Lifestyle Medicine: The Most Powerful Medicine on Earth

Have you ever contemplated the potential of Lifestyle Medicine? Get ready to have your mind expanded as we journey through this empowering field of medicine that influences health outcomes more powerfully than anything else. You're about to discover the undeniable impact of lifestyle on health outcomes and its potential in preventing and treating many diseases.

Stay with us as we pull back the curtain on the primal and Mediterranean lifestyles, traits that can significantly reduce the risk of conditions like dementia, heart disease,  stroke, and many others. Learn about the compelling evidences that support the potency of lifestyle medicine in managing some of America's most feared diseases like diabetes, osteoarthritis and many more. We're here to equip you with practical tips and insights to start moving your health in the right direction today. 

Don’t miss out as we unravel the cornerstones of a healthy diet, exercise, socialization, the pitfalls of a sedentary lifestyle, and the crucial role of stress management. Tap into the power of motivation and its importance in successful lifestyle changes. By the end of this episode, we hope you will be inspired to take control of your health, optimize your mind, body, and spirit, and truly understand the revolutionizing potential of lifestyle medicine. So tune in, take notes, and let’s revolutionize healthcare together.

Chapters

• 0:00 The Power of Lifestyle Medicine
• 9:49 The Importance of Lifestyle Medicine
• 19:09 The Impact of Lifestyle on Health
• 25:26 The Power of Lifestyle Medicine
• 38:49 Healthy Living
• 46:52 Exercise, Sedentary Lifestyle, and Stress Management
• 58:36 Importance of Reviews, Lifestyle Medicine

Transcript

Introduction Announcer: 0:00

Welcome to the Functional Medicine Podcast with Dr McMinn and Coach Lindsey. We're coming to you from McMinn Clinic in Birmingham, alabama, where Dr McMinn is an integrative in functional MD and Lindsey Matthews is a registered nurse and IIN certified health coach. In this podcast, we'll be discussing the latest information on a wide range of topics in the field of functional medicine, which looks for the root cause of disease, and integrative medicine, which incorporates both conventional and alternative therapies. Our overall goal is to help you be the best that you can be in mind, body and spirit. The following discussion is for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease. Please do not apply any of this information without approval from your personal doctor. And now on to the show with Dr McMinn and Coach Lindsey.

Dr. McMinn: 0:54

Hello and welcome to the Functional Medicine Podcast, the evidence-based podcast on integrative and functional medicine. Thank you so much for joining us today. I'm Dr Jim McMinn. I'm here with our co-host, nurse extraordinaire and certified health coach, ms Lindsey Matthews. Good morning, coach.

Coach Linday: 1:09

Good morning, Dr McMinn. It's great to be back with our listeners today on the podcast.

Dr. McMinn: 1:14

Well, our goal, as always, is to give you the latest, up-to-date, evidence-based information on subjects that are important to your health and to give you practical take-home solutions to help you improve your life in mind, body and spirit.

Coach Linday: 1:26

Today we are going to be discussing a subject that is near and dear to my heart. It's the most powerful medicine on earth, not to be underestimated. It is called lifestyle medicine.

Dr. McMinn: 1:39

Yeah, coach, I'm really excited about this one as well. I've been preaching this concept for many years and to some degree, I actually try to walk the walk, although I'm not perfect, coach, but I'm trying and I'm getting better all the time. So anyway, I'm confident that we can prove to you, the listener, that when it comes to living a long, happy life, there's nothing that even comes close to lifestyle medicine, no drugs, no surgery, and pardon the double negative here, coach, but no, nothing, no, nothing. People, as MC Hammer says, "can't touch this when it comes to optimizing your mind, body, spirit health in every aspect of your life.

Coach Linday: 2:16

However, before we get going, we need to do just a bit of that housekeeping and get that out of the way. Our podcast remains commercial free, so that you, the listener, won't be bothered by those annoying and sometimes disingenuous commercials.

Dr. McMinn: 2:29

You know, coach, I'm a podcast listener as well as a podcast host, and I find it really kind of a turn off when other hosts talk products that they really don't use or don't believe in and, quite frankly, it makes me have less trust in the presenter, and so if I know they're just trying to sell me something that I don't really need and probably won't help me, then it really is kind of a turn off to me. But anyway, on the Functional Medicine Podcast, we just don't go there. We're not about selling your stuff and we're about delivering unbiased, practical, evidence-based information to you in a really authentic matter so you can live a better life. However, it does cost us money to produce these podcasts, so think of us like Public Radio and if you're in a position to do so, then consider supporting the show to help us keep this valuable information coming to you.

Coach Linday: 3:13

There are a couple of ways that you can contribute, and we're not trying to sell you any supplements, but if you do buy nutritional supplements, then consider purchasing vetted, physician-grade supplements from our Full Script Dispensary at a 10% discount. You can see a link to Full Script below in the show notes. It's really simple. Just click on the link. They'll guide you through. It's a win-win, since this helps you by getting the products that you want at a discount, and then it helps us keep the show going for you so that we can bring you this up-to-date, evidence-based information on integrative and functional medicine.

Dr. McMinn: 3:49

Or you can make a contribution to the show directly via credit card or PayPal at the Support the Show link, which is also in the show notes, and we thank you in advance for your support.

Coach Linday: 3:59

And don't forget to subscribe to the show and hit those notifications button so that you'll be notified when episodes roll out. All right.

Dr. McMinn: 4:08

And now, Coach, with all that housekeeping stuff out of the way, on to the show. So, Coach, let's start with. What is lifestyle medicine? There's really no universally accepted definition of lifestyle medicine, so I'm going to make one up, Coach.

Coach Linday: 4:19

I like it, let's do it. I'm the host of the show. I can do whatever I want. You can. Yes, sir.

Dr. McMinn: 4:24

Anyway, here's my definition Lifestyle medicine is the evidence-based medical science pertaining to how you can live your life, what you do and what you don't do, in such a way as to improve your mind, body, spirit, health, your longevity and your happiness. How does that sound, Coach?

Coach Linday: 4:38

I really like that. That actually sounds like health care versus disease care.

Dr. McMinn: 4:42

Yeah, yeah, good, there we go, there we go.

Coach Linday: 4:48

So there are many lifestyle factors that contribute to health outcomes, so some of those are out of our control. However, perhaps the number one factor that determines your health status is really the fundamental way that you live your life, which is, for the most part, in your control. So, if you think about the primal lifestyle that we as humans live for thousands of years, since the beginning of time on Earth, as humans we've gotten so far away from that in our modern world.

Dr. McMinn: 5:18

Coach that primal lifestyle is kind of interesting. We think about the primal diet, but that you can take the bigger picture and call it primal lifestyle. Similarly, in a little bit we're going to talk about the Mediterranean lifestyle, right? So it's kind of interesting. Yes, and we evolved on this earth over time to move. Every day as we hunted and gathered, we ate a wide variety of whole foods and we lived in socially connected multi-generational families. We were at once with nature, with sunlight, with circadian rhythms and with the rhythms of the Earth, and that's what our mind bodies evolved over thousands of years to be a part of.

