Richard K. Bernstein

Richard K. Bernstein (born June 17, 1934) is a physician and an advocate for a low-carbohydrate diabetes diet to help achieve normal blood sugars for diabetics. Bernstein has type 1 diabetes. His private medical practice in Mamaroneck, New York is devoted solely to treating diabetes and prediabetes.

Biography
Bernstein attended The Franklin School, a college prep school on Upper West Side of Manhattan, and graduated from Columbia University with a BA in 1954 and a BS in 1955. He worked as an industrial-management engineer and director of research, development and marketing for Clay Adams, a manufacturer and supplier of medical laboratory equipment. He then became director of corporate planning at National Silver Industries, an importer and manufacturer of housewares.

Bernstein was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age 12 in 1946. In 1969, he sought to acquire a blood glucose testing kit, which at the time were only sold to doctors. At the time, he was a systems engineer. He bought a blood glucose meter manufactured by Miles Laboratories. Because he was not a doctor the meter was issued to his wife, who was a psychiatrist. He became the first diabetic patient to monitor his own blood sugar. By trial and error, he found that he could keep his blood sugar at normal non-diabetic levels by eating small low-carbohydrate meals covered by small doses of insulin (Bernstein 2011).

Bernstein's efforts to publish articles on his experience in medical journals were rejected because he was not a doctor. He applied to and was accepted at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at age 45 and graduated as an endocrinologist. He proceeded to establish a clinical practice using treatment methods based on his own experience.

Controversy
Dr. Bernstein contends that high blood sugars are the cause of all diabetic complications, and therefore that tightly controlling blood sugar eliminates complications. This contention was at first at odds with established medical opinion, as the sugar-complications link was not yet clearly established from scientific studies. A 1993 study supported Bernstein's position that tight control of blood sugar leads to better health.

Bernstein's low-carbohydrate diet was initially opposed by the American Diabetes Association, which recommended a high-carbohydrate low-fat diet for diabetics. The ADA has since changed its position to allow a low-carbohydrate diet as an acceptable option for diabetics. The UK NHS has also introduced a low-carbohydrate plan for diabetics and prediabetics.

Bernstein's focus on maintaining low blood sugar targets conflicts with mainstream guidance to maintain a higher fasting blood sugar target for insulin-dependent patients (such as Type 1 diabetics). This higher target is to reduce the risk of hypoglycemia which can be fatal. Type 1 diabetics on Bernstein's regime need to be constantly on guard against hypoglycemia. Bernstein claims however that the hypoglycemia risk is even higher with the high-carb low-fat original ADA standard diet because it requires big doses of insulin.