This episode’s guest is Dr. Michelle Thompson, the medical director of the Lifestyle Medicine Institute at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). This conversation explores how Dr. Thompson is bringing lifestyle and integrative medicine into major health systems.

She began her journey practicing integrative medicine but leveraged the six pillars of lifestyle medicine to bridge the gap with conventional medicine. This hybrid path allowed her to excel at practicing in traditional settings and facilitated introducing integrative and lifestyle medicine principles into larger health systems.

Dr. Thompson also shared evidence that there is growing momentum behind the integrative and lifestyle medicine movements, including acceptance and adoption of its principles within health systems. She encourages physicians who may have previously left the system to consider returning and joining a hospital system that is open to change and supportive of these modalities.

Building upon recent podcast conversations, such as the episode with Dr. Joe Pizzorno, this episode emphasizes the importance of unity amongst the many disciplines within health-promoting care.

Download and listen to this episode to learn more about:

• How clinicans can transform medicine by being bold and authentic in how they choose to practice
• The responsibility of clinicians, residents and medical students to help shift the culture in medicine to better align with the principles of lifestyle medicine
• The importance of showing empathy towards patients and letting them drive their own health journey
• Physician burnout and the importance of clinicians prioritizing self-care
• And much, much more

Related resources:

American College of Lifestyle Medicine: About the UMPC Lifestyle Medicine Program

Whole Hearted Medicine: Meet Dr. Michelle 

Dr. Joe Pizzorno, a prominent naturopathic doctor and Board Chair at the Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM), joins James to discuss the unifying factors among the many channels of health medicine, which include acupuncture, naturopathic, functional, integrative, chiropractic, and Ayurvedic medicine.

This conversation addresses foundational aspects of health, such as nutrition and lifestyle, that support optimal mitochondrial function for vitality. Dr. Pizzorno also shared the need for scientific research to support the effectiveness of health medicine practices and calls for increased funding in this area. For example, he hopes that we will have access to reliable clinical testing for mitochondrial energy and ATP production in the future.

Listen to the episode to learn more about:

•   Preventing neurodegeneration by eating organically grown food
•   The importance of flavonoids 
•   Vitalism (creating health) versus pathogenesis and salutogenesis
•     The need for a clear conceptual basis for integrative medicine
•   The great potential for Health Medicine Alliance to improve the public health baseline

Related resources:

•  Health Medicine Alliance
•   Health Medicine by Dr. Joseph Pizzorno and published in Integrative Medicine