Amber Orman, MD, DipABLM is a double board-certified radiation oncologist and lifestyle medicine specialist focusing on breast cancer treatment and prevention. She is the Chief Wellness Office (CWO) of AdventHealth Medical Group. She is also the co-founder of the HEAL (Healthy Eating and Active Lifestyle) program at AdventHealth in Orlando, Florida. In this conversation Dr. Orman discusses the effects that our lifestyle choices have on cancer. She shares her own journey, and what inspired her to pursue this path early on, and brings more recent examples from her current patients. Dr. Orman talks about optimal practices in nutrition, exercise, stress, sleep, and alcohol consumption. What are the effects of these on primary prevention of cancer? On cancer recurrence? And on creating an optimal environment in our bodies to support the healing? Dr. Orman highlights that while genes play a role, we have a lot more control over getting cancer diagnosis than we might think, even if a person has a BRCA gene, for example. Tune in to learn more! This podcast is brought to you by Emory Lifestyle Medicine & Wellness. To learn more about our work, please visit https://bit.ly/EmoryLM
Jennifer Shalz, MD is an internal medicine physician who is the medical director of the St. Luke’s Health System Department of Lifestyle Medicine. She develops and directs programs that use lifestyle interventions to help prevent, treat, and reverse chronic disease. In this episode we talk about atrial fibrillation and lifestyle medicine. Dr. Shalz talks about the connection between afib and diabetes; she discussed the effect of weight loss and controlling blood pressure; and addresses the role of alcohol. Dr. Shalz also talks about lowering the risk of disease through changing habits and building a healthy lifestyle. Tune in to learn more! This podcast is brought to you by Emory Lifestyle Medicine & Wellness. To learn more about our work, please visit https://bit.ly/EmoryLM
Tom Rifai, MD is the Medical & Wellness Director for Magna International and CEO of digital health company Reality Meets Science. He authored and co-directs Harvard's online Lifestyle Medicine professional CME course, Nutrition and the Metabolic Syndrome, and is a co-host of the True Health Revealed podcast, supported by the non-profit True Health Initiative. In this episode we talk about metabolic health, its markers and ways for optimizing it. In Dr. Tom's extensive professional and personal experience, achieving a truly healthy and durable lifestyle change in the modern day requires skills and knowledge in all 5 key areas - all of which are interdependent - which are: Healthy Nutrition, Physical Activity, Mind Matters, Environments, Accountability. Tune in to learn more! This podcast is brought to you by Emory Lifestyle Medicine & Wellness. To learn more about our work, please visit https://bit.ly/EmoryLM
Michelle Thompson, DO is a Lifestyle, Integrative, & Mind-Body Medicine Practitioner and Integrative Wellness & Culinary Medicine Maven. Currently, Dr. Thompson is employed by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and has a full-time integrative family medicine practice, seeing infants through the end of life using a natural approach to health care. Her specialty is reversing disease through diet, exercise, and lifestyle changes while empowering her patients to take charge of their health and work as a team with their physician.In this conversation we talk about trauma-informed care. We discuss its meaning, how childhood trauma factors in our health and wellbeing, how clinicians and healthcare providers can take in into consideration in care delivery, and how we, ourselves, can take better care of us when we are aware and equipped with the right tools. Tune in to learn more! This podcast is brought to you by Emory Lifestyle Medicine & Wellness. To learn more about our work, please visit https://bit.ly/EmoryLM
Padmaja Patel, MD, DipABLM serves as the Medical Director of the Lifestyle Medicine Center at Midland Health and has advocated for offering a variety of comprehensive lifestyle intervention programs under physician supervision. Dr. Patel has been awarded the prestigious status of Fellow of ACLM for her outstanding achievement in the field of Lifestyle Medicine. She co-founded Healthy City, a non-profit organization, to raise awareness of the benefits of plant-based nutrition within her community. In this conversation Dr. Patel explains how intensive therapeutic lifestyle medicine programs can and do reverse chronic disease, such as diabetes and heart disease. Dr. Patel discusses why these programs are called "intensive", including the optimal length (8-12 weeks) and frequency of visits. She covers content and main components, such as prescribing specific nutrition, exercise, sleep and stress management practices, and explains why behavior change is so important. Dr. Patel talks about specific programs that she leads, such as cardiac rehab, Complete Health Improvements Program (CHIP), and the results that she sees. Dr. Patel does have a warning for her patients... they might have to stop their medication completely! Tune in to learn more! This podcast is brought to you by Emory Lifestyle Medicine & Wellness. To learn more about our work, please visit https://bit.ly/EmoryLM
Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (or "Dr. B") is an award winning gastroenterologist, internationally recognized gut health expert and the New York Times-bestselling author of Fiber Fueled and The Fiber Fueled Cookbook. He sits on the Scientific Advisory Board of ZOE, has authored more than twenty articles published in peer-reviewed scientific journals, has given more than forty presentations at national meetings, presented to Congress and the USDA, and has taught over 10,000 students how to heal and optimize their gut health. This is our third conversation with Dr. Bulsiewicz. Today Dr. B explains in detail the difference between food allergy and food intolerance, concepts that are important to differentiate. Unlike food allergy, food intolerance is usually isolated to digestive issues, and in general does not involve the immune system response. Furthermore, it is possible to "train up your microbiome" to work through food intolerances following a framework Dr. B calls "GROWTH". Tune in to learn more about the fascinating science and research in this field, and simple actionable solutions to improve your gut health through food! This podcast is brought to you by Emory Lifestyle Medicine & Wellness. To learn more about our work, please visit https://bit.ly/EmoryLM
