The Path from LifestyleRx

About the Episode

In honour of our delayed summer break, we have reposted one of our favourite conversations. Low carb and keto can lower blood sugar, but they also cut out foods your body benefits from. Dietitian Jess Pirnak explains green, yellow, and red light carbs, why chickpeas and lentils still work, and how a glucose monitor can show what your own body handles. You will also hear how to ease into beans without the gas and why LDL cholesterol needs a personal look.

About the Guest

Jess Pirnak, RD, is the lead dietitian at LifestyleRx and a Clinical Instructor at the University of British Columbia. Jess is also the in-house dietitian advisor for Celiac BC and runs a private practice focused on gut health, celiac disease, and plant-based diets.

About The Path Podcast

The Path is about simple strategies for better metabolic health. We break down metabolic disease, prediabetes, and type 2 diabetes through patient FAQs, better health decisions, and honest interviews with patients and the physicians who treat them.

Learn More About LifestyleRx: https://lifestylerx.io/

Ask us a video question! https://ask-a-question.lifestylerx.ca

Episode 124 | The Path Podcast

Note: This episode was recorded before the May 2026 name change from PCOS to PMOS, so the original terminology is still used throughout the episode.

About the Episode

PCOS is one of the most common hormone conditions in women of reproductive age, yet its name points to a problem that isn’t really the main story. Endocrinologist Dr. Alyse Goldberg explains how insulin, testosterone, and ovulation signals feed each other, how PCOS is diagnosed, and where lifestyle, metformin, the birth control pill, and GLP-1 medications fit. You will also hear why preventing weight gain helps, and why a PCOS diagnosis is a chance to act early, not a failure.

About the Guest

Dr. Alyse Goldberg is an endocrinologist in Toronto who consults at fertility clinics and works in the gestational diabetes clinic at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. She trained at the University of Toronto and completed a reproductive endocrinology fellowship at Women’s College Hospital. She is a member of the International PCOS Network and an author on the 2023 international evidence-based guidelines for PCOS.

About The Path Podcast

The Path is about simple strategies for better metabolic health. We break down metabolic disease, prediabetes, and type 2 diabetes through patient FAQs, better health decisions, and honest interviews with patients and the physicians who treat them.

Learn More About LifestyleRx: https://lifestylerx.io/

Ask us a video question! https://ask-a-question.lifestylerx.ca

Episode 123 | The Path Podcast

About the Episode

For years, osteoarthritis was blamed on simple wear and tear, but new research points to inflammation and metabolic health as major drivers of joint pain. Dr. Maziar Badii explains how osteoarthritis is diagnosed, why weight loss and food choices can ease joint pain, and why exercise, even running, is rarely off limits. You will also hear how treatment works, from creams and pills to injections and joint replacement.

About the Guest

Dr. Maziar Badii is a rheumatologist in the Division of Rheumatology at the University of British Columbia, with a cross appointment in Radiology. He has practiced rheumatology for 25 years, is a past president of the Northwest Rheumatism Society, and received the 2023 Polaris Award for Innovation in Rheumatology.

About The Path Podcast

The Path is about simple strategies for better metabolic health. We break down metabolic disease, prediabetes, and type 2 diabetes through patient FAQs, better health decisions, and honest interviews with patients and the physicians who treat them.

Learn More About LifestyleRx: https://lifestylerx.io/

Ask us a video question! https://ask-a-question.lifestylerx.ca

Episode 122 | The Path Podcast

About the Episode

As part of our late summer break, we're revisiting one of our favorite conversations from The Path archive. Most of us lose muscle as we age, and the tiny engines inside our cells, called mitochondria, get weaker too, which feeds insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. In this episode, Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky explains how exercise, protein, and colorful foods help protect both, and why strength and endurance training each matter. He also shares how to check supplement claims, including a protein blend from his own company.

About the Guest

Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky is a Professor and Division Head of Neuromuscular and Neurometabolic Disorders in the Department of Pediatrics at McMaster University. He has published over 500 scientific and medical articles and is a world leader in exercise and nutrition therapy for older adults and people with muscle and mitochondrial disease. He is also a former international-level endurance athlete who still trains seven days a week.

About The Path Podcast

The Path is about simple strategies for better metabolic health. We break down metabolic disease, prediabetes, and type 2 diabetes through patient FAQs, better health decisions, and honest interviews with patients and the physicians who treat them.

Learn More About LifestyleRx: https://lifestylerx.io/

Ask us a video question! https://ask-a-question.lifestylerx.ca

Episode 121 | The Path Podcast

About the Episode

You can develop serious liver scarring without ever drinking alcohol. Liver specialist Dr. Alnoor Ramji explains why fat in the liver deserves attention, how it connects to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, and which simple yearly blood test can flag liver damage early. You'll also learn which food and activity changes help, and why the liver has a strong ability to heal.

About the Guest

Dr. Alnoor Ramji is a liver specialist and Clinical Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia, practicing at St. Paul's Hospital. He co-founded the Canadian MASLD Network (CanMASLD) and co-authored the MASLD chapter of the Diabetes Canada guidelines.

About The Path Podcast

The Path is about simple strategies for better metabolic health. We break down metabolic disease, prediabetes, and type 2 diabetes through patient FAQs, better health decisions, and honest interviews with patients and the physicians who treat them.

