Quick note - I have not absconded with Carter Williams, he is simply trying to avoid becoming an ice cube after the epic ice storm his community endured resulted in a loss of power that is now going into Day 4. Please send him “warm” wishes.

I’ve been going through all of the episodes we recorded this past fall at the American College of Lifestyle Medicine Annual Conference and it dawned on me that although we talk alot about systemic redesign and the need for “health”care. We haven’t shared much about those tools and resources that exist today that could help us create actual by leveraging some of the current infrastructure/resources of the existing “Sick”care system. Even when we create actual “health”care, we will still need “sick”care. We just don’t need that to be our only option. We need both parallel paths.

Pillars of Health

There is no perfect care delivery model, there are just countless varieties and options. And in the end one of the biggest drivers to what will work in the future is cost vs. outcomes along with available resources. We often hear of things like Functional Health and Integrative Medicine but not as many folks have heard of Lifestyle Medicine. The concept is so simple it seems too good to be true. And regardless of the pillars, equally important is the concept of a framework to follow. Allopathic medicine is still delivered, but through the lens of managing the 6 pillars of “health”.

ANY clinician can add Lifestyle Medicine board certification to their current certification. It’s about 6 months of part-time learning, attendance of the conference and passing a set of exams. Most can complete it within a year and arguably less depending on timing. There is no fancy tech or expensive meds or costly devices or procedures. It is brass tacks. When you listen to the podcast you will be reminded that lifestyle is actually the basis for pretty much every clinical guidelines.

In essence Lifestyle Medicine is the foundation of healthcare. Not the other way around. It just so happens we have created an educational system that does it in reverse and an economic model that has the economic alignment backwards.

Not long ago, Lifestyle Medicine had a stigma due to it’s initial conviction to exclusive plant-based eating but it has evolved, so has it’s acceptance of dietary diversity. Still however, whole food, plant heavy - which is the diet associated most with longevity regardless of specialty.

So imaging adding the actual nutrient dense food to this approach and we are talking a true paradigm shift. This also lays out the basics for N of 1 / personalized medicine.

The Unexpected Epicenter of a “Health”care System - Tulsa

Most everyone reading our substack knows Erin Martin and FreshRx Oklahoma. If you aren’t familiar, go now and learn more! She was on a previous episode of our podcast and it’s a great listen. Her program has become a national model for partnering with local regenerative farmers and using food as a true clinical intervention that improves health outcomes. She’s the only program in the country with a health plan contract that has outcomes incentives, an actual value-based care contract.

Unbeknownst to Erin, Dr. Ajay Joseph, (an interventional cardiologist who carves out one day a week as a lifestyle medicine doctor) also in Tulsa, was busy at the same time she was building FreshRX, building an Intensive Therapeutic Lifestyle Change (ITLC) program over at St. Francis - one of the major health systems in Tulsa. He has built a wildly impactful Lifestyle Medicine clinic and program that has eliminated cardiometabolic disease for the majority of his program participants. It’s an 8-week program that teaches nutrition (including hands-on in a teaching kitchen), stress management, sleep hygiene, exercise/movement, importance of relationships and avoiding risky susbtances.

As you would imagine once they met it was an immediate “synergy for the ages”. Let’s just say you are going to see some pretty exciting outcomes coming out of Tulsa in the next 12-18 months… It’s been so fulfulling to get to work with those two to create a sustainable economic model!

The Podcast Recording with Dr. Joseph

I figured no better way to explain his program than for you to hear it from Dr. Joseph himself. This is the brief interview we did with him last fall at the ACLM conference. We need to get Dr. Joseph onto The Food Is Health Revolution for a full episode!

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