Hansa Bhargava, MD, FAAPis Chief Medical Officer at Medscape Education. With expertise in parenting, mental health, and pregnancy, she has helped develop products such as the WebMD Baby App and WebMDPregnancy App and has published on digitally monitoring pregnancy and outcomes. In this conversation Dr. Bhargava talks about mental health in kids, parents and families. This topic has increased in its relevancy with spread of technology and social media, and began dominating the charts during the pandemic that brought social isolation. We discuss how lack of sleep, over-scheduling, stress are negatively effecting mental health of all members of the family, placing taxing expectations on all; and we talk about community, family values, restorative time and nutrition as antidotes to the that. Dr. Bhargava talks about the importance of the restorative time, and what that can look like. She shares personal examples navigating complex topics such as technology and screen time, participation in sports and many others. We discuss the signs of stress parents can look for in their kids. Tune in to learn more and check out Dr. Bhargava's recent book "Building Healthier Kids: Stress-Busting Tools for Parents"! This podcast is brought to you by Emory Lifestyle Medicine & Wellness. To learn more about our work, please visit https://bit.ly/EmoryLM
Brian Asbill, MD serves as the Medical Director of the cardiac rehabilitation program for Mission Health and has co-founded Ruckus Health whose vision is “To support people holistically in uncovering their innate ability to live in emotional, mental, physical and spiritual balance.” Dr. Asbill is a return guest (first appearance Episode 45, where we talked about reversal of cardiovascular disease). Today we talk about heart health risk and plant-based diet. First, what are the assessment methods of heart health and heart disease risks? Dr. Asbill talks about the ASCVD and MESA scores, their reliability and value. We discuss the role of statins, and how they compare to dietary interventions such as switching to plant-based diet. Dr. Asbill explains calcium scores, cholesterol and other measure of heart health. We also discuss the role of exercise and the impact of stress. Tune in to learn more! This podcast is brought to you by Emory Lifestyle Medicine & Wellness. To learn more about our work, please visit https://bit.ly/EmoryLM
Danielle Dick, Ph.D. is a Professor of Psychology and Genetics. In this conversation Danielle talks about how our genes and environment can influence our health and behavior. We talk about things like substance abuse, eating disorder, depression and other psychiatric conditions - is it individual's fault? Danielle says that "our brains are all wired very differently on the inside". When talking about addiction, Danielle explains that, interestingly, how our brains process reward appears to be more important than predisposition to specific substance. Emotion regulation is another big factor that influences addictive behaviors. We discuss anxiety, the role it plays, and the evolutionary advantage it was born from. Danielle concludes that genetic code we are born with is important, but it does not mean we are destined to have problems. Environment plays an important role and can make a huge difference. Finally, we discuss how this science translates in child care and parenting. Understanding your child's disposition is key for applying appropriate parenting strategies and nurturing a healthy family environment. Tune in to learn more! This podcast is brought to you by Emory Lifestyle Medicine & Wellness. To learn more about our work, please visit https://bit.ly/EmoryLM
Tim Cunningham, RN, DrPH, FAAN is Co-Chief Well-Being Officer at Emory Healthcare and the Woodruff Health Sciences Center at Emory University. He holds a joint appointment as adjunct associate professor at the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory Healthcare and serves as Vice President of Practice and Innovation for Emory Healthcare. He collaborates with interprofessional teams to support structural and systemic well-being change for healthcare staff and professionals, university staff and faculty, researchers, learners, and community members. In this conversation we speak with Tim about his recent appointment with the Office of Well-Being (called EmWELL) in Emory University’s Woodruff Health Sciences Center, which includes Emory Healthcare. The office will serve as a central resource for designing and implementing well-being programs that address the current environmental stressors among clinicians, health professionals, faculty and staff in clinical, research and academic health sciences areas. As Tim says, the office will serve all - "from valets to vascular surgeons, from anesthesiologists to zoologists". The leaders in healthcare have been working on creating this office for years, especially after recognizing the need in The Blue Ridge Academic Health Group report of 2018, which concluded: “It is clear that the ‘healing’ of caregivers cannot be accomplished solely through ‘self-help.’ Just as the best care for patients is achieved through teamwork and support, addressing the challenges of burnout and advancing the wellness of health care providers will also require leadership and institutional commitment to achieve optimal results.” We talk about burnout, and the need to move past talking about it, and start working through it. We talk about leaders being called to take meaningful, calculated and evidence-based risks. We talk about vulnerability. Tim shares other strategies for defining the organizational and interpersonal well-being, and designing the pathway for getting there. Tune in to the full conversation to learn about this exciting, timely and inspiring work! This podcast is brought to you by Emory Lifestyle Medicine & Wellness. To learn more about our work, please visit https://bit.ly/EmoryLM