Welcome to another episode of Flip Your Script, a vodcast by the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, hosted by ACLM President Dr. Padmaja Patel. In each episode, we explore five key takeaways on how lifestyle medicine is helping clinicians and leaders reimagine the future of healthcare.

This episode, “Making Lifestyle Medicine Palatable: Getting Patients to Say Yes,” features Dr. Ajay Joseph, an interventional cardiologist at Saint Francis Health System in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He shares his journey to lifestyle medicine—from his own residency-related health struggles to launching Oklahoma’s first comprehensive lifestyle medicine program—and how that transformation reshaped his approach to cardiology.

The conversation explores why lifestyle medicine is not an “extra,” but a core intervention in cardiovascular care. Dr. Joseph discusses compelling data on reducing atrial fibrillation recurrence, repeat procedures, and cardiac events through structured lifestyle interventions, and why cardiologists are often more receptive than we assume.

You’ll also hear how he challenges the common belief that “patients won’t change.” Practicing in Oklahoma, he explains how giving clear, practical, and culturally relevant roadmaps—rather than vague advice—makes lifestyle medicine actionable and achievable.

If you’re interested in cardiology, implementation, patient behavior change, or making lifestyle medicine stick in real-world practice, this is an episode you won’t want to miss.

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The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) is the medical professional society for physicians and other professionals dedicated to clinical and worksite practice of lifestyle medicine as the foundation of a transformed and sustainable healthcare system.

Lifestyle medicine is a medical specialty that uses therapeutic lifestyle interventions as a primary modality to treat chronic conditions including, but not limited to, cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, and obesity. 

Lifestyle medicine-certified clinicians are trained to apply evidence-based, whole-person, prescriptive lifestyle change to treat and, when used intensively, often reverse such conditions. Applying the six pillars of lifestyle medicine—a whole-food, plant-predominant eating pattern, physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, avoidance of risky substances, and positive social connections—also provides effective prevention for these conditions.

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