Lifestyle Medicine with Dr. Susan Satterfield

Glossary of Terms Used in This Presentation

Lifestyle Medicine – Looks at the root cause of illness and then prescribes adjustments in behaviors and habits to prevent, treat and even reverse disease.  This is done before drugs and procedures whenever safe.  We focus on six lifestyle behaviors, the ‘Six Pillars of Health’:

  1. Plant Based Nutrition
  2. Regular Physical Activity
  3. Stress Management
  4. Adequate Restorative Sleep
  5. Maintaining Loving, Supportive Relationships
  6. Avoidance of Risky Substances, such as tobacco and excess alcohol

Plant Based Nutrition – The majority of calories come from unprocessed plant foods: vegetables, fruits, legumes, and intact whole grains with a smaller portion of nuts and seeds (less nuts and seeds than the other 4 food groups due to high fat content).

Studies support that limiting animal products to no more than 10% of your daily calories will greatly reduce your risk of chronic disease, such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

(China Study by Colin Campbell)

Epigenetics – The study of changes in organisms caused by modification of gene expression rather than alteration of the genetic code itself. In other words, every choice we make impacts our DNA and can increase or decrease our risk of disease.  We now know that development of chronic disease is 90% lifestyle choices and only 10% genetic. 

Lifestyle Medicine Resources and More

Plant Based Nutrition and Heart Health – Dr Caldwell Esselstyn and Dr Dean Ornish both did studies proving that a low fat plant based diet can reverse heart disease.  It can literally melt the plaque in the arteries of the heart.  No drug has ever been able to do that. 

Trusted Links for More Information on Plant Based Nutrition

  1. Michael Greger’s nutritionfacts.org
  2. Nutritionstudies.org: Colin Campbell 
  3. Pcrm.org: physician’s committee for responsible medicine – dr neil barnard
  4. Drmcdougall.com
  5. Ornish.com
  6. dresselstyn.com
  7. Plantstrong.com

Finding a Lifestyle Medicine Physician

  1. Go to Lifestylemedicine.org
  2. Go to Membership tab
  3. Click on Membership Directory
  4. Enter South Carolina (or your home state) and click Find (Do not use zip code because it will only give you doctors with an office address within that one zip code even when there may be others just outside of that area!)