Lifestyle medicine is backed by science

It’s time to bust a myth about lifestyle medicine. Many people think that because the interventions that I prescribe often are lifestyle modifications, dealing with nutrition or exercise or sleep improvements, that what I am practicing is not real medicine.   Lifestyle medicine goes to the root cause of the disease or the medical condition,…

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Aren’t all doctors trained in lifestyle related conditions?

A question I get often from my patients who come to see me because I am a lifestyle medicine practitioner, is aren’t all doctors trained in lifestyle related conditions? And the truth is, yes, all doctors are trained. To understand conditions like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, gout, osteoarthritis, type two diabetes, all doctors have…

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Is Lifestyle Medicine Real Medicine?

There is a misconception that lifestyle medicine is not real medicine. Now, I’d like to make this very clear when a doctor like me specializes in lifestyle medicine we go through rigorous postgraduate level training in all the aspects of healthy living, nutrition, physical activity, sleep, science, psychology, social connectedness, unhealthy substance exposure and managing…

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Is Lifestyle Medicine real medicine?

  People often ask me whether lifestyle medicine is real medicine. Now listen closely. Lifestyle medicine is the only medicine because how you live your life impacts on your health now as well as your health in the future. If you look at mainstream medicine, traditional medicine, where you see a health condition and you…

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What are the aspects of Lifestyle Medicine?

Lifestyle medicine is a specialized field of medicine in the same way that a gynaecologist specializes in women’s health. A lifestyle medicine doctor specializes in those aspects of lifestyle that have an impact on your health and wellbeing. We look at nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress, psychological factors, your social connectedness, as well as exposure to…

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What is a lifestyle medicine doctor?

What makes a lifestyle medicine doctor different from a normal general practitioner? Well, first of all. I am a general practitioner. That’s my undergraduate training, but I specialized in lifestyle medicine. I followed a postgraduate degree program lasting three years, and I did a full master’s thesis on a specific lifestyle intervention. So it’s the…

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Medical Screening Guidelines

Medical screening is the process by which we actively look for evidence of illness or disease BEFORE signs or symptoms become obvious.  Examples of medical screening include: Testing blood pressure at every doctors’ visit Doing routine cervical smear tests to check for early cervical cancer cells Routine breast examinations and mammograms to detect breast cancer…

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Cholesterol

Did you know that you NEED cholesterol? Although cholesterol has a bad reputation for causing blood vessel disease, it is an essential molecule with very important functions. Cholesterol is involved in the production of certain hormones and vitamin D.  It is also found in all cell membranes and is used to make bile acids which…

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Should you do a Food Elimination?

A Food Elimination can be a powerful tool to discover whether foods you eat are causing you to feel unwell. Food can cause symptoms and health problems ranging from allergies to mood instability to digestive issues and inflammation. Many of my patients ask for food intolerance or food allergy tests.  These tests can be helpful…

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Insulin Metabolism

Understand this hormone and take control of your energy, appetite and weight. Insulin is released by your pancreas, which lies just under your ribs on your left side.  When you eat or drink anything that has the potential to raise your blood glucose level, your pancreas responds by releasing insulin into your blood. Insulin is…

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