Coach Linday: 5:52

Fast forward to today. In a relatively short period of time, we experienced really a bait and switch from the environment Dr Mack just described to our junk food laden diets, sedentary lifestyle, our work patterns like the swing shifts or unrelenting stress, social isolation. We're really very disconnected from nature and each other, and then add to that the toxic assault on our bodies from the food that we eat, the water we drink, the air we breathe, 24-hour stress, yeah.

Dr. McMinn: 6:24

So you know, coach, the bottom line is we now live in a world that our bodies just were not designed for. It's kind of like putting diesel fuel into your jet fuel racing car. The motor's destined to sputter and spurt and eventually conk out, and that's kind of what's happening to our bodies.

Coach Linday: 6:37

Right, a cute disease often comes from factors external to the body, such as trauma. However, chronic disease usually comes from normal processes inside our body; processes like inflammation, oxidation that often come from lifestyle factors like poor diet, sedentary lifestyle, lack of that restorative sleep, and then the impact of stress. Over time. These factors tend to wear down our natural buffering capacity, which protects us from disease. So eventually it's those poor lifestyle choices that have a significant negative impact on our weakest links and then we succumb to disease.

Dr. McMinn: 7:19

For instance- the same poor diet may result in heart disease for one patient because of his genetic weak link, but that same diet may result in arthritis for another patient because of her genetic weak link.

Coach Linday: 7:28

Right, what is your weakest link? So, to some degree, these diseases are our body's way of getting our attention. Our bodies are begging for relief from the everyday modern, toxic lifestyles. They're crying out for help. If we will only listen, then we can prevent and sometimes treat the vast majority of chronic diseases that affect us. Our bodies want to be healthy and they're generally built to be healthy. In many ways they can even fix themselves if we would just stop pouring in the poison and just get out of the way and let our bodies heal the way they were designed to.

Dr. McMinn: 8:03

You know, as bizarre as it sounds, I've had some patients who said that their heart attack, for instance, was really the best thing that ever happened to them, because it took something really catastrophic like that to get their attention and to make them clean up their lifestyle act; to change their diet, to reduce their stress, to get some exercise and to lose weight. I personally, coach, had a situation a few years ago where I had a couple of bouts of AFib and it really caught my attention and so I took a look around and I did go to. You know, you can never take AFib lightly. I definitely went to see my doctor and my cardiologist, but I really also turned to lifestyle medicine.

Dr. McMinn: 8:33

I worked at getting better sleep. I actually I didn't know it coach, but I had sleep apnea. I got tested for that and I got treated for that, and I also really reduced my stress, mainly by learning to say "no. And guess what coach, afib's gone, I'm not in the meds for it. It's time. I haven't had it in years. And so knock on wood, we'll have to see how that turns out.

Coach Linday: 8:53

We'll keep you posted. Lifestyle medicine at work yeah.

Dr. McMinn: 8:55

I think it did work for me for sure.

Coach Linday: 8:57

So you may have never heard of lifestyle medicine, but unlike drugs and surgery and other common medical modalities, lifestyle medicine has been around since the dawn of time. When it comes right down to it, the way that you live your life, the choices you make on a daily basis, your actions and your inactions, they all add up to the most powerful, most efficient, most cost effective medicine on earth by far. And yet it remains the best kept secret. They don't teach us about it in medical school, really, or even nursing school.

Dr. McMinn: 9:28

Coach, let's check into that Now. Yeah, medical NOTHING; residency- NADA.

Coach Linday: 9:34

You didn't have a lifestyle medicine class?

Dr. McMinn: 9:36

No, no, no. How about you coach in nursing school? No such textbooks.

Coach Linday: 9:41

No, just kind of. At the end of the chapter there might be a nice little box of encourage your patient to work on diet, you know, but it's an afterthought.

Dr. McMinn: 9:48

Yeah, for real.

Coach Linday: 9:49

Here's another example. Sit in the doctor's office and watch the parade of drug reps who come through and often serve lunch to the entire staff, and I promise you you'll never see a lifestyle rep pushing more brussels sprouts or veggies in your doctor's office.

Dr. McMinn: 10:02

For sure.

Coach Linday: 10:04

You'll never see that ad in the New England Journal of Medicine recommending better social relationships or more exercise. I'd love to see that.

Dr. McMinn: 10:11

My sister one time worked for a neurologist and she said that every single day lunch was served to the entire staff by drug reps. Doctors sometimes deny that that influences their choices. I won't use the full words, but I'll use the initials- that's BS. It does influence your choices and I think we all have to just be honest about that.

Dr. McMinn: 10:32

But for some reason we seem to be infatuated with modern technology, the drugs, the surgery and quick fixes. And let me also say I'm not anti drug, coach. I want to be clear about that. There's a time and a place for drugs and if you have that hot appendix, sometimes you need surgery. So I'm not anti those.

Dr. McMinn: 10:48

But unfortunately we have largely forgotten about lifestyle medicine. And as you know, coach, I was at ER doctor for about 20 years of my career and I remember sometimes I look at this sea of people in the ER who were sick, miserable In some cases we're dying and I was thinking that most of them did not have to be this way. If they had just made healthier choices they would not be in the ER. And I think some of the patients, as I look back on that, that stand out to me the most coach were the previous smokers who came in with exacerbations of COPD. Their lungs were just wiped out from the smoking, completely wiped out. You get an X-ray and there's basically very little lung tissue and these people were gasping for air and they were so miserable and it just broke my heart because I knew that this was 100% preventable if they had just stopped smoking.

Coach Linday: 11:35

I mean that's profound.

Dr. McMinn: 11:37

It's profound and the good news is it's never too late to stop smoking because you can get healing within really weeks. I mean, you're never going to be back up to 100%, but there is, I think, to some degree, a point in a return, that is, once you have lost X amount of lung tissue you can't grow that back. But I think that you can, even after 20, 30, 40 years of smoking, you could definitely have benefits from stopping smoking, because the smoking affects really every cell in your body.

Coach Linday: 12:08

And I think smoking is a great example of a lifestyle medicine that mainstream medicine does acknowledge, like limiting smoking. We do have a lot of great education on that, and so I think that paves the way for a hope for our future. I mean, that's a beginning one, and I think more and more lifestyle medicine will become mainstream.

Dr. McMinn: 12:26

Well, that's right. It's interesting, coach, how years ago, when we would go out to dinner or to, I know, some people went to bars. I never did, but you come home smelling you're reaking with smoke. And so I think certainly that's really cleaned up in our society. Now when you go to Europe, it's really different. There's a lot of smoking over there. But yeah, I think that we have made progress on that issue and I'm really happy to see that. But we still certainly have a ways to go.

Coach Linday: 12:52

So as a provider, you have a lot of patients to see and, in order to pay those overhead bills, it's just quicker and easier to hand out a script For a drug than it is to coach someone on lifestyle medicine. So you know, and as patients, we're drinking the Kool-Aid We'd rather be passive you know and take that in. It's much easier to take a pill to lose weight than change our diet and exercise. It's just so much easier. Lifestyle medicine is a harder route.

