Lifestyle Medicine Insider News and Updates – February 2024

Disclaimer: The information included in Insider is intended to give our readers a sense of what is happening in the news, research journals and other channels related to lifestyle medicine. Inclusion does not imply ACLM endorsement. Note that some links may require registration or subscription.

Milestones

• This review article—coauthored by a cast of lifestyle medicine luminaries and published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings: Innovations, Quality and Outcomes and listed on ScienceDirect—explores the history and foundation of LM, aiming to provide a comprehensive understanding of its relevance and impact on healthcare. It underscores landmark studies that have defined the field and provides a roadmap detailing national and global barriers and areas of potential future growth.

Medical Education

• A new study published in Nutrients says students from both France and the U.S. share similar concerns and expectations about nutrition in medical education, specifically that nutrition knowledge must be embedded in the curriculum and it must be engaging.

Nutrition

• Drinking a glass or more of 100% fruit juice each day was linked to a small increase in weight in children and adults, according to a new analysis of prior studies published in JAMA Pediatrics.
• Learn more about the Portfolio Diet and other cholesterol-lowering approaches in this Washington Post article and the Atlantic Diet on CNN.
• Rhode Island is experimenting with a new program that will reward people who receive food stamps for buying fruits and vegetables.

Dopamine Fasting

Articles emanating from LM23 continue to be published. This Medscape article discusses the dopamine fasting presentation given by keynote Anna Lembke, MD, professor of psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine and chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic.

CHRONIC DISEASE

Obesity

• The authors of this paper published in the International Journal of Obesity propose an integrated model on preventing obesity by reducing exposures to obesogens in utero and early life and throughout the lifespan.
• Children with obesity in a six-month healthy eating and exercise program experienced increases in their average telomere length, suggesting reversal of premature aging, a study led by Stanford Medicine researchers found.
• The International Obesity Collaborative has published “5 Principles of Obesity”  in this fact sheet.

Type 2 Diabetes

• This study published in Diabetes Care confirms that an intensive lifestyle intervention delivered in an Australian primary care setting to individuals with recently diagnosed T2D resulted in remission for one in two participants.
• Participants with type 2 diabetes with evidence of remission had a substantially lower incidence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and cardiovascular disease (CVD), respectively, compared with participants who did not achieve remission according to this study published in Diabetologia.

Fatty Liver Disease

• The 10 causes or contributing factors for Metabolic dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease (MASLD) and Metabolic dysfunction-Associated Steatohepatitis (MASH) are discussed in this blog post.

Hyperlipidemia

• The combination of statin use and healthy lifestyle was linked to a 30% lower risk for all-cause death and 44% reduced risk for cardiovascular death in people at high risk vs. those not taking statins with an unhealthy lifestyle, data showed in this study published in the American Journal of Preventive Cardiology.

Heart Disease

• Lack of sleep and exercise is strongly correlated with heart disease, but add depression to that mix and it’s even stronger, according to this study published in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine.

Mental Health

• In this study published in BMC Psychiatry, individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) self-reported a range of health-related issues and a number of unhealthy lifestyle behaviors, most prominently a lack of physical activity. It concluded that interventions aimed at modifying unhealthy lifestyles to prevent or improve health conditions beyond the psychiatric symptoms should be considered.
• Although not yet a formal diagnosis, orthorexia is an eating disorder characterized by a fixation with healthy eating, dieting, and exercise. Learn more in this Everyday Health article.
• Mad in America, a “catalyst for rethinking psychiatric care,” highlights the field of lifestyle psychiatry in this article reflecting on Silicon Valley teen suicides.

Dementia

• Leading a healthy lifestyle, including regular exercise, eating fruits and vegetables, and minimal alcohol consumption, is associated with better cognitive function in older adults, new research showed. The study, published in JAMA Neurology, found that the association held even in those with Alzheimer’s disease pathology, suggesting that lifestyle factors may provide cognitive reserve and improve cognitive abilities in older age.

Weight-loss Drugs

• In an NPR opinion piece titled, “Weight-loss drugs aren’t a magic bullet; Lifestyle changes are key to lasting health,” ACLM member and ABLM diplomate Lisa Doggett, MD, MPH, DipABLM, writes that lifestyle medicine and the new weight-loss medications are not mutually exclusive and that the package inserts explicitly state these drugs should be prescribed in combination with increased physical activity and a reduced-calorie diet. ACLM member and ABLM-certified diplomate Jonathan Bonnet, MD, MPH, DipABLM, DipABOM, is quoted.
• ACLM member and diplomate Michelle Hauser, MD, FACLM, MS, MPA, DipABLM, Chef, is quoted in this New York Times story on the need for exercise to counter muscle loss caused by new weight loss drugs.
• Associating lifestyle modification with new medications to treat obesity is generally advisable for several reasons, say the authors of this paper published by Dove Medical Press.

COVID

• A study published in BMC Medicine found lifestyle medicine intervention ameliorated symptoms of depression and anxiety during the pandemic and promoted health equity among vulnerable populations more prone to lifestyle-based chronic diseases.

Partners in the News

• Humana Chief Medical Officer Kate Goodrich, MD, MHS, writes of her personal journey with lifestyle medicine in this Humana News article.
• MedCity News reports that food as medicine is becoming a core team capability and highlights the aim of ACLM partners Elevance and Kaiser Permanente to have a meaningful impact on food and nutrition security and diet-related disease.
• In partnership with Ornish Lifestyle Medicine by Sharecare, Nudj Health has launched Nudj Cardiac Complete to allow physician groups to provide virtual cardiac rehab.
• Rochester Lifestyle Medicine Institute (RLMI) has developed a new poster campaign for doctors inviting patients to “Ask your doctor if eating a plant-based diet is right for you.“ RLMI also recently secured a dedicated lifestyle medicine edition of the Monroe County (New York) Medical Society Bulletin.

Members in the News

• Dan Smithson, MD, DipABLM, writes a lifestyle medicine column for the Baker City (Oregon) Herald.
• Luis Cerda, IMG, DHA, MPH, CIC, DipABLM, was featured on KGNS News in Laredo, Texas, for his work with the Laredo Health Department to offer lifestyle medicine.
• Bethany Agusala, MD, DipABLM, was interviewed for a UT Southwestern News story on healthy Super Bowl eating.
• John McHugh, MD, FACOG, DipABLM, FACLM, is among the 29 healthcare leaders named to the National Quality Forum’s 2024-2025 Leadership Consortium, a group of experts representing NQF member organizations from the public and private sectors across all aspects of healthcare.
• WISH-TV in Indianapolis has welcomed Janel Gordon, MD, DipABOM, DipABLM, as its new medical expert.
• Angelia Grona, PA-C, is quoted in a Defense Visual Information Distribution Service story about Brooke Army Medical Center Department of Cardiology’s incorporation of lifestyle medicine into its cardiac rehabilitation program.

Resources

• The American Heart Association, in collaboration with the NIH, has released its report “2024 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics: A Report of US and Global Data from the American Heart Association.”

Food for Thought

• Why do people overeat ultra-processed foods despite knowing those foods may not be healthy? According to emerging science reported on by Washington, D.C.-area’s WTOP News, it may be due to “starch slurry,” the result of manufacturing processes that “predigest” raw food ingredients that bypass the body’s signals of fullness.