Title:Teaching a Lifestyle Intervention for Reversing Impaired Fasting Glucose, Hyperlipidemia and Obesity/Overweight to a Cohort of Local Physicians
Volume: 11
Issue: 1
Author(s): Joseph S. Feuerstein, Katherine Takayasu, Ashley Maltz, Wendy S. Bjerke, Hannah Hu, Izabel Nixon and Caroline McQuiston
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Impaired fasting glucose, obesity, overweight, hyperlipidemia, lifestyle change, medical education.
Abstract: Overweight/obesity, hyperglycemia and hyperlipidemia are all significant risk factors for
cardiovascular disease, the most common cause of mortality in the USA. Therapeutic lifestyle change
is considered to be a critical component of any treatment plan to reverse these metabolic problems,
however, most primary care physicians do not provide nutritional counseling to their patients with hyperlipidemia,
hyperglycemia and obesity due to lack of time and training in nutrition science. In an effort to educate local
physicians about nutrition, we conducted a seminar where we presented a proprietary clinically tested eating plan (Current
Nutrition and Food Science 2011 Vol. 7 number 4 P 271-271) designed to reverse hyperlipidemia, hyperglycemia and
overweight/obesity. In addition participating MDs received 10 copies of an explanatory booklet that used the eating plan
to provide to their patients. Twenty nine MDs were given pamphlets and 18 of them attended the 90 minute seminar. Of
those, 10 MDs distributed pamphlets to 85 patients, whilst the rest either did not hand out the pamphlet or were unable to
track their patients for follow up. 74% of men were in the compliant group as were 55% of women.
Average weight loss in the compliant group was 14lbs for men and 12 lbs for women over 2.7 months, LDL cholesterol
dropped by 20% in both compliant groups, systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure dropped by 5mm/Hg respectively
and hba1c dropped from 7.5--> 6.5% in compliant men and 6.2--> 5.9% in the compliant women. There were
no statistically significant improvements in any of the metabolic indices in the non compliant groups. Of the 10 MDs in
the study, 8 were primary care, one was a cardiologist and the other was an endocrinologist. The MDs with the highest
numbers of compliant patients had received additional training in nutrition. In conclusion, this study provides an additional
evidence of the clinically effectiveness of our proprietary eating plan. In addition, it illustrates that in order for MDs
to be able to provide effective nutrition counseling they require additional training beyond that provided in graduate medical
education.