Dr. McMinn: 13:19

It is, it's harder for the provider and for the patient and I know sometimes there are certainly incentives to go the drug route. I remember one patient came in to see me, I think I mentioned this before on the podcast, he had some high cholesterol and he wanted to try to lose weight and change his diet and get some exercise, but the doctor kept pushing the statins on him. And the patient said no, doctor, I want to try this other stuff first. Well, the doctor said.. The doctor actually reached in his own wallet and pulled out a $5 pill. He said here, go to Publix, you can get this for $5. And what happens is the doctors get graded sometimes. if that guy's got high cholesterol, are you treating it? I'm using air quotes here now "correctly, right, ah?

Introduction Announcer: 14:02

Right.

Dr. McMinn: 14:03

And by using statins, and so the doctor didn't want to get downgraded, and I get that. But once again they have unfortunately incentives to use drugs rather than appropriate counseling on lifestyle medicine, and I get it. Sometimes there are people who are just not going to do the lifestyle, but give people a chance. Some people are willing to. They just need awareness, and information, and motivation, and counseling, and coaching, and some accountability right and they can do it.

Coach Linday: 14:32

Yes.

Dr. McMinn: 14:34

Yes, what people don't realize also, coach is that unlike the pill, say, for instance, for that cholesterol, the exercise is not only going to help you with that particular problem. It's going to help you with heart disease, diabetes, mood, gut health, brain health, bone health. It's going to really affect just about every organ and cell in your body, and in fact exercise generally affects gene expression. Coach, isn't that amazing? Yes, for instance, if you have a genetic risk for cancer, exercise may help you prevent that in your lifetime. And there's just no drug out there, coach, that can do for you what the exercise and lifestyle medicine can do.

Coach Linday: 15:10

No, I'm imagining the commercial for that. You know the parallel to the drug commercials.

Introduction Announcer: 15:15

Yes, like at the

Coach Linday: 15:16

Yeah, yeah, yeah, they increase your risk of blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So lifestyle medicine may increase your vitality and decrease your risk of diabetes and less cancer down the road.

Dr. McMinn: 15:27

Now for the guys and you tell them that it will improve your libido and erectile function, they'll all start exercising with it.

Coach Linday: 15:34

Let's talk some of the different commercials here.

Dr. McMinn: 15:37

We can really turn things around with that one.

Coach Linday: 15:41

So societal norms and expectations play a role, though, in lifestyle medicine. So we happen to live in the great state of Alabama, and there are areas in our state where it's just expected that most people will get diabetes and hypertension and will become obese. Patients think Mama had it, Papa had it, so I'm going to get it. I'll just take the doctor's pills like Mama did. I got the diabetes, you know. But Dr Mac and I are here to say -it does not have to be that way. If we can change our mindset as individuals and as a society, we can radically improve the quality of our lives. We can live longer, we can live better, and kiss many of those major medical problems goodbye. We don't have to live in fear of the future. You don't have to be obese, you don't have to have diabetes just because your family members did.

Dr. McMinn: 16:30

You know, coach, speaking of societal norms, taking a little bit of a broader look, I was over in Amsterdam a few years ago on vacation. It's really beautiful city if you ever get a chance to go there. But it's really interesting how seemingly everybody was out walking around and biking everywhere. Yeah, and accordingly I saw far fewer obese people than in the States. Well, coach, my eyes were not tricking me. The rate of obesity in Amsterdam is about half of what it is America, and likewise the rate of diabetes in Amsterdam is also about half of what it is in America.

Dr. McMinn: 17:01

Another example I was up in New York recently and it seems to be a really great walking city, whereas in Los Angeles you have to drive everywhere you go. Accordingly, once again, we see the rates of obesity in New York are much lower than LA and dropping, and the rates of obesity in LA are higher and are rising. Now, I know that's not solid science, coach, it's just anecdote, but I'm just saying as a country or region, we can have societal norms that contribute to disease, and down here, especially in the Black Belt region of the South, we have culturally ingrained health habits, especially our southern diets, which have disastrous consequences on our health of our people.

Coach Linday: 17:41

Socioeconomic status plays a role in the ability of you know people to employ lifestyle medicine. So you know, if you're a person that lives in a food desert, then it's really hard to maintain a healthy diet. If you live in a place where it's not safe to go outside and exercise because you might get shot, then that could also be a factor. If you're forced by your employer to work swing shifts or that's something that that's the only job you can get, then it's hard to be in sync with your circadian rhythms, hard to get good quality sleep or hard to maintain a social life. If you live in the middle of the big city that doesn't value green spaces, then it's hard to connect with nature. If you live in a community where the water is poisoned and there's chemicals so it's forever chemicals and the air is poisoned by lead, then it's really hard to avoid toxins. So we can go on and on about that.

Dr. McMinn: 18:27

Yeah, for real Now, Coach. One study I reviewed showed that individuals with disadvantaged socioeconomic status and unhealthy lifestyles had the highest risk for mortality and cardiovascular disease, which highlights the importance of lifestyle modifications to reducing disease, especially those of low socioeconomic status. So it's hard, Coach, to change cultural norms and to cure all socioeconomic ills, but you have to start somewhere, Coach. So let's get going to shed some light on this powerful, well-kept secret called lifestyle medicine that can radically improve your health and the well-being and overall health of our society and dramatic reduce healthcare costs.

Coach Linday: 19:04

Love it. So, but where to start, Dr. Mac? It's such an expansive topic. Let's jump in with this quote by Thomas Edison, many years ago. We know him as one of America's great inventors, who once held the world record for patents. However, he was also wise in other areas besides engineering, and so he said this: " the doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease.

Dr. McMinn: 19:34

Wow coach, such a powerful statement. Let's just pause there for a minute and absorb that. I'm going to repeat that, coach, "the doctor of the future will give no medicine but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease. You know, coach, we could just stop right there. That kind of says it all. End of podcast.

Introduction Announcer: 19:56

Yeah.

Dr. McMinn: 19:57

But you know me, coach, I've got to get into the weeds and wallow around in it for a bit, right? So, anyway, we're going to try to break it down for you and show you some of the evidence as to why this is so important for you, and give you some practical take home tips so you can start today to move your health in the right direction. And, by the way, let me do apologize that this is another sort of long podcast. Just feel free to break it up into multiple sessions. Just a lot to talk about here.

Dr. McMinn: 20:22

It's just not a simple subject and in the functional medicine podcast we always want to be thorough, so please bear with us. We'll always try not to waste your time with too much banter and by going off track on some irrelevant tangents. Also, one thing you might want to do is to get a visual of this issue. You can just go to my website, which is McMinnMD. com/ pyramid and you can see my "pyramid of wellness and you can even print that off, and I had some patients who actually put it on the fridge as a reminder every day of the fundamentals of good health that you need to be paying attention to in order to optimize your own health.

Coach Linday: 20:57

My mom certainly has it on her fridge.

Dr. McMinn: 20:59

Always. My sister does too, so it's kind of cool yeah.

