It's good medicine; not a medical mystery

Last Updated Aug 2007

By Dr. Barry Sears

Last week ABC News ran a story on Manuel Uribe, who used to be the world's heaviest man, on its program Medical Mysteries. The biggest mystery was to explain why Manuel is so healthy, even though he still weighs more than 800 pounds. The second mystery is why ABC News didn't do its due diligence on the story. First the doctors featured in the story were not Manuel's doctors. The actual doctors are from Zone Diet Mexico, who have been overseeing Manuel's dramatic progress for the past year; however, these doctors were never mentioned in the story. While the doctor featured in the program stated, "We don't have an explanation" to explain Manuel's general health in spite of his weight, our Zone physicians do. It is the reduction of silent inflammation. When they first measured the level of silent inflammation in Manuel, it was extremely high. That is why the Zone Diet and high- dose fish oil (25 grams of EPA and DHA per day) were combined. Manuel's rapid weight loss only began with the reduction of his AA/EPA ratio. Today, it is 1.8, which is ideal. In addition, ABC News referred to the Zone Diet as a low-carb diet implying it is like the Atkins diet. Nothing is further from the truth. Manuel is closely following the Zone Diet, which means he is consuming more carbohydrate than protein. In fact, his only complaint is that he can't eat all the food (his total calorie intake is about 2,000 calories per day). So how healthy is Manuel? Here are his latest vital statistics:

Total cholesterol 190

HDL cholesterol 45

Triglycerides 55

TG/HDL ratio 1.2

Blood pressure 120/70

Resting heart rate 62

AA/EPA ratio 1.8

Manuel is probably the healthiest man in Mexico. That's not a medical mystery, because it is due to good medicine. The only mystery is why ABC News chose not to explore it.