Dr. Jason Fung
I grew up in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I went to the University of Toronto at age 17 to begin studies in Biochemistry. By 23, I completed medical school at the U of T, and began my Internal Medicine residency there.
Finishing my specialty of Internal Medicine, I chose Nephrology (kidney disease) as my sub-specialty. Each field of internal medicine draws its own personalities. Nephrologists had the reputation of being a ‘thinkers’ specialty. There are a lot of intricacies of fluid and electrolytes, and I enjoyed these puzzles. I studied Nephrology at the University of California, Los Angeles mostly at Cedars-Sinai Hospital and the VA Wadsworth. Looking back, I realize that it must have been a little disconcerting to patients in the hospital to be treated by a doctor who looked about 18 years old.
I returned to Toronto in 2001 to start my career in Nephrology, where I still have both an office and hospital practice. Type 2 diabetes is by far and away the leading cause of kidney disease, and I treat many hundreds of patients with this disease. Many also have obesity. By the early 2010s my interest in nutrition, combined with my professional focus on obesity and T2D had led me directly to the diabesity puzzle.
