focused on overall metabolic health.

For Dr. López, the initial goal was to "re-educate the hypothalamic problem," which he saw as the root cause of obesity and from which all other metabolic issues came. He describes this as "the auto-destruction button" of patients' lives, leading to two causes of death: (1) insulin resistance and related cardiovascular problems, and (2) short-telomere cancers.

The rest of this conversation focuses on the tests that the two clinics use to confirm MASLD or MASH and their approaches to treating multi-metabolic patients.