Coach Linday: 21:03

So, even though we're living longer these days, we're also living with even more chronic diseases, such as arthritis, metabolic disease, dementia, and the list goes on. These diseases can result in a poor quality of life and sometimes just being miserable. I read a statistic, Dr McMinn, that estimated up to 70% of modern health problems have lifestyle based causes. I'm not surprised- 70%.

Dr. McMinn: 21:27

That's amazing, Lindsay.

Coach Linday: 21:29

And these lifestyle related chronic diseases also result in upteen billions of dollars on our healthcare. How many billions? Upteen billions.

Dr. McMinn: 21:38

Umteen, that's right, that's right.

Coach Linday: 21:43

Which will eventually overwhelm our healthcare system. I mean, we're laughing about that, but it's scary.

Dr. McMinn: 21:49

It really is, honestly, it really is. In a way, we just can't go on like this. It's going to send us to the poor house just to taking care of people. But consider a coach that, like six out of 10 Americans, are dealing with a chronic disease. Also, the major cause of mortality in America is heart disease, cancer, diabetes and dementia, all of which are directly related to lifestyle medicine.

Coach Linday: 22:09

For instance, a professor at Harvard looked at the effect of the Mediterranean lifestyle on mortality and cancer. It was the Mediterranean diet coach Mediterranean lifestyle. There we go, and so the effect of that lifestyle on mortality and cancer. The lifestyle is a diet plus regular exercise like walking and socialization. So he found that such a lifestyle is associated with a 29% lower risk of all cause mortality. Wow, and 28% lower risk for cancer Wow.

Dr. McMinn: 22:43

Huge, yeah, big, big, big. So let's take a look at some other diseases. Arthritis seems to be omnipresent in our older folks that includes me, coach but we see that the incidence of osteoarthritis is increasing and, according to a recent article in the journal Lancet Rheumatology, osteoarthritis is expected to impact nearly 1 billion people by 2050. Wow, coach, let me repeat that that's a billion with a B, not million, but billion. The science is very clear Osteoarthritis is directly related to lifestyle, especially diet, obesity, and inactivity. So working on those things those three things I mentioned diet, obesity and inactivity can have a huge impact on prevention and treatment of arthritis. And, by the way, there's a great book on this subject that you might want to check out, called Healing Arthritis by Dr Bloom, Susan Bloom, MD. I actually made a page on the website it's called McMinnMD. com/ references where you can see that book and lots of other books that I have read over the years that I feel that might be worth your time to take a look at.

Coach Linday: 23:43

Excellent.

Dr. McMinn: 23:44

I kind of wrote it down by subject in alphabetical order, so it's really simple.

Coach Linday: 23:47

Beautiful, beautiful. So let's turn to another major cause of morbidity and mortality. About 37 million Americans have type 2 diabetes. Again, the science is very clear on this one. This is directly related to lifestyle medicine. So there's an interesting perspective study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine called the Diabetes Prevention Program, and it looked at the effect of lifestyle medicine on diabetes. They took a bunch of people with documented prediabetes. They divided them into three groups a placebo group, the metformin group, which is the most popular diabetes drug, and lifestyle medicine group. So the lifestyle group only had to do two things they were canceled to lose 7% of their body weight and get regular exercise, mainly walking. Then they were monitored, and they monitored these folks for about four years.

Dr. McMinn: 24:41

So at the end of those four years, the metformin group reduced the percent of patients who progressed to full diabetes by 31% compared to placebo. That's impressive. However, the lifestyle group reduced the incidence of diabetes by a whopping 58%, almost twice that of the metformin treated group, which points out once again the power of even modest lifestyle intervention. It was much more powerful than the drug. An added point of interest in that study was that the metformin had no effect on the group that had the highest genetic risk, whereas the lifestyle intervention had the significant impact on these folks. Also, with lifestyle changes, there were no side effects or costs, whereas with the drugs there's always potential side effects and, as well as the costs, so powerful.

Dr. McMinn: 25:26

Mm-hmm.

Coach Linday: 25:27

So one of the most dreaded diseases in America is dementia, so let's talk about that. Unfortunately, over 55 million people have dementia worldwide, with 10 million new cases each year, and it's getting progressively worse. The number of people with dementia is projected to triple by the year 2050, with a huge burden to patients, families and an enormous financial cost to our already overwhelmed healthcare system, as we mentioned earlier, and the bottom line is that the prognosis is not pretty when it comes to dementia. The take home message today is that numerous well done studies published in major medical journals prove that lifestyle modification can produce a major reduction in your risk of dementia.

Dr. McMinn: 26:13

So, for instance, a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that a combination of five lifestyle habits may reduce your Alzheimer's disease risk by 60%. Whoa Coach- 60. That's huge. These five factors included a healthy diet, regular exercise, no smoking or alcohol consumption and engagement in cognitive stimulation activities. Other studies have found that people who actually already have Alzheimer's can improve their memory to some degree and slow the rate of decline. A great resource on this type of program would be Dr. Bredesen's wonderful book "the End of Alzheimer's. You can also find the name of this book at that same area on the website called McMinnMDcom or wwwmoojiorg. Other researchers have also found a healthy lifestyle can cut your risk of developing Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia, even if you have genes that raise your risk of these mind-destroying diseases.

Coach Linday: 27:06

There's a new FDA-approved drug on the market for Alzheimer's. However, the yearly cost to the drug is $56,000 per year. Whoa how much, $56,000. Oh my gosh. Also, and now I am quoting from the article from JAMA Network this drug does not cure or reverse Alzheimer's. In two clinical trials after 18 months it reduced amyloid plaque levels, but that did not translate to any clinical effect in one trial or a noticeable effect in another, and potentially serious harms were common.

Dr. McMinn: 27:42

Yeah, amazing in that, coach. Sometimes we measure these what are called surrogate markers, like how much amyloid plaque was. At the end of the day, if your spouse has Alzheimer's, that's not what you're interested in, is it, coach? So one might ask why was this drug approved? I think it had to do with a couple factors. For instance, this is such a terrible disease, and so families and patients are rightfully desperate and grasping for hope. Sometimes, even if it is false hope, they put pressure on Congress and the FDA, to quote do something. And so we did something, but once again it's not effective and it's high cost. Also, the medical industrial complex, especially the pharmaceutical industry, with their deep pockets and their lobbyists and their political contributions, put so much pressure on the FDA that they approved the drug, even though the science did not support it, knowing that if everyone with Alzheimer's disease got this drug, it would literally bankrupt our country.

Coach Linday: 28:35

So the bottom line is that, clearly, drugs are not the answer to Alzheimer's disease at this point in time, and they may never be, since the cause of this dreaded disease is really multifactorial. The positive impact of lifestyle medicine far exceeds that of this drug, or any drug, no doubt about it.

Dr. McMinn: 28:56

Coach, one of the most dreaded diseases for us men folk is prostate cancer. Women go and get their mammograms yearly and they're always relieved when they get that call and it's negative. Same thing when we get our PSA back. Every time you get it back and it's normal. You just praise the Lord, you're just grateful. But anyway, there's an old saying that if you live long enough you're going to get prostate cancer. But ta-da, lifestyle medicine to the rescue. A prospective 27-year study of more than 12,000 men published in the journal European Urology found that men who maintained at least four of the six healthy lifestyle factors had a 45% lower risk of dying of prostate cancer compared to those who adhere to a few or none of these habits. So, coach, basically we're almost cutting the risk of death in half. That's pretty amazing.

