Bioengineering professor Annelise Baron reveals why carnivore works so effectively and how to turn off disease.
https://bioengineering.stanford.edu/people/annelise-barron
Dr. Barron is a chemical and biological engineer with a keen interest in systems-level analyses of the mechanisms of complex human diseases. She was trained in chemical engineering at the University of Washington (B.S., 1990) and U.C. Berkeley (Ph.D., 1995, mentored by Prof. Harvey W. Blanch), and was a Pharmaceutical Chemistry postdoc with Prof. Ken A. Dill (UCSF) and Dr. Ronald N. Zuckermann (Chiron Corp.). She has served on the faculty at Stanford since 2007, and prior to that, worked on the Chemical & Biological Engineering faculty of Northwestern University in Evanston, IL for 10 years (1997-2007). Dr. Barron has been awarded the NIH Pioneer Award via the NIH National Institute on Aging (2020), the Oskar Fischer Award (2022), the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists & Engineers (PECASE) through NIH / NHGRI (1999), the Beckman Young Investigator Award (1999), and the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award (1998), among other awards. Dr. Barron was the youngest scientist ever to serve on the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Director of the NIH, under Dr. Elias Zerhouni. She has more than 177 publications and a current H-index of 58 (Web of Science, All Databases, Barron Annelise E), and is a co-founder and serves on the advisory boards of 5 different biotechnology companies. She is proud to be 1/4 Quechua (the Native American people of Bolivia), 1/4 Spanish, 1/4 Swedish, 1/4 English, and 100% American.
summerizer
Title: Bioengineering Professor Reveals How Carnivore “Turns Off” Disease
Participants
- Host: Dave
- Guest: Prof. Anelise (bioengineering), age 56
Guest Background & Starting Point
- Lifelong academic/research background in bioengineering.
- Long history of health problems including severe psoriasis, chronic inflammation, pain, metabolic symptoms, and dental/gum issues.
- Previously tried standard dietary advice with poor results.
How She Found Carnivore
- Discovered carnivore through online interviews and community anecdotes.
- Began a strict elimination approach: primarily beef, eggs; water and salt. Removed sugars, refined carbohydrates, and most plant foods.
Personal Results Reported
- Rapid and sustained remission of psoriasis and chronic inflammation.
- Marked reductions in pain and overall symptom burden.
- Improved metabolic markers and body composition (described qualitatively).
- Better dental/gum health and fewer oral issues.
- Increased emotional stability and stress tolerance.
- Benefits strengthened with tighter adherence (fewer carbohydrates/plant foods).
Core Mechanistic Claims (as stated in the video)
- Sugar/High Glucose → Suppresses innate antiviral defenses.
- High-glucose environments can downregulate cellular antiviral programs; removing dietary sugar helps “turn them back on.”
- Hidden Lab Artifact: High-Glucose Media
- Many in-vitro studies use high-glucose culture media, potentially masking innate antiviral/immune behaviors that appear under low/no-glucose conditions.
- Viral Triggers & Chronic Disease
- Many chronic diseases have infectious/viral components (e.g., herpesviruses, Epstein–Barr virus).
- When innate antiviral immunity is suppressed (e.g., by high sugar), latent/chronic infections can drive pathology (brain, nerves, gut, skin).
- Oral Pathogens & Systemic Disease
- Gum disease/bleeding gums and pathogens (e.g., gingivalis) are linked with orodigestive cancers and neurodegeneration.
- Improved oral health reported after dietary change; posited to reduce systemic inflammatory/oncogenic burden.
- Cancer & Metabolism
- Tumor cells favor glycolysis; restricting sugar/carbs shifts cellular energetics and may disadvantage pathogens/tumor processes.
- Innate Immune Sensors
- Pattern-recognition pathways (e.g., TLRs; “receptor 9” mentioned) may behave differently under low-glucose states, revealing immune functions not seen in high-glucose conditions.
Dietary Pattern & Practical Notes
- Baseline: ruminant meat (beef emphasized), eggs; water and salt.
- Optional: small additions like cheese/butter were mentioned, but stricter carnivore produced stronger benefits.
- Carbohydrate reintroductions (including honey/sweets) were associated with symptom return.
- Fasting is discussed as synergistic with carnivore for immune/metabolic reset.
Conditions & Case Mentions (from discussion)
- Psoriasis: cleared substantially on strict carnivore.
- Metabolic issues (diabetes risk, weight): improved with carbohydrate restriction.
- Neuro/immune themes: multiple sclerosis, neurodegeneration, and chronic viral hypotheses discussed in the framework of antiviral immunity and sugar restriction.
- Orodigestive cancers: linked conceptually to oral pathogens and diet.
Implementation Philosophy
- Treat carnivore as a therapeutic elimination diet to identify triggers.
- Prioritize nutrient-dense animal foods; minimize sugars/refined carbs/plant irritants.
- Use strict adherence to test causality; loosen only after stable remission.
- Monitor oral health as a window into systemic inflammation/infection.
Open Questions & Research Directions (as posed in the video)
- How much do high-glucose lab conditions distort immunology results?
- Which diseases are most responsive to carbohydrate restriction via antiviral/immune pathways?
- What is the dose-response between small carb reintroductions and symptom recurrence?
- Can controlled trials validate the proposed sugar-immunity-infection axis across dermatologic, neurologic, and oncologic conditions?
Takeaways (as presented)
- Removing sugars/refined carbs and adopting a strict carnivore template can “turn on” antiviral defenses and “turn off” chronic disease processes for some individuals.
- Symptom improvements (skin, pain, metabolic, oral health) are closely tied to adherence and carbohydrate avoidance.
- The guest frames carnivore/very-low-carb nutrition as an immune/metabolic therapy rather than merely a weight-loss diet.
FWIW my dental health has drastically improved, no gum bleeding with aggressive flossing, which is a interesting tie in to her talk
The anecdotes at 30:52 about the shingles/cold sore outbreaks going away makes sense in the context of body inflammation reduction.
34:30 My feet used to stink!!! so bad
A PET scan works by introducing radioactive glucose to the body, it gets concentrated by the cancer (warburg hypothesis) and then it glows on the PET scan…
Carnivore doesn’t cure anything, but it removes the things that hinder the bodies ability to heal itself.
Wow! 1 hour mark, inflammation signaling is inhibited in the absence of sugar, but most cell culture work is performed in a glucose rich environment (the immortal cell lines are from cancer cells which can only metabolize sugar). The entire field is compromised by sugar in the research, so there is a real blindspot on what human biology looks like without sugar.
Honestly, this is a really fascinating discussion, i highly recommend watching it.
I have had the same experience, on LCHF my teeth stopped feeling like there was plaque on them most of the day, but brushing improved them. On carnivore they are clean all the time, and I have no gum bleeding whatsoever.
It sounds crazy! It’s really difficult to talk to people about how deep this problem is, but Westin A Price knew a century ago!
Sanchez A, Reeser JL, Lau HS, Yahiku PY, Willard RE, McMillan PJ, Cho SY, Magie AR, Register UD. Role of sugars in human neutrophilic phagocytosis. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 1973;26(11):1180–1184. https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/26.11.1180
They talk about this paper at the 40m mark. its on sci-hub