It’s time to retake control of our illnesses, our health, and our lives—individually and as a society.
I am excited to share the completion of my first book, “What’s Missing From Medicine: Six Lifestyle Changes to Overcome Chronic Illness”. The book offers a roadmap to optimizing all aspects of lifestyle to support personal health goals, longevity and improved quality of life. After all, we have this one life to live and I wish for all to live it to its most fulfilling potential.
Dr. Stancic advocates for change in healthcare and is producer of Code Blue, a feature length documentary that reveals insufficiencies in the current state of medicine and provides a common sense solution by featuring the practice of lifestyle medicine to prevent, treat, and manage disease.
Lifestyle medicine is an evidence-based, clinical discipline that supports the adoption of healthy lifestyle behaviors to prevent, treat, and reverse chronic diseases and improve quality of life.”
The question needs to change from “How many calories should I stay under each day so I can lose ten or twenty pounds?” to “What should I eat to live a long, healthy, and joyful life?”
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The lifestyle medicine approach includes six areas of importance. I like to think of these six topics as spokes on the lifestyle medicine wheel. They include a healthy diet, regular physical activity, stress management, good sleep hygiene, minimizing substance intake, and maximizing social connections.
Keep it simple:
FOOD
Eat More Plants
EXERCISE
Play More
STRESS
Stay Present
SLEEP
Rest Well
SUBSTANCES
Thrive Without
CONNECTION
Grow Love
Dr. Stancic in the News
Resources to Explore
Here are some great resources to help you navigate information around LIfestyle Medicine.
``No one profits from lifestyle medicine, so it is not part of medical education or practice. It should be the foundation of our healthcare system.``
“Over time, I noticed that many patients would return home after their surgery and eat the same junk foods, return to their sedentary lifestyle, not manage stress well, and soon enough, their bypasses often would clog back up.”
``Food is the most powerful clinical intervention against chronic disease doctors have. We should be able to write recipes on prescription slips, just like prescription medication. And every doctor should know how.``
“Hospitalizations were six times higher and deaths 12 times higher among those with reported underlying conditions compared with those with none reported.” – CDC
The truth is that we need to have a sobering and compassionate conversation on this subject now more than ever. A virus-like COVID, unleashed in an environment where chronic diseases are commonplace, can wreak irreparable destruction. It doesn’t have to be this way.”
If there is a silver lining to COVID-19’s destructive path, my hope is that we can use this agonizing experience to spawn a healthier, more sustainable existence for ourselves and communities around the world.