Learn More About LifestyleRx: https://lifestylerx.io/

Ask us a video question! https://ask-a-question.lifestylerx.ca

Episode 120 | The Path Podcast

About the Episode

Type 2 diabetes does not start when blood sugar rises. It starts years earlier, in the small cells of the pancreas that make insulin. Dr. Brendan Byrne talks with diabetes researcher Dr. Jim Johnson about whether too much insulin can come before insulin resistance, why many of these cells are tired rather than gone, and how rest, food choices, and exercise may help them recover.

About the Guest

Dr. Jim Johnson is a professor at the University of British Columbia, where he directs the Laboratory of Molecular Signalling in Diabetes. He has studied the insulin-making beta cell for about 25 years and is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Islets.

About The Path Podcast

The Path is about simple strategies for better metabolic health. We break down metabolic disease, prediabetes, and type 2 diabetes through patient FAQs, better health decisions, and honest interviews with patients and the physicians who treat them.

Learn More About LifestyleRx: https://lifestylerx.io/

Ask us a video question! https://ask-a-question.lifestylerx.ca

Episode 119 | The Path Podcast

About the Episode

Some people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes have a slow, autoimmune form of diabetes called LADA, where the immune system attacks the cells that make insulin. Dr. Brendan Byrne and endocrinologist Dr. Tom Elliott explain how antibody testing works, what the newly approved drug teplizumab can and can't do, and why very low doses of Ozempic may help protect insulin-making cells. They also look ahead at the treatments that could arrive in the next five to ten years.

About the Guest

Dr. Tom Elliott is an endocrinologist at Vancouver General Hospital and a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia, where he has been on faculty since 1992. He founded BC Diabetes in 2007, has authored 93 scientific papers, and leads research on early intervention in type 1 diabetes and diabetes technology. He also works alongside the LifestyleRx team and shares patients with the program.

About The Path Podcast

The Path is about simple strategies for better metabolic health. We break down metabolic disease, prediabetes, and type 2 diabetes through patient FAQs, better health decisions, and honest interviews with patients and the physicians who treat them.

Learn More About LifestyleRx: https://lifestylerx.io/

Ask us a video question! https://ask-a-question.lifestylerx.ca

Episode 118 | The Path Podcast

About the Episode

As part of our late summer break, we're revisiting one of our favorite conversations from The Path archive. Gordo Byrn went from out of shape in his twenties to winning the Ultraman World Championship, and along the way he learned that the same habits that build elite athletes can help anyone turn their health around, even with a family history stacked against them. In this episode, Gordo breaks down the framework he uses with everyday people: how to build an exercise habit that actually sticks, why easy pace often feels the hardest part of training, and the simple blood pressure trick that helped his own dad lose sixty pounds for good.

About the Guest

Gordo Byrn is a former investment banker who became a professional triathlete later in life with no endurance sports background to start. He podiumed at Ironman New Zealand and Ironman Canada and went on to become Ultraman World Champion, and today he works as a coach and writer on training and performance. Despite a strong family history of metabolic syndrome, high blood pressure, and prediabetes among the men in his family, Gordo has been the one exception, and that contrast shapes how he coaches people at every fitness level.

About The Path Podcast

The Path is about simple strategies for better metabolic health. We break down metabolic disease, prediabetes, and type 2 diabetes through patient FAQs, better health decisions, and honest interviews with patients and the physicians who treat them.

Learn More About LifestyleRx: https://lifestylerx.io/

Ask us a video question! https://ask-a-question.lifestylerx.ca

Episode 117 | The Path Podcast

About the Episode

As part of our late summer break, we're revisiting one of our favorite conversations from The Path archive. Randy Belaire found out he was Type 2 diabetic almost by accident, through routine bloodwork before a bariatric procedure, with an A1C of 11.7. In this episode, he walks through how he researched his way to LifestyleRx, built his own "W.O.N." framework (wanting it, taking ownership, nurturing himself) and used it to lose 154 pounds and bring his A1C down to 4.8 with no remaining insulin resistance. Randy and Brendan also dig into why baby steps, percentage-based goals, and leaning on a support community made the difference between temporary change and lasting remission. We're bringing this one back because his story keeps resonating with new listeners, and it's a perfect one to sit with while we take a short pause before new episodes resume.

About The Path Podcast

The Path is about simple strategies for better metabolic health. We break down metabolic disease, prediabetes, and type 2 diabetes through patient FAQs, better health decisions, and honest interviews with patients and the physicians who treat them.

Learn More About LifestyleRx: https://lifestylerx.io/

Ask us a video question! https://ask-a-question.lifestylerx.ca

Episode 116 | The Path Podcast

About the Episode

This one's a bit different from our usual format: instead of Dan and Brendan digging into a topic together, University of Western Ontario alumna Dr. Charlotte Alabaster turns the lens on LifestyleRx itself, sitting down with our own Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Brendan Byrne. He walks through how the 4+2 program actually works, from insulin resistance and exercise timing to why osteoarthritis doesn't mean you have to stop moving. It's a rare look at the program from the inside, straight from the doctor who built it.

About the Speakers

Dr. Charlotte Alabaster is an alumna of the Sport and Exercise Medicine Program at the University of Western Ontario. Dr. Brendan Byrne is the Chief Medical Officer of LifestyleRx, a family physician who moved into lifestyle medicine after opening a practice in White Rock, BC in 2017, and who has since helped scale the program across British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario.

About The Path Podcast

The Path is about simple strategies for better metabolic health. We break down metabolic disease, prediabetes, and type 2 diabetes through patient FAQs, better health decisions, and honest interviews with patients and the physicians who treat them.

Learn More About LifestyleRx: https://lifestylerx.io/

Ask us a video question! https://ask-a-question.lifestylerx.ca

Episode 115 | The Path Podcast