Welcome! It has been an amazing journey (already!) to start my own practice. And, this isn’t just any medical practice – it’s lifestyle medicine! This field of medicine looks at the whole person and all that goes into preventing and treating not only disease, but also your overall wellness and health. Lifestyle medicine is so incredibly impactful – I can’t wait to share it with you!
Honestly, finding lifestyle medicine (LM) was like discovering a well-kept secret within the medical field. I was shocked that I hadn’t heard about it in the prior decade of practicing medicine. I wanted to ask everyone in the medical field, “Why isn’t anyone talking about this?!” I also was disappointed to quickly discover that it really isn’t being utilized like it should in our community. Once I discovered the power of LM, it felt like a disservice to my patients to minimize it in my practice. In fact, the evidence that supports lifestyle medicine is so compelling that I am focusing solely on this field in my new practice.
During our appointments, I will not only provide an evaluation from the LM perspective, but I will also use my experience and perspective as a prior primary care physician (PCP) to address any concerns I have about your health in general. I may direct you to your PCP, or other specialists, if indicated, but I will be on your team to make sure you are well taken care of. I do hope that one day lifestyle medicine will be fully integrated into routine medical care and not a specialty at all; In fact, one of my personal missions is to be a leader in our community, educating not only patients, but the medical community about what lifestyle medicine is and how crucial it is for the future of medicine. Luckily, lifestyle medicine is a quickly growing field and I’m thrilled to be part of it.
I strongly believe (and the evidence supports!) that looking at your health from a whole-person perspective, using the six pillars of lifestyle medicine can prevent, treat and even reverse chronic medical problems. I can’t, in good faith, ignore the research that supports that this is a hugely important part of health and medicine.
Thank you for joining me in this journey. I’ll end with what my dad said to me, and my big sister, every single day before school – Try hard and have fun! And that’s what I intend to do.
Amanda