United for Healthcare Transformation

During Hispanic Heritage Month, we are reminded of how lifestyle-related chronic diseases disproportionately affect historically under-resourced communities.

Dr. Qadira Huff grew up in a medically under-resourced neighborhood known as “East of the River” in Washington D.C. Today the pediatrician is using lifestyle medicine to help families there break cycles of chronic disease.

This brief will 1) evaluate the promise of, and need for, health equity; 2) explain what lifestyle medicine is and why it is high- value care; 3) share how provider organizations can deliver lifestyle medicine both through their own processes and through community partnerships; and 4) present some of the challenges to widespread adoption of lifestyle medicine and how those challenges can be addressed.

ACLM and AJLM are pleased to offer CME/CE for one (1) journal article in each of the six (6) bi-monthly AJLM issues. Receive credit by reading the CME/CE article and successfully completing the online CME/CE activity. This course if free to members. Non-members can earn CME/CE for $40 per article.

In their ongoing effort to integrate lifestyle medicine into family medicine, Drs. Rea, Polk and Mechley will co-chair a live CME-eligible lifestyle medicine training Oct. 27-29 for the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP).

In the wake of COVID-19, Elizabeth Beale, MD, MRCP, DipABLM, successfully adapted ACLM's Culinary Medicine Curriculum into a virtual version for her students at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California.

Inflation is straining household budgets but there are many low-cost, nutritious and tasty food options that health clinicians can explore with patients as part of a lifestyle medicine treatment plan.

A quiet threat to United States national security is infiltrating the health and wellness of the brave men and women who serve. The growing epidemic of chronic disease in the U.S. has not spared the armed forces, where almost 66 percent of service members are considered to be either overweight or have obesity.

I was 32, seeing about 30 patients a shift for Yale New Haven Health. I liked my job — the adrenaline rush from saving a life is medicine’s ultimate reward. But 80 to 85 percent of the diagnoses I made were straightforward, not immediate life-threatening events or complicated medical dilemmas to solve.

"Terri Schon’s cancer diagnosis in 2019 left her with a nagging question she will never answer. Why? Cancer didn’t run in her family. She had no reason to believe it was genetic. She couldn’t stop wondering if there was something wrong in her lifestyle that caused the disease."

"Dr. Mussallem, a breast cancer and lifestyle medicine specialist, comes to appointments prepared with scientific evidence backing up why healthy lifestyle choices matter when it comes to breast cancer prevention and management care. Her patients are experiencing a range of emotions that accompany a breast cancer diagnosis and subsequent treatments like chemotherapy, radiation and surgery. Fear. Confusion. Determination. 'But patients welcome the opportunity to seize a sense of control over their disease and embrace the six