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, “The Future of Surgery Starts Before the OR,” features Dr. Michael Suk, a nationally recognized orthopedic trauma surgeon, physician executive, and pioneer in integrating lifestyle medicine into surgical care. As co-founder of Blue Zone Surgeons and co-editor of the forthcoming textbook Lifestyle Medicine and Surgery, Dr. Suk is helping redefine how clinicians think about perioperative care, recovery, resilience, and long-term health outcomes.

The conversation explores why surgery should no longer be viewed as a single isolated procedure, but instead as part of a broader, longitudinal journey of whole-person health. Dr. Suk discusses the role of orthopedic surgeons as unexpected “quarterbacks” of whole-person care, the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration between surgeons and lifestyle medicine clinicians, and why surgical specialties are uniquely positioned to advance prevention-focused healthcare.

If you’re interested in lifestyle medicine, surgery, orthopedic care, perioperative optimization, healthcare innovation, prevention, or the future of whole-person medicine, 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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