Coach Linday: 29:44

Wow, and we're talking about risk of death, rate of death.

Dr. McMinn: 29:47

Man, I mean in half.

Coach Linday: 29:50

Let's turn now to the number one cause of death in America, which is heart disease. Again, this is directly related to lifestyle medicine. The nurses health study, conducted in conjunction with Harvard Medical School and published in 2011, is a huge study which followed 81,000 female nurses for over 30 years. Women who practiced four basic fundamentals of lifestyle medicine reduced their risk of sudden cardiac death by drum roll - 92%. Oh my gosh, and that's worth repeating. They cut their risk of sudden cardiac death by 92%.

Dr. McMinn: 30:26

Amazing.

Coach Linday: 30:27

So what were those four lifestyle fundamentals? Don't smoke In a body mass index of less than 25, diet in the top 40% of a Mediterranean diet score, and at least 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per day. Dr Mac, there's no drug or surgical procedure that can come anywhere close to catching that powerful medicine.

Dr. McMinn: 30:49

Yeah, for sure, pretty amazing in it, coach 92%, wow. Another subset of the cardiovascular discussion is stroke, which may have devastating outcomes. I've never known friends or family has stroke, lindsay, but it's just awful.

Dr. McMinn: 31:02

But no surprise, lifestyle medicine to the rescue again. Weight loss, quitting smoking and daily exercise may reduce the risk of stroke overall by 25% and ischemic stroke by 36%, according to a very high quality prospective study in the journal Stroke that included almost 60,000 women who were followed over an average of 26 years. Again and again we see these amazing results and once again we're looking at about a 30% reduction in overall stroke. That's pretty amazing. That is truly amazing.

Coach Linday: 31:31

Now it's important to point out that no one of these lifestyle changes could produce such a profound result with cardiovascular disease or stroke. But it's instead that synergy of these multiple lifestyle changes that produce the amazing positive outcomes for the women in these studies. In the wonderful book about lifestyle medicine called the Original Prescription, the author, dr Guilliams, calls it the "Symphony of Signals, because all of these lifestyle medicine factors work together to send signals to your epigenome to help modify your genetic expression in a positive direction. So even if you have an increased genetic risk for heart disease, diabetes, obesity or breast cancer, lifestyle medicine can reduce your risk by altering genetic expression. Again, just amazing what lifestyle medicine can do for you.

Dr. McMinn: 32:22

So that covers most of the common serious diseases and death in America. Without going into details, we'll just point out that other studies have shown that lifestyle medicine can also help with other health concerns, such as endometriosis detoxification, autoimmune disease, PCOS, which is polycystic ovary syndrome, Hashimoto's thyroiditis, menopause, symptoms like nocturnal hot flashes, frailty risk, atrial fibrillation, obesity, colorectal cancer. Gotta take a deep breath here, coach.

Dr. McMinn: 32:51

This goes on and on, I know, Blood pressure, obstetrical outcomes, acne, menstrual pain, fertility, cholesterol, gut health, ibs, hydrodinata, supertiva, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, better libido, better erectile function, healthier microbiome, improved immune function, better menstrual regularity, reduced PMS, reduced osteoporosis with a reduction in hip fractures, significant reductions in GERD, which is gastroesophageal reflux disease, also known as heartburn, and better executive function in the brain. Now, coach, I have personally reviewed studies on the improvement of all these conditions with lifestyle medicine. However, due to time constraints, we're not going to go into all those. I'm just gonna have to ask y'all to trust us on this, that I've taken a look at that and I think that all that's verified that it can. Lifestyle medicine can help with all those diseases.

Coach Linday: 33:41

Amazing, amazing. In addition to the four lifestyle areas that we mentioned in the nurses health study, other lifestyle medicine factors that can improve health include stress reduction, restorative sleep, avoiding environmental toxins, adequate hydration, limited alcohol, avoiding recreational drugs, socialization, having that strong sense of community, loving relationships, spending time with friends and family, making time for fun and pleasure, remaining sexually active if that works in your life. Maintaining good hygiene, including dental hygiene. Connecting with nature, getting some direct sunlight, having a sense of purpose in life, living mindfully, having some sort of mind-body practice like meditation, or consider a regular sauna practice, and we'll put that list on the website for you so you can find it at McMinnMDcom. Forward slash lifestyle.

Dr. McMinn: 34:39

And there are a few things that are not usually found in traditional lists of lifestyle medicine factors, but which also fit our definitions. For instance, just things like being smart about engaging in high risk activities. So, for instance, wear a seatbelt, and if you ride a bike or motorcycle, then wear a helmet. A seatbelt or a helmet could mean the difference between life and death or a long-term disability.

Coach Linday: 34:58

Agreed. Just as you can exercise your muscle, you can also exercise your brain by continuing to learn and to challenge yourself. For instance, pick up a new musical instrument, learn a new language. There are even some brain training programs, such as Brain HQ, which have some pretty good science behind them as far as dementia prevention, so check that out.

Dr. McMinn: 35:19

Now, Coach, we've mentioned all of the lifestyle factors that we can think of, but don't freak out and feel overwhelmed and think you have to do all these. As the Nurses, Health Study and some of the other high quality studies point out, even if you just do three or four of them, such as diet, exercise and socialization, then this can have a hugely beneficial impact on your health.

Coach Linday: 35:36

Also consider that it's not just about what you do, but exercise and healthy diet. It's also about what you don't do, like smoking, getting addicted to drugs, drinking excess alcohol.

Dr. McMinn: 35:48

I struggled with this issue as to whether or not to mention it in our podcast. It's about gun violence in our society, but I think it does fit the definition. In a country where children and teens are more likely to die from gun violence than from any other cause, I just can't ignore this and still claim to be thorough and authentic on this issue. I do remember a few years ago here in Birmingham, one of our trauma surgeons at UAB made a statement about gun violence after a mass shooting tragedy, and some of the gun advocates told him to shut up and stay in his lane. He rightfully made the point that as physicians and healers, especially as a trauma surgeon who sees the carnage caused by gun violence, that we in the medical community can no longer sit silently on the sidelines. It's our duty to speak up on this issue. All of us can reduce pain and suffering and death in disability by being a force for positive change when it comes to gun violence, education and policy.

Dr. McMinn: 36:43

Now, I'm not gonna try to solve this problem today on the podcast.

Dr. McMinn: 36:46

However, I would like to just raise awareness, as it is a major public health issue and as we talk about lifestyle medicine, I would encourage each of you to think about your own role in this. How can you modify your risks? Let's face it most people who have guns in the home are much more likely to die from suicide or homicide by firearms than people without guns in the home. Also, how can you contribute to bringing about common sense, compromise and reform to mitigate risk in our society, so that, once again, someday, coach, we can go to our churches, our movie theaters, our malls, our grocery stores, our nightclubs and send our kids to school without the very real fear of being mowed down by some lunatic with a military assault rifle, with a high capacity magazine? All right, coach, I had to say it, I've said it, and I'll shut up now. Because my podcast and once again, as a doctor, I need to just speak on this issue, because it certainly is causing a lot of pain and suffering and death in this society.

