Dr. Jay Wortman: Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome & First Nations


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Dr. Wortman obtained his MD from the University of Calgary and completed Family Medicine residency at UBC. He has spent most of his career in public health. Early in the AIDS epidemic, Dr. Wortman was Associate Director of STD Control at the BC Centre for Disease Control, where he developed HIV testing and prevention programs.

Since 1990 Dr. Wortman has worked at the First Nations and Inuit Health Branch of Health Canada in various senior management positions in Ottawa and Vancouver. On a research sabbatical at UBC, he studied the effect of a traditional-style diet on obesity and diabetes in an Aboriginal community. The study was the subject of the popular CBC documentary film, "My Big Fat Diet".

Dr Wortman is currently the Senior Medical Advisor for the First Nations and Inuit Health Branch, where he continues to study traditional Aboriginal and modern low-carbohydrate ketogenic diets. He is an Assistant Clinical Professor at the Faculty of Medicine at UBC and lectures at the medical school there. Dr Wortman serves on a number of boards and advisory committees. In 2003 he was the recipient of the national Aboriginal Achievement Award in Medicine.

www.drjaywortman.com