Welcome to the July edition of Whole Health Digest — offered free of charge by the nonprofit Ardmore Institute of Health (AIH) and home to insights, inspiration, and announcements from the exciting world of whole health.
In today's newsletter, you'll discover:
- A clever way to motivate patients to make healthy changes
- The surprising health benefits of avocados
- Resources for implementing lifestyle medicine in the workplace
- And more
News and Journal Highlights
Planetary Health Diet Associated with Lower Risk of Premature Death, Lower Environmental Impact
Creating and sustaining healthy habits requires some motivation, but finding it doesn't have to be a mystery. Start by tapping into things your patients already care about. For example, a new study has found that "people who eat a healthy, sustainable diet may substantially lower their risk of premature death in addition to their environmental impact." These are two powerful reasons to consider making a change. (Source: Harvard)
Healthy Lifestyle and the Likelihood of Becoming a Centenarian
You're never too old for healthy eating. A new study has found that "adhering to a healthy lifestyle could be beneficial even at a very advanced age." According to the study, people over 80 who practiced a healthy lifestyle were significantly more likely to live to 100 compared to people who did not make the same investments in diet, exercise, and abstaining from smoking. (Source: JAMA Network)
How Healthy Are Avocados?
A 30-year study of over 110,000 adults found that "people who ate at least two servings of avocado per week had a 21 percent lower risk of coronary heart disease." This article unpacks more surprising benefits of avocados.
What's your favorite way to eat avocados? Discuss this on LinkedIn.
AIH Grants
Featured Grant: Implementing Lifestyle Medicine in the Workplace
AIH provided grant funding to the Health Enhancement Research Organization (HERO) to support research exploring how employers can be agents of change to advance the implementation of lifestyle medicine.
Through this AIH-funded initiative, HERO created a scalable framework and developed innovative resources for employers, including a recorded webinar with presentation slides, an article, and an employer toolkit.
Learn more here.
Since 2014, Ardmore Institute of Health has granted over $18 million to whole health projects and initiatives. To learn more about AIH's granting work, click here.
Announcements
Free Webinar Recording
Interested in teaching healthy living principles to your patients in a setting where you can be compensated?
Shared Medical Appointments make that possible. If you’re curious about how to implement them in your practice, watch this free recorded webinar.
Taught by Dr. Jacob Mirsky, a primary care physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and founder of Lifestyle Medicine Consulting LLC, you'll learn:
- Best practices for implementing Shared Medical Appointments
- How to recruit patients, select a space, and choose a time
- Ways to simplify the process with the help of your existing staff
- Recommendations for working with billing to achieve reimbursement
HERO Forum24 and CMO Summit
AIH is proud to sponsor the HERO Forum24 in Baltimore on October 7-9. Sessions will feature a balance of business leaders, organizational change experts, and health and well-being scientists who all share a passion for creating cultures of health.
Learn more and register here.
On October 7, AIH will also sponsor a convening for Chief Medical Officers, Chief Health Officers, and Corporate Medical Directors titled When Food is Medicine, What is the Physician’s Role?
Click here to learn more about the convening.
RESOURCES
Community Engaged Lifestyle Medicine Resources
With grant support from AIH, the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) rolled out a series of new lifestyle medicine resources for physicians on diabetes care, healthy eating, and youth suicide prevention. Resources include a nutrition guide, physician and patient packets, a health assessment, and educational sessions.
Download the physician resources at the AAFP website.
A Free Nutrition Resource for Your Patients
Full Plate Living, a free service of AIH, empowers individuals to achieve lasting well-being by adding more whole, unprocessed fiber foods to their existing diet. This approach promotes achievable lifestyle changes that can lead to increased energy levels, lower cholesterol, improved blood sugar control, and weight loss.
Referring your patients to our free online program is an easy way to share Full Plate Living, and we provide all of the resources you need.
We hope you found today's newsletter informative and inspiring. We'll be back next month with another edition of Whole Health Digest.
Sincerely,
The AIH Team
P.S. This newsletter is offered free of charge by Ardmore Institute of Health, a nonprofit dedicated to improving people's health through the power of lifestyle medicine. If it was forwarded to you by a friend or colleague, and you'd like to receive it on a regular basis, subscribe here.