Coach Linday: 37:43

I love your heart and your sincerity for your patients Dr. McMinn sincerity in that. So, now that we've discussed the impact of lifestyle medicine on the major causes of death and disease in America and have imparted a thorough list of the many components of lifestyle medicine, let's move on to a more in-depth look at some of the major essentials of lifestyle medicine. We'll start with one that is perhaps the most important of all, and that is diet. So here's another quote for you listeners. The father of medicine, the Hippocrates, about 2000 years ago, once said "let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food, and he sure was ahead of his time.

Dr. McMinn: 38:25

Wasn't he, wasn't he? And Coach, we've talked about this a lot on the podcast, so especially a podcast number 10. We did that one with our good friend, amazing functional nutritionist, Rachel Olsen, and so for detailed information on nutrition, please check out the podcast number 10, and we won't go into details and repeat the whole spiel. However, since this is so important, let's do just talk about a few of the fundamentals.

Coach Linday: 38:49

So we have admitted that this is a very controversial subject. There are experts, gurus and talking heads who tout various types of one- size- fits- all diet, and all the way on the spectrum from a vegan diet to a carnivore diet. However, our view is that there is no perfect diet that everybody should follow, and that the diet has to be tailored for each individual at that particular time in his or her life, based on his specific needs and goals.

Dr. McMinn: 39:16

However, I do think there are some fundamental principles that most folks can agree on, and in our view, it starts with WHLOLE FOOD. If you just really focus on those two words for your diet, I think you'll go along with that. Not processed food, but whole food. Also, I tend to lean towards a what I call a plant-centered diet, I think for most people, although, as we talked about last time, some people, like Lindsay's beloved hubby Tyler, do better with more of a carnivore type diet, and that's fine. That works for him. However, if we could just pick one diet that has the most complementary science, it would probably be the Mediterranean type diet. According to an article from Mayo Clinic, this diet won the award for the best overall diet for five years in a row and, according to Mayo, adhering to the Mediterranean diet results in lower risk of heart disease, lower risk of strokes, improved brain and gut health and reduced cancer risk.

Coach Linday: 40:08

Other authors also claim that the Mediterranean diet results in less Alzheimer's, increased weight loss, decreased type two diabetes, reduced systemic inflammation and overall improved longevity. In one study called the Pre-Dimid Study, which included thousands of people with diabetes and other cardiovascular risk factors, that Mediterranean diet reduced the rates of strokes by a whopping 30%. And in the nurses health study with thousands of women, the women who followed the Mediterranean diet were 46% more likely to age gracefully, meaning that they got to the age 70 without chronic disease no type of two diabetes, no kidney disease, no lung disease, no Parkinson's, no mental health decline or decline in their physical function. So those are pretty impressive results. By just changing the diet.

Dr. McMinn: 41:03

So what are the cornerstones of the Mediterranean diet? Well, these include eat more vegetables, make those sort of the hero of your dish, and beans would also be helpful. Enjoy fish and seafood twice a week, especially the oily fish like salmon, mackerel and sardines. Eat some dairy, but not an emphasis on dairy, and this would include maybe Greek yogurt and some small amounts of cheese. Switch to a whole grain diet. Skip the whites and the refined grains. Instead, choose barley, brown rice and oats. Include lots of fresh fruit. Eat it as a snack. Enjoy it for dessert. Let extra virgin olive oil become your go-to oil. Stick to healthy fats such as avocados, nuts and seeds. Flavor your food with herbs and spices, and use less salt. And save the sugary desserts for special occasions. And, by the way, Coach, there are tons of great cookbooks on the Mediterranean diet as well.

Coach Linday: 41:54

Yes, yes, my stomach's growling over here with reading that list. So, while there is an active debate as to what good foods are, there's broad agreement as to what the Franken foods are the UFOs, unidentified food objects, as I like to call them. So some of those culprits include processed sugar, high fructose, corn syrup, refined flour and vegetable oils, trans fats, processed meats and other ultra processed foods. Also, minimize those breakfast cereals, snacks, condiments, juices, sodas, fried foods and candies. Shop that periphery of your grocery store. Go for the whole food.

Dr. McMinn: 42:35

You know, coach, when you eat, you're not just feeding your appetite, you're feeding your microbiome, feeding your gut, you're feeding your cells. So I consider really diet to be the most important step in lifestyle medicine. Different diets can actually alter genetic expression, for good or for bad, which affects many of our dreaded chronic diseases.

Coach Linday: 42:53

Now we do recognize this not easy to change your diet. Do your best, educate yourself, motivate yourself. But if you feel like you need help, then get a qualified nutritionist or health coach. And we highly recommend our good friend and colleague who we mentioned just a few moments ago, rachel Olsen. She is certified by the Institute of Functional Medicine and she also happens to be super smart and nice. So she's located right down the street here in Birmingham, Alabama so you can see her locally. Or she's even does remote sessions anywhere in the world, so you can see her contact information at McMinnMD. com at the bottom of the page, under the heading helpful links.

Dr. McMinn: 43:34

Yeah, the conversation about diet and nutrition segues nicely into a brief discussion about the obesity epidemic. Obesity is a risk factor which increases the incidence of nearly every chronic disease, including heart disease, cancer, diabetes, sleep problems, infertility, depression, GERD, kidney disease, liver disease, arthritis, dementia, mortality which of course is premature death, and on and on. It can also have implications for an economic burden and a functional handicap, in that grossly obese patients may even become homebound. It's also a huge burden on the healthcare system. Dealing with all these issues. I can personally attest from my ER days. Moving a 600 pounder from one gurney to another is a challenge for the healthcare system, and for my aching back Also. Things that might otherwise be simple, just like getting IV access in a critical situation on these people, that can become a real challenge.

Coach Linday: 44:22

Unfortunately, the problem is getting worse too. In the 1960s, the average American male weighed about 168 pounds. These days, the average American male is pushing 200 and has a waist circumference of over 40 inches, and that's undeniably obese. The latest data reveals that about 70% of Americans are overweight, about 40% just obese. So this epidemic also affects our kids, about 20% of whom are obese. These children are eating more and more processed foods, experiencing more and more screen time than ever, and the lifetime burden on these kids physically, mentally and emotionally is potentially devastating. The obesity cost to our healthcare system is over $173 billion per year and it's getting worse in America every single year. We're also witnessing the obesity epidemic spreading to the developing world.

Dr. McMinn: 45:21

As, incidentally, processed food is spreading to the developing world. I'm just saying. So it's really hard to fully delve into the causes of this obesity epidemic in this podcast, but the bottom line is that it's directly related to lifestyle. Now, before I get hate letters, let me say that I do realize it's much more complicated than diet and exercise. There are many factors that go into the weight equation. However, when it comes to obesity, the conversation has to at least start with diet and exercise.

