Lifestyle Medicine Interest Group

Lifestyle Medicine is one of the fastest growing career fields of medicine globally. Holding the promise for health reform as it addresses the root-cause of chronic illness, Lifestyle Medicine is the evidence-based practice of helping individuals and families adopt and sustain healthy behaviors that affect health and quality of life. Examples of target patient behaviors include, but are not limited to, eliminating tobacco use, improving diet, increasing physical activity, and moderating alcohol consumption. Medical students across the country have expressed concerns about the lack of lifestyle medicine knowledge surrounding topics such as physical activity, nutrition, and behavior-change strategies. The aspiration of Lifestyle Medicine Interest Group (LMIG) at DGSOM is to equip students with the knowledge and skills necessary to counsel patients about exercise, diet, behavior change, and preventative medicine, taking into account positive psychology and the social determinants of health. The goals of LMIG are to: - Educate students about how to address lifestyle-based management of chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, celiac disease, and obesity. - Train students regarding how to provide accurate and helpful Lifestyle Medicine counseling to patients and make targeted recommendations for patients that would fit their budget, life-style and other socio-economic determinants. - Enrich students’ knowledge about exercise, diet and nutrition, behavior change, positive psychology and wellness coaching, and the power of preventative medicine. - Help students gain confidence when speaking to patients about lifestyle-based health behaviors and offer personalized advice that is accurate and evidence-based. The focus of lunch and learn lectures, presentations, workshops, and participation in community health fairs is not only to educate students about lifestyle medicine and chronic illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and obesity, but to help them integrate the experience that they will acquire in clinical settings and beyond. Members of LMIG will become registered members of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) which will provide evidence-based Lifestyle Medicine training as the first treatment option in clinical practice through live and online CME-accredited events and educational offerings, certification, clinical practice tools, patient education resources, economic research, networking opportunities, national conferences and advocacy efforts.

lifestylemedicinedgsom@gmail.com

Signatories: Ethan Liebross, Anais Panossian, and Ani Orujyan

Advisor: Pamela R Cysner