Metabolic health symposium aims to educate community – Brainerd Dispatch

BRAINERD — Less than two years ago, Debbie Hensch could barely take 10 steps without having to stop and take a break.

Now, she’s hiking canyons and climbing fire towers.

“I love living life,” Hensch said during an interview Thursday, Aug. 22, at MN Traders Co. in Pequot Lakes. “It’s just that simple. I love that I’m living it and I’m not watching it.”

Lab work shows her physical health has greatly improved, too, on top of her mentality.

Hensch’s dramatic lifestyle change is thanks, in part, to help from Dr. Jeremiah Eisenschenk, weight management clinic director and hospital division chair at Essentia Health in Brainerd.

It was November 2022, and she was tired of not living life fully.

“I heard from my family doctor there was this non-surgical weight loss piece of Essentia, so I called them,” she said.

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Without telling her husband or anyone else, Hensch scheduled an appointment with Dr. Eisenschenk, not knowing what she was in for at all.

The result was a 221-pound weight loss and a journey to better metabolic health with a low carbohydrate diet and physical therapy that sent her down a joyous path, free of the various medications she had been taking and issues she had with high blood pressure, depression, anxiety and knee pain.

For Eisenschenk, the best appointments are with patients like Hensch, who he can take off medications.

That’s one of the reasons he’s teaming up with Cuyuna Regional Medical Center, Lakewood Health System, Riverwood Healthcare Center and LowCarbUSA on a metabolic health symposium set for Sept. 21 at Cragun’s Resort in Brainerd.

“All local residents can learn something that will improve, hopefully, the quality and quality of their life,” Eisenschenk said of the symposium.

He’s working with Dr. Angie Ausban, the medical weight management director at Cuyuna Regional Medical Center, and other medical professionals to educate both the medical and lay community on metabolic health.

In simple terms, Ausban explains metabolic health as how efficiently the body turns food into energy.

“It’s a very complicated network,” she said, “but we focus primarily on the hormone insulin and how well does insulin work?”

While many think of insulin in regards to diabetes, it’s also very involved with protein and carbohydrate metabolism, Ausban said. And if insulin isn’t working the way it should, there are markers like high triglycerides, low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, elevated blood sugar, elevated blood pressure and larger waist circumference.

“If you have these markers, your metabolism, or metabolic state, is not working well,” Ausban said.

She and Eisenschenk explained 90% of American adults have some sort of metabolic markers, putting them at risk for conditions like heart disease, stroke, Type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, chronic kidney disease and chronic joint pain. They’re conditions that put financial strain on the healthcare system and many that could be reversed with more attention to metabolic health.

And that’s exactly the goal of the symposium.

Medical professionals from across the U.S. and Canada will speak on topics like low carbohydrate diets, sugar and processed food addiction, bariatric surgery, metabolic management of diabetes and chronic pain. Various vendors will be set up, and Cragun’s will provide a low carb meal for attendees.

While some of the titles of the presentations might sound technical, Eisenschenk said the information will be provided in a way that’s easy for anyone to understand.

“Hopefully someone who attends would come away feeling a renewed sense of hope that they do have options within their control, that there are resources out there to support them with their food and nutritional choices in a world that tells us to do the opposite,” Eisenschenk said.

And perhaps they could have a success story like Hensch, who now spends her days walking, kayaking, biking and actually taking part in family vacations, instead of sitting in the car with a book. She’s no longer worried about riding in someone else’s car because of the need for a seat belt extender or thinking about whether she can go somewhere based on the amount of walking she’d have to do.

“It’s a sad way to live your life,” she said.

Hensch doesn’t think of her new lifestyle as dieting. There aren’t any foods that are off limits, which had been a huge mental barrier for her in the past. It’s about portion control and keeping carbohydrate intake low. She still eats pizza, minus the crust, and finds happiness in knowing that she can enjoy something like a Reese’s peanut butter cup every now and then if she really wants to. She’s finding it’s worth a little extra money to buy smaller portions of snacks instead of larger bulk sizes that might tempt her to eat more in one sitting.

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She shed tears over finally being able to fit in a kayak and loves being able to help her husband in his woodworking shop. She doesn’t obsessively weigh herself but still sees Dr. Eisenschenk for regular check-ins, where she talks about the wins she’s had over the past few weeks and the things she’s struggled with.

Taking the first step to improve her health was incredibly hard, leaving Hensch with a broken feeling when it came to figuring out new eating habits. But if she can do it, others certainly can too.

“I hope other people aren’t afraid to just try,” she said.

Tickets for the Metabolic Health Symposium are available at

lowcarbusa.org/brainerd-lakes-2024

, along with more information about the event. About 100-200 attendees are expected.

Eisenschenk hopes the symposium will energize the community, learn that food can be an important medicine and understand the importance of the topic by seeing four health systems that typically compete for patients coming together.

“I think with some intention and some knowledge and some hope, there are things we can do everyday that help with our own metabolic health, with how that translates into our weight, into our thinking and our mood,” Eisenschenk said. “And I think by doing so, we can all become a better version of ourselves and hopefully cascade this knowledge and model it to our children.”

THERESA BOURKE may be reached at [email protected] or 218-855-5860. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/DispatchTheresa.