Coach Linday: 45:49

Agreed. And so, speaking of exercise, our friend Hippocrates said "an's best medicine is walking, and modern studies have shown that he was right. Even minimal exercise can help, but according to the CDC, only 28% of Americans get the minimum requirements for exercise.

Dr. McMinn: 46:10

It doesn't really take that much to have an impact. You don't have to join a gym or go out and buy a bunch of expensive equipment. And by the coach I bought this used exercise bike at Goodwill for $25. And I used it for 30 years.

Coach Linday: 46:21

I love that you can really get great buys on used equipment.

Dr. McMinn: 46:25

People get them for Christmas. They have that New Year's resolution but they don't keep it, and so then they use it as a coat hanger and eventually they sell it, and so you can go to Goodwill or Salvation Army or whatever. I got a great Nordic track for practically nothing on Craigslist years ago. So yeah, check around for used stuff if you need equipment. But once again, it's hypocrisy saying you don't have to have any equipment, just walk.

Coach Linday: 46:47

Yes.

Dr. McMinn: 46:48

But anyway, I digress. Let me get back on track now. According to a prospective study published in the journal Lancet, even as little as 15 minutes a day of exercise had a 14% reduction in all cause mortality. These people who got minimal exercise lived, on the average, three years longer than the non-exercisors, and this held true even for people who already had heart disease.

Coach Linday: 47:10

We see similar results in many other studies, including the huge nurses health study that we've mentioned earlier. The nurses experienced increasing risk reduction with more exercise. For instance, people who exercised 3.5 hours per week, averaging out to 30 minutes a day, had a 28% reduction in coronary heart disease.

Dr. McMinn: 47:30

So if you're thinking about getting exercise which we would encourage check with your doctor first to make sure you're healthy enough to get exercise and if you're not in good shape, then start slow and listen to your body and work your way up gradually. But the bottom line in my moto is "no excuses, as Nike says, just do it At my age. Certainly there are exercises I would like to do but just can't do anymore. For instance, I love playing tennis for about 40 years, but after major shoulder surgery I just can't go back there. I tried but it just didn't work and I do miss it. But instead I try to focus on what I can do. So, for instance, coach, I had people all the time said Dr, I can't exercise, gotta get a bad knee. Well, go swimming, right, yeah, you could always find something you can do. We just have to kind of work around our limitations.

Coach Linday: 48:14

Yes, and so what are the areas that we should focus on when it comes to exercise? Well, we've got cardio, strength, flexibility and balance. Mix it up. If you don't know what to do, then consider getting a trainer. Get some classes. There's just way too many resources out there to, like you said, take that. No excuses, this is approach, you know. Start with something simple. Consider taking a walk after eating a meal to reduce that post meal glucose response. Just start.

Dr. McMinn: 48:42

Now coach. I would assume that you health coaches learn about exercise and how to coach people in that right. So a trainer or a health coach? Yeah, and there's tons of good stuff on YouTube as well you can go my wife and I we do yoga to YouTube videos a couple times a week.

Coach Linday: 48:57

Yes, I mean, it's just amazing. At our fingertips we have countless resources.

Dr. McMinn: 49:00

Yeah, and we're going to talk about this in a minute. But we kind of hold each other accountable. Sometimes I don't feel like it or she doesn't feel like it, but we always, you know, make each other show up on the mat, and every Monday and Friday and we do yoga for about 30 minutes. We have a few favorites there. You used to do goat yoga, didn't you coach?

Coach Linday: 49:19

Yes, we had some we friends with a farm and the goats were running around and also it ended up being chickens too.

Dr. McMinn: 49:27

Chickern yoga. I've never heard of that one.

Coach Linday: 49:28

That was pretty exciting.

Dr. McMinn: 49:30

Yes, that's funny. Well, unfortunately, the percentage of sedentary occupations have skyrocketed in our lifetime, and children are especially vulnerable to sedentary time due to the ever present temptation of various forms of screen time. By now you've probably heard the saying that sitting is the new smoking and no matter how much you exercise, you can't erase eight to 10 hours of solid sitting. In a large prospective study published in the archives of internal medicine, death by any cause grew proportionally with the increasing number of daily hours spent sitting. Interestingly, the relationship was independent of sex, body mass index, which is weight, or even total physical activity level.

Coach Linday: 50:11

Another study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology demonstrated that the amount of time spent being sedentary is an independent risk factor associated an increased risk of weight gain, metabolic syndrome, diabetes and heart disease, regardless of the hours spent being active. So other studies published in medical journals have shown that prolonged sitting increases indicators for cancer risk, inflammation, insulin resistance and body fat. So the bottom line here is that prolonged sitting cannot be adequately offset by exercise.

Dr. McMinn: 50:47

So time watching TV and playing video games has become by far the number one sedentary leisure activity of Americans these days. One well- done study demonstrated that a sedentary lifestyle ranks only behind smoking and obesity as a key contributor to death from nine major chronic diseases, including heart disease, stroke and cancer. Sedentary lifestyles are estimated to account for approximately 23% of all deaths due to chronic diseases.

Coach Linday: 51:11

So helpful hints. To break the sitting up, set your phone up for every 30 minutes to one hour to get up and stretch or walk around. So just have that alarm going. If you are on a long plane trip, then get up and stretch now and then, if you're on a road trip, stop and go to the rest. Stop, stretch, walk around. Consider getting a standing desk or a treadmill desk like Dr right men used to have in your office.

Dr. McMinn: 51:35

I did.

Coach Linday: 51:36

Yeah, you can actually get a bicycle desk on Amazon for about $250 to $500, depending the model. They've also got those under the desk bike peddler exercises on Amazon for about $50 to $100. So Another one is just between chapters of a book. If you're sitting down, stretch, walk around, do some quick yoga.

Dr. McMinn: 51:57

Also when you're listening to this podcast

Dr. McMinn: 51:59

just put the earphones in and go for a walk. So anyway, another major lifestyle factor is socialization. A study from over 309,000 people quoted by the Harvard School of Public Health found that a lack of strong relationships increases the risk of premature death from all causes by 50%. Coach, I was blown away when I saw that. I just couldn't believe it. But once again, it's straight from Harvard, so you gotta take it seriously. This was a greater risk than obesity, than lack of physical exercise, and roughly comparable to smoking 15 cigarettes a day, whoa.

Dr. McMinn: 52:34

So do what you can to stay socially active yeah, spend time with family and friends. Join clubs. Maintain interest in hobbies that connect you with people and get to know your neighbors. Contribute to your community, volunteer and bottom line, do whatever you can do to mix it up with people.

Coach Linday: 52:49

Yes, and the more you do it, the easier it becomes.

Coach Linday: 52:52

I think, sometimes, when you get disconnected from people, there's a little bit of inertia, energy that you have to start. But once you get back connected with people, it starts to carry itself. So the last lifestyle factor that we'll dive into here is stress. Chronic stress severs your nerve synaptic connections in the brain, causes cells to die and parts of the brain to atrophy and shrink. It can lead to anxiety, depression, high blood pressure, heart problems, memory loss, hormone alterations, poor immune function, fatigue, insomnia, headaches, gut problems. It even alters your gut microbiome simply by you just dealing with chronic stress.

Dr. McMinn: 53:30

You know, coach, I think a lot of doctors realize it's a big deal, but I think it's kind of a cop out. They just tell their patients to go home and reduce stress, but they don't really tell them how to reduce stress. This is a huge and important subject and I put a lot of thought into this. I put together something called stress management plan and the stress toolbox, but for now, due to time constraints, we'll have to simply advise you to put together your own plan and maintain a customized stress management program. But I do promise. I promise to circle back around to this soon and put together a podcast specifically focused on stress reduction.

Coach Linday: 54:06

And listeners- You know, I think it's like I think about as I'm parenting a toddler when. I tell her calm down. That never helps.

Dr. McMinn: 54:15

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Coach Linday: 54:16

And the same is true with the doctors. Just quit stressing out, that never helps anybody but we have to change to what is constructive. Let's take some deep breaths, let's look at the toolbox. Let's find them things that we can actively do, because just calm down, just don't stress. It doesn't work for anybody and we can all acknowledge that it's a problem, but how many of us are dealing with it?

Dr. McMinn: 54:41

Earlier I referred to that with my AFib issue and I had to really take an inventory of my life and what I was doing and not doing, and so I had to learn to say no and take some things off my list. It was just too much too much.

Dr. McMinn: 54:55

So I had to kind of scale back and a stress reduction plan for you, Lindsay, is not the same as for me, and I think we all have to take inventory of our own life. But yeah, I'm gonna come back to that very soon and we're gonna do a whole podcast on stress reduction. We'll look forward to that, but you know, coach, I have to say it's gonna be a long one too.

Coach Linday: 55:12

It's not simple, is it? No, it's not. It's not.

Dr. McMinn: 55:16

But I'll have a couple of good handouts for you. I'm really proud of what I put together there the stress plan and the stress toolbox so you'll enjoy those. I think that's great. When we do the podcast, I'll put them on the website for you.

Coach Linday: 55:28

So we've given you lots of information and hopefully some take home concepts here that you can use to improve your own lifestyle in order to get McMinn optimized and live a longer and healthier life. So above here we've listed all of the lifestyle medicine components that we can think of. But in summary, and just to kind of simplify it and bring it back, here are the ones that we consider to be the six pillars of lifestyle medicine. Number one nutrition, and again focus on the two words whole foods. Number two physical activity.

Dr. McMinn: 56:01

And let me pause there. So yeah, I had a friend who lost 40 pounds and I asked her how'd you do it? She said I eat whole foods. Wow, if it doesn't swim, fly, run, jump or grow on this earth, I don't eat it. If it comes in a box, I don't eat it. That was pretty impressive. Just whole foods. And she felt better, she's healthier. So I'm just saying it works.

Coach Linday: 56:22

Sure does so. Number one nutrition. Number two physical activity, both in terms of exercise and then avoiding prolonged sitting. Number three stress management. Number four avoid those risky substances like tobacco, addictive drugs, toxins and just limited amounts of alcohol. Number five restorative sleep. And then six social connectedness.

Dr. McMinn: 56:49

Yeah, we've thrown a lot at you today, but don't feel overwhelmed. You don't have to do all these at once and take your time to digest this and then get to work and making small changes that you can sustain. Put together your plan. Just pick a few of these lifestyle factors to focus on and then put your plan into action. It doesn't do any good if you have a plan but there's no action. Be accountable and stick to it. Remember you're in this for the long haul. That's why I call it "Lifestyle is for your life right, all your life, not just a flash in the pan. Consider getting a workout buddy or a weight loss friend or joining a class at the local Y or whatever, and hold each other accountable. Also, especially to get started, consider working with a health coach. I'm a big fan of coaches and they can truly be life altering in a positive way.

Coach Linday: 57:33

However, if you fall off the program, don't beat yourself up. Just realize that it's difficult to change the way that you live your life and forgive yourself. Brush yourself back up. Get back on the program. Remember the studies have shown that just a few simple changes can make dramatic improvements. So don't give up. This is way too important.

Dr. McMinn: 57:54

It is best to start lifestyle measures as early in life as possible, but it's never too late and for some people there may be some things you can't do. So focus on the things you can. For instance, no matter how old you are, quit smoking, and that can have major benefits even in the short term, no matter how old you are.

Coach Linday: 58:11

Well, dr Mac, I think that we've covered this topic about as thoroughly as we can for now, so that will about do it for this episode of the Functional Medicine Podcast. Thanks for joining us listeners. We hope that we were able to share something with you and that you found it helpful.

Dr. McMinn: 58:28

And don't forget to check us out at McMinnMDcom. Also, please help the podcast grow by telling your friends and family about us, and please take a moment to rate us on iTunes. These reviews can really make a difference for us.

Coach Linday: 58:38

And, by the way, we've had some feedback from some folks that it can be difficult to actually do the reviews, so we have dedicated a page on the website to explain to you exactly how to do this on your iPhone, step by step. So you can find that at McMinnMD. com/ reviews.

Dr. McMinn: 58:56

A quick comment there, lindsay, I did have that in the footnotes, but they only give you limited number of letters on the footnote, so I'm going to take that out of the footnotes and put that into the webpage that you described, and so that will be a lot better for everybody. If you don't wanna reach out to me by email, you can do so at DoctorMcMinn@yahoo. com. You can also find me on Facebook at facebookcom/ McMinnMD. You can learn more about Lindsay and me at McMinnMD. buzzsprout. McMinnMDbusbroutcom, and I'll have all these things for you at the bottom of page one, the homepage at the website McMinnMD. com. And now, coach Lindsay, can you leave us with a final Coach Lindsay

Coach Linday: 59:38

Oh, thanks, dr Mac. I think at this point we've built a great case for lifestyle medicine, and so just stepping back lifestyle medicine versus conventional medicine lifestyle is looking at that root cause with lifestyle focuses. Conventional medicine is a lot of times mitigating risk factors and disease management, but really, in lifestyle medicine, we're asking the patient you, the patient to take an active, responsible role, and so we're always kinda looking at more of a long-term look. And so, because it requires that active role and because it requires your responsibility, I think one of the keys to lifestyle medicine being successful is motivation. So it's worthwhile then to ask what will keep you motivated, and I think understanding your motivation is almost just as important as what goals and what things you're changing with your lifestyle.

Dr. McMinn: 1:00:31

Yeah, Coach, I think the number one blessing in your life is your health, and you just gotta, gotta, gotta take care of it, and I think we've put together a case I attempted to that. This is overwhelming. Nothing can touch this right, and so I hope you'll all take this seriously and do some soul searching and think about what you can do in your life to live a longer, happier, better, healthier life. So anyway, with all that, that should wrap it up, and thank you so much for listening. We really appreciate you being part of this. This is Dr McNinn.

Coach Linday: 1:01:01

And this is Coach Lindsay. BOTH: Take care and be well.